Author: neil

I reflected at a team meeting on the dramatic change that 4 weeks of Omicron tearing through the country has had on the outlook for many of us. Everyone was looking forward to the Christmas break, looking forward to spending time with loved ones locally or within the country or traveling overseas.We were all secretly anticipating that 2022 would bring an end to the madness of the last two years, and we could start working on those plans we made.

In the span of days, despite the cajoling by optimistic politicians to the populace to take ‘personal responsibility’ and go spend to revive the economy, anxiety levels have reached stratospheric levels. People (leaders and plebs alike) have fallen ill, have family who’ve fallen ill, have had to isolate because they were close contacts of friends. Others are worried about kids going to school unvaccinated when number of active yet untested cases are sky-high, getting infected, bringing it home to immunocompromised family. Still others having travelled overseas are hoping to high heavens that the borders don’t close and they get stranded.

It is indeed a clusterfuck, and it is what it is.

My plea was to just be mindful that we are all in this together (we always were), that people are scared and anxious, to accept that we don’t have to accomplish all those goals we wrote down, to be kind to each other and to ourselves, and take each day as it comes. Corporate bigwigs, themselves people, seem to have forgotten that illness can (and will) strike – if not them, their loved ones, and the brutal, senseless drive towards ‘goals’ will be meaningless. It is up to every one of us to take care of ourselves and each other.

pic: the NSW Premier Dominic Perottet as the #Domicron virus after his Let It Rip approach to CoVID. Elections are around the corner.

The drone finally arrived today – along with a lesson in customer experience journey. The unboxing was done to great fanfare. I was impressed with the extent of research the young fellow had done on the spectacularly engineered piece of equipment.

It should really have been a fun evening of flying the drone. It didn’t, and it had nothing to do with the equipment, and everything to do with behaviour, both his and mine.

A long conversation is necessary, after I’ve had a chance to collect my own thoughts and reflect on my own response to his outbursts.

It’s challenging to be a parent, to know when to draw the line between wit and disrespect without destroying self-esteem, confidence, and openness.  We learn every day.

Booster-ed!  Unlike the first appointment, this one was all done in about 20 minutes at most, including the 15 minute observation wait. The machinery seemed to be in better working condition despite a distinct lack of nursing presence at the local hospital.

The attending nurse had a wonderful sense of humor too, which made the waiting go by pretty quickly. One particular older gentleman, when asked how he was feeling, replied “Effervescent”.  “I don’t even know how to spell it, let alone know what it means, so you should be good to go”, she said to laughter from the whole room.  A cheerful, fun disposition, despite the gravity of the hospital waiting room, made the entire experience for everyone there a bearable one (or at least that’s how I saw it).

I was also mindful today of how, and who I had conversations with. I always learn much from the people I deliberately have in my inner circle, and the time I get from them all is precious. It was no different today, the first day back at work, along with many a confidential conversation with several people.

The confidence and trust I have earned from those around me is very precious to me, and reminds me of my parents warning to me at age 9 or 10 “If wealth is lost, little is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. If trust is lost, everything is lost”. It also reminded me that I health has not gotten the importance it deserves by that epithet too. The heat and humidity drove us all to the beach for a long walk that both calmed and reinvigorated me, and let me put together an Ikea shelf in my daughter’s room.

 

And just like that, the Christmas break comes to an end. About 20 days of rest and recovery from what was a year of nightmares, and reflections on some wonderful memories too. It has been cathartic to be able to sleep in, wake rested, go to bed late, work on things that matter deeply to me, to help with the community that I live in, and to generally be away from much of the humdrum of “work” demands.

Tomorrow begins the work routine, checkered this time with a renewed covid strain floating around. Some folks will be back tomorrow, and many others on the Monday following. Some won’t be back – a sign of the times with redundancies, resignations, and contract expiries.  I will miss them a lot too.

I’m getting my booster shot tomorrow, after the ATAGI recommended a reduction of interval between the second dose and the booster to 3 months. My 11-year old will also get his first shot in the next week or so, relieving somewhat the anxiety we have had.