My love and I walked on the Rondebosch Common this morning. The flowers were huddling in the wind, but they are still out there – very beautiful. Apart from the walk, the day was chaos. Everything and nothing got done. Most of it was good, but I felt frazzled by the late afternoon and there was no time to go shopping or cook dinner, so: HARU to the rescue!
After dinner, my love and I watched our series and had a few really good laughs.
Driving back home this evening, I listened to people discuss their vaccine hesitancy on the radio with a host who tried to stay non-judgmental. And I remembered the news of Denmark opening up today – fully. No more lockdown, any restrictions, no state of disaster. More than 80% of their population above twelve are vaccinated and now the entire country is returning to personal and professional business as usual. We could also have this – it is attainable – and yet, so many believe that horse dewormers might be a better solution …
I wonder whether they need any more writers or publishers in Denmark …?
I am in bed, surrounded by cats, and watching the Auger-Aliassime / Medvedev SF at the US Open with one eye while typing. Good match. And seeing Uncle Toni in the audience brings back many good memories. May he bring the young Canadian lots of luck in the future.
Moi by Dominique Malherbe yesterday in Kalk Bay
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
We had a very slow beginning to our day today. It was wonderful to go to sleep last night and wake up only when it was morning again. No three a.m. insomnia blues.
Chocolate pastéis de nata from The Hoghouse – divine!
The day was editing, cover design, sunbathing, quick visit at The Hoghouse, a manuscript discussion with a writer whom I would love to publish at Karavan Press and then to crown it all: a live book event!
It was so heartwarming to chat to other writers and to be surrounded by readers in a space outside a screen. Now that all of us have had the opportunity to get vaccinated and so many of us have had our second jab (all I spoke to at the event), meeting people is so much easier, especially when it is on a beautiful, balmy spring day outside in a garden with a view. We must do this more often! (We might not be able to avoid the fourth wave, but we are so much more prepared now.)
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
Negative reader’s reports and rejection letters are never easy to write, and I started the working day today by completing and sending one.
Seeing my counsellor this morning was not easy either – stuff does come up – but she always makes me feel better about the world. An amazing human being, brilliant at her job. Facing some of my sad core beliefs is tough, but the process also involves a sense of liberation. The truth will set you free, etc.
“The future tends to occur.” A wonderful piece of dialogue from the series my love and I are watching. I spent the afternoon working at his house and waiting for a delivery while he was at the office. We then had dinner and watched another witty episode.
Great literary news: another Karavan Press title made the longlist of an award – Melissa A. Volker’s A Fractured Land – one of the first two books we ever published. It is so heartening to see that other readers are delighting in the books we bring into the world. Melissa is working on her third novel, but before we get there, her fans have a lovely summer surprise coming their way very soon. Watch this space!
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
Yesterday was a busy and partly frustrating day, but many good things also got done. The problem was, apart from the heavy workload, that I felt worse a week after the intruder invasion than just afterwards. And it also reflected in last night’s lack of decent sleep and today’s impossible headache, but in the end I took some meds and made a fire and allowed most of the tension to burn away in the warmth of the flames.
Today is the official publication day for DISRUPTION: NEW SHORT FICTION FROM AFRICA. A true baby of the pandemic, it came to life under nearly impossible circumstances. But we made it happen and it looks so good. First review is in: Isele Magazine.
I spoke briefly with Mom tonight: my father cut off a significant part of one of his fingers earlier today. The doctors managed to reattach it and, if all goes well, he will be able to keep it, but what a freaky thing to happen to him after decades of working with potentially lethal tools in his bicycle workshop and never hurting himself that badly before.
There are serious rumours of an upcoming family meeting and level two! We have survived the third wave, and now many of us can also face the fourth without fearing for our lives – thanks to the vaccines!
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
Salieri has not been feeling great this weekend, but she finally had some proper food and is now sleeping peacefully on the bed.
I had a very slow start to the day, getting up and showering only in the late afternoon. I read, watched a recording, did some work, listened to the radio and the rain, and I spoke to Mom and Krystian on Skype. In the late afternoon, I went to my love’s, where we spent the rest of the day together. He cooked a delicious dinner for us. Life’s simple – i.e. most precious – treasures.
Zuma is out on medical parole – surprise, surprise. Sigh. The only questions are: what took him so long? And: is a justice system that allows such abuses of itself still a just system?
But tonight, I will be Scarlett and think about it tomorrow. For now, all I want to wonder about is whether I will be able to stay up long enough to watch Alcaraz Garfia play at the US Open … I am very curious how he will do after the greatest win of his career in the previous round.
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
Spring. Kind of. My love recently gave us this velvety, fluffy, gorgeous blanket and, apart from independent-always-in-his-outdoor-nest Mozart, we all agree that currently the best place to be is under the blanket (especially on a rainy Sunday). I am trying to be as kind to, and as patient with, myself as I can, understanding that it’s either that or eventually a trip to Valkenberg, because there is a limit to what one should be able to take. I just want to get on with things and not be recovering from lesser or greater traumas.
I saw my counsellor on Wednesday and she did a fascinating exercise with me to reshape the emotional content of my memories connected with the intruder in my home. The brain is a curious creature, and even though it was difficult to think that such an exercise might help, it did make me feel better afterwards. I have also been thinking a lot about a Meditative Story I had listed to in the morning of the day of the traumatic encounter with the stranger in my house. In the story, a father was asking himself why he and his family had to deal with the difficulties they’d encountered on their path, and he came up with the answer that these things are random, that all of us have something that is making our particular life challenging to some extent. It is just a matter of what to do about it.
In my case, I am trying to give myself the space and time to feel that it is okay not to feel okay. And, on a much more fundamental level, I am desperately establishing and protecting my personal and professional boundaries. I have learned to be incredibly patient, flexible and accommodating, to handle many responsibilities simultaneously and to usually put others first, and to still manage to do what I want/need for myself, or, if the latter becomes impossible under given circumstances, not to feel resentful. This kind of being in the world is great for most people around me, but it is not always great for me. And I want to change that. There has to be a better balance between what I am capable of and what I should actually do.
Friday was a very busy day: there were several places I had to go to and quite a few things to accomplish, but from the moment I – a self-confessed technological dinosaur – set out, technology was against me, and it was difficult to explain myself to others and not to despair. However, the wonderful thing was that in every situation – no matter how technologically vexing – people, complete strangers, came through for me, and with their help I managed to achieve everything that I set out to do. In the evening, my love and I had dinner with family and I was basking in the warmth of these people who care about me, but also in the memories of the kindness of strangers.
Most times, we are unable to communicate what makes a particular situation a challenge to us when on the surface it seems uncomplicated to others, and it is always kindness that saves the day. Your distress is recognised and acknowledged without having to be explained and someone just says, ‘Don’t worry; I got this.’
So, to the helpful man at the warehouse and the patient women at the National Library and the organised team at the traffic department in Fish Hoek – thank you! You saved me, and I still remember all your kind eyes, listening without judgement, helping me along and wishing me well. You are my Heroes of Kindness!
By the way: there was a queue to get into the National Library in Cape Town on Friday. Some queues make one feel good about the world. This was one of them for me.
Saturday was a blissful day. My love and I drove out to Riebeek Kasteel and went to a very special wine tasting at Roundstone where the Mullineux wines are made. And I spent the evening with very dear Friends, celebrating a beautiful occasion. We spoke about what it takes to be a woman right now, in our circumstances, trying to lead a meaningful, fulfilling life; and we listened to a COVID-ICU (second wave) survivor tell her story (she got fully vaccinated the moment it was possible for her to do so).
I feel like getting a badge that says ‘VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19’: knowing that you are interacting with people who are vaccinated, makes you feel so much better about the interaction – you know you will not kill them or their loved ones by simply breathing.
The latest report on excess deaths in SA during the pandemic says 230 000 people. This is very difficult to comprehend, but we now have the means to prevent further loss on this scale …
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
Salieri, pretending not to listen to online conversations
A day of live and online literary meetings and trying to deal with higher – much higher – levels of anxiety. Sore cheeks. Miraculously, I did sleep last night. Not terribly well, but I did rest. I dreamt of Topolino being rammed into by a car out of control – Dr Freud would have a field day with me (on most days).
It is difficult not to think of myself as a disaster magnet right now. Why can’t I have boring? I just want a really boring life for a while. (Yes, I sound like a broken LP.)
The US Open has begun, and I realised last night that I find myself unable to support tennis players who are anti-vaxxers, even when I had cheered for them in the past.
Thank goodness all my friends care and are eager to protect themselves and others.
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
I had a surreal encounter with an intruder – the bizarrest conversations with a stranger ever – in my home earlier today. We both knew why he was here, in my house, exploiting an unusual lapse in security awareness on my part (I left the front security gate and door open for a few minutes), but we both pretended otherwise and gently (!) talked ourselves out of the mad situation. He left, I stayed. No one was hurt. Nothing was taken. He did not have a weapon. When I asked him to, he even emptied his pockets to show me that he really hadn’t stolen anything, that he was in my kitchen only because ‘the door was open’. We were so polite with each other that he even told me his name.
I am crashing fast after the initial shock. My love is here. The door is closed, the alarm on. And I am thanking my lucky stars that this young man wasn’t older, bigger, stronger, more experienced, less scared, armed, on drugs or purely evil.
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
A proper Sunday: reading in bed, long walk along the Promenade with my love, browsing at the Book Lounge, Skype lunch with Mom and Krystian, gardening, more reading, some football and new series watching with my love, and his famous roast chicken for dinner. And last night, I slept again. No side effects, unless these two nights of deep sleep with dreams are an indication of some kind of vaccine-induced tiredness that needed to be slept off. It might simply be the relief that my life will be safe from COVID-19 soon. Whatever the reason – it is bliss to sleep properly. May there be many more such nights.
AN ISLAND and LET IT FALL WHERE IT WILL are both on the table on the left :)
Ever since watching Thando Mgqolozana’s “Gaslighting 101” video, as well as reading Siphiwo Mahala’s “statement” and the many social media comments which followed both, I cannot stop thinking about the unfolding consciousness crisis in the literary community. Believing is one thing; acting another. And integrity has a very high price. It will be interesting to see who will be willing to pay it, and how.
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
We went to the Makers Landing Market at the Waterfront this morning. I have never been there before, but I will go back – perhaps at lunchtime next time: the food options are more suited to lunch than breakfast, although I loved the breakfast bun, green juice and delicious coffee I had to start the day. My love got a few vinyl records and we bought lovely fresh bread, and buns and Wagyu beef patties for our burgers in the evening.
I read and did some work in the afternoon. With every contribution I read in Our Ghosts Were Once People, edited by Bongani Kona, I want other readers to discover this special book. I am not so sure about other writing I had to read today, but sometimes it is good to compare and to look for what makes sentences/paragraphs shine and what doesn’t work.
No side effects from the vaccine and it has been more than thirty-six hours now, so I am not expecting anything any longer.
Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.
“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”
Karina Magdalena 