Hello From the Inside...

 I say 12ish because we didn't have our swabs yesterday....  So this morning we had breakfast (it surprisingly arrived an hour earlier than it has been!  oh wait....  daylight savings!) and waited around for the nursing team.  They arrived about an hour earlier than we thought they would (hah!) and we got through the second test without an involuntary tear :)  They were great about the whole thing - very professional - and we were reminded again that these guys, and the guys who work in these hotels are tests every week.  For anyone out there who has had a test.. imagine having one every week!   The front line staff in these facilities deserve a medal - or at the very least, a good whapping pay rise. That includes the catering staff - doing their utmost to cater to a whole hotel of guests who don't really want to be there, the cleaning staff, the military, the other hotel staff and the Aviation security guys - all doing a really important job...

One of the things we brought with us to fill in the time was a Dungeons and Dragons kit.  The kids had been playing with the marvelous Seth  in Victoria and enjoying it immensely.  We figured we would have time to try and get to grips with some of the intricacies while we sat in our hotel room!  The boys decided that Alex would be our dungeon master.  The kit came with a bunch of character sheets, and our first task was to establish what our characters were and what they could do.  I did remember Seth saying this could take a while - like an hour or so - but about 4 hours in and we had only just covered the bare bones!  I do have to say that by the time I was done I was actually a bit invested in my character!  We started out on our first quest...  got a bit blitzed by a ochre jelly, and found ourselves in a ruined dwarf temple. It passed the time nicely!   Our day ran pretty much to schedule today, school was great, was lovely and ...

 Woke up with a bit of a headache.  I find the aircon air very dry, and have been waking up feeling a little desiccated!  My stupid knee that plays up as soon as I stop stretching every 5 mins started playing up, so the morning walk was a bit slow and not as enjoyable as it has been.  School work seemed a bit fraught.  Alex and Owen were fine, but Amelia was struggling to do anything really - even when I was spoon feeding her.  Seems like this was just going to be one of those days....  Lunch came and went and we headed back outside for our second walk.  There were a lot of people in the yard.  The yoga lady had taken over the middle of the walking circuit and there was a group of younger people sitting on one side.   The army guy came out and asked the yoga people to spread out a bit, which tightened the walking circuit.  Someone came out and asked the younger group to spread out a bit, and the bloke standing in the smoking ar...

 All the days are kind of blending together.  Not surprising given the limited opportunities!  Today was interesting in the exercise yard.  One of the people off our flight has set up a yoga class in the corner.  She obviously chatted with a few people, as they have mats or towels with them.  I pity the poor white hotel towels!  She is doing a basic class, and has a lot of people joining in.  Everyone is desperate for something different I think.  Some of the folks who are bending and twisting look like it is their first time :) We have started talking about what we are going to do out the other side.  We are flying to Rotorua where my mum and dad will meet us and take us back over to Whakatane.  There has been a case here of a guy who passed through the 14 days of quarantine with two negative tests, and tested positive 4 days out.  the virus was linked to the plane he came in on, so it waited until the 14 days had passed to co...

Day 8 We must have overdone our celebrations a bit...  everyone was out of sorts today.  We started off OK, bath, breakfast, a walk went just fine.  School work was frustrating for all of us - no-one really did anything and there was lots of distractions and complaining.  Lunch came, and the afternoon turned out to be a complete write off.  We were not allowed out because another bus was coming in, and no-one wanted to do anything,  Matt didn't want to work, kids didn't want to read/play/go for a walk/anything and I felt totally lethargic.  We skipped our usual PT session of or the first time and gave the day away as a write off...We did change the beds today - quite a performance with slightly too small flat sheets, three to a bed ( one over the top of the duvet) and not being given enough sheets or pillow cases... Day 9 Today we were determined to get back on track.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the whole time we have been here....

 Day 7!  Hump day!  The last exciting day for the menu!  All down hill from here!  and all that.  The time has gone pretty quickly so far - hopefully the second half will glide by too. We decided to mix things up a little today - a bit of a social experiment if you will - and when we arrived at the exercise yard we started walking in the opposite direction (as in clockwise) to how we normally walk. The security guard stuck his head out the door and said he was interested to see what would happen! We were the first ones out, so it wasn't like we were bucking the system too badly.  The first family out after us watched us for a bit then started working in the middle of the yard, the second fell into step behind us.  The third guy came out, looked around a bit and set off in the original direction - opposite to us.  He faltered a bit when I came around the corner, and when I looked back after passing him, he was standing looking at the other fam...

 Feeling restless today....  and snacky....  Which is annoying when there is not a snack to be had.  Getting the kids through their school work was mildly frustrating and annoying..  Must be day 5itis! Excitement today - new buddies! - a bus load of isolation buddies arrived just before lunch.  We were not allowed down into the outdoor area as they have to reconfigure the fences to get the newbies in.   Owen and I kept checking the peephole to see if we could see anyone new in the corridor.  I suspect this means lunch will be late! Started cancelling Canadian things we hadn't done before - cellphones, BCAA, that sort of stuff. Lunch was late - everyone was ready to eat the chairs when it finally arrived!  Not surprising though - they have a lot to do when people arrive and it takes just a while to get everyone processed.    After lunch we lay about a bit then went downstairs for a walk.  The yard was by far the busiest it ...

 It has quite quickly become blindingly obvious that there is actually not enough going on in my life at the moment to write every day.  That and I honest to god can't remember what we did yesterday... Ooh I know!  We started school!  The Ministry of Education provide each of the kids with a pack that contains a homework book, a couple of exercise books, some reading, some stationary and a maths book.  Unfortunately they gave us two year 1's and a year 7.  Alex is Yr8, Owen Yr 6 and Amelia (thank goodness!) is Yr 3!  Amelia has set to work on the Yr 1 workbook, and Alex on the Yr 7 while we wait for the correct ones to arrive.  Owen is writing us an epic tale which involves Klingons and becoming a deformed centipede.  We might publish it later..  We also decided it might be time to give the boys the Razor Crest lego set they had bought before we left Canada (and didn't know had arrived)  It came with two smaller sets, so we put the ...

 Woke in the dark.... forced myself back to sleep (oh the hardship).  Woke again at about 6.  Lay there feeling all muzzy for a bit before I realised Matt wasn't there.   Turns out he was sitting out in the foyer area doing some work.  He'd woken at about 4 and decided to go do some work instead of thrash around and wake me up!  He climbed back into bed and we were soon joined by Amelia.  We chatted for a bit, then Matt decided a bath was in order!  Spa bath at 7am anyone?   After his coffee and soak he popped next door to check on the boys - Owen was still asleep!   We woke him when breakfast arrived at about 8 - a goodly long sleep.  They told us they had woken up for about an hour in the night, but had managed to get back to sleep again.  Legend. We munched down our breakfast and decided to try the outdoor area again.  We got masked up and opened to door to find the Wellness team standing there to take ou...

 We arrived at our quarantine hotel at about 9am, so I'm counting the 15th as our first day in!  Once we had checked in, we got our luggage, grabbed some snacks and headed to the room.  They had allocated us two suites - one with two queens in a single room and the other two rooms with a king and two queens - a bed for everyone! We have a giant bathroom and the benefit of two bar fridges for all the bloody cans of fizz and bottles of milk headed our way!  The boys bagsied the separate room, and Matt got to the king sized bed before Amelia (lucky!)   The major disadvantage of coming off a long haul flight and going straight into quarantine, is that there is no family to keep you awake till a sensible hour.  We decided to busy ourselves with unpacking (who wants to live out of suitcases for two weeks) reading the information pack, filling in the myriad of forms required, and waiting for lunch.  Unpacking was painful.  When you took a solid day ...

 The alarm was set for 3.30 am, and boy was it a rude awakening.  The last 24 hours had been a total stressball - repacking all our bags, cleaning the house and trying to fit in social engagements.  The kids had their last in face DND session with the fabulous Seth, I went kayaking up Todd Inlet looking at the fabulous bioluminescence with Silke and Bridget (thanks Di!) and said a tearful goodbye to the wonderful Cordova Bay and our BC tribe. We spent that last night at a hotel near the airport - we figured the early flight warranted being close!  as it was the alarm dragged us all out of bed and into our clothes before we even really realised what we were doing.  The taxis arrived and we were off.  The airport had told us we needed to be there by 3.30 - 2 hours before the flight - we really didn't.  There was us and a couple of staff members in the airport when we got there and it was a total breeze checking in.  We handed over passports and bagg...