March and how things change

What a month.

It seems like it has been going forever.

Currently my husband, son and I are in our last week of two weeks of self isolation after a trip to Australia.

We went for my husband's conference in Melbourne which was cancelled due to the escalation of the Covid 19 Coronavirus.  It was meant to be early in March.  The three of us went to Melbourne anyway and had a lovely holiday for four days.  In this time my son and I attended Harry Potter & The Cursed Child.  Which was excellent.  We also spent our time doing family activities such as visiting the Melbourne Aquarium and viewing an IMAX film.  We were very careful with our interactions with others and fastidious about hand washing/sanitizing and touching.

Flynn striding along to enter the theater

Waiting for Harry Potter & the Cursed Child play to start

Ready for Part I to start

Part II about to start

Flynn & I together

Visiting some of the sights around Melbourne...

Street Art

Street Art

 The Aquarium in Melbourne, we spent a whole day here it was AMAZING...

Jellyfish

 

Jellyfish - I thought they were amazing

 

Flynn watching the Penguin & it's baby

Then we moved to Brisbane where my husband comes from for a family celebration and a week of visiting with family and friends.

In-flight stitching - working on my Blackwork

View flying from Melbourne to Brisbane

During this period I managed to do a little work on a Blackwork piece that I am teaching in 2021.
On the Tuesday - one week after arriving in Australia we caught up with a friend of mine from University who I haven't seen since the early 2000's.
We met up at a playground and things were going well until I attempted a slide ride with my son.  Unfortunately I got up too much speed and became airborne, which ended with a very inelegant landing. After a long trip to the Emergency Room, I found out that I had a compression fracture of one of my vertebrae.  Not the best outcome.  After two nights in hospital, I was fitted with a back brace to wear for a minimum of six weeks and discharged with plenty of pain medication.

Hospital #1

Transferring hospitals via Ambulance

Hospital #2

I was also asked to stay in Australia for an extra week before flying home.

That caused a major problem for me in that I was meant to be flying home the night I got released from hospital to teach a class in Dunedin that had been organised for more than a year that weekend.  That was postponed, but has since been cancelled.

We spent the following week in Australia at my in-laws, lucky we had them.  I stayed around the house and mostly slept or rested.

Then Covid 19 started to impact our part of the world.  Which led to our Government (New Zealand) announcing that anyone arriving from overseas would need to self isolate for 2 weeks when they returned home.  This ended up being us, we also arrived home on the second last direct flight into Dunedin before all flights on this route were suspended until May.  Fortunately we could get a direct flight as I found it very uncomfortable travelling.

Flynn & I on the flight home - finally.

So now we are home, my lovely sister had left us a supply of groceries when she stayed the weekend I was meant to be home with her family.  Which was lucky as none of us are allowed out for the next two weeks.

We spent Friday to Monday in self isolation and then our Government announced that the country would be going into lockdown in 48 hours for a minimum of 4 weeks.   So we are still in self isolation at home with the rest of the country in lockdown.  Only essential services are working.  We have been told to form a bubble with the people we live with.  If they aren't in your bubble you must be 2m away from them at all times.  You also need to stay local.  I can't visit my family as they live in a different province and it is too far away.  It has become very quiet.  We see plenty of people exercising past our front gate, but no airplanes or helicopters which was very common for us.

My back is still very painful and the worst thing for me is that I am unable to stitch for any period of time.  I have done a little stitching but nothing near what I would usually do and I have plenty of designs calling me to work.  But at the moment I am slowed down.  It's weird.  Not completely enjoyable but also it is good.  I have read four books so far and started on a fifth book I got for Christmas in 2011!

I am trying to plan, but my head is not that with it sometimes due to the pain medication.  My husband is working from home and my son is part time schooling from home (it's officially the school holidays, but he missed lots of weeks while we were in Australia and it's better than just watching YouTube all day).

A friend has reinstated Animal Masterchef on Facebook which she and her son did three years ago, this time it is open to toys around the world.  Two of our wee animals have put in entries so far (Courtesy of my husband and son and their joint efforts at cooking).  I  am enjoying catching up on this each day.

Mimi's Hot Cross Buns

Mimi enjoying one of her buns.

Mimi's Round Two - Signature Dish. Homemade Burgers with homemade buns, coleslaw, chocolate crackle nests and homemade Elderflower cordial from December 2019

Tomorrow is April, I am thinking about my stitching and all the pieces I would like to stitch.  All of the pieces I have designed to stitch.  Will I manage to fit it all in?  When can I  get back to it? Can I get the supplies I need?  How long until I can sit and stitch comfortably?  It's been three weeks since I broke my back and hopefully I can start to wean off the back brace in a further 3 weeks, I have no idea what my rehabilitation will be after that as we are in lockdown and hopefully I get to go to the fracture clinic in 3 weeks if they lift lockdown, which I suspect they will extend.  Maybe a Skype appointment?

Stay safe in your bubble in these uncertain times.  I hope you are faring well.