The Queen of England’s infamous “annus horribilis” was already very applicable from the get go, for 2020. Now it feels like a race to the bottom, to cement this year as one of the worst ever.
Last Friday, an email went out in the office, saying staff would be required to work from home for at least a couple of weeks. Each team is designated an office day, so we only go in one day a week. My boss rang me very soon after the email went out, to ensure we could work from home, and asked us to leave for the day if we could. He himself had been working from home that morning.
I left the office soon after 1pm, after ensuring I took everything I needed. Back home, Tress and I headed out to a computer shop and I picked out a computer monitor. The laptop is ok to work on occasionally but on an extended basis, I needed a screen, and the boss had himself suggested this when we spoke.
Home after picking up the screen, I set up our study room to facilitate working from home for the next couple of weeks. It felt surreal.
Over the weekend, things developed so quickly and more and more public events and places are shut down. Gatherings of 500 people or more are banned and all arrivals into Australia will be required to self isolate for 14 days. St Alf’s met yesterday but Peter made a special notice to say more events may be shut down, and other measures like stopping the chalice and peace greetings, as well as not passing the offertory bag, have been put in place.
We spent Sat just pottering around. I had a bad back and I guess we were generally just gloomy with what’s happening. We went out grocery shopping and bought a little more than usual in case we were required to stay home. Tress had also bought a few extra items the day before. Tress needed new shoes for work so after a late lunch of sorts we headed out to another shopping centre out east to look for a pair. We then got home, walked the little fellow, and then settled down and I prepped to cook the week’s meal the next day.
After St Alf’s on Sunday and a quick lunch, we headed home and I picked up the gardening work I had neglected the day before. The back hedges were trimmed and Ryan, our ex-neighbour who had been working to prep the house for sale, borrowed the hedge trimmer – probably for the last time – to trim his side of the hedges on the front side. So I was forced – sort of – to also work on the front side where he had worked on his side, just so things are evened out. I guess it’s not against my interest to make his sale as good as it can be…
Gardens done, I got cleaned up and did the week’s cook. The freezer then looked well stocked for at least a week. The news continue to show people shopping frantically and Ryan had also said he was struggling to buy enough food to feed his always hungry teenager. I hope all this work out soon. Hopefully we all get to “flatten the curve” with all the “social distancing” and other measures put in place.
I sincerely hope 2020 doesn’t get any more horrible than it already is.
Ante 