Kate Hawkesby: Stick to what we know, and we will be fine

Did you, like me, feel your heart skip a beat when the news flashed across your phone yesterday afternoon that officials were investigating a positive community Covid case? Especially for those of us in Auckland, given it was in the Auckland community, of course it was. It was always going to be. My sister and I have discussed this a lot in recent days, she lives in Christchurch and we were debating when Delta would hit us and how fast we’d go into lockdown, and she pointed out (rightly so) that it would be Auckland first. But even knowing in the back of your mind that it’s a possibility, doesn’t make it any less awful to see the news does it? Even though we have form on lockdowns and we know the drill, it’s still an awful pit of the stomach gut punch. I had a bet with my brother that we’d be in lockdown by the end of September. He bet me it’d be by the end of August. He wins. But even though we were kind of mentally prepared for it, it’s still an UGH moment. Added to that is the fact we've been watching our friends in Australia and all the chaos they’ve been dealing with. I had ironically, in preparation for this, slowly been stocking the pantry over the past couple of weeks, I’d told my kids to do the same thing.  In fact, yesterday morning I told them to do a full grocery shop as I suspected we'd be in a lockdown soon, and while they’d rolled their eyes at me at the time saying I’m paranoid about lockdowns, they were first on the phone yesterday afternoon to say oh my gosh Mum, you were right. I headed to the fruit shop after school pick up, and the queue was already out of the door.  The local butcher round the corner had all but sold out. They said their shop was full within about 5 minutes of the first news of a community case.  What I love about that is 1), how informed and engaged people are with news that they're that quick out of the blocks, and 2) how Aucklanders can sniff out a lockdown at a hundred paces.  They weren't waiting to be told. They knew. I tell you what was also impressive, most people were in masks. So once we heard the PM's fateful words ‘going hard and going early’ it was all on. So here we go again. As deflating as it is, we know the drill. It’s not easy though.  I feel desperately sorry for small businesses, for hospitality, for the beauty industry, the hairdressers, for school children, for frontline health workers, for those who don’t want to be stuck at home with the people in their bubble.  We just have to take it one day at a time I guess and stick with what we know.  Routine is key when the world feels topsy turvy. I for one, will still be here every morning at 5, Mike will be here every morning from 6, everything stays the same for you here.  So all we can do is stick to what we know, and hopefully make this as short as possible.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.