Day 15: Last Covid test results + watching other lives

In the morning we received our negative Covid results from our tests two days earlier. Always good to have such good news delivered to your front door by the army. So now we're all set for being cleared to leave on Friday. Freedom is feeling very close although still a bit of a surreal concept.

The rest of the day was spent doing work, including lots of drop outs while having an online meeting (I'm very much looking forward to having reliable internet again!).


What we see going on in other peoples’ rooms

On our monitored walks we get to see into other peoples rooms when they have their curtains open. It has been interesting watching peoples' lives unfold in this strange environment that we all find ourselves.

The things we've noticed are:

  • Families with small kids are probably doing it the toughest: The thought of having one or more small kids to keep entertained in a single room must be hard, especially if one parent needs to work. We see lots of playing going on, especially using the outdoor areas. I think in most cases the parents are just giving themselves over to keeping the kids entertained for the whole time. We've also noticed recently that a monitored play area has been set up on the perimeter road near our room for kids to just free play outside. We see one outcome being a lot of chalk drawing on the roadway and it looks like they've been having a good time. We noticed in one room that they've been drawing all over the windows with colourful markers which looks like fun --- I'm just hoping they clean off easily.
  • Lots of TV watching: this seems to be the most common way to pass the time.
  • Other ways to pass the time: we see a lot of computer use, which could be people working or playing, as well as reading. We've seen one guy playing the electric guitar (with headphones on) which is not a bad way to see out 14 days.
  • Physical activity: We've noticed people doing tai chi and weight lifting. There was even a story on NZ TV of a guy running a half marathon in his isolation room, by running back and forth.
  • Deep cleaning: The rooms turnover quickly when someone leaves so we usually notice on a daily basis that the cleaners are in giving everything a thorough clean.


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