Lockdown: Day 49

After my post yesterday a friend sent me a picture of the results of her efforts to cut her husband’s hair. Taken from the back, it shows a narrow band within thick dark hair of shaven head going up a few inches from his neck. It made us howl with laughter and Neil comment: ‘that’s why I don’t let you near mine’. I’m sworn to secrecy so no names, but it was, apparently, a good job it happened in only the second week of lockdown so the hair had a chance to grow back before he had to appear in public. I suspect he won’t be the only one fronting up at a barber’s with a dodgy ‘do.

On that basis, it’s probably a good job that today is our last day of level three lockdown. New Zealand opens for business tomorrow but, as Jacinda has told us, the aim is ‘to re-start the economy, not your social lives’. So we are still required to keep a suitable distance from strangers, and to keep our socialising to a minimum, but we are allowed out of our homes without restrictions and can resume many parts of our daily lives.

The virus is still amongst us, although zero new cases again yesterday and today, and now less than a hundred active cases, so we must maintain hygiene awareness. Which means I can’t yet stop wiping down my shopping – not sure if inhaling alcohol has the same effect as drinking it but, by the time I’d done it this morning with my home-made spray (70% alcohol, in case you were wondering), I felt distinctly light-headed. As if I needed any help getting alcohol into my body.

It being the last day of lockdown, this will also be my last post from its frontline. (I hope – there’s no guarantee we won’t take a backward step, although every single person hopes not.) I will still write and post regularly, but now I can get on with the rest of my life it will no longer be the main focus of my day. I might even get around to editing that book, and you can be sure there’ll be news on here about it if I do.

I hope those of you that aren’t related to me hang around. I’ll try and entertain you. I have no idea what I shall write about in future. Travel will definitely feature, but for the next few months it will be mainly retrospective – I have journals and I know how to use them! And random thoughts. I’m good at those. I also doubt I have made my last comment on the coronavirus – we still have one more level to move down to, although there is no indication yet of when that will be.

In the meantime, stay well, stay safe, and be kind. And wash your hands.