Lockdowns -plan for the future

lockdowns are likely to be the way of the future for quite sometime, if not forever, given the sentiment of some people.

It’s therefore time to redesign your life to suit the new environment in much the same way that animals adapt to a new environment, and set yourself up for the future.

The first thing to do is throw out what doesn’t work anymore.

Number 1 on the list is team sports. Last year my daughters soccer team ended up playing half the season & they were lucky to get even that because of all the postponements and it got very hard to keep the kids focused and develop them as a team. Encourage them to do individual sports like running or cycling instead.

Planned holidays. These are now harder to plan and can easily be cancelled at a moments notice because of yet another lockdown. Then you are stuck trying to get a refund / postponements etc. it’s also hard on the kids and it doesn’t do you any good either. Do spontanous unplanned trips instead.

International travel. Yeah, nah, you could easily get stranded away from home with a dwindling amount of funds.

What Does work…

Individual sports. Sports like skiing or mountain biking are more likely to be available on lower level lockdowns. Walking, cycling etc can be done almost anytime. If you are goal orrientated, get the Strava app for your phone to record your progress

Unplanned day trips and weekend getaways. Make up a list of things that you could do over a weekend, and do them any chance you get, dont make excuses, just do it.

Projects around the house. plan to do these yourself, most of the big hardware shops have online guides on how to do things. Buy everything you need when you can. It’s also worth saving up a spare project with all the needed materials in case of a sudden lockdown.

Online shopping. It’s here to stay

Covid saga’s, another lockdown in NZ

New Zealand is currently under a level 4 lockdown in persuit of eliminating the covid virus.

This simply isn’t possible for various reasons, each reason on it’s own merits is suffice to justify that its not possible.

1/ New Zealand is surrounded by sea, so it’s theoratically easy to control the borders, but so far, there have been 11 border breaches. Each time this happens, it cost @ 1 Billion dollars a week to lockdown the country. In conclusion, this option isn’t feasible as the capability to keep it out just isn’t there.

2/ Even if you do eliminate it, it will eventually turn up again via an International traveller, which means locking down the country again. The only alternative then is to retrict International travel forever.

3/ Simply vaccinating the whole country won’t work. There has never been a vaccination that is 100%. Any virus mutates much faster than a vaccine can be created. This is why there is a yearly vaccine for the common flu and that it’s only effective for last years variant. Iceland & Israel presently have a very high % of their population vaccinated and the virus has come back with a vengeance.

Having said all that, New Zealand will likely carry on down the path of eliminating the virus. Kiwi’s are infatuated with their female Prime Minister who is a very good communicater and not much else.

To the average Kiwi, facts don’t matter as much as “feelz”. No one is happy with the latest lockdown, but no one is held to account for why it had to happen (again). It is notable the nationwide lockdown happened because of one confirmed case of the latest “Delta” variant.

The fact that the PM is slipping in the polls would have nothing to do with it ‘wink’ ‘wink’

In conclusion, NZ is going to become a lot poorer and isolated, and Kiwi’s are going to suffer a lot of pain, and it will take decades to repay the resultant debt. Whether they will ask why is another question, but given their apathy and blind obediance to a show pony of a PM, the image below becomes quite relevent .

Update 27 August

The NZ prime minister Jacinda in her latest speech from the podium has indicated there may be a softening of the elimination strategy

When Will This Damndemic End?

Shared from Mitchteemley

Springtime for Hitler from the Broadway musical The Producers It was the first professional theatre production I ever saw. I was 13, and mad about acting. So Mom bought me season tickets for a new playhouse not far from Disneyland. In order to generate maximum dollars, the Theatre-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named (long-since closed down) cast faded movie stars […]
When Will This Damndemic End?

Compare and Contrast (Updated)

Shared from nominister.wordpress.com
Sweden In contrast to its European neighbors, Sweden is welcoming tourists. Businesses and schools are open with almost no restrictions. And as far as masks are concerned, not only is there no mandate in place, Swedish health officials are not even recommending them. What are the results of Sweden’s much-derided laissez-faire policy? Data show the 7-day rolling […]
Compare and Contrast (Updated)