It’s the day before Good Friday, as a good Catholic one should refer to it as Holy Thursday, but I don’t qualify. We’re about to go into one of the most auspicious long weekends of the Christian calendar and I’m demotivated. Drained. Defeated.

 

Two weeks into lockdown, day 14, and I have no rhythm. Zero. Zilch. Even though our family has been prepping for this #StayAtHome forever, we often spend weekends and holidays holed up at home, I have not been able to master any kind of schedule. For anything. The days just fall into each other.

These small humans eat like big humans.

All I’m guided by is my kids eating routine. And boy, do they eat! These small humans eat like big humans. At least every two hours, until they sleep. We toil for food, schooling and their medical and healthcare, roughly in that order.  

 

The one saving grace is that they have been quite good with entertaining themselves and have not bugged us to go out. The 6-year-old has only asked when the lockdown will end once as I told him that he can get the superhero suit he’s been eyeing after lockdown. I suspect I’m going to have that question a lot more.

 

I still don’t know how to bulk shop; have no idea how many toilet rolls we go through in a month. And something as mundane and mindless as shopping has become a bit of a minefield.


It requires a strategy and a plan: “Ok, I went out last week. It’s your turn
now”.  One has to seriously think about which retailer one is going to visit because we’ve been so used to getting the snacks and favourites at this store, then the essentials at another, and the specials at the other. You know what I’m talking about.

 

And I’m convinced that all of you who have scoffed at vegan diets BC (before Corona) are now eating all the beans and lentils because I can’t find my usual stock. Can you please come clean that veggie is better for all of us? That in a crunch, you’ll happily get your protein from plant-based sources?

After all that toing and froing between health authorities across the globe, possibly power play.

On the upside, and this one has been truly surprising for me, I’ve now embraced wearing a mask when out. After all that toing and froing between health authorities across the globe, possibly power play. Anyway, it does make me feel safer and Dr Mkhize said so; he’s our new superhero, right?

 

For the first few minutes in the car, I felt like Mzekezeke – anyone remember him? There was a slight feeling of claustrophobia but once I was in the store, it was strangely liberating. I enjoyed the anonymity. No make-up – cause you can’t put a mask on top of make-up, silly – and I couldn’t care!

 

The Chinese have been onto this joie de vivre all along. They’ve even made it a fashion trend. I can’t wait for lockdown to be over so that I can order my set of designer ones.

 

But on a serious note, this is such an extraordinary time in our history. Generations to come will be studying this, great-grandparents will be sharing their experiences and we will all look back on this as the moment where we lived through a major paradigm shift. Feels like the day Nelson Mandela was released and the 1994 elections, just with the whole world in on the action this time.

 

Have a blessed Easter weekend, for those who will celebrate it. Have a restful, Corona-free one for everyone else.  And stay home! Don’t be like some belligerent ministers…