Mar 27

Shopping run

Decided that I’d try a shopping run yesterday afternoon, thinking that Friday in the middle of the afternoon might be a better time than my usual Saturday morning. The fruit shop was OK; they were only letting 10 people shop at a time, but there were fewer than 10 people when I got there, and I got straight in. No bananas (disrupted supply chains?), but otherwise much as normal apart from all the cashiers wearing face masks and everyone staying 2m from each other.

The supermarket had a queue to get in, presumably because they’re also limiting how many are in there at one time. Because everyone was standing so far apart, it looked longer than it probably was; there might have been 20 or 25 people in it. But I decided that I didn’t want to wait (I still had some work to finish) and bailed.

We aren’t actually out of anything yet, and I can try again later. Erin’s suggested maybe trying in the evening after dinner. It’s hard to say when will be a good time.

Lots of people out walking, presumably because they’ve been cooped up in their houses. More people out driving than I expected, but still light traffic for a weekday. After all, most of the shops are shut.

Mar 25

Plague Journal

Since it seems we’re all giving up face-to-face interaction for Lent, I thought I’d do something I’ve been considering for a while, and start a personal journal.

As of last night, New Zealand is at level 4 of a 4-level alert system for COVID-19, and practically the whole country is shut down except for essential businesses. This doesn’t include construction or manufacturing building products, which is what the company I work for does, so over the next few days we will be winding things down in preparation for at least a month of no business happening.

We’ve always said that if there weren’t any users, the systes would run perfectly. I suppose we’ll find out.

My wife is in a high-risk category (she has an autoimmune disease and is on immunosuppressors), so I’ve been working from home since last week. That means, with no commute, that I have time to exercise, so I’m feeling fitter than I have for years. I’ll need to figure out a way to keep it going once I go back to commuting, which I still assume will happen sooner or later.

We’re meant to be on special leave from Monday, though we’ll be helping the accountants with month end as usual. Not my turn to do month end, but I’m the senior guy, so I need to be on hand, even if it’s just having the phone nearby.

So I’ll have more time to write. I’m finishing up revision on Underground War, the second in the Realm Agents series, and I have the third book partly drafted.

OK, time to get ready for work, such as it is. More later or tomorrow.