They have started taking down the scaffolding and netting on the building outside. Watching how the building is progressing is one of the many exciting entertainments we are treated to in our quarantine room, though a noisy one with hammering, drilling, banging and so on from six in the morning till late in the afternoon.
Like Coventry, the Auckland skyline seems to be dominated by cranes (it intrigues me how they manage to construct these enormous cranes and keep them stable, and it must be a lonely existence for the crane operator, stuck up there all day, having climbed up 18 or so ladders to get to the top). Whether they are for student accommodation, office blocks, or hotels, I don’t know. And I wonder what impact the pandemic will have on all these new builds? Certainly, tourism will be impacted, with much lower numbers for some time to come; perhaps overseas students too. But has New Zealand experienced the same exodus of office workers in the shift to home working that has dominated the UK?
The removal of the netting and protective plastic sheeting covering the building is starting to reveal more of the underlying structure. And that is both aesthetically pleasing and adding to the interest of the site.
And it makes me wonder what else might be uncovered by spending two weeks in quarantine?
- How unfit I am, as evidenced by my body’s groans as I engaged in half an hour of Pilates, or tried out the first level of the 5BX fitness programme (thanks Charlie!)
- How much I like routine and structure in my life (at what point does that become rigidity and obsession?)
- How much I like to have things my own way
Lois and I had a disagreement this morning.
We were the first onto the exercise deck and, while I went for the usual (and, to my mind, more comfortable) anticlockwise turning to the right, Lois chose to break with convention and start a (to her mind more individual and inspiring) clockwise circuit to the left.
We both stubbornly stuck to our individual circuits, while our fellow-quarantiners were left wondering which way to go.
Our human natures are strange. How is it that we can both feel that we are constantly giving way to the other, and making allowances for their preferences? Sadly, I have to acknowledge that in this Lois is probably right – that it is usually my preference that wins, much as I might think otherwise!
Perhaps a bit more of the scaffolding and netting needs to be removed.
