My quarantine

I never thought I’d be here. I never thought I would take this job. I never thought I’d leave my family, my partner, a job that I loved but battled with, to come here and one of the most difficult transitions into a new world. My friends and family told me not to take it. But something in my heart told me to come. I can’t describe it. The best way I can try to even remotely describe it is by saying it felt like my heart was smiling when I thought about arriving here. Now I’m in quarantine after two very long flight and this is the view that I presented with.
Day 1:

I decided to record two seconds of every day but I was in quarantine starting with today. My mind is a little bit sleepy but I feel like I’ve just literally left home and flown to Queensland. For many years I spent travelling around the world for work. Pre-Covid. This just made me feel like I was back in my old job. And single. Alone.

It would take some time for my mind and body to adjust and I looked around four walls in this room wondering how I’m going to keep myself occupied. How I’m going to try to not eat all my snacks within the next 14 days. However, while I had aspirations to save the chocolate to last, I knew it was highly unlikely. However I was determined and focused but who knew what 14 days spending in this room.

My first video was of me doing yoga in a cramped entryway of the hotel room. 6:30 am, squished between the bathroom and the storage cupboard trying to do a decent down with dog on a questionably clean floor. At 8:30 there was a knock on the door followed by words that I still am learning to translate, I assumed it was something along the lines of breakfast or room service. I donned my mask And made my way over to the door unlock in realising this is the first time I’ve opened it since I arrived. To my surprise there was a table in front of the door on the other side preventing me from leaving. On the table was a small plastic bag that was tied up. It was like Uber eats but in plastic. I leaned out and look down the corridor to my left and right at the end of the corridor with two guards staring right back at me. And walking down the corridor was a person in full PPE and an electric thermometer. It was the first time that my mind clicked, I had arrived.

I return to my room lock the door and remove my mask. I wash my hands and sat at the window looked out at the palm trees for a moment. I quietly said a moment of gratitude many people would wish to be in my situation right now. I was officially one of the limited, possibly one of the privileged who got to do what I did. For the first time in the world and the first time in my life I was considered essential.

I ended the night and open the plastic bag suddenly hungry and ready to eat. I decided to continue being vegetarian knowing that this would be easy especially in this country. However little did I know that in quarantine the food would be interesting to say the least. As I opened the plastic bag I said of disposable cutlery was a top a plastic container that separated my food into a Bento box like situation. I open it up to find boiled rice scrambled eggs and boiled lettuce. Hungry I didn’t think twice I gobbled it all up. Excited for the meals I would come excited to have something freshly cooked placed in my belly. I looked around the room after I hoovered in my breakfast. It was the first time that I realised how much like a prisoner I felt. I sat there with this amazing view stared out of the world and wondered what have we done to get here?

By the time lunch came around I was sitting on my bed reading a book by Gregory David Roberts, lunch was the most exciting part of the day. Once again I quickly done done my mask after having that knock at my door open the door grab the plastic bag and returned to my seat outside the window. I unwrapped the bag and the plastic Bento box to find rice and boiled lettuce and one egg. Still pleased and grateful for being fed, I ate the food with little more thought and respect. My mind was already racing your head to what dinner might be, hoping for a little variation being in a country that I haven’t been before and experiencing a culture I only knew from the restaurants back home. After lunch I decided to take my time and watch some Netflix. Westworld had picked my interest so I started to watch a number of episodes until dinner arrived before I knew it it was 630 and there was another knock on the door. Excitedly I got up grabbing my mask and open the door to see a doctor standing at the door in full PPE with the electrical temperature Cheka speaking to me in the language. He pointed the thermometer at my forehead and showed me the temperature. “It’s OK, he said and then walked away. My first human contact in 24 hours. I suddenly realised as I saw him move from door-to-door that this was going to be a long 14 days.