For me, work has been pretty similar, except I do it from home, which is my preference anyway. I really like having lunch with my family, and I take my toddler out for a walk in the morning, and for a run in the evening. Earlier in the year I'd got really into running again, routinely running more than eight kilometres, but then as the sun started to sink earlier and earlier I fell away. The lockdown has got me out for more running again. However we have our second son due really any day now, so I'm really just making the most of things while they're still calm.

This will be a really weird Easter for Christians I guess; for me it'll be the first Easter in my life where I wouldn't have been to Mass. I hope by slowing down and spending more time together as families that people will learn to once again appreciate simplicity, and realise that you can't buy your way to hapiness. I hope most of all that children will really appreciate all this extra time with their parents.

I have a few friends and family members who have lost their jobs already. One friend was a pilot, who was in the middle of switching airlines when the pandemic hit, so his new job offer was withdrawn and he'd already left his old job, so he didn't even get a payout to cuishon the blow. He's scrambling around for work now, possibly in a supermarket or a seasonal job picking fruit. I suspect we'll see lots of this "under-employment"—as well as simple unemployment—people with special skills like flying planes being forced to accept unskilled labour. This will in turn push wages for unskilled work down, so it's not going to be an easy ride for anyone. My eldest brother's wife lost her job, and my brother's job is essentially convinving Asian students to come here to study in our universities: with the planes grounded there's not much to justify his role and I think he's worried about it. However Asia looks to be recovering from the pandemic, and New Zealand seems to be keeping a lid on outbreaks, so perhaps he'll be OK afterall.

I've discovered The Battle for Wesnoth, and really enjoying playing it. It's a hex-based tactical RPG. High-fantasy, which I didn't really enjoy until I finally sat down and read the Fellowship of the Ring and now I'm kinda getting into it. As well as blocking all the news websites at my router, this has helped keep my mind off things.