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Ashley: how my experience with COVID provided me with a glimpse of the future

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Firstly, I want to start with a disclaimer: I am about to make light of a serious situation and mean no disrespect to people who have suffered pain and loss.

I am talking about COVID, which I have written about many times.

In my last column about it, I wondered whether Coopers Sparkling Ale may have stopped me from catching it.

But alas, I was wrong.

A couple of Tuesdays ago, I started with a persistent cough, then sneezing, then a runny nose, then Dr. Google to check symptoms.

I was urged by workmates to do a RAT, which came up negative.

That night, aching limbs and coughing.

Another RAT, also negative.

The next morning, feeling like I had a bad hangover, I did another RAT, which was also negative.

By this time I was positive the RAT couldn’t find its way up my nose, so I went and got a PCR.

The next morning I got the text that I was positive and would be enrolled in the virtual ward and phoned on a daily basis.

To be honest, I was sick for about two days in total and on the third day, which I slept for nearly half of, I woke up feeling okay.

ashley robinson Sunshine Coast news
Alex Surf Club general manager Ashley Robinson has mostly recovered from COVID.

No cough, no runny nose and no aching body, but still sleepy.

Two weeks later, I still feel like having a lie down around lunchtime.

The virtual ward and nurse were awesome and I have no complaints, but for the next four days I did get a look in the window of what my retirement might look like.

I have to say, I really didn’t like what I saw.

Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor with your name and suburb at Sunshine Coast News via: news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au

The fact that old mate has been in retirement for over a decade means one thing: get out of her way.

Get out of the kitchen, laundry and anywhere else that may impede her daily routine.

I did learn how to dust and clean shutters, kill cobwebs, clean skirting boards and clean ‘my’ shower.

I had to manage all this as well as a death stare from George on why he wasn’t getting walked and why I spent most of my time hiding in the garage.

So COVID one, Ashley nil.

But as I looked into that retirement window, I knew I was adapting a saying from a mate of mine who is retired: “All I know is I am going somewhere on a daily basis and sometimes I don’t even know where until I get to the corner. I just know I have somewhere to be?”

Ashley Robinson is a columnist with Sunshine Coast News and My Weekly Preview. His views are his own.

 

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