I was overseas with my mother from the 2nd of March 2020, to the 18th of March 2020. A lot happened with coronavirus in Australia during this time, and when we returned, we were legally required to enter self-isolation. This is my brief diary to document my experiences. (Read the prelude here. Read part one here. Read part two here.)
Morning
Woke up at 5:30, tried to go back to sleep, got out of bed at 6:15. My hip and knee were aching – my chronic pain flares up from exercise and from sitting around, and I did both yesterday. My mozzie bites were itching.
I made banana pancakes. I served them with bananas. Have I mentioned we have too many bananas? That’s what I get to focus on at the moment. I froze bananas to use for smoothies. I still have bananas.
I cleaned the kitchen.
So far have been pleased with response to these blogs. It’s probably boring, but it’s probably less boring than home isolation.
I took out some rubbish. I put on a load of washing
Training
I sent my husband out with a map to lay a track around our property for a dog I’m training. We both left our property and breathed on some neighbour’s grain, so I hope that’s okay.
Compute Time
I wish I had a better laptop.
I went through BookBub and got some more books.
I spent the afternoon completing novel edits on the couch. I completed the edits (‘draft 4’) of my middle grade novel with the working title of ‘The Changing’. It’s about a girl who wants a dragon, and a boy who wants opportunity. It’s reverse Beauty and the Beast meets Old Yella with dragons. I was surprised by my own writing when it all comes together in the end – not many edits needed to be done on the last few chapters.
Even though we are on the outskirts of a tiny country town, we have been impressed with the support we’ve received. Our neighbours (who each live 1km away) have offered to help, a dog friend, the post office, and even on Facebook there are numerous posts from people asking to help anyone in our area.
Tomorrow, I plan to get serious about my edits of ‘When Darkness Speaks’. It’s about a Scottish Princess who always planned to be married and be awesome, but instead her mother goes mad, kills the prince and herself, and the kingdom is pushed into turmoil. The Scottish Princess wants her family, and herself, to survive. Or something. I’m still working on our elevator pitch.
On Facebook, I saw people posting things like, ‘Introverts, you need to look after the extroverts at this time.’ and writing communities saying, ‘Isn’t it great that we have this hobby we can do in isolation?’ It is great. I spent 4 hours editing that novel today.
Evening
I made dinner. The bag of carrots is gone. I don’t know the last time I finished a bag of carrots instead of letting one go black and throwing them all out two weeks later.
I did a training session with another dog, then took two on a walk around our house block again. Lots of kangaroo poo today. I wonder where the roos go in the day.
Once my edits of ‘The Changing’ (working title) were complete, but then I had to format a word document and then convert it to PDF to send to beta readers. That’s done and now I wait to get some feedback and do another round of edits.
I got a shopping bag, went out into the kennels, where we have a second fridge and second freezer, and got some of the human-food out to take into the house. It was the closest I’ll get to the shops for a while.
I’ve also been watching MAFS all throughout the day. I’m so glad I’m behind, so I had hours of rubbish to entertain me. By the end of my isolation, I might be a few points dumber.
