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

— @HaggardHawks

A registered letter was sent to me from Austria on 16 September and it arrived already! This gives me a lot of hope for the restoration of the worldwide postal service (and we might need it if Facebook and Co. give up on us again).

Hello loadshedding! Again. Scheduled for the middle of the night. I can only hope that insomnia does not strike during those hours. I did have such a gap last night and it wasn’t pretty even with the lights on.

After the last three intense days, I found myself staggering through today. And right in the middle of it, my alarm went off twice while I was in a meeting with a future Karavan Press author. It seems it was only a heavy branch in the wind, but … not only the alarm was triggered. Yep, the wind is back. Yep, I did cut down the branch. Thank goodness my alarm backup batteries are still okay and will last through the blackouts.

Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel prize in literature. I am thrilled, of course, but I do wonder why is it sooooo difficult to give the Nobel prize in literature to women?

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local. Get vaccinated, please.

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

— NICD