I’m going into the city today on a work assignment. Everyone else on the team either has COVID-19 or doesn’t want to get it, so they’re sending me – the survivor – on a site visit as their official representative.
It’s my first opportunity to perform my Ministerial and Corporate Communications Officer duties in the field!
I was supposed to be on the Cahill Expressway during the first week of January for the Elevate festival, but ended up being quarantined at home instead. It’s exciting to finally leave the house.
There’s a certain bravado that comes with having brief immunity to COVID-19.
However, I probably won’t be protected for long – estimates range from six weeks to six months. In preparation for my immunity ending, I ducked to Big W yesterday to buy a cheap barbell and weights so I can start doing Pump classes in the safety of my own home.
It’s been months since I went to the gym and my favourite classes are scheduled for 8.30am, which doesn’t suit my current role. If the timing did suit my current role, I’d be quite happy to front up to the gym during my brief freedom from virus fear, but after that I’d be a bit lairy.
So I’m thinking it’s time to pull the pin.
I feel really sorry for gyms, they must be doing it very tough.
Anyways, there was a point to this story … I was in Big W for literally 15 minutes maximum. I parked, went straight to the store, grabbed a trolley, wheeled it to the sport section, hefted a box of weights into the trolley, paid for them and went straight back to the car.
Literally two hours later I got an alert from NSW Health that there had been a COVID positive person at Big W at the same time as me.
I’m presuming the person felt a little peaky as they were wandering down the aisles, did a rapid test, immediately uploaded the results to the NSW Health website and, hey presto, I got an alert.
That was fast!
I was very whatever when I got the ping. Been there, had the fever.
I’ve also started comparing symptoms with other survivors and it’s really interesting.
Did you have nausea? Vertigo? Lose your sense of taste? Go off coffee? Have a sore throat or a scratchy one? Fevers? Vomiting?
Everyone’s journey has some similarities and many differences.
There were also a couple of eye-opening articles online yesterday. One was about a family who got COVID-19 in Fiji and weren’t allowed back in Australia for 14 days after their positive PCR, despite the rules in Oz requiring only seven days of isolation. Apparently they’re about $15,000 out of pocket as a result. Ouch.
Mind you, the other story was about a woman who went to Melbourne for the weekend, got COVID and was also stuck. She was there for 21 frustrating and expensive days as a result. That didn’t sound like much fun either.
OK, I’d better go – I need to agonize over what to wear to work on a rainy day in the CBD. It’s been a very long time between commutes.
Song of the day: Olivia Newton John “Physical”
housegoeshome 
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