Covid-19 Lockdown: Day 21
Today I had one mission and that was to clean my entire flat. From top to bottom.
I dusted, mopped, moved furniture, scrubbed tiles, and I even vacuumed the walls because I live under a thatch roof. I also discovered bird shit in my house and this puzzles me because how did a bird get into my house. I’ve been here every day for 21 days so where is this shit coming from?
Worse, while I was staring out my kitchen window in the morning I noticed a lot of ants frantically walking to the window sill. I stood on my tip toes to get a better look at where they were all going to when something creepy blinked back at me. Well it didn’t blink - I imagined that part - but it had eyes for sure.
It was a hairy, grotesque, caramel and black spider with what appeared to be whiskers. It had a body the size of a 50 cent coin and it’s legs were as long as my fingers. And my fingers are freakishly long. The ants had already dismembered a leg and were in the process of transporting it somewhere. Now since I’ve cracked my kitchen window by throwing a key at it in anger, I couldn’t slam it shut, so I quietly closed it and wished I was a wizard at Hogwarts casting the Protego Horribilis spell of protection over my home.
I mean, if there’s one, there’s many, and I’m feeling like I’m being attacked. God knows that if I saw a big, hairy spider chilling in my house I would faint - then after lockdown you must make sure I have a black dot on my head and just bury me.
In the process of cleaning I also swept the outside stairs leading up to my unit and because my door was open I started chatting to one neighbor and then another, and then another. We are all so jovial despite being indoors and suppressed socially. Two of my neighbors are teachers and they’re a couple with a beautiful young daughter who is friendly and just the sweetest little girl you’ll ever meet.
Her dad was braai’ing some marshmallows for her in the garden when he starts to tell us how children are rating a virtual Google classroom app badly so that the iStore will eventually remove it. Adriaan says it’s like children ‘toyi-toyi'ng’ so I pipe up and label it ‘techno ‘toyi-toyi’ing’. That term was the result of a conversation that had started with magic tricks and schools being burnt during lockdown.
Adriaan mentions he needs bread so I decide I don’t need my loaf because, bouncy thighs are becoming a reality, so I offer him mine. We all decide that the only way to get the loaf to him is if I drop it down to Franco and he, from his garden, throws it sideways in a steep triangular angle to Adriaan. I wanted to film this so I run inside my flat, fetched my phone and took a video. I was so chuffed. The plan was well executed and the bread got delivered in impeccable fashion. There was much excitement and I think I even clapped in glee.
We all say our goodbyes and continue with our lives but when I checked my phone afterwards. The pressure was too much for me obviously because I had taken a photo and then a video of my thighs. I could’ve kicked myself. But I will always remember this moment. The last day of our initial lockdown and the day that I felt utter gratitude for my neighbors and their wonderful personalities. I don’t feel so alone anymore.
In the afternoon, I ran to the bin and back with the gentlemen who lives next door to me. Sometimes I hear him banging on the wall, not out of frustration, but because he is pretending to box something. Today he managed to stay with me for 3km’s - that’s almost 2km’s more than Tuesday - and I was so proud of him. He motivates me to keep moving and eat healthy because he is a health nut.
I’m sad and relieved at the same time to still be in lockdown. But I’m not going to pretend that I’m okay.
This morning I forgot what day it was and it was my pill box that reminded me it was Thursday. Tomorrow is a work day but the days are all starting to feel the same.
