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

— @HaggardHawks

Karina Day, or 2 August, my name day. My best friend from Austria was the first one to send wishes just after midnight. I slept! I am managing to sleep again; it feels like a miracle. A day of drinking bubbly followed, but mainly because of other celebrations. My dear friend Debbie cooked a delicious lunch for us and we opened a bottle of bubbly to celebrate Karen’s Booker longlisting. Debbie was one of the novel’s first SA readers and she is the artist behind the beautiful cover illustrations.

I returned home just in time for another botte of bubbly and another lovely celebration: Nancy, Monique and I toasted The Skipper’s Daughter on my stoep. The book is making its way into the world and I cannot thank Nancy and Monique enough for the amazing time we spent working on it together.

In the evening, my love and I had a simple but delicious takeaway dinner from a new Greek place in my neighbourhood: Yiayia’s Table. I spoke to Mom and Krystian on Skype afterwards.

I spent the rest of the evening at my computer, trying to catch up with work. I dropped into bed at midnight.

And today was one of those days when I found myself running around from one place to another, doing a million things and feeling as if I had achieved nothing. I need a PA.

Two beautiful bunches of roses arrived at my gate today: name day flowers from my family and a sunny bouquet from one of Karavan Press’s authors to congratulate us on the longlisting. I am still smiling – what a privilege it is to know such lovely people and to work with them and to call them friends.

Salieri and I are working on her diet transition. She needs to go on the thyroid diet before her operation. I think we are doing well. The most important thing right now is that she is eating and not losing weight. And her beautiful fur is gradually re-growing in all the shaved spots.

An ADT technician came to replace another faulty beam in my alarm. He had been here a few times before and has always been kind and efficient in solving my alarm issues. He and his immediate family have managed to avoid getting Covid-19, and he has had both vaccines, but he was asking me whether I have had mine, whether I was okay and keeping safe, not only from theft. A stranger who cares about others.

On a day when another five hundred plus people have been reported dead from Covid-19.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

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

— NICD