PRESS RELEASE: Lockdown #10 for our fam + living in what was a Tier 1 exposure site + missing luggage and burst NZ travel bubble
There is something about COVID that loves my family. Perhaps it’s coz we are NZers. Or perhaps it’s just simply bad luck. And a third world problem. However, you cannot help but think ‘What have we done wrong?’ being in the wrong place at the wrong time almost every COVID lockdown…… plus a voluntary quarantine. We just cannot win a trick.
Melbourne 2020 in lockdown was chaos. 2 x children, (2.5yrs and 9 months), not in childcare because childcare was attached to a sports complex which of course was shutdown over lockdown. A sole income earner, who was subsequently put on job keeper.. Finally a redundancy came in August 2020. Working in the charity space during COVID was a battle. It was frightening, we suddenly had 0 income, a family of 4 to feed, a mortgage and winter was in full flight. Our kids needed bigger thermals to brave the Melbourne cold.
It was either head back to NZ, or apply for jobs in other states…..WA seemed appealing (or so we thought). Luckily a job cropped up in a little town called Bunbury. With no other options, we packed up, and flew to the other side of the country to start our new life in South West WA. Not before withstanding 14 days in ACTUAL hotel quarantine. 2 x children and 2 x adults in a hotel room. No open windows. No balcony. No wall separating rooms. Children sleeping at different times. No cooking facilities. Eggs boiled in a kettle, likewise the fresh veges ordered from supermarkets. And a large plastic container ordered online to bathe our then 1 yr old. Thankfully travelled with a small pocket knife which we used to cut up small pieces of fruit AND you could treat yourself to a $12 can of wine each night. But only after 6pm. Social media played its part in connecting us with a relative of a friend. She paid for and dropped off a vaccuum cleaner as we weren’t able to use a hotel one for hygiene reasons. People sent activities for the kids to keep us from climbing the walls. The security guard who sat outside our door coughed through the night, although that doesn’t surprise me as the pooey nappies we dumped outside our door would have provided the whole hallway with a stench that even a mask wouldn’t put a barrier between. He actually wasn’t even wearing a mask on reflection. The phone ran hot with the hotel psychologist checking in on my tearful wife daily. 2 x COVID tests later and an experience my wife describes as ‘worse than childbirth’…..off we went, out into the COVID free world of Bunbury, South West WA.
The following events unfolded.
January 2021 – 5 x days lockdown in Bunbury, WA
In April 2021 the job wasn’t working out. We decided to return to then COVID free Melbourne as my wife was offered a role back in our old stomping ground. WridgWays removalists arrived to put our ‘stuff’ on a train from Perth to our new abode in Melbourne.
Waiting a week (because it takes longer for our stuff to get Melbourne than it does us) we drove up to Perth on 22 April. Two nights were planned in Perth to stay with a friend before jumping on a plane to Melbourne. We woke up on 23 April to Perth’s 3 day lockdown after being in the city for 36 hours) and talk of our container with our lives inside, delayed ‘due to the pandemic’. Thanks WridgWays.
Regardless, we flew out of Perth to Melbourne on 24 April after applying for an exemption however, coming from a red zone, we were to quarantine in Melbourne (with yet another COVID test to be had on day 2). But we had no where to live, as WridgWays had held up our containers due to what we found out was an ‘internal dispute’ – so back into a hotel, with just our suitcases we flew over from Perth with.
We finally received our goods from WridgWays around 21 May, nearly a month living in The Quest @ $200 a night. ……we were then able to move into our rental in St Kilda Road.
……….only to go back into Melbourne lockdown for 7 x days on 27 May. Come 3 June – Melbourne was extended into another 7 x days of lockdown until 10 June.
We were then blessed with over a month of freedom (well almost freedom) so a holiday to celebrate my wife’s parents 50th wedding anniversary in NZ was booked for August 13.
15 July – again……COVID rears it’s ugly head.
21 July – The 6pm news headline on Channel 9:
‘New Tier 1 exposure site at the Subway on St Kilda Road from an individual infected with COVID’.
This individual visited the Subway on 13 July at 1.00pm. We live on level 2 of the same building and I often purchase a diet coke for my wife around that time.
Checked the bank account. Transaction at a St Kilda West outlet on 13 July for $6 (2 x diet cokes). My heart sank. My wife rang our bank and sure enough, there was a transaction at the Subway at 13 July @ 12.29pm…….phew…..we missed infected COVID person X by 31minutes.
23 July – NZ bubble burst. My poor wife…..no 50th wedding anniversary celebrations in NZ.
I think that equates to approximately 10 x lockdowns/quarantines.
Tomorrow, I am hoping…….hoping…..this is the end for us here in Melbourne.
