Editorial: Lockdown looms but reflection is Covid-positive

The allure of a Hawke's Bay spring may make it tougher to stay Covid-compliant, writes Mark Story. Photo / File

By Mark Story

Déjà vu?

Yep. But please don't use the term "new normal". That tag made me retch last lockdown, so let's not.

Come Friday, team Ashley & Ardern will advise whether we're to endure another lengthy stay at home.

The victims and collateral victims of the mutated Delta strain are a broad church, so the reaction will be mixed. That is, a hard lockdown is relative.

For me the home office is a breeze.

No daily commute from Ahuriri to Heretaunga and back. No boring packed lunches, no search for clean socks, no wondering if anyone in the office will notice I've worn the same shirt for three days, no looking for car keys, no saying goodbye to my wife and kids, no holding my breath past Awatoto's industrial stink.

Some have it lucky.

For others, for whom lockdown means a wage cut or no work at all, this crafty microbe is a stinger.

To boot, this time around it's struck a different season. Lockdown 2020 was an autumn-winter gig. In 2021 it's hit during the Bay's daffodil and blossom season; the spring-summer window will make it less easy to hunker down and hide, and may hit businesses and hospitality even harder.

And spare a thought for our returning Olympians - two weeks in MIQ, only to now face further time in a different bubble.

Hearing the news on Tuesday evening I decided a bottle of chardonnay was in order. I opted to dodge the supermarket mayhem and instead head to Big Barrel boozer.

Surprisingly, but perhaps not, there was a queue 12-customers deep from the beer fridge to the counter. Many were holding as many bottles as they could handle, others had full trolleys.

For some it's a rush on toilet paper and cat food, for others it's alcohol.

Our lockdown behaviours are a neat delineation of our condition, a reflection of what we wouldn't normally see.

Notwithstanding everything else, that can only be a Covid positive.