NZ moved to “Level 3” in the brand new alert systems on Monday at Midnight.  That means that socially our lives are basically unchanged, still “enjoying the sanctity” of our family unit bubbles, but more businesses can be open.  In fact, any business that can be innovative enough to carry on without people contacting each other can open up….unfortunately that still means hair dressers are closed, and there’s a run on home hair dye kits at the grocery store.

There have been a lot more cars on the road as many industries start up again, and I added to the traffic as I made my way to work at Zealandia on Tuesday morning.  There was not actually a gorgeous sunrise that morning, but I felt there should have been to mark the momentous “back to work” moment.

I don’t know what fairy tale I was hoping for, but subconsciously must have thought it’d be better than when I left.  Maybe I thought there’d be more purpose and direction, because by now the business would be pared down to only the essential components.  Maybe I thought my great expertise had been missed over the last month and upon return there’d be a list of important tasks to get stuck into.

Instead I got my temperature zapped by a contactless thermometer, signed a piece of paper saying I would follow the Critical Covid19 Policy, then sat at my desk, thumbing through the to-do list from a month ago, long term projects that no one cares about.

Of course, my supervisor is also the general manager, and he’s had a wee bit on his plate of late.  Our sales were down 80% compared to April last year and I could see him through his office window holed up with the CFO pouring over spreadsheets.  I imagine that my little salary sitting in the corner wondering what she should be doing is small peanuts compared to the bigger picture of 270 employees, many of whom were also idle over the last month.

But as ridiculous as it is, I felt deflated.

I had a walk around the nursery.  Insects have calmed down for the year and diseases seem well in hand.  I went out to check on the crop outside.  It was a lovely sun-drenched day.  I went back inside to my dark desk and reviewed the pesticide pricing for our spray database.  I wondered what my kids were up to.  I filed emails in the proper folders.  I had my solitary afternoon tea.  My boss stopped by for a couple minutes between phone calls in the mid afternoon, and asked if I could put together a list of current R&D projects, to review the next Monday.  Next Monday!

I decided that staying home doing school with the kids would be more purposeful than going in to the nursery for the remainder of the week.