Life in isolation

I gather it is Saturday today. Having finally worked out that my phone was saying the right time but still thought I was in England, it kept putting me back a day in my calendar! That means we have less than a week to go. It's really not that bad being in managed isolation. Yes, you are restricted to your room for most of the day but when you have had a crazy few months and jet lag, there are worse ways to regain your sanity. 

Interactions with others is probably what you miss the most. Apart from Jonathan's company and the daily temperature checks by the nurses, you don't really get to talk to people much. You can tell that it affects some more than others as they make the most of any opportunity to start a conversation (e.g. when waiting to start our 45 minutes on the sun deck!) All in all, we feel quite sane - probably more now than recently.

Pity this family though - a toddler and a baby stuck in a room for 2 weeks (they probably have a bigger room, but it must be tough.) They have still kept a sense of humour though:

We celebrated a week of being in New Zealand with a bottle of Pinot Noir last night to accompany our dinner. I gather there is not a lot of red wine here, but it wasn't bad.

We've almost got the hang of sleeping at night although heading to bed earlier than normal and waking up by 6-7am (as you will know, this is not normal for me!) 

In the 21st century there is a lot to help you keep occupied with podcasts, movies, emails, kindle books etc but the hotel have also given us an activity book. I'm taken back to my childhood each day doing word searches and dot-to-dots along with trivia questions and a crossword that is just tricky enough to keep the brain cells going. I've shown restraint and am only doing a day's worth each day. There's also a sudoku which I save for Jonathan (but I might do one myself before my time is up here.)

Auckland will still be in level 3 lockdown when we exit here on Friday evening, but if this keeps everyone safe, then so be it. It will feel easier than being in here though and I'm looking forward to seeing some greenery, beaches and sea during my exercise time. The sun on the sundeck this morning was glorious but it would be nice to see something other than buildings. I'm also enjoying making up different playlists to listen to when doing my daily walk. Ben Watt always seems to feature but I'm trying to mix it up a bit. Any suggestions for tracks that make you want to walk a bit faster will be most welcome!

Regrets so far - forgetting to pack socks (I'm borrowing Jonathan's!) and taking out the knitting from the luggage because of trying to keep the weight down. As that is the sum total so far, I think we're doing ok!