The Lockdown Log | Interview with Cordelia

Last updated on 20 June 2020

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Welcome to The Lockdown Log!

In this series, The Lockdown Log, I’m going to be interviewing some of my friends from New Zealand, to hear a little about what their experience was like during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) Lockdown that our country went through in April (and continues, in some degree until we’re told otherwise). For some of my friends, life has radically changed, for others, it’s only a little different. But whatever has happened in the last few months, whatever their situation has been or will continue to be, they have a story, and one that I believe is worth sharing, if not for now, then for the future.

In this instalment of The Lockdown Log, I chat with my friend Cordelia*, who is a Lawyer in Auckland.

*pseudonym … which she chose.

Hey Cordelia! Great pseudonym choice. Reminds me of Cordelia in Buffy and now I want to re-watch that.

Thanks for joining me today! Hope Level 2 is going swimmingly for you! We’ve just recently come out of what was essentially 7 weeks of Lockdown here in New Zealand due to COVID-19, and while we’re easing our way back into ‘normal’, whatever that looks like, what would a usual week look like for you?

Hello! I’ve always wanted to be called Cordelia.

So a normal week for me looks like: being in the office all day, but starting my day with a delicious coffee from my office’s fancy coffee machine. I spend the day calling clients and doing initial interviews, then researching and drafting advice for clients. I do a little more calling to clients and give them advice, as well as doing law reform, and having meetings with the rest of the legal team.

Wow, that sounds like a lot! Your days must be pretty full-on! What about outside of work?

I do quite a few things outside work during the week. I live in a Christian community and I go to prayers every morning and some nights. We also meet up one night a week to hang and talk about what it means to live in the community. I run a primary school girls’ group, where we do things like play games, crafts and learn Tik Tok dances (I can do Say So, and The Weekend (that’s it)). I also try to run a couple of times a week (TRY).

To be fair, that’s more Tik Toks than I can do. During Lockdown my sister taught us that one with the elbows and the shimmy … yeah, I’m not up with what’s cool these days.

Oh, and I’m very passionate about compost.

You really are. Readers I get updates about aforementioned compost on the regular.

Being in a job where you’re working with clients a lot, how did work change for you during Lockdown?

Working from home was very painless and easy for me. I was able to take home a work laptop and a phone, and then start calling clients and drafting advice. I was still able to work from 9am – 5pm.

That’s really good! I know a lot of people whose hours were drastically reduced. What did you find the hardest about working from home?

Probably the hardest thing about working from home was having to share workspaces with my other flatmates. My boyfriend was staying with us and we alternated between using the kitchen for non-confidential conversations, and then my room for confidential calls. It is hard sharing a workspace with my partner; he’s messy!

Haha! You’d definitely learn a lot about each other and your other flatmates by living and working so closely together!

It was also hard knowing when to finish for the day because at home you can just stay on your work laptop and keep working in the evening. I tried to get into a habit of putting my work stuff to “bed” at night.

That’s so important eh? Do you have any other tips for working at home, for those who are still doing so?

No, I think that’s the best tip I have. It might just be me, but seeing my work stuff in my normal relaxation spaces (like my room), made me feel anxious and think about work that I needed to do. Taking the time to move everything out of sight really helped my mental health.

It is a very good tip! What did you find the hardest about Lockdown?

I am an aunty to two beautiful toddlers, and it KILLED me not to be able to hug or play with them for two months. I did see them every day through video, but it wasn’t the same. It was also hard realising how much they had grown without my being there. I was so happy to give them cautious cuddles at the end of lockdown!

Yes! Not being able to see people and loved ones during the Lockdown period is definitely a theme for this question. I think it just reemphasises the importance of the various forms of relationships that we have.

What are you grateful for, in the time in Lockdown?

Living in a really awesome flat! The people that I live with are actually the kindest and coolest people. They were also super lovely about allowing my boyfriend to come and stay with us throughout lockdown.

That is so good! Being locked in with the same people for nearly two months is pretty rough on some households, so it’s really good that you were able to hang out with your friends during that time! Did you guys get up to anything fun?

Yes! We did some really great stuff together! One of the coolest things we did was three weeks of international cuisine! At the start of lockdown, we put a whole bunch of countries into a hat and then drew out three each. We had Hungarian, Thai, American, British, Mexican, South Korean, Italian, Albania, Vietnamese, Afghanistan and many more! Then we cooked meals based on the cuisine we drew.

That sounds amazing! And delicious …

It was amazing! We also did a similar thing with movies, where we all got to choose three movies that we then picked out of a hat. I enjoyed forcing my flat to watch Forrest Gump, Shrek 2 (the best Shrek, I cannot be moved from this) and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Shred 2 is not the best Shrek movie … We can talk about that later.

It is. Don’t fight me.

If you say so … What else did you guys get up to?

We also made homemade books from material, cardboard, paper and flour glue. And we became obsessed with the game “Raiders of the North Sea”. We played every week and sometimes several nights in a row. We knew that we had collectively lost our marbles when we all dressed up as Vikings for one particular game…

I love that game! (NZ readers you can find it on Game Kings.) That whole series of games is so good! We should play sometime! Other than all those cool flat shenanigans, was there anything you enjoyed about Lockdown?

I’ve actually enjoyed so many things about the lockdown. One of the nicest (but nerdiest) things for me was having the extra time to read and garden. I have managed to work my way through an impressive number of Agatha Christie novels. I have also been able to eradicate the slug and cabbage butterfly populations in my garden through rigorous attention and clubbing (in the case of the slugs).

I’m going to let that slug comment pass and move on quickly … Agatha Christie is the Queen of Crime. I love her Hercule Poirot series. For those around the world still in isolation, do you have any tips for surviving quarantine?

Be kind to yourself and the others around you.

And last, but certainly not least, in fact possibly the most asked question about Lockdown … did you do anything drastic to your hair?

Not my hair, but I did manage to convince my boyfriend to let me cut his! It looks good, mostly…

I wonder if he thinks the same …

Thank you for joining me today and sharing about your time during Lockdown! I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. I hope you get onto that slug problem …

Stay tuned for another edition of The Lockdown Log coming soon!

To learn more about New Zealand’s alert level system, check out the COVID-19 website.