A Coronavirus Quarantine Journal, Day Two
Yesterday was Day Two of our stay, and it was a pretty quiet day. We got our routines down, began to understand how this system works, and had a good day.
It turns out that the hotel houses only people who are quarantining, no other guests. That explains a few things. I think I'll just run down how the meals go. All meals are delivered in brown paper bags set just outside the door, and the knock on the door signals it has arrived. The food items are all either in small paper bags or in plastic take-away containers. Cutlery is, of course, pretty flimsy plastic, as you'd expect. Everything we handle needs to be disposable. After we eat, we are to put all rubbish into a plastic bin liner and leave it in the hallway for collection.
Breakfast was essentially bacon and egg on a roll, and very tasty...no complaints! It was accompanied by a really delicious small croissant, a "Viennoise" pastry with jam inside, and pineapple juice.
Lunch was a treat for Ross: Curried Chicken over Rice. I'm not a curry fan, but even I found it very palatable. It was accompanied by a small green salad and Coconut Cake. Portion sizes are bigger than we normally eat, but we gave it our best shot.
Dinner was Beef Stew with Roasted Potatoes. The salad, oddly, was Potato Salad -- not sure why that seemed like a good idea! Two potato courses in one meals seemed a bit excessive, but that's hardly a disaster. Dessert was Creme Caramel of the pre-packaged variety.
We had ordered a bottle of Shiraz Cabernet to accompany dinner, but that proved to be the only real disappointment. Too sweet and not very palatable. I think that will go down the gurgler and we'll see what alternatives we can arrange. A call to the help phone indicated that they may be able to get in something better and will keep us posted. They seem very responsive and genuinely trying to be helpful.
We are still in the phase of meals where there is no choice of items. Tomorrow begins the menu phase where we have a choice of two menu items for each meal, and it will be interesting to see how the quality of food changes, if at all. As of today, it appears to be good, solid, cafeteria-style food like you might find in a high school or other institution. Perfectly palatable, but definitely not fine dining. This is not a quibble...we are doing fine with this and if the standard remains as it is, it's definitely not a problem. We will emerge well fed, fat and sassy!
We called down to report that we hadn't been provided with plastic bin liners for our rubbish, and to request a few more sachets of instant coffee (that's the only thing that's a bit hard for me...I LOVE my coffee, and instant is all that's available, but I'll live!), a few extra soap cakes for our bathroom. These items were promptly delivered, along with a good stock of bottled water that we hadn't even requested, so we are well stocked. Along with our wine order, we also ordered some Pringles packets, too...my bad!
As they promised yesterday, the nurse called again in the afternoon to check on how we are feeling and to offer any assistance we might need. Very professional and helpful.
I'm going to cheat a bit and include some photos here that I took this morning. I'm going to try to make a journal entry each day, so these photos would properly belong to tomorrow's post, but this is a text-heavy post and some pics might be fun to include.
I decided to take a few more pics of our room, to give you a better idea of our digs. As I said, it's very comfortable, though a bit small. There is no dining table or dining chairs, so we use the desk and desk chair, and the ottoman from the armchair, which Ross chivalrously takes to spare me having my chin on the desk!
The bathroom is very pretty, but fairly snug, especially the shower. Definitely need to take turns with our showers and tooth-brushing, but definitely not a problem. We understand they will be providing us with fresh sheets and towels after our first week here.
Wanted to give you a pic of our little cubby with tea kettle, cups and glassware, and a rat's nest of cables. As usual, this hotel could use a few more power points for the ubiquitous electronic devices that are so much a part of our lives today! Also a glimpse into our little closet, which works just fine.
Looking our our window this morning, it appears we have partly cloudy skies. It's Saturday, so there is hardly anyone out and about on the weekend. All is quiet and tranquil.
I finished my first book yesterday: The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead, which just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. An excellent read, but very painful to read. Based on a true story of a Black youth in Tallahassee, arrested for being in a stolen car while he was hitchhiking to college to start his first year there. He was sent to the Nickel Academy, a "reform school" which was supposed to set troubled young men on the right path, but is actually a ghastly place of torture, abuse, violence and death. Hardly a happy read, but excellent writing and a gripping story.
I've included here a pic of the menu for Monday, to give you an idea of how that process works. On we go, to Day Three...
It turns out that the hotel houses only people who are quarantining, no other guests. That explains a few things. I think I'll just run down how the meals go. All meals are delivered in brown paper bags set just outside the door, and the knock on the door signals it has arrived. The food items are all either in small paper bags or in plastic take-away containers. Cutlery is, of course, pretty flimsy plastic, as you'd expect. Everything we handle needs to be disposable. After we eat, we are to put all rubbish into a plastic bin liner and leave it in the hallway for collection.
Breakfast was essentially bacon and egg on a roll, and very tasty...no complaints! It was accompanied by a really delicious small croissant, a "Viennoise" pastry with jam inside, and pineapple juice.
Lunch was a treat for Ross: Curried Chicken over Rice. I'm not a curry fan, but even I found it very palatable. It was accompanied by a small green salad and Coconut Cake. Portion sizes are bigger than we normally eat, but we gave it our best shot.
Dinner was Beef Stew with Roasted Potatoes. The salad, oddly, was Potato Salad -- not sure why that seemed like a good idea! Two potato courses in one meals seemed a bit excessive, but that's hardly a disaster. Dessert was Creme Caramel of the pre-packaged variety.
We had ordered a bottle of Shiraz Cabernet to accompany dinner, but that proved to be the only real disappointment. Too sweet and not very palatable. I think that will go down the gurgler and we'll see what alternatives we can arrange. A call to the help phone indicated that they may be able to get in something better and will keep us posted. They seem very responsive and genuinely trying to be helpful.
We are still in the phase of meals where there is no choice of items. Tomorrow begins the menu phase where we have a choice of two menu items for each meal, and it will be interesting to see how the quality of food changes, if at all. As of today, it appears to be good, solid, cafeteria-style food like you might find in a high school or other institution. Perfectly palatable, but definitely not fine dining. This is not a quibble...we are doing fine with this and if the standard remains as it is, it's definitely not a problem. We will emerge well fed, fat and sassy!
We called down to report that we hadn't been provided with plastic bin liners for our rubbish, and to request a few more sachets of instant coffee (that's the only thing that's a bit hard for me...I LOVE my coffee, and instant is all that's available, but I'll live!), a few extra soap cakes for our bathroom. These items were promptly delivered, along with a good stock of bottled water that we hadn't even requested, so we are well stocked. Along with our wine order, we also ordered some Pringles packets, too...my bad!
As they promised yesterday, the nurse called again in the afternoon to check on how we are feeling and to offer any assistance we might need. Very professional and helpful.
I'm going to cheat a bit and include some photos here that I took this morning. I'm going to try to make a journal entry each day, so these photos would properly belong to tomorrow's post, but this is a text-heavy post and some pics might be fun to include.
I decided to take a few more pics of our room, to give you a better idea of our digs. As I said, it's very comfortable, though a bit small. There is no dining table or dining chairs, so we use the desk and desk chair, and the ottoman from the armchair, which Ross chivalrously takes to spare me having my chin on the desk!
The bathroom is very pretty, but fairly snug, especially the shower. Definitely need to take turns with our showers and tooth-brushing, but definitely not a problem. We understand they will be providing us with fresh sheets and towels after our first week here.
Wanted to give you a pic of our little cubby with tea kettle, cups and glassware, and a rat's nest of cables. As usual, this hotel could use a few more power points for the ubiquitous electronic devices that are so much a part of our lives today! Also a glimpse into our little closet, which works just fine.
Looking our our window this morning, it appears we have partly cloudy skies. It's Saturday, so there is hardly anyone out and about on the weekend. All is quiet and tranquil.
I finished my first book yesterday: The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead, which just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. An excellent read, but very painful to read. Based on a true story of a Black youth in Tallahassee, arrested for being in a stolen car while he was hitchhiking to college to start his first year there. He was sent to the Nickel Academy, a "reform school" which was supposed to set troubled young men on the right path, but is actually a ghastly place of torture, abuse, violence and death. Hardly a happy read, but excellent writing and a gripping story.
I've included here a pic of the menu for Monday, to give you an idea of how that process works. On we go, to Day Three...
Comments
Hang in there! ❤️
Big hugs
Tazzie
:-);