Covid 19 coronavirus: Middle NZ: Back in the office and loving it

I may need to get my hands on some scissors if we end up back in level 3 before the end of the month.

For the first time in two months I'm writing this column from the office - and I have to say it feels good.

I can see people, I can hear people, phones are ringing. I hear laughter, questions, answers. I see people smiling, concentrating, frowning, walking around the office — all at a safe distance of course.

It's great to be back in my workspace and clear the dining room table in my home space. That's not to say that I won't work from home again because I definitely will, but now I have a choice and that makes a huge difference.

There are advantages about working from home. For instance, when the chimney sweep man was due I didn't have to leave out a key.

Lucky we decided to get him in as he found a bird's nest at the top of the chimney.

Unfortunately, nobody told the bird that its nest had gone. On Saturday I was constantly hearing weird noises, turning this way and that trying to find the source.

Nothing. Just before 5pm, Mr Neat went to light the fire and peeping out at him was a sparrow.

Mr Neat gathered gloves, a torch and an old towel while I ran to the bedroom and shut the door.

I heard some bad words and poked my head round the door asking if everything was okay. "No you need to help me. Come and hold the torch so I can see where it is."

"I don't want to," I replied.

"Well then, I will just have to light the fire." I knew that he wouldn't but out I crept. He had the towel over the door of the fire and was trying to open it and use the torch to see where the bird was.

I took the torch but the little blighter kept jumping all over the place.

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

Finally we decided we just had to go for it. So he opened the fire a fraction and put his gloved hand where he thought the bird was, just as it flew straight out and slammed into the glass doors.

Mr Neat gave chase as the bird flew towards the cupboards. He leaped into the air and caught it (the bird was stunned).

Rushing outside, he set it free and off it flew. What a rigmarole, I hope it remembers that its nest is gone.

One of the best things about being in level 2 is that we can finally go to the hairdressers. Sadly for me because I wanted a Saturday appointment I have to wait until May 30, by which time it will be five months since I had a haircut.

My hair looks like something out of the late 70s/ early 80s. Think Farrah Fawcett.

I mentioned to Mr Neat that my hair looked like Farrah Fawcett's. His reply? "You don't look anything like her but if you are her, than that makes me Lee Majors, the Six Million Dollar Man."

Now that made us both laugh.

Here's hoping this sentence from Dr Ashley Bloomfield "no new cases of Covid-19 to report today" goes on and on. Because if it doesn't and we have to go back to level 3 or 4, I might just have to take the matter of my hair into my own hands and that could be very messy.

Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.