Isolation 10

Thurs 30 Apr
Wow - I can't believe I am writing Isolation 10 already! The time has actually gone quite quickly. Today I felt like some days are more productive than others, I was very productive in bursts today. rather than full on throughout the day. Had some time when I just was not really onto it but then got totally motivated and got a heap of work done. I think it's about being aware of what we are feeling. I needed the time at lunch today to sit out in the sun and pat the cat. Just felt like it was the right thing to do at the time - I didn't even go for a walk which is unusual. But then I worked through until quite late when I felt like it. Maybe this is something we need to think about for work and study - when do we work best? I normally work really well at 7.30am. I know many others would be horrified at that time of the morning but I do work well early in the day. It gives me time to get set up and organised. Recently that has pushed out to 8.30 - I think working from home has made me a bit lax on that 6am start!!!
I got some good news today. I have been waiting for an appointment for my foot for over a year now. It was scheduled for Apr 3rd and of course that got cancelled due to Covid19. I had resigned myself to the fact that I probably wouldn't get an appointment for another few months but today I got a message saying I could go tomorrow. I am just a little bit excited and hope that something can be done eventually as I can't walk very far without it being strapped up. Here's hoping something can be done - I don't mind if it takes ages to do it, just knowing would be good.
I managed to take the pool from green to clear over the last couple of days - had let it go by just not really thinking about it. Might need to concentrate a little more on my surroundings. So much going on right now - there are different things to focus on and a pool is well down the list.

Fri 1 May
I can't believe it's May. It seems like April didn't really exists this year. It's very strange.
I had a good day today - 12 calls online and a very busy day both at work and not.
Went to the surgeon - finally getting an MRI for my foot to get all the information needed to see if he can fix it or not. He had some ideas but wants all of the information before we go the next step - if he can. Feel good that at least there is a next step.
I did a bit of reading today and found this great advice for lots of calls and how to combat Zoom fatigue.
This afternoon I went to the Future of Learning catch up - these have been going for a while - in person, then online. It was good to tlak with other educators and share experiences and ideas. I do enjoy those conversations.
Watching the Repair shop again tonight reminded me of my father's clock. I think I'll get that out and have a look at it.
My Peptalk magazine arrived today. Wow what a great resource. There were two books in one and I found the information was really great. My daughter had a look as well and she thought it was good as well. If you haven't got your free copy then go to this link and order it. Yes, free. I've subscribed to further issues, that's how much I enjoyed it.

Saturday 2 May
Made a big cooked breakfast for my children - it's nice to have one occasionally. Keeps me going all day and I'm a pretty good short order chef. It's always nice to have my 2 children around. We played some games, went for a walk and just had a nice lazy day. Managed to do quite a bit of the jigsaw - I'm worried now, almost finished all the ones I have in the house!

Sunday 3 May
I really have felt very lazy this weekend. I think that the online calls take it out of me quite a bit. I know I have to work extra hard because of my hearing and I struggle with the lag between voice and camera when I know I do rely a bit on lipreading.
I have 187 emails to sort through. Hmm. Maybe I'm a little unsorted right now - very tired at the end of the day and have struggled this week mentally. Finally finished that jigsaw today - found another 2 in the back of the cupboard so I haven't run out just yet!

Later in the week...
So I've slowed down on the day by day account. I think I just find every day is busy with work or just trying to find time to relax so from here on in I'll do an update when I get the inspiration.
Had a Boma New Zealand Rethinking Education Campfire on Tuesday - really interesting to hear some students talk about their experiences of online learning. You can read some of their ideas on my blog. It showed me how important student voice is in this isolation time. I have made a survey for my mentor group and it's been interesting getting their feedback. I'll do another blog on Reflection and Isolation sometime soon.
I attended a NZQA workshop this week. I was happy that I felt confident in this area, but it was interesting to see the questions others asked. I wonder how we can improve teacher knowledge in this area? There are obviously a lot of people not sure of how things work. Something else to ponder.
I've had a couple of conversations with some of the Boma Education Fellows for this year. It's hard not being able to talk face to face and our programme has certainly been disrupted. Getting to know each other is taking longer, but at least this week I managed to catch up with a few and have some conversations both around what our kuras are doing online, and with our own projects. My project is in a bit of a hold at the moment due to many things, but I did do some more research this weekend around diverse learners and looked into some other sites that cater for these learners. Been a good learning weekend in that respect.
Another flashback moment on The Repair Shop this week - a spinning wheel. Mum used to spin and I remember carding wool for her and watching her spin and knit for hours. She also dyed the wool herself - I remember the different natural dyes she used. I still have homespun jerseys that she made for my children. Such memories and a skill that can be lost if we don't take things up. I wonder how many things are handed down from parents anymore now that we are busier in our lives. It makes me wonder if maybe lockdown is a good thing - getting back to spending time with family and not being able to fill our days with things. Maybe this is the start of people learning the old skills again. I do hope so.
I completed my Microsoft Innovative Educator application for the next year today. The MIE group in New Zealand is fantastic. Such great support and I have made some good friends out of this group so hopefully will be able to continue on with this for 2021 - even though I work in a Google school! I still use a lot of Microsoft tools and and I am passionate about their resources. They certainly work hard to make things better for schools and offer some interesting and useful courses on the Microsoft Educator Community site - go and have a look!
I also completed the Science of Wellbeing Course today - and have a blog half done on that - another day.
Well it's Mother's Day. I've done a couple of blogs, a bit of gardening and managed to finally clear my emails down to single figures. Must be time to have a break and get this posted.

Isolation 6

Thursday 9 Apr
Had a busy day doing a lot of school related work but still managed to make hot cross buns. I got the green bin filled with garden rubbish and got them out so at least I realised it was Thursday. I really didn't feel like being in front of a computer in the evening so didn't even get to write this on Thursday! I didn't do my MIE blog and I didn't manage to do much else . I think it is good to be able to tell myself that it is OK to not be at 100% at the moment.
Going for a walk today I took  this photo - just shows that the social distancing is working - here is the second path that people are taking to keep away from others. Good to see it does work! I saw a guy I went to school with today and stopped to talk to him and his wife. We were all talking about how strange this all is and where things might end up eventually. It certainly is an interesting time. Writing this blog is my journal really as to what it's been like - will look back on it one day and have a read. I wonder what it would be like to go back to the earthquakes if I had been writing then? I know I was quite obsessed with the data - I still have the quakelive pictures (I printed them out) somewhere. I also struggled hugely in many ways. Hmmm, might have to write something about the similarities and differences....
Friday 10 Apr
Good Friday. I am sure many people wanted to go away at Easter and some have even tried. I can't believe how people will not stay home. It is really crazy. Had a really lazy day today. Played Talisman most of the day, with a break for jigsaw and a walk. Early evening saw a fence party going on - a couple of the neighbours and I had a chat - at a distance. It was nice to chat though. Even though we can talk to people online it's not the same as being face to face. Once again I didn't get much done and didn't feel like doing much, maybe this last two days has been my weekend. My head is certainly not in the best space right now, so I'll just let it flag for a bit and not worry too much. Hard though as I am normally quite busy and productive. Hmm, week 3 of lockdown might be getting to me a bit.

Saturday 11 Apr
I got very motivated to bake this morning - made more hot cross buns and a lemon cake as well as cooking breakfast for all of us this morning. I watched a couple of interviews on YouTube about education and then went for a walk again. Played Talisman for the afternoon really and then cooked dinner and went to bed early. Another day of not doing much work or reading. Have to keep telling myself it's OK. I am managing to do some things for myself which has to be a positive thing. I did hear about a new vege place today in the north of Chch and have ordered some from there (The Mad Acre ) to try them out this week. I'll let you all know how it goes!


Sunday 12 Apr
Certainly feel a bit more like doing things today. It's been a funny few days with me being very unmotivated and although I have achieved some things, I certainly haven't done as much as I wanted to. Finished Wasjig8 this morning - that was good, taken me a few extra days but my children haven't been helping as much with this one. I am enjoying just sitting putting a few pieces in each morning. I'm very organised when it comes to jigsaws - I sort all the pieces into colours and shapes, makes it a lot easier, especially when you don't have a picture to work too like these.
Watched a Youtube clip today on online learning in China. Fascinating to listen to world views on education and how we have the opportunity to do things differently for education. This group has a website for Silver Lining for Learning and it has info about their other discussions. It was good to hear about what they did in China - one thing standing out to me, we don't have to do everything online - paper is fine! They also shared a lot of resources city wide - teachers sharing everything for any school. They also made everything individualised, providing tutors for those that needed support. I also read this blog about Non digital Remote Learning - something we need to consider for many of our ākonga. I like some of the links from here as well.
Had a good chat with a friend today which made me think about the similarities and differences again of the earthquakes and the current situation. I think I'll write a separate blog about this as I find it quite interesting. The evening saw a catch up of our dragonboat team online - good to see those smiling faces ad find out what people have been up to. You do realise how much you miss something once it's not there and even though i don't always do the social thing with the team, I do miss that contact each week.

Monday 13 Apr
Definitely more motivated today. Out in the garden early and have made worcester sauce today. Funny how moods can change so quickly with each day. Some days y brain is working fine and others it is not. I've started the next jigsaw and have been finishing a bit of work as well. Far more productive!
Hmm, was going to write more about today but a friend has sent me a text to say her Mum died this morning. I'm sad. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to be in that situation right now. I have no words.
Posting this - it's time, and I'll think and write better tomorrow.

Isolation 5

Sunday 5 Apr

I remembered Daylight saving - which is amazing as I can't remember what day it is! In

saying that, I forgot to change the kitchen clock so had dinner an hour early - ah well...
Had another day away from my laptop - I must say it is quite nice to do that, I don't do it often. I played Talisman, finished the jigsaw puzzle (Wasjig5) - I am going to run out eventually, but it's fun at the moment and is a nice break from having a screen in front of me all day. I did yet more sorting of lemons - lots of juice and sliced lemons in the freezer now!
Had a look at a clip about training for dragonboating - wish I had a paddle here at home, I could do some work in the pool and keep fit for that - keen to get back to training, missed the last couple of weeks and can't get to the erg at the moment. Soon. Please soon.
I have 172 unread emails now - hmm, better get onto those tomorrow. I feel I need to get organised and into a bit of a routine, but also trying to take some time for myself and making that happen for now.
I spent some time this evening trying to get Hangouts working with relative on their iPad, eventually turning to Zoom as the iPad wasn't up to date enough to install the Hangouts app - ah the joys of technology.
Finished Wasjig 5 today -
Keeping in contact with others is such an important part of my day. I chatted to a colleague at the park today (from a distance) and it was so nice to be able to see someone in person. I don't think we realise how much we need that.

Monday 6 Apr
Needed to get some work done this morning so spent a few hours on my laptop. Finally cleared some emails and got some planning done. I'm trying to get some work done each day but some days I just can't seem to find the energy. Although we are home and technically on holiday there are so many things to do to get sorted and prepared for next week and I feel sometimes that I am a first year teacher all over again!
I had some time trying to start a new jigsaw, got all the edge pieces out but couldn't sort them into a full frame - eventually my son came to the rescue and changed my sideways seagull to it's proper location at the top of the jigsaw! My brain is obviously not working as well as it should today.
The usual walk and some more Talisman (including being turned into a toad yet again) and the afternoon disappeared quite quickly. Had to call the vet as one of the cats has a skin problem and it has flared up again. Had to email photos in then I will get a phone consultation in the morning which is a good way of getting around the contact issue. I'm sure they will just pop her on some more prednisone - she's been on and off it for years.
We had our Boma Education Fellows call this evening. I spent quite a while in the afternoon trying to get my bluetooth to work. I have a great connection with my phone where I can hear very well - it sends the sound directly to my hearing aids and sounds like it's in the middle of my head, helps heaps with hearing on the phone, but my computer was not having a bar of it. On my Surface, which I use all the time I couldn't get a good connection even to listen to a YouTube clip, it kept cutting out. I might have to do some digging into that. Anyway, I went onto my school laptop and managed to get the sound working with YouTube, but then when I went on Zoom I got nothing. Sigh. I was running out of time yesterday but today I'll check the settings on Zoom and see what I can change to get my hearing sorted. I do find it really difficult at the moment, everything is online and my hearing just isn't quite good enough to catch everything. I realise how much I lipread in situations like this and lagging on the video does not help! It is so good to chat with like minded educators from around Canterbury. I find it really stimulating and although I was tired it did help me work out a bit more towards where my project will lead me this year. You can read about the latest meeting on my blog when I get it finished. Another chat online after that then early to bed. I must say it's been nice going to bed early and just reading for a while.

Tuesday 7 Apr
My personal email count is up to 182. I have been putting this off for a while and I think today is the day. I cleared my work ones yesterday so I think these are in for the cut. Many are genealogy sites and newsletters to read so could take me a day or two!!
The vet called this morning and has prescribed some cream and some prednisone so I had to go out and collect that so I braved the supermarket as well. I must say we are really lucky where we are. I walked in straight away, no queue and they had everything on the shelves that I wanted, including plenty of flour and toilet paper!! Lots of things had limits on them, but you don't need that much for a normal shop. There were a couple of people there not worrying about the distancing but on the whole people were really great and thoughtful. I am thankful I am not in a crazy supermarket space.
Another chat online to a colleague - always good to talk pedagogy and ideas. I do enjoy conversations that make me think and challenge things.
I fund the subject matter of my online course this week really interesting, and not so easy - it is about social connection and kindness. The kindness bit wasn't so hard but the social connection is a wee bit tricky right now! I'll be doing another blog on this soon.
My usual walk and yet another game of Talisman (where I didn't get turned into a toad but was killed a couple of times) and then time talking to a relative who is fairly anti any tech but trying to get sorted on messenger to keep in touch with some people. I didn't realise Facebook was now requiring a photo to access your account or to make a new one. All he wanted to do was be on Messenger, but that requires FB. I suggested his group use Whatsapp - much better option as you can add people by phone number and they don't have to be on FB. Wow. Been a learning curve for me too today.
Trying to get my Boma blog done today but not feeling the vibe - I do have to be in a writing mood to write up my notes and I have another online meeting tonight for the MIE Experts so may wait and write it all up tomorrow. I seem to be only able to do a few hours solid work each day at the moment. My brain gets tired I think.

Wednesday 8 Apr
Finally got my Boma blog done today with a bit of sidetracking into some great educational resources. A couple that I have read before came back strongly to me. The first being Ann Milne's Colouring in your virtual white spaces - reminding us to be thoughtful of our Māori ākonga in this time. The other was looking at different ways of doing things with tech - Using TikTok for Maths. There are so many cool things happening out there it's hard to keep up and I can certainly feel overloaded with information some days!
I decided not to go for a walk today, not because of being lazy but to give my toe a bit of a break. I damaged this last April (broke toes and snapped a tendon) - a year ago today in fact and have been waiting for a specialist appointment to hopefully fix it. My appointment was for April 2nd. So, as you can imagine, it got cancelled. I do feel a bit gutted after waiting all this time and now there is no date in sight for the forseeable future. And quite rightly so. It's not urgent, I can walk when it is strapped up, it's just a nuisance that I have to have it strapped all the time to hold it together. The skin was a bit yuk yesterday, getting a bit raw with the tape, so I've taken the strapping off for a couple of days. But I can't walk far, hence no walk today. Back into it tomorrow when I tape it up again. I missed the walk today though. It's nice to get out. I think I have realised I miss any time and space to myself. There is no time, apart from my walk, that I have no-one around - even there there are other people walking. Having space to do whatever I want in whatever way I want is nonexistent at the moment. I really feel for those with young children, it must be super hard right now.
Every time I get near a bunch of super motivated kaiako I learn so much! I went on a quick chat today taken by one of our MIE Experts Nikkie Laing. She was talking about how to do really pretty and useful infographics in Powerpoint and Google slides. I'll add the information from it on to the end of my MIE blog from last night (hopefully Ill finish that tomorrow. I get so excited about new things, just reminds me again of my love of learning - and how that links in to the VIA character traits I got with the course I'm doing. It all links up and I love that stuff!
Had an online chat with some neighbours today - we were all feeling the lack of personal contact and I remembered seeing on the news last night about the group that meet out on the street to do a workout each day, and the other group that just go out and walk around, have a chat and then back inside. We are all craving that human contact I think. It will be interesting to see how things go as time goes on. Another good discussion was with my son. He plays Borderlands online and told me about a cool new game inside Borderlands that is mapping the gut microbiome. You can read more about it here. It's really interesting connecting gaming with Science, I think it's an awesome idea. He reminded me of Ender's Game as well - a great read if you are looking for one.

Can't believe it has been 2 weeks already. Lots still that I want to do for my holidays!!! Plus lots of work to do so going to be a busy Easter. Oh, and I'd better clear those emails - still haven't done it....

Isolation 3

Monday 30 Mar
Technically the first day of our school holidays today. I cleared my school emails, listened to a podcast on Learning Space design and had a good browse through the Modern Learners Community chat. One of the questions that came up a lot for me today was 'what do you mean by learning?' Not a consensus on this, but I think the main thing is that learning is experienced through the senses. So much of what we need to do while we are in this weird situation is to look at learning differently. We can't just transfer what we were doing at school to an online environment. This blog really resonated with me. We need to be looking at wellbeing and learning about ourselves and what is going on. I know that this will guide me over the next few weeks.
Had a great zoom chat with a colleague this morning. It was nice to talk about all things education and how we are dealing with this situation. We had a good discussion around access and equality, it certainly is not an equal playing field for our students. I found out today there was thing called Social Data, where they can have access to social apps, but not anything else. Is this a way to get through to some of our ākonga? We talked about how to grow our self-directed learners. She suggested I watch Jamie Oliver's 20 years of Naked Chef (I missed this the other night), and we talked about how being self directed doesn't mean there is no input, we are never isolated, but it's about how that looks. How do we move parents to this stage of letting their tamariki be self directed learners? Are parents expecting us to send home worksheets and tell them what to do every minute of the school day? We need to let children play and not be directed. This will make a difference to how they cope with things down the track. What could school really look like? It os worksheets and tasks given out? Should school be only an hour or two each day with specific instruction and then have the rest of the time to explore, to play? It takes me back to a book I read a while ago "Lifelong Kindergarten" and how play is so important. We don't have worksheets when we start a ob, learning is not a worksheet even though many parents will think that is what is needed in this time of lockdown. How do we change this? So many questions. One main one - what are the problems that need to be solved now? So many things to think about!
I managed to clean out the shelves with all my spices and herbs on today. Well that was an eye opener!! I threw out a few things with dates that were just a few years ago! Maybe the Best Before dtae of 2007 is just a little bit too long to hold onto something. It's even before we moved to this house, so I obviously didn't clean out very well when we moved either. Also found the box shown here - been in the family for just a few years - anyone else remember this!? It even had the original bottles in it - now that's pushing it. That box is probably a collectors item now.
I was a bit tearful over a FB post by a friend, talking about our sense of honesty and our growing into strong women. It really hit home for me and made me realise how much we can influence people just from being real. I'm enjoying sharing my time with others and to be honest, it's actually about me just getting my thoughts into some semblance of order, rather than needing others to read this. I am OK if no-one does, but if it helps someone else, that's great.
More work on the latest jigsaw, a bit of reading and some social chat rounded out the day for today. Just remembered - Daylight Saving ends this Sunday.

Tuesday 31 Mar
Last day of March. Wow - where did that go?
I wanted to take part in the Bear hunt project - placing a bear in your window for those walking to find. Our place is up a long drive so I had to improvise a bit as you can't see our windows form the street - Teddy may get a bit wet, or even stolen, but it's worth a try for a day or three.
I found out last night that Ancestry was available through my local library. I haven't got a sub with Ancestry and getting to the library to use it has been a bit of a problem time-wise, so to get home access is awesome. I think there will be a fair bit of genealogy going on over the next 2 weeks. The library has access to a few sites normally but I have specific things I want to search for in Ancestry so now's the time. It's taking me a bit to get my head back into the tree, but I love it and it certainly uses up the time!
Watched some great YouTube clips by our kaiako today. A couple of them have made YouTube Channels which is a great idea to get some content across to ākonga. I have added my channel to the mix and put a new page on my site for these. I haven't put much up on my channel for a while, but there are still some theory sessions for those who want them.
Having the sun out today was great, time to get out into the garden and managed to fill the green bin ready for the rubbish at the end of the week. I need to empty one of my compost bins which will give me more space for garden rubbish as well.
Still managing to get through lots on my list each day - important to make sure I don't just sit around all day - although I could be convinced that researching my family tree isn't sitting around :)
Finished another jigsaw today - Wasgij number 7 done and dusted.

Wednesday 1 Apr
It's April Fool's day. Someone said they sort of wished that Covid19 was a cruel April Fool's Day prank. I think we could all understand that thought. There was a great meme on FB with Jacinda telling us it was an April Fool's joke - we wish...
I had an interesting day today. Lots of different things going on.
I went to the doctor today to get my flu vaccine - I am in the early group that needs this, due to my cancer a few years ago. It was an interesting experience, driving on the very quiet streets, even just driving was an experience. I had to wait in my car until they could see me, and then it was a very interesting experience, keeping distance from others. I feel for all those working in health at the moment, they are doing an amazing job.
I had a couple of really good chats online,with my daughter and with a colleague. I don't know what I would do without that contact. It's so important to actually see people online. I am concerned for those that do not have that ability to access internet or a device - how do we solve this issue? I was talking to my daughter today about the questions we need solving and how to solve them. It's a real issue and I am sure there are some amazing minds out there to solve a lot of what we have to deal with. We just have to find them!
I spent some time out in the garden again today but really was struggling to get my head around the day. I felt a bit removed from people and felt that life was a wee bit difficult today. I don't know how long this will continue, but I know that life will not be the same while we are on lockdown - it's hard. I don;t know if it will be the same after lockdown either - things will change. I hope that people will support each other and make sure that their loved ones are safe and in a good frame of mind at this time. I worry about so many people.
It's hard to do my course homework for week 3 - it's random acts of kindness, which is not so easy when you are at home with one person! However, I am still managing it so far :)
I made tomato sauce today - made soup a few days ago and the amount of tomatoes in the garden, plus some from my nephew have meant a huge amount of cooking going on! It's great though - I'll keep some aside for others once we get out of lockdown.
I do love the sports news at the moment, watching how people are doing their sports training, it's been entertaining. I have been trying to keep fit and keeping the weight off that I have lost over summer - long may it last.
Loving the videos of my great niece that keep coming in - hope all is well up there in Auckland.
April it is. Stay home. Stay safe.

Isolation 2

I was going to put a day number, but actually I'll forget which one I'm up to, so the day will have to suffice.

Friday 27th Mar - I only know it's Friday because I put the rubbish bins out last night!
Last night we had the first EdchatNZ for a while. I had forgotten how fast these chats go - I was really having to concentrate to keep up, but such a wealth of information from so many kaiako around the country. I added a few more docs to my site from the conversation, and also from my Facebook reading. I must say, I am enjoying the amount of time I have to upskill and read articles. Love learning!
Talking about loving learning, I am now on week 2 of the Social Emotional course and have put my notes on another blog post.
Today was a mix of work, jigsaws and exercise. I am still getting through 8 or 9 of my list of to do things each day which I figure is pretty good. My son went to the supermarket today to get some essentials, I've been baking and making soups so needed a few things to keep that up. I did like a comment form a friend today - he bought wine and ice cream in his shop and when they asked if that was essential, he told them his partner would probably murder the children if he didn't get them! I can totally understand.
One thing I love is the creativity of people that is coming out while we are at home. There are so many amazing videos coming out on FB, on the news and on YouTube. It would be great to have all of this every day!! Lots of humour and lots of craziness. It's good to have a laugh.
I bought a colouring book online today. Couldn't resist. Joe Mcmenamin has made this great colouring book that has information about our NZ birds and is just gorgeous and costs only $10 for a download that you can print out many times at home. If you have a printer at home and a few colouring pens or pencils then this is a great option. I'll be colouring in this week for sure. Reminds me of having my concussion - many days at home with not a lot to do and colouring in was my saviour over that time.
Going for a walk today there were a lot more people out walking. I can only think this will be good for the health of our nation eventually - getting out for a walk is probably not normal for a lot of people and I hope everyone will take advantage of the time to get a bit fitter, not just sit on the couch. Speaking of that, I just heard tonight that Les Mills is teaming up wth TVNZ to do workout sessions free on TV. Monday 9am TV1 and TV 2 at 3pm for teenagers  - might be worth a look!

Saturday 28 Mar
Had a nice quiet day off today - lol!!
No, really. I didn't do any work today and did a lot more lounging around and not being on a device. We managed to finish the first jigsaw today - Wasjig number 6 done and dusted, with 3 pieces missing! Got a few more to do, so will post as they get finished. Did a load of washing, went for a walk, made cookies and cooked tea and read a book, that's about it.
Had some good conversations with my daughter today and she said something that really resonated with me. We were talking about the difference now to the aftermath of the earthquakes and she said that we had swapped the physical essentials for the emotional essentials. After the earthquake we struggled for power, water, food whereas now we have all of those but don't have the social contact. A lot of things are the same, no school, no traffic, many places are shut but those things are different. I thought about this for quite a while today. It's certainly bringing back memories of the quakes and many families will feel the same but different as well.
I was also thinking more about education and how we can reinvent some things. What can we do to make it more equitable in this situation? How can we change what we do and how we do it, and how can we not go backwards once things are a little more 'normal'? There are lots of things going through my head today, with time to think.
I am blessed to be in a good situation at the moment, but I know many others are not. It hurts sometimes.

Sunday 29 Mar
Had a great Skype chat with my cousin in England this morning. We try and catch up when we can and it was really interesting to see the similarities in the way the countries are dealing with COVID19. It was good to check in with the whanau, make sure my relatives were all OK over there. It may mean a change in him coming here next year which was planned - could be a while before we see each other in person again.
I had already decided that this weekend was going to be a full rest weekend, trying not to do any work or anything too much but still keeping up with a few of the things on my list. I have been very tired and I think quite stressed over the last week. I realised how stressed when I came to the realisation that I really needed to go to the supermarket today. I have been avoiding it for the last week due to crowds and panic buying but it got to us needing some basics.  I really struggled to get out of the door. Tears and a mild panic. Going into the unknown, people around, not wanting to go near anyone, how was I going to cope? I went armed with gloves and a strategic plan that my son helped me put in place so I felt more comfortable with venturing out. It's amazing how much anxiety I have at baseline level and when the chips are down it surfaces. It gave me flashbacks to the earthquakes, putting on a brave face for my children but underneath having a huge fear and stress levels were through the roof. I am lucky now that my children are now young adults and we all share the anxiety gene so we have a joint understanding of what this feels like. Anyway, I made it. Thank goodness I bought wine is all I can say. It felt very odd with so few people around and people keeping their distance for the most part.
Coming home was a relief and I finally immersed myself in a jigsaw for a while, then sat and completed my Coursera blog and then this one.
Time to relax for the evening. Think I might pour myself a wine.