Working from home anniversary

Two years ago today I wrote this on the whiteboard next to where my team sits in the office. I guess “foreseeable future” was right because, in this post-vaccine stage of the pandemic, we’re all still working from home.

Photo of a whiteboard on which there is text that reads: “Looking for the Digital & Social Media team? We’re all working from home for the foreseeable future. Contact us via Webex, phone, or email. #FlattenTheCurve #COVID_19”.

My current plan is to start going into the office one day a week from April. Maybe. I’ll still be fully N95-masked, of course. We’re not in the post-pandemic stage yet! But let’s see what happens in the next few weeks.

We’re certainly living in interesting times!

Pros and cons of wearing a mask

Up side of wearing a well-fitted, (K)N95/P2 mask: your likelihood of contacting COVID-19 in an indoor setting is greatly reduced.

Down side of wearing a well-fitted, (K)N95/P2 mask:

Close-up selfie of a man’s face. On the man's cheek and nose are reddened indentations made by the straps of a tightly fitted faced mask. The man is sitting inside a car.

COVID-19 contact tracing at work

So I was at a Tier 2 COVID-19 exposure site in Altona North last week.

(Night time texts from DHHS? Not fun. Would not recommend.)

Screenshot of a text message received at 9:49pm that reads: “This is a message from the Victorian Department of Health. You are receiving this message because you have been identified as a Tier 2 contact of a person with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) after recently attending Woolworths Supermarket Millers Junction, Altona North. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Get tested for coronavirus immediately and quarantine until you get a negative result. For more information on testing sites please visit” and then there is a URL.

I immediately checked the Victorian Government’s coronavirus public exposure sites page for confirmation of exposure and, sure enough, the Woolworths at Millers Junction in Altona North was listed as a Tier 2 site.

The exposure period was on 13 August from 6:30 to 8:15pm.

Screenshot of a website entry for Woolworths Altona North. The exposure period for this site is 13/08/2021 6:30pm to 8:15pm. The health advice listed is “Tier 2 - get tested urgently and isolate until you have a negative result”.

I then checked my Google Maps timeline to confirm that I’d been there at the same time. And, indeed, I had been there from 7:47 to 8:46pm on that day to do our weekly grocery shop.

I’d checked-in via the Services Victoria app, which is how they’d traced me. (Thank you contact tracers!)

Screenshot of a Google Maps timeline for Fri, 13 Aug 2021 that shows two entries. The first is for driving. The second is for Woolworths on Millers Road in Altona North in Victoria, Australia from 7:47 to 8:46pm.

I got that text last night, so early this morning Nadia and I went for a drive-through COVID-19 test in Newport.

Lots of other people were there to get tested too so the the whole process took us two hours! But we got through it in the end.

Photo of a large white tent set up in a parking lot with several cars queued up to drive through the tent. The car this photo is taken from is waiting behind an orange traffic cone well behind the queue that's in front of the tent.

Now normally COVID-19 tests take 24-ish hours to process. But given I’d been mandated by the Department of Health to take this test, it looks like they expedited mine.

So just before 1am tonight I was told that my test had come back negative. Yay!

Screenshot of a text message that reads: “Dear Ameel, Test on 20/08/2021. Result: COVID-19 virus was NOT DETECTED. Test performed by Aust Clinical Labs. Plus do not reply to this text message.”

Screenshot of a text message that reads: “Dear Ameel, Test on 20/08/2021. Result: COVID-19 virus was NOT DETECTED. Test performed by Aust Clinical Labs. Plus do not reply to this text message.”

So, phew!

Of course I do our weekly shop, well, weekly. And in Newport (which is the suburb where I live) there’s a sizeable COVID-19 cluster. Which means there’s a good chance this’ll happen to me again.

Fortunately, I’m careful, I’m fully vaccinated, and I wear a good quality face mask so the likelihood of me actually getting infected and then falling very ill is tiny. But, still, it’s not fun to be reminded (and then be able to document) your close calls.

The final turn

There comes a time during every walk in which I make The Final Turn. That turn marks the farthest point from home I’ll be during my walk. Every step or turn after this is a step or turn going home.

Getting the first COVID-19 vaccine this morning felt like that Final Turn.

Close-up selfie of a bald man wearing glasses and a blue surgical mask. One the man’s black puffer jacket is a sticker that reads #JabDone. The man is holding up a small card next to this sticker that reads ‘COVID-19 vaccination hub record’.

When I get the second dose in three weeks I’ll probably feel like I do when I turn onto our street.

Two weeks after that – when I’m finally fully vaccinated – that’s when I’ll feel like I do when I close the gate behind me, turn off my stopwatch, and can officially say I’m home.

It’ll have been a long walk.

Photo of a residential street with tall trees, nature strips, and parked cars. Behind the building in the background of the photo is the rich golden glow of the setting sun.

Post-jab selfie

Are you *actually* vaccinated if you don’t take a post-jab selfie? :)

#JabDone

Close-up selfie of a bald man with glasses who is wearing a light blue surgical mask on his face. The man is sitting in what appears to be a large hall. On his black puffer jacket is a round sticker that reads #JabDone.

(To be fair there’s not much else to do while you sit around in the waiting area for 15-20 minutes post-jab in case you have an immediate adverse reaction to the vaccine.)

In case it’s not clear yet, Nadia and I got got our first doses of the Comirnaty vaccine (the one made by Pfizer) at the Melbourne Showgrounds vaccination hub early this morning.

An 8am vaccination booking has its pros and cons. Yes it’s cold and dark – particularly on a rainy day like today – but the queues are super short and the whole process is pretty quick. We parked our car at 7:49am, got processed by 8:18am, and made our way into the post-jab waiting area by 8:31am.

Photo of a large hall with several rows of chairs set out in a cordoned-off area. A pull-up banner in the foreground reads ‘COVID-19 vaccination hub’.

So to those of you over 40 in Melbourne who haven’t been vaccinated yet: come on down to the Showgrounds and get jabbed! (I’m sure the rest of you will get your turn very soon.)

Photo of the outside of a large hall. A large sign on the wall reads ‘COVID-19 vaccination hub’ and ‘Walk-ins are welcome’.

Back to wearing face masks indoors

Working from the office today – with indoor mask restrictions back in place across Melbourne – is going about as expected. #tumbleweeds

Selfie of a man wearing business attire and a face mask. The man is standing in an open plan office with all the desks behind him unoccupied.

(To be fair there are about ten people working on this floor, they’re just mostly on the other side of the building.)

On the plus side I got to wear my all-blue work ensemble, including a blue face mask, so that was nice. That’s, like, the opposite of the regular pandemic blues :)

Mirror selfie of a man standing in a lift. The man is wearing business attire: black leather shows, a navy blue suit, a blue check shirt, a blue sweater, and a blue face mask. He is carrying a brown leather bag.

The walk to the train station early this morning was lovely too.

Selfie of a man in front of a public garden and netball court, both of which are empty. The man is wearing a suit, dress shirt, sweater, scarf, and hat.

And there’s still plenty of fruit left even at lunchtime. (Usually at least all bananas are gone by 10am.)

Photo of two wooden boxes lying on the counter of an office kitchenette. The boxes are filled with fruit: apples, pears, and bananas.

Importantly, I got to welcome my new team member on her first day of work. So that was the obvious highlight of the day.

So win some, lose some with the whole having to wear masks indoors thing. But that’s okay: health and safety first.

Photo of a sign framed and mounted on a portable stand that’s been placed in the middle of a corridor at the entrance to an office. The sign say “Please wear a mask at all times”. Behind that is another stand installation that dispenses hand sanitizer and says “Hand sanitising station”.