I decided to treat myself for making it to Saturday. I gave myself a slightly later exercise time deliverood an iced coffee and a slice of crunchie chocolate cheesecake from Circus Circus – my fave Mt Eden haunt. Breakfast of champions.
Do you ever think the expression like ‘the luck of the Irish’ were meant with a bit of a irony? Having studied their history for the last two years, luck is not something that is abundant in that land. Or ‘sleep like a baby’ – like there’s not too many babies that sleep through right? So it would be accurate to say that I am sleeping like a baby.
Around 9am a hot nurse guy appeared at my door with a letter and a blue band that I was expected to wear from now on. This is to show that I’m allowed to be out of my room, as anyone coming from the UK/US needs to have a Day 0 test and have the result be negative in order to leave their room. The lack of human interaction had me fantasizing about inviting him in for a cup of tea. Is that weird? Probably. He couldn’t say yes even if he wanted to.
I talk to my cousin Tina in the afternoon for an hour or so. I told her I called Nana yesterday finally.
“Nana is really worried about you, Lauren. I’ve tried to convince her that you’re fine, but she can’t understand why you’d leave your husband for so long if things were fine.”
“But things are fine. And you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“Yea I tried to tell her that you needed to stay for the 90 days to be able to get free isolation, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Jared really likes his new job, and besides, he’d have zero interest in coming to party in NZ with me for 4 months – he is living the introvert dream right now!”
I talk to George (BFF in Welly) while she’s getting ready to go out for a BBQ. Having had most of my social life through video chats for the last 2 years, listening to other people’s goings on doesn’t usually affect me, but I find the jealousy growing. I try and reframe it to hope – in 8 short days it could be me going to a BBQ! Being in isolation is kind of fine during the week when everyone else has to be at work, but the weekends when everyone else gets to go out, shop, socialise and snog? The struggle is real.
Have started getting resentful of pedestrians, walking around with such freedom and purpose, rather than walking around in circles. Going wherever the fuck they decide to. They get to do something other than just laps of their room while half-watching inane TV, and moving from the bed to the fridge to the couch to the bathroom then back to the couch again.
Someone has the audacity to host a concert outdoors somewhere near here. Is it for Chinese New Year? I decide I don’t really want to know. There’s music. I’m torn between disgust and a weird desire to join in. I dance like an idiot around my room – upside of isolation is there’s no one around to judge. New Zealand is just rubbing its freedom in my face rn. Despicable! I console myself with cider.
Just before dinner a very pleasant surprise arrives at the door – a halfway gift!
I video chat with Michelle whilst in the bath – the second most scandalous thing that’s happened all week after being asked to ‘expose my nose’. She makes for a very hot date for my Saturday night in.