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

— @HaggardHawks

My love is doing dry January, but he did open a bottle of lovely red for me to drink with my dinners at his place. To get home safely afterwards I cannot drink more than a glass and I am too scared to drive around with a wine bottle, so I took a small takeaway bottle home with me tonight, hidden in my handbag :) It would really be a pity if such great rare wine went to waste when it it is irreplaceable, booze ban or not.

Other illegal activities have been happening on my property this weekend: someone actually stole a manuscript that an author left under my gate for me to pick up. By the time I got home and looked for it, it was gone. Thieves come onto my property and try their luck regularly, but they have never taken anything literary before. I informed the author and he wrote: ‘I rather like the idea of a bergie sitting under the shade of a tree on Rondebosch Common engrossed in my novel.’ I like the idea very much too, but how do we get the reader’s report from the thief?

My love and I had a nice walk around the Common this morning and then enjoyed breakfast at home, scrambled eggs with our favourite bacon. One can get it at Organic Zone or online: Richard Bosman.

I had lunch at The Alma Cafe and picked up a book that The Alma Folks want me to read. I started it during lunch and have an idea that I am going to love it as much as they did.

I did some work today, but it was mainly a day of rest and reading. Tomorrow is going to be intense and the rest of the week also promises to be busy, but I will have one day off: my 44th birthday :)

In the evening, we watched TV and had a simple dinner. Manchester United delivered today! And that winning goal was impressive indeed.

Very good news from the ICU. Covid-19 does not allow for quick recoveries once you end up on a ventilator, but the most important is that eventually you get to go back home. We are all waiting for that day to arrive, when she goes home to her loved ones. May many, many people suffering in hospitals around the world right now get the same opportunity – to go home to their loved ones. And all of us who aren’t in hospital must please do everything we can to stay out of one!

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

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

— NICD