Lockdown/Covid Check In
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@mariner4life but thats the thing, what affects you, affects you, so it is natural.
My problems are my problems, and just cos they are smaller than others, dont mean they arent affecting me.
I look back to when I was made redundant 9 years ago, my world had crashed around my ears, I wasnt in a great place, but a reality check when someone I know, thier partner was killed in a random accident, then I got a job that dealt with people on low incomes and gave me another check that forced me to re-think how I viewed things...but here I am again now, stressing about shit when plenty others are way worse off
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@mariner4life said in Lockdown Check In:
so, i had an epiphany over the past couple of days
I'm really selfish. That wasn't the epiphany, i knew that. But my entire reaction to this whole thing has been centred on one thing. Me. How it affects me.
And why i hear you not asking as you don't care? Well, i'll tell you anyway
It appears a bit part of my mental health (not the bad mental health, more the what makes me happy mental health) is based around me getting to do things. I get through the mind-numbing tedium of the work, domestic duties, kids sport viscous circle because i generally have something to look forward to. Mrs Mariner and I often have weekends away to do shit. Races. Melbourne for the fun of it. Stuff like that. And that's before the big stuff.
That's all been taken away. I last left the state in Feb last year. Can't remember when Mrs Mariner and i last escaped by ourselves. Hell, even our local fun stuff was gone last year. And is in jeopardy this year as well now. Not to mention the Europe trip getting canned last year. One NZ trip getting canned, with another looking likely to get canned. Two trips to Sydney now canned. Without this shit i am left with home, and work (a work that is fuuuucked for the foreseeable future).
So i have been ranting and raving about Governments doing nothing more than trying to keep people alive the best way they know how. And that in all honesty makes me the asshole.
Now, i reckon i have a few gripes that remain valid, but if i really look at it (and i have had to over the last couple of days as i got pretty fucking down) most of them are because i can't do what i want to. woe is fucking me aye?
vent over.
Nice sentiment, but there is a bit of BS in there. I've read your rants, you have as much of an eye to business owners and others more impacted by this than yourself than you're giving yourself credit for here.
For me, the personal impact is what makes me feel "flat". The monotony, the no holiday to look forward to. But it's when I look to the impact on others - job losses, livlihoods ruined, mental health impacts - that I start to actually get angry.
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@voodoo right now i am mostly pissed the Mrs Mariner got a 5-night girls weekend in Sydney in the tiny window that it was open.
As i said, i have a few gripes that remain valid, but mostly i rant because i can't go delete schooners at the Rocks.
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@mariner4life I'm right with you. And I don't think it's selfish at all.
I've been struggling in the last few months, like many. Broadly speaking I'm fine. I still have my job, my relationship is good, my baby boy is healthy and growing up well. But mentally and physically I'm so up and down.
One of the main reasons, I think, is that I have nothing to look forward to at the moment. And it's not just big stuff like holidays or weddings or big events, it's my regular weekend sport, no friends coming over for dinner, or random catch-ups with family.
So the days just mould into one. Wake up, wife feeds the baby, log onto work, go for a walk/run, while away the hours, clock off, cook dinner, watch TV, go to bed. Rinse and repeat. When will it stop? Who knows.
We are moving house in six weeks and I can't wait. Not because it's a better place, but because I'll have a project, something to do, something to look forward to. Plant a new garden, buy some new furniture, fix up an old cupboard. It's mundane but it's something to fill the hours.
Until all of this ends I don't know if it's even possible to feel 'good', other than an hour here or there. Part of the lockdown experience is realising that you have it pretty good all things considered, but also acknowledging that it sucks and there might not be a way to make it better. So you just have to ride it out.
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@barbarian mate, i cannot begin to understand what you guys in Sydney and now Melbourne (a-fucking-gain) are and have gone through. I do remember the initial 8 weeker-last year and how fucked that was. That you guys are doing it all again, with no end in site is actually heartbreaking.
My son is in high school. I couldn't imagine him missing a massive block of even year 7 to "home learning" and not being able to play sport with his mates. My boys are going to crack after missing the next two weekends.
Compared to you blokes, my shit is a breeze.
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@mariner4life said in Lockdown Check In:
@barbarian mate, i cannot begin to understand what you guys in Sydney and now Melbourne (a-fucking-gain) are and have gone through. I do remember the initial 8 weeker-last year and how fucked that was. That you guys are doing it all again, with no end in site is actually heartbreaking.
My son is in high school. I couldn't imagine him missing a massive block of even year 7 to "home learning" and not being able to play sport with his mates. My boys are going to crack after missing the next two weekends.
I'm so lucky on the children front. My boy is just three months old and this lockdown is serving as a sort of paternity leave. My wife is loving the extra help and I get to be around for more of his early moments, which is nice.
I can't imagine how tough it would be for those with older kids.
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@barbarian said in Lockdown Check In:
@mariner4life said in Lockdown Check In:
@barbarian mate, i cannot begin to understand what you guys in Sydney and now Melbourne (a-fucking-gain) are and have gone through. I do remember the initial 8 weeker-last year and how fucked that was. That you guys are doing it all again, with no end in site is actually heartbreaking.
My son is in high school. I couldn't imagine him missing a massive block of even year 7 to "home learning" and not being able to play sport with his mates. My boys are going to crack after missing the next two weekends.
I'm so lucky on the children front. My boy is just three months old and this lockdown is serving as a sort of paternity leave. My wife is loving the extra help and I get to be around for more of his early moments, which is nice.
I can't imagine how tough it would be for those with older kids.
if my son was in Year 12 i would probably be joining the loons in the street with a placard
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@mariner4life said in Lockdown Check In:
if my son was in Year 12 i would probably be joining the loons in the street with a placard
TR Jnr is Yr 11 (I think thats what it is, form 5) and talking to teachers (teachers talking to others around NZ) and his math tutor, they say so many kids are still struggling from missing out on stuff last year so is having a knock on effect to this year.
So can only imagine how hard it will be for kids in other countries that have had thier schooling disrupted so much more in the past 16 months.
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4.5 and 18 month old here - as long as childcare is open things are doable, but it was farking hard to be working from home with them around, with the added bonus of my industry/area going mental since the lockdowns.
Covid has hit during the most chaotic period of my home and work life. I was already struggling with an unrelenting work schedule and Covid has amplified that. I think there is an awful lot of understanding talk and policies around, and some of it is genuine, but the same pressures to get shit done are still there, even if hidden behind a wellbeing veneer. -
@barbarian you’re doing a pretty amazing job bro. Holding down a job, being a dad, supporting your missus. Things that might seem like every day stuff, but cannot be sniffed at in these uncertain times.
That’s not to say that even when we are putting forth our best effort we don’t experience the highs and lows, emotionally and physically.
After lockdown 5 in Melbourne was announced I was pretty emotional about it because one of my daughters (just turned 11yo, grade 5) who had just got back into the swing of going back to school again was going to be taken out again and then all the readjusting would have to happen in two weeks. Lockdown 6 then happens and earlier this week she can’t help but feel excited about going back to see her friends at school, lockdown extended and yesterday was a tough day for her. Nothing I can do about the situation other than love her, talk to her, encourage her.
Sometimes things simply do not work out the way we think - relationships sour, kids get depressed, jobs are lost, businesses go under, another lockdown, families can’t be visited, loved ones are lost - things that are sometimes outside of our control. Something my old man taught me back when I was going through a challenging time, resilience isn’t about not experiencing the bad things in life, but maintaining a positive outlook when there are a thousand reasons not too.
Not always easy but I believe that each day there is a chance to put it to the test. Sometimes it’s during a walk outside or quiet moment at home, or an epiphany like moment that @mariner4life had that we can reflect on our life and make a choice.
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@act-crusader beer wine and bbq help
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@act-crusader Great post. Thanks. Best wishes to you and your family.
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@barbarian said in Lockdown Check In:
@act-crusader Great post. Thanks. Best wishes to you and your family.
Thanks mate.
Been watching the Sydney situation closely and it’s pretty tough. Stay safe mate.
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@act-crusader Nice post, really positive and it does help thinking that way.
Life throws all sorts of curve balls at us all, how we deal with it is what counts. I have a few myself at the moment. Emotional rather than things that I can completely control. I don't like not being in control. It makes me very uncomfortable. Things that are just outside the normal scope of life. In good ways, and some not so much.
Kia Kaha guys.
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@canefan said in Lockdown Check In:
@act-crusader
beer wineDiet Coke and bbq helpNot a drinker, but I agree 😎
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@act-crusader said in Lockdown Check In:
@canefan said in Lockdown Check In:
@act-crusader
beer wineDietCoke and bbq helpNot a drinker, but I agree 😎
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Lockdown check in day one:
- Built a new workstation for the first time in almost a decade. It works. Well.
- Got approval to do some work that's taken most of the year to successfully line up.
- CS injection for the knee.
- Started renos in another room of the house.
- Played with the puppy.
- Pizza and malbec for dinner.
- Watching the rugby.
Beautiful day where if I was allowed to leave the house I'd have gone for a ride, but can't have everything I guess...
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week look up....but not for long
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Day 7 of self-iso. Yeah no different than any other day really.
Can confirm the vaccine seems to work though - I was sitting pretty much next to the chick that is the reason for self-iso and her story to the table about a wedding she went to lasted my whole fucken 3 beers, yet here I am, negative.
Don't have covid either.
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@pakman said in Lockdown Check In:
@nepia said in Lockdown Check In:
@r-l As with others all the best!
It's been good to have a non Polish female voice on the Fern so you'll be missed.
I'll even schedule the latest season of The Handmaid's Tale into my viewing list in your honour (when it comes to one of the myriad of steaming services I currently have access to).
It’s dark. At Episode 8, and the pull of the black vortex is only getting greater.
June being dragged strongly on to the dark side.