Lockdown Journal: Day 50 (A Good Day)

15 May 2020

Today is Day 50 of the South African lockdown. This week was really hard overall. But I think today was the best day I’ve had since the lockdown started.

Trixie with flowers
Lockdown photo 50: Beautiful cat, beautiful flowers.

Around the two-week mark, when the president announced the lockdown would be extended from 21 to 35 days, I was trying to decide if I should continue numbering my lockdown posts. My friend Kate said I should. “You’re gonna want to know what number you’re on when you start to hit the 50s,” she said. I took her advice, but I also laughed because at that point I truly couldn’t imagine “hitting the 50s”. And yet here we are.

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Lockdown Journal: Day 49 (Facebook)

14 May 2020

Welcome to South African Lockdown Day 49. Today I have some thoughts about Facebook.

Lockdown photo 49: A stained glass butterfly in my kitchen.

I know this is not a cool thing to admit, but checking Facebook is one of the first things I do in the morning. “I have to use Facebook for work,” is an excuse I often use, and it’s true. I post on social media for a living and a large percentage of my blog traffic comes from Facebook.

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Lockdown Journal: Day 48 (Gerald's Magic Bread)

13 May 2020

It’s Day 48 of the South African lockdown. I’m better today than yesterday, mainly because I’ve discovered Gerald’s Magic Bread.

Laffa bread and hummus from Ba Pita
Lockdown photo 48: Laffa bread and hummus courtesy of Ba Pita.

I’ve mentioned previously that my most-read blog post of 2020 is Spar’s Magic Bread, a post I wrote in 2012 about baking bread from pre-made dough sold at Spar grocery store. Everyone wants to bake bread during lockdown (including me) and bread-baking supplies are often in short supply. So it’s no surprise people have been googling this topic a lot lately.

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Lockdown Journal: Day 47 (The Third Quarter)

12 May 2020

It’s Day 47 of the South African lockdown, and I think I’m suffering from third-quarter isolation.

Gay Pride 2011 float
Lockdown photo 47: An angry queen at Gay Pride 2011 (from the archives). This photo has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m writing about. I just came across it this morning and remembered I like it. Also I didn’t take any pictures today.

Albert Vorster, a longtime reader with a knack for sending me articles that perfectly encapsulate feelings I didn’t realize I had, sent me this Australian story about “the dreaded third quarter of isolation” this morning. The article, written two weeks ago by James Purtill, explains:

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Lockdown Journal: Day 46 (Face Masks and Feelings)

11 May 2020

It’s Day 46 of the South African lockdown. Today I have lots of face masks and lots of feelings.

Heather in mask made by Cathy Pinnock
Lockdown photo Day 46: Yes, it’s another mask selfie.

A few days ago I asked Facebook for advice on shooting photographs while wearing a mask. My viewfinder was fogging up as soon as I put my camera to my face, and I kept missing shots.

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Lockdown Journal: Day 45 (Mother's Day)

10 May 2020

It’s Day 45 of the South African lockdown. Happy Mother’s Day.

Jameela at Flavour’z od India on Mothers Day
Lockdown photo 45: A mother at work on Mother’s Day.

I started the day by doing what I do on most Mother’s Days: Opened my laptop and ordered an Amazon gift card for my mom. It’s not the most exciting present, but I know it makes Mom happy because she’ll receive it first thing when she wakes up and she can use it to buy exactly what she wants. Mom almost always knows exactly what she wants. It’s a quality I respect and envy.

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