We have now entered Phase 3, and I am still striving to abide by safest practice, within the greater freedom to move more fluently within our communities.
I am still maintaining a very tight bubble, consistently mindful to come to my next position with a covid-free standard of Best Practice
Caring in the Time of Covid
Because I knew I would be seeking a Senior Care position, I have taken extreme care since the initial lock down.
I am fully able, prepared and well-practised to step forward into a live-in care position with rigorous safety in mind.
To this end, during phase 1 of the shut-in I have been extremely vigilant in ensuring that I practice the highest level of protection & disinfecting regimes.
As we are emerging into Phase 2, I am maintaining the same level of vigilance ensuring that I am able to come into a new household with a negative test, and with the highest standards of Covid-prevention care.
Masks & Gloves
I practice minimal combined errands (once-a-week shopping), and do maximum wash down after every outing.
Luckily, I have a cache of gloves and masks that I am able to wear whenever I enter into any kind of public space.
I am the Sith Lord of Covid-Shopping
Go Digital
All my interactions, apart from those I live with, are in the digital realm.
How fortunate that my previous work was already in an international habit of Zoom meetings, so the lock-down has not been a huge stretch for me.
I chose to 'double my bubble' with once-a-week visits with my 83 year old mother, knowing I have been careful enough to comfortably share space with her.
The Grocery Wash-Down
I will not lie. It is tedious.
Every time that I come in from the grocery store, I bleach down every item coming into the house. I wash down every item of produce.
The grocery bags get put into the garage to de-covid-ify, and the floor where the bags lay gets washed down with bleach.
I wash down the car, the household door handles, anywhere that has been in connection to my foray into the outside world.
Excessive? Hell yes.
But worth it.
I have consistently practiced, since March 15th, the best possible levels of safety that I can muster.
Everything I practice, and continue to hold as standard, is in preparation to care for Elders as if they are my own.
And, of course, I will adapt up or down according to the needs/vulnerability of whomever I care for.
Now that we have entered Phase 3, I have stopped doing the excessive levels of wash down and bleaching. But... I continue to be very vigilant about keeping 2 meters and wearing a mask and rigorously using hand sanitiser
Batch Cooking
I am an accomplished cook, able to plan extended menus, batch cooking so that every dish also becomes a meal in the freezer.
I am able to very effectively plan a single weekly shop, to keep the fridge stocked, and to lay high quality, nutritional meals on the table 3 times daily.
I have always described myself as a mother-who-works, not as a working mother. Providing nutritious delicious meals for my family has instilled a life-long habit of cooking once, eating twice, and one for the freezer.
As my family say - 'Jani is pathologically incapable of cooking for any less than 6 people'.
6 feet = 2 meters
It's not rocket science! Am I the only one to notice that since the let-up people seem to have really laxed in keeping their distance?
As ever, in this covid-world, I am doing my very best to maintain the strictures that mean our social distancing WILL inhibit the spread.
And within my serious intent to be a good covid citizen, it is also important to enjoy the ridiculousness...