Lockdown edition: Week Fourteen Roundup
Days stayed in lockdown location: Seventeen days in our wee slice of paradise in Geraldine.
Audiobook on deck: Fear The Survivors by Stephen Moss. One of the Big Bads just died in a super satisfying way - so satisfying, in fact, we listened to it twice!
Currently watching: Weirdly, we haven’t been watching very much of anything. Besides live-streaming the news and a couple of our YouTube faves, we have been doing more than watching.
We were grateful for: Millions of peaches, peaches for me! We have been kept well-fed and very busy with all the fruit from the peach trees coming down in the past week. We have made chutney, jam, jelly, compote and muffins!
We missed: Unlimited internet. Between streaming the news, calling friends and doing several sessions of DnD online, we chewed through last month’s allowance AT SPEED. This month we are having to be more reticent about our usage.
We learned: That whitebait chips are delicious - and that fishing for whitebait is a Serious Business that involves being down at the river from 6am to 9pm in the depths of winter. Never again am I going to take a whitebait fritter for granted.
Weirdest moment: Taking Kratos out for his pre-bedtime wee and hearing a field full of cows across the road snoring. At first, having no idea what it was, I was seriously freaked out but once we realised what it was, and went to have a closer look, it was actually totally adorable. It just sounded like an invasion of zombies in the interim.
Best save: Accidentally being in an area with one of the lowest number of Covid infections. South Canterbury has only got 10 cases, and has had no new infections for the past five days. It makes going out to get groceries feel less scary, although I’m still going in mask and gloves, clutching sanitation wipes… just in case.
Best spend: I splashed out on the expensive bacon, which has become known as Lockdown Bacon. Normally I’m extremely budget conscious, but I thought SOD IT. If we are going to be locked in, we are going to be locked in with Mānuka Smoked Free Range Bacon.
Biggest adjustment: This is a positive as we have adjusted to having more room for activities, so I can go back to doing some quilting and getting the mat out to amuse the neighbours with my extremely awkward yoga. We have more time and more space. It’s definitely not a hardship.
Most interesting fact we learned: That distilling alcohol in a home situation isn’t just a matter of putting down a mash and then chucking it through the still once - if you want something that doesn’t take like paint stripper, you need to follow a far more finessed process of a slower ferment, then several passes through the still to get the best parts of the alcohol.
We recommend: Locking down in a rural location. We have yet to queue for anything or have any real issues with other people being idiots. It’s been all very civilised.
Number one bright side of this lockdown: It’s probably exactly what we needed at this point of our year off. We needed time to heal and rest, and while travelling all over the place is fun and interesting, it’s not exactly restful. Enforced rest and relaxation is a powerful and effective medicine.
Kia kaha, whānau! He waka eke noa.
