A busy day
of meetings so not much time to get outside. It was also pouring with rain all
day. Talking to the team there’s a clear theme to how people are keeping busy
and the different stages we’re all going through. Building/buying more
furniture (chairs, desks – we have two chairs on the way as well) and playing
games on video conference (Jackbox, House Party, Cards against Humanity, Settlers
of Catan).
New York “paused”
at 8pm tonight. All non-essential businesses (somehow wine and spirit shops
included in this category) must close or have employees work remote. Before then
we took a walk down to Soho to drop off the Spectrum router. For the most everyone
seemed to be social distancing and a lot of areas were very quiet. Although as we
walked back through Madison Square Park the park was quite full, especially the
dog park. It feels more and more that the only way to control social distancing
is to enforce it.
Neither Danielle nor I had the best night sleep as a couple of mosquitoes decided to join us. Mid-March feels early for them and I read it can be attributed to global warming, which reminds me how I have been thinking this coronavirus is at least helpful for the planet if not the people.
Definite TGIF feeling today. Despite the weekend not bringing anything particular, still going to be home for most of it, it feels good. Treated ourselves to a bagel breakfast today, after a brisk walk around the block. Had a 30 minute break from calls this afternoon which we took advantage of for another walk. It’s been so nice outside, really feels like Spring. Shame it’s not lasting or that we can really enjoy it – socialising in a park, dinner outside? Out of the question.
Each day I’m going to be posting an update from past 24 hours of my experiences living in New York City during the coronavirus lockdown. So far I’ve been working remote since Thursday 12th of March with NYC seemingly progressively shutting down.
A week today was the first time I started working from home. In that time streets have definitely got emptier but not necessarily day over day, I think Monday was still the quietest. Started the day with a 9am call and yesterday was crazy at work as everyone seemed to start reacting to Coronavirus, so didn’t wake up early enough for a walk.
Took a longer walk this morning in really nice warm weather. Made one stop at UPS to drop off a parcel, one woman in there ahead of us talking with the man behind the counter. The man and woman were discussing one of the variations of the only real conversation point right now. Everyone’s got one thing on their mind, but conversation can split in a few different strands from the central topic. This particular topic captured a couple – how quiet it is generally, and what do you do in the evening? After a while you start to go to bed early..
The walk
was actually quite eventful, more so than expected. As we passed Trader Joe’s supermarket,
there was a line wrapped half way around the block and then right down to the
bottom of the avenue. It’s hard to judge how many people were in the line given
people applying social distancing but I’ve never seen anything like that, much
least at 9am on a Wednesday. I don’t really understand it, the initial panic
buying proved needless and we went food shopping on Saturday without an issue.
There had been suggestions from city mayor of a more rigorous lockdown but that
was quickly dismissed by NY governor.
Line for Trader Joes wraps round the block and down the avenue (Trader Joes not in picture but top and left)
Work has been incredibly busy today. With my tech client, demand has clearly been there for laptops as people adjust to new working environments and styles. For the first time since starting to work remote we started doing video conferencing instead of audio only. This was helpful in adding a new dimension to the day.
Social highlight of the day? The walk in the morning and then a short walk in the evening to buy some beer and watch Survivor then Shark Tank. Wednesday evening is normally our ‘date night’ – we try and keep it free every week to hang and do something together. Since it is Wednesday we ordered food in, first time for not cooking this week. It’s a small thing but it’s about trying to keep routine as usual as possible – making Wednesday feel different from other days.
Tweet of the day:
I've lost my mind.
I wrote Coronavirus Rhapsody:
Is this a sore throat? Is this just allergies? Caught in a lockdown No escape from reality.
Danielle’s work was quiet today, which meant we had the TV on and a couple of laptops. Seemed to stretch the already dodgy internet beyond where it was happy. To solve for this I ordered a new router from Best Buy vs the crappy Spectrum provided. This in turn was the perfect lunchtime walk, a nice 20 minute stroll to Union Square.
Trying to stick to usual routine. Got up at usual time, shaved. Enough time for a 30 minute walk before my first call of the day at 9.30. In less typical routine, practicing social distancing by making my own lunch today, for the first work day in probably years.
Managed to
get another short walk in this afternoon in place of the usual lunchtime walk
to get food. Cooked dinner for the second day in the row. Coming out of this
quarantine I’m going to be a better cook!
Another
walk after dinner- any way to keep active and avoid the apartment walls that
are going to become all too familiar.
NY announced movie theatres, theatres, nightclubs (damn) and commercial gyms closed until further notice. All restaurants and bars are limited to takeout or delivery. During out evening walk we thought about how we’d continue to support local businesses – occasionally picking up or ordering food in from our favourite local restaurants.
Tweet of the day:
oh my god, the chicago aquarium closed due to coronavirus, so they let the penguins run around and check out the other exhibits. (staff was present.) pic.twitter.com/YGa8CugymE
Took a shorter walk today given yesterday’s walk was ¬20K steps. First stop was Barnes and Noble in Union Square to pickup a couple of books since we’re likely going to be locked down for a while. The bookshop was almost dead.Then we stopped by Irving Farm for a coffee and brunch sandwich.
