Meet my friend Gail's new puppy Bob; he's double-checking with her if he heard right, that she said, "No," to the bagel on the ground. I have Bob on my fridge at eye level, but I find myself commuting to the fridge often just to say "Hi". I'll go pin Bob pics around the house now.
Day 14+7+16, September 23. 15 new, Auckland; 1123 in the cluster; 862 recovered. RNZ has left me to figure out the active cases, so I'm going with 261. All the focus now is on vaccination, although we've done really well in the 9-10 weeks we had the juice to jab non-special people; as of yesterday (?) 75% of eligible (over 12) folks had one, 40% had two. I remember two jabs was under 20% just before this lockdown, so the focus on first-one-for-everyone has worked well. And special thanks to Spain and Norway for letting us buy yours; I didn't pay attention to the details, but I understood e jumped queue and bought what was earmarked for you, and you get ours in due course; I know we're not allowed to call this a swap. Big shipments to arrive in October.
I am a product of a certain time and place, so I not only don't understand but have no patience for vac "hesitancy" unless you have potentially conflicting medical condition. (Don't get me started on medical professionals who refuse jabs.) I have been trying to develop/find sympathy, however, towards hesitancy by certain ethnic groups because of their colonized/left-out-of-the-system past. Some don't have transport, or Internet, (and without devices, knowledge, or a young person around, it's SO difficult to find information, let alone book/change appointments, a shortcoming of government led by "young" folks.) As well, vacs were initially given by age groups, and many of these groups have younger demographics, so they had a later start. I'm all for vaccine buses, jabs in schools, supermarket and fast food joints, (as long as they can do it right,) or home visits. Still, when TV adds and Jacinda ask, "Why are you getting the vaccine?" I was stumped/gobsmacked/aghast. Like we had a choice? Now there are prizes ranging from bacon sandwiches to vouchers and credits for services. I give up; whatever it takes, just get the damn thing.
So I had a talk with my employer, and she said, "here, have a Brownie," perhaps forgetting I'm also the workplace Brownie maker. "Hey, not bad," I said, thinking a compliment wouldn't go amiss. Then headed back to the coalface.
Today's update included Andrew Little, currently Minister of Health, of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, (return of land, compensation, etc, to Maori,) and a bunch of other portfolios. A trade union man and a straight shooter, I've always had a soft spot for him. He doesn't answer press questions with paragraphs of non-answers. He became the opposition/Labour leader in 2014, but seven weeks before the 2017 election, resigned, guessing correctly that Labour had a better chance with Jacinda at the top. Labour didn't have an easy win, but eventually did with coalition partners, and the rest is history. After getting used to the freshness of Jacinda, Hipkins and Robertson, Little looked distinctly "old school", even though chronologically he's only 5 years older than baby-face Hipkins, who is older than Robertson! Anyway, it was a good reminder how the face of New Zealand has been changing.
We had 30km winds this morning, but I wanted to weed and even put some seeds in, so I went outside in the afternoon. It was still windy, but not as bad especially where I planned to work. But it was sunny as heck and positively tropic; about ten minutes in, I started to feel light-headed, even though I only had an ancient cotton turtleneck so thin I only wear at home, underneath other stuff, (in this case, an apron.) I might wait a few days until either it cools down again, or I get used to this heat.
I sampled more and cut it off, washed, pressed, etc, and there are so many useful information in this tiny sample I feel a tad overwhelmed. All day I didn't feel like cooking, and wondered if our first post-lockdown takeaway is coming up. Ben just told me he's going to cook the steak and make kumura chips. I guess that'll do also.
The stem on this baby was breaking in two places, so we decided it's time to come on. I've never cut a tulip so young, so I'm not sure what will happen.
I had a busy day, prepping dinner, cooking beans and making a batch of cookies, and still getting 4.75 hours of weeding. If you've never been to our mess, I mean, place, you can't tell if I've done anything, but I took out mature pineapple sage along the fence, and dug up convolvulus roots.
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