A lot has changed in a very short amount of time. In fact, the whole World itself has changed in a matter of weeks. I keep waking up, thinking that I’m stuck in a dream of sorts. Well, slapping some cold water on my face doesn’t seem to get me out of this one.
I’ve been monitoring the whole situation ever since the virus first started spreading in China. It became real to me once they first locked down China. Everyone in the World laughed at the extensive measures China was taking. After seeing that international travel was still going strong, I soon realized, that shit was about to hit the fan extra hard. And that I was in the worst possible position, one could be in at this stage – I was about to be unemployed. All thanks to my stupid visa restrictions.
The whole World was about to slip into chaos. People of the western world have been living in their safety bubbles for far too long. They can’t even fathom a different kind of lifestyle any more. I, on the other hand, have been bursting my safety bubbles for years now. I truly embrace chaos, as while Your life is in chaos, You don’t have time to sit on Your ass and jerk off. You truly, in fact, must take action, or face the reality of missing out on all the opportunities…
I held on to my good habits and my regular daily schedule – lifting heavy until they closed the gyms, eating well and working hard, all the while enjoying as many ‘luxuries’, as I could. But on the down-low, I was back to my scheming old self. Trying to think of different strategies to approach this looming crisis with.
Step 1 – Cash grab
As the crisis evolves, more and more people become unemployed. Therefore, as their savings start drying up, they begin liquefying their assets. Starting with the most useless items and ending with vehicles and real estate. Since they’ll all be selling at the same time, they’ll end up overflooding the market. That, together with most people holding on to their money, makes everyone drop the prices. The longer the crisis, the more fucked up the market gets.
I was already dealt a shitty hand to begin with, so I had to try and stay ahead of the curve by playing smart. First order of business – liquefy the unnecessary assets. The Suzuki Bandit most importantly. I sold the bike over the internet in 2 days for a healthy profit. I’m stuck with the Merc for now. At least I’ll be riding into the crisis with some class.
Step 2 – Stock up!
I knew everyone would start stocking up on all the essentials after some panic-inducing news at some point. I ended up putting this one off for too long, as I had too many other things going on at the same time. So I ended up shopping during the first wave 9pm Friday night, right after they announced the first positive test result in New-Zealand. That turned out to be a spectacular event.
I’ve been slowly stocking up my food cabinet every time I’ve gone shopping. Also, did You know, that NZ gives out 3 cases of free nicotine gum per person to help the population quit smoking? I guess now is the best time to get on with that.
Step 3 – Secure the income
My biggest challenge of all. Unemployment’s not a huge issue for most long-term workers, as they’re all insured. Most people will get paid for playing video games or watching Netflix at home during this crisis. That doesn’t apply for me. And I was about to lose my job thanks to my visa restrictions. So I started looking before my contract was up. I was focusing on jobs that would potentially be essential even during a crisis. After tweaking my strategies from the last time, I was able to secure a bunch of interviews.
I still ended up unemployed for 2 weeks after my corporate gig though, which I naturally spent, having some quality time with my buddies. In the end it all came down to 2 good jobs – another boring corporate gig or a once in a lifetime opportunity on a big TV/movie set. I guess it wasn’t even a real choice, was it?
Obviously I went with the movie gig, even though I had to spend over $500 on gear and credentials to even get started. Of course they also had me sign a killer NDA. So unless I feel like getting sued into oblivion, I can’t go into any more details here. But I’ll say this: after having worked there for the past few weeks, I’m absolutely amazed at the scale of effort and money that goes into creating all of that movie magic. It’s really been a wild fucking ride and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So here I am, having the time of my life, while the whole World around me is heading into what’s possibly the decline of the century. In fact, I’ve never been so ‘keen as’ to wake up for work in the morning, as I currently am.
What lies ahead?
My next challenge is to obviously survive this new plague. I will be moving around, while everyone’s locked up in their homes. So I must take extra precautions. Secondly, I need to save up, while I’m working. I may not be so lucky the next time. And finally, the NZ government is actively discussing extending all the work visas, so I’ll need to look into that. Maybe I can talk them into removing that stupid-as-fuck visa restriction? Perhaps I can also get a full security license in the meantime? Or even a full NZ driver’s license while I’m at it?
5 days ago it was announced that New-Zealand would implement a new 4-level alert system for the novel Covid-19 virus and that we’re currently on level 2. Different mild measures were taken all over the country at that point, in order to prevent and track the infection. The situation, however, has now completely changed. The amount of infected people doubled over the weekend and the infection has become uncontainable. Therefore 2 days ago, on Monday, it was announced that we’re now in alert level 3 with level 4 just 48 hours away. That’s right. New-Zealand will go into a full 4-week lockdown with possible military inclusion. Hundreds of thousands of Kiwis around me are rapidly turning into unemployed cannon fodder, as the country’s economy is tanking simultaneously. And Australia is about to follow NZ’s footsteps.
While the rest of the country has been panic-shopping and forming lines at gun stores, I’ve spent those last 48 hours cleaning the house and getting ready for my next work days. They closed down the movie production last week, rendering a few hundred people unemployed. Meanwhile I’ve become part of the essential security team, responsible of keeping the whole production safe. I’m about to have a lot of spare time on my hands at work, so I’ve started putting in the hours, developing this new project idea of mine. Hopefully I’ll be able to go into more details on that in the future, when this whole situation has cleared up. The 48 hours are almost over. Level 4 is about to be enforced. These are most interesting times indeed. And I’ll get to witness all of it first-hand as the whole nation goes into Full Stop…
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring”
