June 14, 2022
Day R6: The Interview
I don't want to hold my breath, but we might have indeed dodged a lockdown resurgence bullet. Things were looking scary as fuck last week when two known clusters were driving up cases and dozens of compounds around the city were doing re-lockdowns. This was made worse by observing with my own eyes on bike rides how the traffic was thinning out and people were hoarding vegetables again, just like in March.
When they announced the mass weekend compound covid tests were resuming again, it was at that point I lost it and made some decisive action to leave this place.
A friend said in response to all these entries, "I've read a lot about and seen documentaries about prison life. The way you describe the bullhorn, the gates, and all that shit. Sounds eerily close to prison life. I'd really hate to see you lose your mental health. In a poor state of mental health, people have done affairs, gambled life savings, driven recklessly, DUI, abandoned their family. You haven't been arrested for anything and yet you are in prison."
The stories of those people I know who lost their mental health in lockdown would fill pages. I have had to be selective about what goes in here, as there's just simply too much. It needs to be vetted.
I was also getting close to that point of losing my mental health as well. While we may be "free" now, the mental lockdown remains and the fear of a second lockdown is enough to push people over the edge. That's what happened to me. Ordinarily I can cope with this by physical exercise, i.e. group fitness, healthy eating, walking, and of course cycling. That was all taken away during the lockdown. As of now, most of this is still off the table. Gyms remain closed. There are still chances to do some walking and cycling outside. The good news is the healthy food is back on the table as the take-out restaurants resumed.
My wife and I decided to move to the suburbs temporarily and take a break from the insanity at the compound. We needed to get away from that shit.
Meanwhile, the healthy food pickup is in a restaurant downtown so it makes for a nice excuse to get on the bike and and shuffle back and forth, round trip 38 km. Those two things will help get back into a healthy eating and exercise routine.
Covid counts are also dropping off which shows the two covid clusters were caught early enough to avoid sending us back into lockdown hell.
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I set off on the Montague and got maybe 10km into the bike ride when a message came in saying there was a job interview call on zoom. I had completely forgotten about this and hey wanted me on in two minutes! I hadn't a clue even how to install zoom on a smartphone, but figured it out on the fly, found a quiet spot in some trees, and then winged the interview. It was for a job in Thailand they wanted me to start asap. Imagine my surprise when they sent out a contract a few hours later.
But first, the healthy food. This was from a kitchen that produces calorie-controlled meals. Before the lockdown I had made enormous gains on my fitness joruney and it was all thanks to doing HIIT for 5-6 days a week and eating those meals on a calorie deficit. For over two months the kitchen closed during the lockdown and somehow they managed to re-open today. There was a narrow chance to use up all my credits before the shop went out of business permanently.
Since I was staying out in the suburbs, they obviously wouldn't deliver this far. It meant a bike ride to the kitchen to pick them up. They recognized me immediately as their regular customer, and I got the meals and biked back.
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