Lockdown Journal: Day 17 (Happy Easter)

If you’re new to this blog series and don’t know what’s happening with South Africa’s 21-day (now 35-day) lockdown, my first post has all the details. Or read all my lockdown posts.

Welcome to Lockdown Day 17: Easter Sunday.

I really put a lot of heart and soul into yesterday’s post, and today I seem to be suffering from an emotional hangover. So I’ll keep this one short.

It’s Easter! Easter hasn’t really been a significant holiday in my life since I stopped believing in the Easter Bunny, and many years recently I’ve let it come and go like any other day.

However, thanks to Friday’s Munching Mongoose delivery, I had a surplus of artisan bread, eggs, and milk in my house this morning. I also found a large, unopened bottle of Vermont maple syrup in the back of my pantry. So I decided to make French toast.

This breakfast was delicious and put me in a good mood. Also, I gathered a bunch of non-perishable food items and a packet of Woolworth’s hot cross buns, and put them outside on the sidewalk with a “Happy Easter!” sign. I figured someone hungry would come by and take the food. I checked back an hour or two later and the food was gone. It made me feel good to do a good deed.

Then the emotional hangover hit. (Maybe I also ate too many carbs.) I got sucked into a podcast vortex, listened to too much news about COVID-19, and spent too much time on my phone responding to comments on yesterday’s post. I had planned to work on my taxes (ha!) but that obviously did not happen. I cried for a first time in a few days.

In a fit of desperation, I went to iTunes and downloaded a few songs by Bill Withers. Bill Withers was an R&B legend who died a week or two ago (not from coronavirus). I recently heard a great interview with him on the Death Sex and Money podcast, which motivated me to download the songs.

Note to self: Bill Withers is great medicine for an emotional hangover. So was the pair of electric blue sunbirds (kind of like hummingbirds but bigger and slower) that I saw flitting around in my garden.

Now I have an elaborate plan to make ostrich mince meatballs (with homemade breadcrumbs, made from actual stale bread), creamed spinach, and roasted potatoes for dinner. I am really not much of a cook normally but I think I’ve officially been infected with the lockdown show-off-home-chef bug. Next on my list is homemade macaroni and cheese. I’ll report back tomorrow.

Today’s Worthy Cause

Today’s worthy cause is SA Harvest. This one is a no-brainer. SA Harvest rescues unused food from big retailers and other sources – food that is perfectly good but would go to waste otherwise – and distributes it to people in need. I can’t imagine any cause that is more worthy right now.

SA Harvest has a Payfast link that you can use to donate. You can also donate via EFT or SnapScan – instructions are on their homepage.

Happy Easter, people. Eat all the chocolate because you deserve it.