Lockdown - From Limo to Lada ... a blog by Shelley Carppe

Lockdown. It's a different beast for everyone. It's something, all going well, we will sit down with our children's children and talk about. It's our generations version of The Great Depression, or The Second World War, although thankfully for most of us with far less personal tragedy. It's something we never really thought we'd face, and yet face it we have, and will likely do so again. For my family, our lockdown experiences have been quite different, between 2020 and 2021. 

Lockdown 1 began for my husband and I a week early, as we had just returned from a bucket list trip to the USA. Talk about timing. A week later, the whole country joined us in Level 4 lockdown. For our household, that included hubby and I, our three daughters, and a boyfriend, a fiance, and for a few weeks, a German friend that had found herself stuck in Massey University and made it to our house just in the nick of time. Oh, and two dogs. 8 people and two canine companions. It could have been awful. 

However - the sun shone for almost the entire 7 weeks. Our days consisted of short attempts at exercise, rediscovering our love of baking (well, actually, of eating baking!), Wasjig puzzles, water fights, board games (or alcoholic interpretations of same), and, the piece de resistance: Drag Night. I'd post photos but they're censored. All of them. Suffice to say it was more fun than 8 people who had been locked up together 24/7 for weeks on end would have expected to have. It's gone down in the family history as one of the best nights. Ever.
So: a limo. The luxury of lots of people (no boredom), a house that almost fit us all (one extra bedroom made out of part of the lounge), and an amazing shared experience that we will be unlikely to ever repeat. The last time we all lived together as a family, and, while not without it's challenges, a pretty damn fine ride all in all, one that we were all a little sad to finish.

Lockdown 2.  Just hubby and I, and a brand new puppy. A shorter, quieter, more productive lockdown. We got jobs done that had been on our "Round Tu-It" list for some time. I continued to work from home building my business, hosted my most successful online talk yet, continued writing my course. Very PRODUCTIVE.  Successful, some might say. We skyped, messaged, FaceTimed and called our girls on the daily. We all missed each other, and reminisced about Lockdown 1. So, a Lada. Compact. Did the job. Nothing flash, nothing memorable. Basic. We got from A to B, with a sense of relief, rather than sadness, when it was over.

Let's not mistake Ladas for Limos in our lives. Let's appreciate the absolute luxury of time spent together, making memories, having fun, building connections and loving each other. Let's recognise that while hard work and productivity certainly have their place, they're not the be all and end all.  They're just Ladas, getting us from A to B, a means to an end - vehicles that, if we have our priorities right, allow us to enjoy more trips in the Limousines of life.  

A limousine ride, shared with those we love,  will fill us with joy, excitement, laughter and memories,  - while a Lada drive is simply a ride on the way to achieving those things, and if our life is all Lada (work) and no Limo, (play) well, is it REALLY a successful life?  

(PS: no Ladas were harmed in the writing of this blog, and no offence intended to either Lada or Limo owners!)