It takes one to know one

When TLM and I visited our dear friend in Taipei just over a year ago, we were baffled with her seemingly over the top hygiene habits.

For example, she had one "indoor" sofa and one "outdoor" sofa. Both sofas were in her living room - the difference was that you were only supposed to sit on the indoor sofa if you were wearing your "indoor" clothes. And you had to change into your "indoor" clothes after entering her apartment from the outside.

When she took us out for meals (wonderful meals, including great, great vegan meals), she never let us put our cutlery straight on the table. They had to go on a clean napkin or on the plates of food.

And she had ways of standing upright on buses without touching any of the support poles or handles.

There were also some pretty hardline bathroom rules too, but my mind must have blocked them out because I can't actually remember what they were now.

Our friend lived and worked in Taipei and Hong Kong through the SARS epidemic, and apparently that's when it all started.

And now. Now with New Zealand in an anti-Covid19 lock down, we wash our hands religiously, "avoid each other like the plague" (!) and spend a lot of time thinking about how long to wait before we can safely touch the package that the courier dropped off...now I understand.

Our dear friend passed away only a few months after we stayed with her, but wherever she is I hope she can see what's going on amongst the living and say "I TOLD you so!"