Lockdown Round Two.

For those who somehow aren't aware (perhaps you're elsewhere in the world reading this), most of Sydney is in lockdown, and has been for about a month now - and it's looking like we may not come out for another month or two, with the numbers still being quite high. The Delta variant is just raging through the country at the moment, and it's not particularly fun.

But it's interesting to me comparing this lockdown to last time, in terms of my own experience.

Last lockdown was very different for me. It was still hard, and still difficult, and I still struggled with things like energy and not being able to see people and all of that, for sure. But the work that I was doing before lockdown I had mostly been doing from home anyway, so it wasn't too hard to transition to all from home. But this time, the work I'm doing has been all in-person, and can't really be done from home (for the most part). I was also in a relationship last time, and living with my partner, whereas now I'm separated - still living with other people, but it's a different experience.

And this lockdown, for me, has been a fair bit more difficult. Most days I haven't had energy to do much at all. Like, 2-3 out of 10 for most of the day, most days. I have spurts and bits of energy that come now and then, but they're rather hard to control and direct.

I think I just wasn't ready for it. Mentally, for some reason, I thought that we'd only have to do the thing once, and then it would be past and done, and we'd be able to move on. But the real world is a bit more complicated than that - and so are viruses! Mutation is a thing. And so here we are.

I heard somebody mentioning the other day that perhaps we'll just keep seeing the virus mutating and growing, and maybe we won't be able to keep up with it with vaccinations and the like, and we'll just have to live in lockdown from now on - it reminded me (strangely) of a race called the Quarians from the Mass Effect games. They would live all their lives in these environmental suits, could basically only eat what they can put through a straw or a tube, and all their air and everything is regulated and filtered by the suit. Maybe that's one future that we end up heading towards, but I doubt it. I guess I'm slightly more positive than that.

But this virus has certainly ravaged the world. At the moment, the recorded deaths on the WHO website are about 4.1 million. That's about 0.6% of the global population - and chances are, there are plenty of deaths that haven't been recorded, and we also aren't finished yet. And that might seem small; but for the influenza pandemic that happened about a hundred years ago, which is generally considered to have one of the highest death tolls, killed (very roughly) 1.8% of the population of the time (using an average of the death figures and population figures available online). So we're about a third of the way to being as bad as that, with all of the modern help that we have now. That's substantial.

Covid has changed the world. And it's going to continue to change the world, in more ways than I think we can understand right now. But I hope you're able to find hope amongst it. This is one bit of hope made during lockdown that I've found really lovely.

So have another cup of tea. Or hot chocolate. Or whatever it is that helps you. Find a good book. That old song you loved. Give yourself a bit more love. You need it right now.

And please. Do the right thing, folks. Stay safe. And keep others safe too.