Who would have thought that quarantine could be so much fun! Locked within my little 4 white walls, and the most beautiful view to look at. It really is an extroverts nightmare, but I have been able to get my fix with a rigorous schedule of video calls to friends and family back home. No, really, I have a written schedule.

When I first arrived in the apartment, I kicked jet lag to the curb by cleaning every inch of the place, and making my bed up with the gorgeous Anko Quilt Cover Set from Kmart that I lugged all this way (worth it!). My first night was certainly an emotional one. So, I retreated to my little sofa, ate my Hunter’s Cranberry Mix, that I swiped from the plane for dinner, and watched some Netflix.

At the airport, I had purchased some food items in packaging that could be repurposed as a bowl and cup once finished. I did not anticipate using these for too long, as prior to leaving Australia, I had prepared several online baskets at Ikea, Iceland and George, with various items for my new home. The idea was, the day before leaving, I’d click “purchase” and that way it would be delivered fairly quickly. So, I assumed that it would only be a couple of days without essentials. Well, you know what they say about assumptions… yeah. Those “repurposed” cups and bowls were used for the first 6 days, until I totally nuked the plastic bowl in the microwave and decided it was time to call on a friend.

The next few days I welcomed delivery after delivery for my apartment, and I was so excited! However, the road to a cute apartment and good food was a little more rocky that you’d think. So, the intercom is not working for certain apartments (mine), and the email notification system for packages was not working for, you guessed it, only me (apparently there was no recognition of me being a tenant in system). To top it off, my Voxi SIM did not arrive until over a week after I had ordered it. So, how would I know that my delivery, that was coming “sometime between 11am-3pm”, had arrived? I waited for hours on end in the lobby of my apartment building, masked, gloved and socially distanced, looking out the window, like a child looking for Santa Clause. Although when they did come, it was just like Christmas Day!!

When I finally received food – glorious food – I was so excited to start cooking. My food delivery came a day before my cookware, so frozen pizza it was. Just one thing, I’ve never used an all in one convention oven/grill/microwave before!! So I am not going to lie, I spent a solid 30 minutes reading the manual whilst video calling my good friend, Natalie, from Germany, as she made a Paella… I’ll get there.

The first meal I cooked was the chicken fried rice (in the photo above), and then I tried my hand at steak and veggies in mushroom sauce. I didn’t have any cream, so I used milk. It was a little runny and served on a baking tray, but hey, I’m not cooking for the queen!

These 2 weeks have been filled with all kinds of new experiences, for example, I used a washer/dryer for the first time. I made the mistake of washing my bed sheets at 4:00pm (of which my Mum would say is too late), and it turns out there was a planned water outage at 4:30pm, so when I went to check on my clothes, they had only been half-washed. I then tried for a second time and used a broken machine. Third time was lucky, and then I stayed up to wait for the 5 hour dry cycle to finish. 5 hours is a long time when you really want to sleep. I don’t understand why, after 5 hours in the dryer, they still came out wet? Why is a dry cycle 5 hours? Alas, I had to use my large clothes horse, that I planned on returning. Below you can see me trying to open said clothes horse, at some obscene hour of the night, so that I could dry my only bed sheets. That night, I learnt an important lesson – have 2 sets of bed sheets!!

It is safe to say that I have survived quarantine, with only a few scratches. I’ve eaten from baking trays, pots, saucepans and teacups. I’ve been using a broken plastic spoon for 2 weeks and a borrowed coffee mug from the maintenance man that offered me a brew when I first arrived. Setting up home has been more expensive than I thought, even with my thrifty purchases. Thank you to those people that helped me out financially – you know who you are. Your contribution has helped more than you know.

I have actually really enjoyed it, but it is now time to explore the glorious view outside my window.

Today is my final day of Isolation, and after all this – I really need a drink!