It's now day twelve of this intermission in my life. It's all gone rather quickly but with a bit of a flow: I wake up about 6:30am and do some of my hip mobility and strengthening exercises, make myself a Chinese tea or coffee, attend to some personal e-mailing or reading, before announcing my arrival in "the office" at about 7:20.
I've very rarely had to work from home previously as my main daily work. I've only ever brought work home on evenings, weekends or holidays. It took some adjustment to organise myself but as time has gone on I would say my productivity level is higher than in the office. In the morning, I mainly work on my reports and projects because that is the time of least work related distractions. Work gets me to 11:45am when the first non-work distractions and tasks arise.
11:45am is when the Hubei numbers are duly announced. Hubei is usually one of the first and it's the main attraction. Since the new confirmation standard, numbers are a lot higher. For the last few days it's been Hubei 130-odd fatalities, vs. 5-10 fatalities elsewhere in China and the world. It's been noticeable that, if the numbers are correct and not prone to the same sort of reevaluation as in Hubei, the situation outside of Hubei is stabilising with some provinces occasionally reporting "no new cases". Guangdong is not close to that but the rises are smaller. And the above is what happens when 11:45am arrives. My mind dives into a lot of reading and checking of articles. Lunch follows. I'll do the dishes. We go out for a driving lesson.
By the time 2pm arrives I'm back into work, usually doing none of the projects. It's the flow of the day that means this period even at a distance I'm peppered with fielding requests, calls and confirmations. 5:30pm rolls around and dinner and a walk is had. By 7:30pm I'm usually back at work trying to get a few formulas on spreadsheet to work more obediently before we watch something on Netflix.
It's turned out to be a packed life. My reading has dwindled down to the point that I have to do it on the weekend. In fact, I've resorted to doing my projects on weekend days to ensure I have no disruptions from colleagues, even as remote as I am!
If there were some other distinctions from my previous commuting life, it'd be that in this phase I've done more on WeChat to practice my Cantonese, watched broadcast TV news and tried to read the New Zealand Herald. (I got myself a five week trial!). It's impossible to read the Herald, to be honest. There's too much in it, especially when I'm hooked into so many other media sources. But I've done the crosswords relentlessly!
As for those grim numbers. Wuhan has recorded 1233 deaths, China's national toll just rolled over the year of the Great Fire of London. They've got people back to work now but delaying schools going back to March. For most of China going back to work makes sense. At my brother-in-law's factory they give out face masks. Interesting my sister-in-law, a civil servant, had to go back earlier and doesn't get any on account of them not wanting to sacrifice masks that could be sent to those who need them. Qingyuan fortunately hasn't had any further cases so we can breath easier.
By the time 2pm arrives I'm back into work, usually doing none of the projects. It's the flow of the day that means this period even at a distance I'm peppered with fielding requests, calls and confirmations. 5:30pm rolls around and dinner and a walk is had. By 7:30pm I'm usually back at work trying to get a few formulas on spreadsheet to work more obediently before we watch something on Netflix.
It's turned out to be a packed life. My reading has dwindled down to the point that I have to do it on the weekend. In fact, I've resorted to doing my projects on weekend days to ensure I have no disruptions from colleagues, even as remote as I am!
If there were some other distinctions from my previous commuting life, it'd be that in this phase I've done more on WeChat to practice my Cantonese, watched broadcast TV news and tried to read the New Zealand Herald. (I got myself a five week trial!). It's impossible to read the Herald, to be honest. There's too much in it, especially when I'm hooked into so many other media sources. But I've done the crosswords relentlessly!
As for those grim numbers. Wuhan has recorded 1233 deaths, China's national toll just rolled over the year of the Great Fire of London. They've got people back to work now but delaying schools going back to March. For most of China going back to work makes sense. At my brother-in-law's factory they give out face masks. Interesting my sister-in-law, a civil servant, had to go back earlier and doesn't get any on account of them not wanting to sacrifice masks that could be sent to those who need them. Qingyuan fortunately hasn't had any further cases so we can breath easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment