It's not positive to be positive these days. It's positive to be negative, and so far my household has been full of negativity.
As positivity spreads among co-workers and friends, the three weekly RAT tests we do for work have been holding strong in the one-line camp.
There have beenmoments of concern, the phantom sore throats and headaches have crept around, walking through the house swallowing profusely, trying to gauge whether that was indeed a little tickle in the back of my throat, to just the fact I'd eaten three crackers with cheese and Tabasco sauce minutes earlier.
People close to us have popped up the social media posts we are all beginning to know so well, a picture of a double-lined testing ... plate thing, and a caption reading something like "Well, 7 days in for this household guys, see you on the other side" and people popping up underneath, "Let us know if you need anything hun, we can drop it in the drive".
The kids have had friends disappear from class, after just the day before hanging out on the field together. One of them even ended up with a runny nose, which of course we RAT tested like crazy, sure that this would be the moment we joined the isolation station crew. But no. A regular old cold it must have been.
A somewhat lacklustre hand washing and sanitising regime has been stepped up just a little with the aim of dodging seven days stuck with my family, and I try to remember to use a little sanny on my way out of the supermarket before I hop into my car and remove my mask like some television doctor who just finished a disappointing surgery, and put my grubby hands absent-mindedly on my face.
The office has progressively cleared out as the 'vid (That's what all the cool kids call it) made its way into the households and lives of co-workers, but still, the positivity isn't there, and negativity reigns supreme.
It's all almost like a giant game of whack-a-mole ducking and weaving and jamming cotton buds up the nostril on the way, each single-lined 15-minute wait a chance at another day of playtime!
