OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.

— @HaggardHawks

The tobacco ban never made sense to me in the context of the pandemic. In general, yes – smoking is really bad for you, long-term, we all know that (what I did not know were the shocking costs of medical care for smokers – forget the tax revenue from tobacco, it does not nearly cover the costs of medical care for smokers, which has to be mostly financed by tax payers in general). Yet, it takes a while for the benefits of non-smoking to kick in. No instant miracles, so a ban during lockdown seemed purely opportunistic. With the initial booze ban, the effects on the healthcare system, however, were immediate. And the infection numbers being what they are, I don’t know why anyone was surprised by the renewal of the booze ban last night. It did not catch me unawares. But I did listen to the speech with ever-increasing worry. Nothing is changing for me, but as I watch the pandemic unfold, my heart grows sorer every day. And in the international media the news from South African must have been quite bad because even my father phoned to inquire whether I was okay! We are not often in touch, so I dread to think what is being reported about SA in Austria. He did say, though, that the situation in Austria is also escalating again.

If only we had all listened to the experts from the start: stayed at home, minimised exposure, worn our masks, washed our hands and practised extreme caution when interacting with others for work purposes. But so many chose to ignore the safety precautions, not because they had no choice (having no choice I can understand), but because they couldn’t have cared less. People are getting seriously ill. People are dying. And yet, so many of us are experts at denial. And utter selfishness.

I don’t know how our house and its inhabitants survived the night, but we did. The wind was merciless and at times frightening like hardly ever before. In the morning, Glinka came to comfort me.

We read, drank coffee, listened to the storm and procrastinated a bit before it was time to get up, go shopping for a few essentials that don’t keep very long (milk, fresh veggies, meat), cook and sit down to work for the rest of the day.

My back hurts.

Dinner was a simple affair – some of it came from the goodies bag of homemade delights I received from one of the Witches during my last and only visit (during lockdown) in Noordhoek (I miss you!).

A long day. A warm bed is waiting.

“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”

— NICD