COMMENT:
Didn't the week start well? The Warriors had won twice in a row from a lockdown of their own, the Crusaders wrapped up the rugby a week early, and we had the sell-out at Eden Park this weekend.
Those were the days when we had sport, crowds and cafes sold you coffee.
By Tuesday that was shattered. A lot was shattered, like the delusion that an elimination strategy can actually work.
The big question going forward - and once again one we ask - is, what's our plan? Beyond taking this day by day, and oiling the squeaky wheel with welfare money we don't have, how are we going to face the world? Deal with the world? Be a part of the world? Especially in a world where elimination, short of a vaccine, isn't happening, and we sit isolated with a failed policy.
Or are we happy with the way we are doing this? Is this week's disappointment and despondency, not to mention anger and frustration, just the way it is?
A couple of months of freedom, then a lockdown. Start your business, stop your business. Do we think we can afford that?
Which is why we should also talk about the election.
It needs to be delayed if Auckland goes beyond level 3 tonight. Level 2 is hardly the end of the world, but level 3 is no longer a level playing field.
Campaigns need to be run, policies released, debates had, questions asked, and examinations conducted. That is how we do it, and it's how we expect to do it. Upending it makes this even more political than it already is. And make no mistake, this is highly political.
The Prime Minister gets a pulpit every day. No other political party enjoys that. They made this a Covid election - they even called it a Covid election.
As we end this week, there is a palpable change in mood from what we felt like last week, and from what we felt last time. Last time it was fear and the unknown. This time it's a gutting disappointment. A realisation that elimination isn't real, and never was.
There's a sense - given what we've learned over the months about PPE, testing, the flu jab, the likelihood this latest mess is a border slip up, like the last border slip up where there wasn't testing - the trust in the Government is drying up for good reason. That's actually why we have elections: reputations and records are tested.
We really need to start thinking, and talking big picture. But, for right now, let's hope midnight tonight is it.
A thief bit off more than he could chew during a daylight supermarket theft.