Covid-19: A tale of two lockdowns - alcohol, exercise and the last 100 days
Monday, 22 November 2021
OPINION: Among the litany of lockdown memes and Covid quips circulating on social media, one particular phrase has resonated with me.
It goes something along the lines of: “There are four ways to come out of lockdown: A hunk, a chunk, a monk or a drunk.”
It’s Facebook status fodder for tipsy aunts and those with “live, laugh, love” plaques adorning their kitchen walls, but beyond the cringeworthy terminology sits an aphorism that is undeniably relatable.
For me, when this year comes to a close, I will have had the experience of leaving two lockdowns in all four of those states, to some extent.
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**
In 2020, amid the onset of the pandemic in New Zealand, I was made redundant.
As a result, the weeks which followed were ones not too dissimilar to those of a person navigating their freshers period at university.
When Auckland was plunged into its first lockdown shortly after, I was accustomed to drinking on weekdays and had long been showing blatant disregard for my alarm, wardrobe and hairbrush.
Forming an itinerary for each day would be like plucking activities out of a hat.
One afternoon I could be in pyjamas playing The Sims for more consecutive hours than I care to admit, on another I could be building living-room forts with flatmates who were “working from home”.
“Quarantinis” surpassed Yorkshire Tea as the beverage of choice. Microwave popcorn became its own food group. I napped so frequently I could have turned it into a competitive sport.
Excluding the gnawing sense of dread derived from thoughts of never finding a job again – and consequently, being booted out of the country – those weeks spent holed-up indoors made a uniquely enjoyable experience.
In fact, lockdown had been a welcome reprieve from the months prior to the pandemic, which had been swallowed entirely by work.
A slave to a demanding role with long hours and intense deadlines, I’d long forgotten what self-care and a social life had been. When faced with redundancy in March I found myself experiencing a juxtapositional set of feelings which spanned grief and, well, relief.
I had needed to blow off steam – and those alert level restrictions provided the perfect setting to do so.
I left that initial lockdown feeling as though I’d spent weeks gallivanting around Europe on a Contiki: I’d drunk too much, eaten too much, my clothes were worryingly tight and the concept of routine had disintegrated into something so foreign I could hardly remember a time when breakfast was eaten before 11.30am.
No matter how ill-advised, my decisions during that time ameliorated an otherwise bleak situation.
Like a boisterous party trip catered to parched 20-somethings, the experience was one I understood to be best kept isolated. Embarked on in order to get it out of the system. Reflected on fondly, but never repeated.
With that in mind, when the arrival of Delta brought a swift lockdown in August, I was determined to harness the opportunity for the better – and learn from my previous experience.
I took up running. I've run more in the past three months then I ever had in my life.
This time around the moratorium on social activity has encouraged a re-evaluation of my money mindset, in turn helping my attention-starved savings account.
I’ve been working throughout and thus drinking has been limited to weekends only – in recent weeks, I haven’t had a drop at all.
The ring of my alarm has remained stable, and the time usually spent commuting or getting ready has instead been funnelled into reading or exercising before I open my laptop from home.
Rather than succumbing to the allure of a freshly released television series, I’ve been working my way through classic novels. With caring for mental health a priority, I’ve been taking occasional days off to garden, or sketch in the park.
As Auckland enters its centennial day of lockdown, I find myself reflecting on these contrasting experiences, the yin and yang at the forefront of my pandemic memories.
Each on opposite ends of the spectrum, and each having served their own purpose, together they are an example of how there is no correct or incorrect way to resurface from the holes we’ve been hunkered down in since August.
Instead, we should be concentrating on the months which lay ahead, as opposed to the ones which have already been – hoping those two lockdown experiences will be the only two we ever have.