18 new cases, 1330 total.
In the afternoon I upgraded the Genesis device with some more capacitors. This should provide better explosions for my experiments.
Saturday 11/04/2020 lockdown
29 new cases, 1312 total. 2 more deaths, one person in their 70’s and the other in their 80’s.
There are various reports of pollution levels dropping now that most of the world is in lockdown. Like in India where the Himalyas are visible for the first time in 30 years to some residents. Maybe the real virus of this earth is humans?
Friday 10/04/2020
44 new cases, 1283 total with the second death being a woman in her 90’s.
Last night I was very hopefull that I would finally get a good night’s sleep as the antibitotics kicked in to heal the ulcers in my mouth, caused by the clove oil I used too liberally to dull the pain of the abscess in my tooth 10 days ago. Moving on. Piggy, our little toy poodle who has been enjoying a lot of “dad time” has developed an abscess of his own - but not at the mouth end. He’s been on antibiotics as well for two days but last night it was bothering him a lot, not sure if it was pain or itchiness and at around 11pm he backed up and parked himself on my chest with his back to me which generally means “back rub please!”. I massaged his lower back on either side of his tail for half an hour and eventually he settled down to sleep. Until 3 am when he was jumping around again and looking at his tail end and then stood on Lisa which often means he’s asking to be taken outside. He didn’t need to pee and was obviously in a lot of discomfort. He was eventually “comfortable” when cradled in my arms so I put my fleece jacket on, the one I normally wrap around him when it’s cold, and propped myself up with some pillows and rubbed his back until I partially fell asleep. At 6 am I managed to slide down a bit into a more comfortable position and get an hour’s sleep, while he was happy to slide down lower but remain in dad’s arms. This morning the abscess burst judging by the trail on the carpet and marks on my clothing and we’re waiting to hear back from the vet on further action to take.
In the afternoon I received a message from our neighbour telling me they found one of my
”keep off the benches” signs that I had taped to the three benches up at the park. Someone has obviously removed it in their wisdom.
Thursday 9/04/2020 Lockdown
29 new cases for a total of 1239.
Happy to have had a decent night’s sleep after taking some new anti-biotics aimed at mouth issues. The ulcers caused by the clove oil used to numb the pain from the tooth abscess did a reasonable amount of damage. Things appear to be clearing up now which is a huge relief.
Wednesday 8/04/202 Lockdown
50 new cases, 1210 total.
Busy looking at the statistics and thinking that it’s pretty unbelievable that China has no new cases. But when you look at the statistics it’s clear that they have a “novel” approach to ensuring no new cases are detected - just stop testing for it…..
Tuesday 7/04/2020
54 new cases - 1160 total.
Monday 6/04/2020
This is looking promising.
In the afternoon I took an old razor and modified it - it rhymes actually :)
Sunday 6/04/2020
+89 = 1039.
The government are happy with the numbers because they aren’t increasing exponentially.
This afternoon I dug out my old “Genesis device” and did some experiments with exploding wires in water. I may need to add some studio flash capacitors for more power.
Saturday 5/04/2020 lockdown
82 new cases today, total 950.
Today is a day of misery for me so not posting much. The tooth with the abscess that was removed is healing well but there are about a dozen ulcers in my mouth from the clove oil that worked so well on numbing the pain at the time. This morning I went to get some cream to put on them and noticed the line going to the supermarket on the other side.
Friday 3/04/2020
71 new cases today = 868 total.
Today there was mention on Neighbourly about someone in the area stealing security cameras. I imagine if they know we are all at home and they can’t rob us they are most likely doing some “spring cleaning” so that it will be easier to rob us when this is over and we go back to work.
I've been checking the updates on covid-19 around the world. This morning I watched it tick over past 1 million cases.
many countries are in some form of lockdown - I fear many of them are simply stalling the spread because 3 weeks of partial
isolation isn't going to stop it. This is going to lighten the load on hospitals to a degree while having a huge impact on the
economy. My family in South Africa are in a 3 week lockdown where they aren't allowed to even walk their dog but the [van] taxis
are allowed to operate. Their 'control' for the virus is to limit 7 people per load instead of the usual "packed to capacity" 15 or so.
In New Zealand we've been in lockdown for a week now and of course there are many cases of 'covidiots' who don't
obey the rules and I imagine this is the case around the world.
There was also a report in one area where security cameras are being stolen - probably someone who can't rob houses while
everyone is home so they are doing a 'clean up' to make it easier when this is over.
Tourism amounts to about 17% of New Zealand's income and of course there are many who are guaranteed to be unemployed
still when the lockdown is over for the rest of us and we keep our borders closed to infected countries.
If NZ gets this under control it is still going to carry on for more than a year on the continents as the waves go back and forth across
the countries that try to contain it.
The numbers double every week based on the graphs - it will be 2 million cases by 10 April 2020.
On a lighter not “Piggy” is really enjoying the extra “Dad time” with me. However the consequences my may dampen the mood in future. The last time I spent 2 weeks at home recovering from an operation he also enjoyed the quality “lap time” we enjoyed together but the day I went back to work he was very upset with me and peed on the cushion where we had sat together all that time.
Thursday 2/04/2020 Lockdown
89 new cases, the highest yet. 797 total so the battle is still raging.
Today will be a pretty mild day for me, busy resting from the tooth extraction last night.
A walk up to the lookout is always relaxing.
Wednesday 04/03/2020 Lockdown
47confirmed, 14 probable new cases = 61 , total 708
Last night I managed to get three “two hour shifts” of sleep last night with the toothache. It has now started hurting earlier in the evening [7pm] and feels like it is in my ear sometimes, and my arm[/?]. The pain-killers aren’t making a difference but applying the clove oil to the gums numbs the pain almost totally within minutes and buys me two hours of sleep before it wears off. I was happy to see “4:00 am” on the alarm clock when I woke this morning because it meant I got some reasonable sleep. Hopefully the emergency dental clinic can see me today and just pull the tooth - lockdown isn’t a good time to be doing root canal and crowns.
Not much else happened today, the toothache totally went away during the day but when I sat down for a while or lay down it got bad which apparently means it’s an abscess. The emergency dental clinic gave me an appointment at 8:30pm. Things were busy, I got in around 9pm and was out about 45 minutes later with a numb face and one less tooth. I’m not normally one for selfies but this was a special occasion.
I slept better than I have in days even though my face started itching as the anaesthetic was wearing off and I couldn’t feel myself scratching it! 3 pain-killers over the night at various intervals got me through and no clove oil was needed, suggesting an improvement on the situation. Someone told me to be careful of “dry socket” and I looked that up - the blood clot mustn’t be allowed to come out or …. more pain! So I will have to be careful for 24 hours.
Tuesday 31/03/2020 Lockdown
58 new cases at 1pm today taking the total to 657. The number would be more encouraging except for the fact that they said they did less tests than usual.
Last night I started the course of anti-biotics for the possible abscess in my tooth. 9:30 pm took one pain-killer. Midnight the pain woke me again, a pain-killer made no difference. 1:30am another pain-killer still made no difference. 2am some clove oil on my gums around the tooth, which is now coated with a temporary filling, fixed the problem within 10 minutes which may suggest it is an infection rather than the tooth itself - though strangely cold water still hurts like crazy on that tooth, even with its new temporary filling.
Clove oil, which I had never heard of before, seems to have a pretty good reputation for helping ease toothache and I can see why - 1000mg of Panadol couldn’t ease the pain while one drop of clove oil gave me a good night’s sleep. Just make sure you spit a few times before the first time you swallow or you will sound like you have the covid-19 cough as it burns your throat.
Looking at the world map of covid-19 cases they will have to start using smaller dots for bigger numbers or soon we won’t be able to see any borders on the picture. The dentist I visited yesterday is from India and as he said to me “Do you think there are really only 1000 cases in India when a little country like New Zealand has over 500 cases already?”
Monday 30/03/2020
75 new cases, 579 total.
Actually looking forward to the dentist visit this afternoon because the toothache woke me at 1 am again and I don’t think so many pain-killers are good for the system. I was also getting these images in my mind from the movie “Castaway” where Tom Hanks deals with a bad tooth using an ice skate. [I see he had the virus too]
We got mail at 11:00 am while I was out re-locating a security camera - no excuse not to do all those things we’ve been wanting to do around the house. I lifted it out with pliers, emailed myself some photographs so I could read it, and then moved it to the garage rubbish bag with the pliers.
I looked up the Spanish flu this morning and apparently 17 million people died from it, some say 50 million is probably more accurate while others say maybe 100 million. The reason it’s called the Spanish flu is because it appears to have hit them harder, but reports say it is because they were the only country that reported accurately while others wanted to keep morale up during the war times so weren’t entirely accurate in their reports about deaths due to the virus. let’s not cll this one the Italian flu, let’s all report correctly.
Let’s go with an average of around 50 million deaths with a population of 1.8 billion back then. That would give us 150 million with 7.5 billion people today. One article suggests it may be deadlier than the Spanish flu.
Before my dental appointment I got bored and decided to modify my umbrella and make an “Aggressive social distancing” video.
The visit to the dentist is over, for today. A course of anti-biotics will help determine whether I have an abscess or not plus the possibility that I may need root canal treatment before the crown is fitted. Hamilton emergency dentists are very busy at the moment though previously I never even knew about them.
Sunday 29/03/2020
1st death in New Zealand today, 63 new cases 514 total. The numbers are dropping which is really good news.
Last night we woke to the sound of a car alarm at 11:30pm, they should be staying at home but I suppose they’re called criminals for a reason. The toothache woke me several times too. I may have to seek emergency care because it’s getting worse and more frequent. Breakfast will be left to get cold before eating it because the offending tooth doesn’t like temperature change at all.
Yesterday afternoon we had taken a walk up to the lookout and down the walkway a bit. There are worse places to be stuck for a month. The question is whether the government will continue to allow exercise walks because there are always people who ignore the rules and muck things up for everyone else. It was quite amusing when I started my morning walk, there was a girl with a fully loaded backpack heading up the hill, Te Araroa track runs along this route and everyone kept asking her where she was going and whether she knew about the lockdown. She kept explaining that she was simply taking the opportunity to exercise with a loaded pack but hardly anyone believed her. I used to do that too so I can understand her frustration with the disbelief.
This morning people on Neighbourly are talking about “bubbles”. We are each supposed to stay in our own bubble, or family bubble, and risk contamination between bubbles like passing toys or DVD’s or magazines over the fence to neighbours or family. In this particular case the man’s son had dropped off a package of food for them which was immediately carried into the house.
Busy looking at world news and in utter disbelief at some decisions being made. In the USA which now has the highest number of cases in the world and 327 million residents, with the virus moving around in waves….. “considering a short-term quarantine of "hot spots" in parts of the tri-state area -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut “. Well my car has an oil leak, I’m thinking of leaving a few buckets on the road I normally travel to catch the drops of oil that fall from it!
I added some props in my van to entertain people walking to the lookout. I call this snap “Extinction”.
At 6:30 pm I managed to get a booking with the emergency dental clinic for 2pm tomorrow. They said it’s better to leave it till tomorrow because the police are very strict about who can be on the road in the evening.
From my mother back in South Africa “People have already been thrown in jail in SA for disobeying. Mainly in the townships. They think it doesn't apply to them. A white cyclist was also thrown in jail. The army are working with the police, for the unruly people, rubber bullets are used”
Saturday 28/03/2020 Lockdown
Last night the tooth-ache woke me up at 1:30am, a dab of clove oil gave me a decent night’s sleep again.
83 new cases = 451 as of 1pm.
This morning I posted this message on Neighbourly
Don't expect things to be back to normal in 4 weeks. Just looking at the facts so far, the graph shows the numbers doubling every week. At this rate in a month there will be 8 million cases and 400 000 deaths - and that will double each week, 130 million the next month with 6 million deaths. Of course there are many variables and the end result may not be as bad, or much worse actually because it has only just begun to hit Africa and poverty stricken areas and they aren't doing a proper lockdown. My family say that back in South Africa they just started their "3 week lockdown" and the roads are still bustling with taxi drivers with Hiace vans packed to capacity, and in the poverty stricken areas the people can't afford to stockpile while they share toilets, and must use public transport. IF we can get control of this in maybe two months and shut our borders to keep it out the rest of the world, with the large continents, will be hit by waves back and forth for many months, more than a year most likely. I'm afraid Americas statement to "hope to have it locked down by Easter Sunday" may refer to 2021.
Have a look at the map
The dots are just starting to grow in Africa where many already live in poverty and must use public transport to buy their daily needs. It sounds like a pretty pointless exercise for them to have 21 days of lockdown while still allowing public transport. The taxis alternate between taking loads of essential workers to the city and then casual passengers back and forth - that’s one way to ensure the virus spreads and draws out the situation even longer while more people die of starvation. It actually makes one wonder whether they should just let it run its course, spread it as much as possible, and be done with it in a few months rather than drag it out for a year and have more people dying of starvation than the virus.
Research suggests it could possibly live in the freezer for up to two years which would mean that even though a country may reach a stage of having now cases, it could re-surface a year later when someone defrosts that extra roast they bought for the lockdown.
Friday 27/03/2020 Lockdown
So we’ve survived the first day, obviously there are still covidiots ignoring the rules, some pleading ignorance and then the ‘grey areas’ like surfing where people think they are ok keeping a safe distance but the government is concerned that someone who may need to be rescued would add to the workload and risks.
This morning Iris, my photography test dummy, was re-named “Viris” to give people something to cheer them up when going for walks.
11 am, I printed out some signs to tape to the local park benches which are becoming “community furniture” as people sit down to enjoy the view. Two days ago I warned an elderly couple about the danger of passing it on by sharing a bench and they just said “yes we know” and carried on their conversation. Hopefully they will think a bit more about it in future.
Feel free to copy the image and print it out locally.
3:30 pm we went for another walk and observed people keeping a reasonable distance from each other, while some seemed content to simply go in single file opposite each other on the path.
Our 12 year old toy poodle “Piggy” alternates between walking part of the way and riding the rest of it. He doesn’t quite understand why he can’t sniff butts with his mates but nobody wants to take chances at transmitting the disease.
Busy looking at the statistics, the numbers more than double every week which means that in a month there will be 8 million cases and 400 000 deaths - and double that the next week.
Thursday 26/03/2020
The word from the officials is “Act like you have covid-19”, not like others have it, then you will avoid contact with others. 78 new cases today.
“covidiot” : A person who thinks the laws don’t apply to them during lockdown.
7:00 am: Last night at midnight New Zealand went to level 4 lockdown, everyone except essential services to stay at home with a state of emergency declared for the army to control the idiots who don’t take the rules seriously. In the afternoon I heard a car doing a burnout for a long time from one end of the street to the other. This is the part where people revert to being the savages we’ve always been for thousands of years.
For those who think they have back-up because they have a vegetable garden, don’t expect the vegetables to still be there in the morning. Farmers, your sheep and cattle will start to go missing.
Two days ago I went into “Hunting and Fishing” and bought an air rifle because even though possums are considered a pest species in New Zealand they have a reasonable amount of meat on them - who knows how long this will go on and what measures we may need to take to survive. At the store the salesman had no gloves or mask and handled the air rifle like he was invincible. I tried to pick it up where he hadn’t touched it and left it in the garage for a few hours before bringing it into the house. The image of him touching it flashed into my mind last night when I started to cough after getting into bed - then I remembered that I hadn’t dissolved the Disprin completely when I drank it to ease the toothache and it had ‘scratched’ the back of my throat. The coughing only lasted a minute but this morning I woke up with a sore neck, still aching a bit as I type - hopefully from the way I slept. To cheer people up I went for a walk…
People’s attitudes to everything are changing, on the local photography group someone posted a picture they took a while ago of a person walking up a flight of stairs and the first comment was “Touching the hand rail, that’s one way to spread the virus”.
12pm Speaking of hand rails, we just just got back from a walk in the park close to our house. Along the way we saw an elderly lady doing push-ups against this hand railing. She was grateful when we reminded her that others may have also touched that railing and quickly moved away from it.
On the way back we had seen a family settling down on the park bench, and now another elderly couple was sitting there. I got closer and mentioned that other people had been touching that bench earlier and they said “Yes we know”. So I said “Do you know the virus can live on that surface for a few hours?” and they said “Yes we know” and continued their conversation. Not a care in the world, obviously a joke to them.
3 pm and I find ways to maintain my sanity.
The world is going to take a while to recover before they make the “Covid 19” movie - I wonder what they will call it?
The couple that bought a camera off me to be able to continue doing podcasts after they dropped their camera have just posted their covid-19 podcast. It was during level 3 and I told them that they could do an online transfer and I would leave the camera in a bag in the middle of the driveway so they could pick it up, with gloves, then leave it somewhere for a few hours before touching it. At 2:40 they mention collecting my camera. At one stage I mentioned my high speed photography and held out the phone to show them a picture - as he reached out to take my phone I warned “You can’t touch my phone” and he quickly withdrew his hand and said “Oops, I forgot for a moment”
Wednesday 25/03/2020
50 New cases today, total 205. I;’m predicting we’ll be at 1000 in two weeks time.
Wednesday morning, last day before full lockdown. Many places around the world are preparing for it. We have family in Canada, it’s interesting what they class as ‘essential services’, surely people can do without liquor stores for a while if they’re serious about preventing deaths?
People in general just don’t seem to be getting this. When I mentioned the youngsters grouping together in the park someone reminded me “Oh but total lockdown is only at midnight tonight, they’re young and it’s going to be a long wait for them”. So what does that mean then, that the virus can’t spread until midnight? Get with the program people, we need to stay apart NOW.
Last night I woke up at 1am with toothache and took another pain-killer. A week ago the dentist ground my back tooth into shape after a 10 year old ceramic crown broke loose. They took a mould of the tooth to send away and have a new crown made. He mentioned that it usually takes 10 days to have made but now take up to two weeks. That has changed. Yesterday I contacted them and asked what the chances were of that crown being done because my tooth is getting sensitive and I’m having to take pain-killers so I can sleep. The short answer is “We aren’t allowed to see any patients, you’re going to have to take pain-killers for the next 4-6 weeks and then the procedure will have to be done again because there’s a good chance the shape of your tooth will have changed”. Oh well, I’m pretty sure there are many people who are having it worse than me, some who don’t even have a roof over their heads and regular food intake.
I work for an automotive electrical workshop - which has actually expanded over the years to include light and heavy mechanical services. Yesterday they spent hours debating how things will progress, after all, trucks carrying food, amongst others, are essential services. The guys with vans stocked up for breakdowns will be on call but since I was workshop-based I will stay home. After all I am the one most infected with the A.G.E virus and my breathing is deteriorating with all the pollen in the air. New Zealand’s Waikato region is known as the “allergy capital” of the country. Planted between two mountain ranges we’re in a giant “bowl” that keeps the pollen trapped and the dry season means that not much of it has been washed away. I don’t have asthma ‘as such’ but have been on an inhaler the last two years to counteract the wheezing brought about the hay-fever. Asthma, the A.G.E virus and covid-19 may make for a ‘deadly’ cocktail. If I had been asked to go to work I would rather decline and go on unpaid leave than take that risk.
One of my biggest concerns that nobody seems to be thinking about is these ‘one way’ poles that brush up against our legs, and small kids hands and maybe faces, when we enter a supermarket - this article suggests that the virus survives longest on plastic - which is what is at the end of those prongs…. I mentioned my concern at one supermarket and was told “Don’t worry, we sterilise them every 2 hours”!
Someone messages me at 7 am about a camera I have had for sale on marketplace for months so we make arrangements for me to put on gloves and package the camera and leave it out front when she arrives, then they will leave the money in the mailbox and I will collect it with a pair of pliers after they leave and put it in a cupboard in the garage overnight for any ‘germs’ to die. Times have changed - rapidly.
12pm, back from a visit to the pharmacy to get something to calm the pain of my tooth that is halfway through getting a crown. There was a line of about 10 people before me, I stepped up 2 metres from the last person and as an elderly gentleman came up behind me a few minutes later I turned around and said to him “2 metres away please” and he graciously thanked me for reminding him and stepped back. Across from the line was a barber shop still open, cutting someone’s hair.
To the right of the line was the hairdresser’s open for business, after all lockdown is only at midnight tonight so we’re safe for now right? As we were waiting in the line one of the workers brushed past everyone on the inside of the line, instead of keeping a distance and simply stepping between two people.
The pharmacy was doing it right, they were like a different world compared to the barber and hairdresser, and Subway serving meals.
There are two ways to approach this situation:
1.) Be miserable and complain about having to wait 6 weeks to get my sore tooth treated.
2.) Be grateful that I can actually still get medicine to help me through this time. I think option 2 is the sensible choice.
At 3pm a state of emergency was declared. Good job! The army and police will enforce the rules because many lives are at stake.
Tuesday 24/03/2020
Yesterday New Zealand’s Prime Minister announced that we would go to level 3 for 48 hours then into level 4, total lockdown of non-essential services and isolation of everyone for 4 weeks. I still think 99% of the world’s population don’t understand how serious this is going to get. We’ve built a system around the two main variables of “Time” and “Money” and this pandemic is draining both.
A week ago I walked past the shelves lined with toilet rolls and hand sanitiser . A few days later they were empty. On Sunday we stocked our pantry reasonable well, bought things like rice and flour that can keep for a while and be filling. After the announcement yesterday the shops went wild, this morning people were lined up waiting for them to open and hour later than usual, which gives them time to re-stock their shelves. Once they were open security allowed people in one at a time, as one person wheeled out a fully laden shopping trolley the next person was allowed in..
40 Hours before lockdown:
38 Hours till Lockdown at The base, a usually bustling centre of activity.
Many people are still taking things very lightly and ignoring all the warnings, and the signs to keep off the playgrounds. 36 Hours to total lockdown and kids are still gathering in groups.
Hamilton city was quiet, as was the lake.
Lots to get done…. the news just mentioned another 40 new cases today. Maybe people will take it more seriously when we pass 1000.
Later in the afternoon we took another drive through the shopping area and saw the barber open, cutting someone’s hair and I thought “They’re just not getting it, how serious the situation is”.
18:00 hrs Tuesday evening - received this reply from my mother back in South Africa about their lockdown “We start lockdown on Thursday. We are allowed to go to supermarkets, drs etc.
There are so many poor people here who can't stockpile, the government are asking the rich not to clear the shelves. Ours is for 3 weeks.”
Will 3 weeks be long enough?