Week four: It’s a hug-free life
Bus driver Tigger Wells is in a bubble of one, plus a cat.
Wells was thinking about the question of loneliness this week. Wells loves hugging – it’s an amazing therapy in itself. People who live with others have the chance for simple physical contact; Wells cannot hug people during lockdown.
Physical contact after four, five, six weeks alone might feel weird. Wells is a massage therapist (as well as bus driver and life fulfillment coach) and is hoping to avoid sensory overload when first starting work with a client again.
One of the important things black cat Sootie provides during lockdown is simple physical contact. She is a shy cat, but she trusts Wells.
Thank God for level three when you need to shift bubbles.
For Antionette Tafeamaalii, the lockdown started a few days before she and partner Peter Younger and their son Jackson Younger, 18 months, were to move house from Waikanae to rural Horowhenua.
Suddenly, the entire ‘‘chain of four’’ relocations between sellers and buyers of various houses – the connective tissue of any house sale
– was frozen. They were able to delay the shift of all parties until May 5, arranged between lawyers, and she prayed the level four lockdown would be finished.
On Monday, with the announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Tafeamaalii breathed a sigh of relief.
As week four of the lockdown rolled on, she was organising the house moving company. And yes, she discovered, they were able to work at the new alert level. The company was still trying to find out the safety guidelines for its staff.
She was excited for level three but would not be taking Jackson back to daycare. Tafeamaalii will still be at home and able to look after him, and besides, she did feel sorry for the daycarers. Little Jackson didn’t know how to keep a two-metre separation; he would want to put something in his mouth, high-five a friend.
She thought: We end up becoming one giant bubble, in theory, don’t we?
Zephaniah Joe, 12, has spent some of his last week at his rural home south of O¯ taki, hanging around outside, building a hut. It’s progressing well – he now has a roof. It started a couple of years ago when he made an attempt at digging a foxhole, but it didn’t end up being that deep.
During lockdown he wondered what would happen if he built a roof over it.
On Monday, he wrote in his diary about learning about the upcoming change to level three.
Soon we will be at level three, it won’t change anything for me. Things seem to be going back to normal slowly, it’s good to take out time now so we can get Covid sorted otherwise we have to do all of this lockdown stuff again, and that wouldn’t be good.
In Paremata, potter Anneke Borren, 73, continues her mission to create hand-crafted clay bird whistles as a positive focus during the lockdown.
Level three? It’s just another week, she thinks. She will still be in the same place.
Nothing changes for her, she is in her bubble and she will probably keep going with her work.
When Ardern made the announcement about additional days before switching to level three, Borren was expecting it. The prime minister had already told us that we had to be cautious – and so this is the cautious way, she thought.
The businesses might be jumping up and down like crazy because it dragged on another week, but if we keep ourselves clear of the disease, what a huge advantage.
As week four of the lockdown winds to a close, Borren has made 238 ornate whistles. She lays them out like an army and photographs them marching.