Rocket Fuel Design

Self Isolation Sanity: The Great Lockdown of 2020

As we all move into self-isolation in New Zealand, we are asked to do something we have never done before – yes I am used to working from home, but to completely distance yourself from everyone in your world physically, now that is strange. Lots of things will be changing for many during this time, there is no school, no shopping, no social gatherings, no events. We can’t travel, we can’t even shake someone’s hand or play a game of tag at the park [try explaining that to a four-year-old]. So for me, I will be oversharing during this time as a desperate plea for social interaction. Follow along or ignore me as I endeavour to keep me, my family and Rocket Fuel Design safe. Cheers everyone as we launch into “The Great Lockdown of 2020”

Day One

The team and I had a video meeting to discuss the needs of our client’s during this time and how we could best support each of them. Plans were put in place to make contact with each business owner and discuss the next few weeks. I attended this meeting from the kitchen as my home office had been hijacked by Mr Te Whatu for his work purposes and the living room floor was “hot lava” and the couch cushions were barriers, I suspect to keep baby sisters out.

After trying unsuccessfully to put Miss Hunter to sleep, Andre and I took her for a walk to try a different approach. I took him a secret way to avoid the parks because try explaining to a four-year-old that the park is “closed” when they can clearly see that it is not. We found a few animals and hunted some Pokemon before returning home with a *still awake* baby.

Lunchtime, then a bit of time in the garden because you never know when you might need those veges that you haven’t watered in a while!

Finally got Hunter to sleep! Success, time to get some work done. Email campaigns and social media updates for some of our clients regarding their COVID-19 approaches and essential services. Managed to make contact with some businesses and plans are in place for them. Hunter’s awake so away goes the laptop – wow juggling kids and work is tough!

Hubby finished work, so off to the park for some family time!

Dinner was Pizza Hutt as we farewelled takeaways for the near future – not such a bad thing.

Put the kids to bed and then a bit of planning for tomorrow’s workload.

Day one. Check!

Week One

As we settled into home-life, I knew it would be important to keep the kids [particularly Andre] stimulated or boredom would set in and no one would be happy then. So every day I am making sure we do at least one thing that is really focused on them. For many, that may not sound like much, but as a mum working from home [and dad working from home too] it would be easy to try and focus on that and not do anything special for them.

After touching base with each one of our clients to check in and see what support they need, I have tasked Kate with updating all our client content to suit the new world we have found ourselves in and together we have come up with strategies for each of them. I also had a rather large design project on, so needless to say there have been a lot of late nights getting this done, because as I said in our latest blog – A Guide To Working From Home, when you are with the kids, focus on the kids, so there isn’t a lot of work happening during the day.

I also volunteered Rocket Fuel Design to take the Social Media Management lead for a group called ShieldsUp, which brings together 3D printers from all over the country to supply face shields to our front line medical teams. I thought this was such a great innovation and although it is proving to be a lot of work, I am really proud to be a part of it.

I braved the supermarket for the first time, that was CRAZY weird, particularly when the power went out and the whole place was pitch black, not going to lie, I was scared!

I’ve also started running again, so who knows, this year might be the year I finally complete my marathon goal, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, at this stage I can run around the block!

I think one of the things I miss the most is not having to cook EVERY meal, I mean, I enjoy cooking, but breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, I want a break.

Week Two

I’m actually shocked by how fast that seemed to go! It feels like only last week, we were heading into this and now we are over halfway! I can’t help but have a big sense of pride when I see New Zealand being praised all around the world for how we are “beating” the virus.

I think the highlight has been teaching Andre to ride his bike without training wheels, he picked it up so quickly and now there is no holding him back – proud mum moment.

One of the biggest challenges this week was Andre seeing his friends riding their bikes outside and wanting to join in. How do you explain to a four-year-old that no he can’t play with his friends? He seems to be really missing his friends and has started talking about going back to daycare. He’s handling it really well, but every now and then you can see it getting to him.

I too have started missing some of the things I took for granted. Mostly my friends, I miss the in-person catchups and Dee and I find ourselves calling people for video calls whenever we can. With Easter and my birthday coming up, it is hard, like everyone else, we can’t wait to have a bit more of our freedom back.