Monday.

A day of sliding slowly back into some actual work conversations – nice.

Highlights

Today’s highlight was definitely a conversation with the security man up on the Rooftop Terrace exercise area.

So, I asked, do you ever open up the roof? (The area is designed to be an open air terrace, with a large circus-tent-like awning, one assumes, providing wet weather cover if needed. However, even on sunny days, the roof has remained firmly shut – I was wondering if we need to book an exercise appointment later in the day, when it might be open.

Oh no, he says, the Chief Medical Officer has instructed us to keep it closed. He doesn’t want us letting the virus out into open air, to waft down into the streets of Auckland.

He’s joking? Right? He has to be joking?
I laughed, he laughed… not for me to second guess the boss, he says. Maybe he’s not joking? OMG!

He pointed to the tiny area in the corner currently uncovered by awning – usually coned off because the tiles are wet, and therefore a slipping hazard – just as well the boss doesn’t know about that bit, he says. Wow!

I had speculated earlier that if someone had a death wish, it wouldn’t take much to leap up onto the handrail, swing off the roof strut and be out off the top of the building… but only quietly so. There are more hazards to worry about than the virus wafting down into the street, just saying.

Lowlights

Probably the realisation that the security man isn’t joking at all.

And noticing how truly filthy my sneakers are from walking on The Ramp… definitely going to the bin at the end of this adventure!

And a final thought for the day.

Is New Zealand slowly sliding into being a Pacific Island, where old people live and young people visit (though of course, not currently)? Power cuts, shortages of construction workers, and construction materials… shortages of medical staff to (wo)man our already tiny inventory of ICU beds… and sadly, an increasingly insular, “us against the world” mindset, that’s not just allowing this all to happen, but apparently applauding it.

I tag these post #FortressNZ not because I support the mindset, but because it is something I believe we need to rail against.

Just one woman’s view.