Today, exactly 6 years ago, we woke up to a quiet world: It was "deep lockdown".
No runners, cyclists or dog-walkers in the streets, no frustrating school run traffic (apart from the essential services).
We weren't allowed outside, alarm clocks went off a little later. Work-life resumed in sweats with a long day of zoom calls for the dad and student sharing our matchbox living.
I decided to post a blog every day, after I realised my job was an utterly unsuccessful online disaster.
Resigned to being the chief cook and bottle washer, I honed my baking skills for morning and afternoon tea breaks when the men stepped out of the screens they were operating in.
After we realised this wasn't over at the end of the first 21 days, life sort of settled into an unorthodox rhythm of blurred lines as we all attempted the new normal of "@worklivesleepeatsocialise" all in one space.
Fortunately the human race (especially in South Africa) posesses the ablility to joke about happenings such as this.
My fellow matchboxers were called my Quaranteam and Antisocial Distancing became the new avoidance excuse.
The day we heard we were allowed to get takeaway coffee, was widely celebrated. My coffee friend Natasha and I were like cowboys, constantly dashing to new coffee stops serving takeaways, yearning for a little interlude of real people connecting.
Other things deserving a mention is the toilet paper crisis, all the criminal-looking people in the supermarkets and discussions in the queue about the 'strip-and-wash' routine after shopping trips. On day 1 we discovered the refusal of sales in the electronics and shoe departments after our brand new microwave broke and junior realised he was out of stokeys.
All of us have stories of where we were when we heard and what we felt throughout. This is the unifying factor literally every single human being can identify with when looking back to Lockdown.
On this day 44 years ago, my journey with the love of my life started when he visited me for the first time. Little did we know we would experience such a thing as a lockdown in this lifetime.
Looking back helps to focus on the way forward. May we all stretch out to what is yet to come, with our God firmly in the driver's seat. He really has got this.
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