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

— @HaggardHawks

Spoilt rotten. That’s how I felt at the end of the day when my love invited me to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, FYN. They were closed for a while (you know why) and have now reopened with a bang and a winter menu to live for.

This feast tasted even better and the evening was more relaxed than it would have been only a few days ago, because I knew that my feline patient at home was also enjoying her food. The first time we tried the thyroid diet, it was very difficult to get her to eat, but now she is gobbling it all up, and I still have tears in my eyes seeing her enjoy her food. I am frightened of what still lies ahead of us, but every day I have more and more hope that it will all be soon behind us and Salieri will enjoy many more years of her beautiful life.

The day itself was exhausting, but in a good way. Meetings, deliveries, admin, visits to two bookshops and PostNet and the post office. I feel like I should have a frequent visitor card for both. They know me by name at all the local branches.

I also saw my counsellor and we spoke about my timeline and dreams and crocheting and meditation and enabling, and most of it is not easy, but it helps to make me feel less afraid. I had a few nights of real sleep in the past week. Miracles in progress.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

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

— NICD

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

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

— @HaggardHawks

• 

• 

• 

Weekend, a real one. There was a little bit of work, but mostly because I felt like it. For the rest of the time, I indulged in creative activities: compiled my timeline, continued crocheting, listened to Meditative Stories, read a few snippets here and there (the hunger and concentration for books are gradually returning) and gardened. It was good to watch the rugby with my love and to go for a walk around the Rondebosch Common together. But the highlight of the weekend was the live Derek Gripper concert at the Alma Café.

I listed to one of Derek’s live online concerts during hard lockdown last year while cooking dinner one evening, and the joyous memory stuck with me. Last time my brother was in Cape Town just before the lockdown, we went to see Derek live at Maynardville. Today, after weeks of not being able to operate, the Alma Café reopened with a live concert and, together with twenty-odd socially distanced patrons (nowadays that’s a packed venue), my love and I basked in Derek’s guitar storytelling. His music and the tales he told brought the world into the small space of the café and transported us into a time beyond the relentless present. I am listening to “One Night on Earth: Live in 2021” available on Derek’s website as I type. It is sublime. Pure magic.

To be under the same sky or roof with a performer of such talent and skill has always been a privilege. Now, it is what keeps hope for a better tomorrow alive. Thank you, Derek and the Alma Folks, for nourishing our souls – with beauty and deliciousness (the world’s greatest lemon meringue pie was on the menu tonight!).

Good night.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

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

— NICD