Day 12 LockDown

7 April 2020

1686 cases
Recovered: 45
Deceased: 12

Thanks Gwyneth Paltrow (who knows if she really said this). Not learning a new language, maybe writing a book. And what bra? Day 12 of lockdown has brought with it new lessons for me. I am not ready just to collapse and accept defeat. This is the time that we have to do whatever it takes to save what we can. If you’ve given up, you’ve already lost.

I am a bit exhausted today, because I got a bee in my bonnet about aniseed rusks. I love aniseed rusks, but haven’t eaten any in years. Who knows why – I just never bothered buying any. But a recipe crossed my path at the same time that I got into possession of a bottle of aniseed. Having never made rusks before, I didn’t know that it is a slow, looong and laborious process. When I eventually got the rusks in the oven close to midnight last night, I still had to leave the oven on for it to dry out another 8 hours, checked every two hours and quarter-turned. I woke up just after 5am, and ran to the kitchen, only to see that 8 hours would have been way too much, even the 6 hours the rusks were drying, was too long. The rusks are a bit hard, but still delicious (to me). I’ll do it again, and next time maybe start in the morning and not at 6pm after a full day of work at my home office.

Talking about working from home – I took out my hairbrush today for the 2nd time since lockdown. I had a Zoom meeting with a collaborative project partner, and couldn’t be on video with my hair in its usual Medusa default state. How many people will spend so much time in the morning grooming themselves before getting started on the day, I wonder. I don’t wear make-up as a rule anyway, and my hair has just been cut again. I grow it to the length required (usually 25 – 30cm) to donate to Cansa, then have it cut, and start the process over again. After donating almost a meter of my hair over a decade, I think this time was the last time. My hair is getting grayer now.

Every month Google helpfully mails me a summary of how many km’s I travelled and how many places I visited. Usually I am shocked by how many 1000’s of km’s I actually travel. I visit a lot of clients and across a large area – from Cape Town to PE. However, for the month of March I travelled only 794km, and visited 8 places. April is going to be way less as well. It is amazing how one learns to get along without stuff we always took for granted.

We received some new materials to homeschool the kids today. I am struggling to get my printer to work, and am sort of working with them through any aids I can find. Whatever romantic aspirations I had about homeschooling my twins – no, I am cured. I love them to bits, I enjoy doing activities with them, but I am not a teacher. But here I go, off to Wonderland, to go see how far we get with teaching.