Day 2 in quarantine
Our first full day in quarantine.
It is 4 am in Melbourne and of course the jet lag is kicking in. I crashed during the afternoon and am now wide awake but still tired. However there is not a huge incentive apart from meals to get into a regular timezone and so here I am sitting in the window of our room watching over a very quiet and dark Melbourne. We are at the back end of the hotel, so have glimpses from the 10th floor over towards St Kilda and a lot of freeway and building rooves.
We are in a 5 star hotel, the Crown Promenade minus the services. The government has basically rented the rooms. Clearly it is a hastily patched together arrangement with many teething problems. Don’t be imagining us swanking it up with room service. We have a mini bar minus alcohol that we are free to consume, and then replace at our expense. Apparently the meals will be coming in from outside, not the hotel kitchen. No one will be entering our room, we place rubbish outside the door, same with towels and sheets, once a week. On the plus side, feather pillows, beautiful sheets and towels and a window seat.
However we can now confirm that being confined to a hotel room, 5 star notwithstanding, with no fresh air, no control over food choices, and a pacing length of 13 steps is no picnic. There are 2 guards on our floor. Meals are delivered to the door and anything from the hotel is dropped at the door, they ring the bell and run away!
We both crashed early the night before after a marathon 40hrs from Montevideo via Santiago to Melbourne and then our processing from airport to hotel (another 4 hours).
Food has been a challenge. For reasons unknown we were only supplied with 1 coffee bag, a handful of instant coffee sachets and a few different types of tea bags (no milk). We requested milk and more coffee and received two coffee bags and 2 small long life milks. It seems we’re not to get too caffeinated so that we bounce around the walls. We didn’t know when to expect breakfast but assumed it would be between 7-8am so made ourselves a coffee and shared a leftover mini muffin from our lunch the previous day to tide us over.
Breakfast arrived, though a little random as to the contents - 2 pieces of fruit, some very fresh & yummy pastries, 2 boiled eggs and another milk. We wondered if the cereal was forgotten or didn’t arrive as the milk seemed odd! Jode was skeptical about my suggestion of boiled egg in the croissant, but it ended up being alright. We’ve attached photos of meals, for your perusal. We have accumulated a large amount of junk food already, chocolate, muesli bars, fruit juice drink, potato chips, sugary yoghurt, muffins. Plus 12 pieces of fruit each day?
We decided the previous day that to survive in a small shared space for 2 weeks that we would need some routine and agreed some rules (eg taking turns at making phone calls). Exercise isn’t really possible at 10 steps from door to window, something that is distressing to us both, but we do have enough room to do stretching/yoga. So for 20mins we stretched out on on stolen blankets from LATAM! That was satisfying after days sitting in buses, planes & airports.
Much of the morning was taken trying to organise a care package. While details were outlined in the document given to us the reality was somewhat different. I had left my work laptop with my colleague and friend Nicky, as I had worked in Melbourne prior to leaving and was due to work on arriving back here. In addition to my laptop I requested some coffee, a coffee plunger, muesli, some crockery (so we are not constantly eating out of takeaway containers) and wine. It was duly packed. The rules were strict about friends and family not being able to drop things off, so it had to be organised through the helpline and they sent a taxi to pick it up. Excellent I thought. Uppermost in my mind was the coffee to be honest. The package was refused at the hotel and duly arrived back at Nicky’s. I’ll spare you all the details but this routine was repeated twice, with DHHS helpline saying we were entitled and organising the transport, Vic Police refusing entry to anything, as we were in quarantine, and it all doing my head in. Finally the process was suspended, and we have heard variously that it won’t be possible, that it may be possible in time, and as of Day 3 it is still not happening.
We gather from the media that elsewhere it is happening, and it feels very heavy handed to be denied this. It does add a bit to the feeling of imprisonment, with it somehow being our fault! The promised shopping via Woolies of non perishables has also not materialised. We hope that other people with more fundamental needs are having their needs met. There were many families with small kids on the plane for example.
The morning went on and on until finally we realised that we’d probably been forgotten in the lunch run. It turned up just after 3. It is unsettling for us not knowing what the rules are, the timing of food, and what we can and can’t ask for. There was also a message in the lunch bag with the number to ring should we like a bottle of red/white or 6 pack at a reasonable price rather than the usual min bar price. So we finally got to a glass of wine pre-dinner for the first time in a week.
We spent the evening, trying to keep our eyes open whilst watching the tail end of the 7.30 report, Australian Story and 4 Corners. All to do with corona virus. It helped us in getting up to speed and was particularly useful in presenting the timeline and government messaging that in part contributed to us underestimating likely risks and potential scenarios when we departed for South America. Us and everyone else.
Day 3 is unfolding as we finish this off. We are adapting to the lack of control, making the best of our food options, having a laugh with friends and family about some of the absurdities (they gave us 2 door key passes!) and generally getting on with our little bubble, which sits somewhere between the bubble of Antartica and the boat with our limited news and connectivity, and the reality outside our hotel room door. We’re gradually tuning into the stress and hardship of others, and realising the profound ripple effects. Along with that we’re hearing of new and creative responses to the crisis that are heartening. We’ll be back in the real world soon enough!