Life Update 20.1- The Covid19 Diary
I was in two minds for ages about writing this post but then I realised that it is a part of my life that I need to document for future generations.
Life as we all know it has changed for every single human around the globe.It seems that everything has stopped and we have had to restart due to Covid19.Every person reading this has been affected by the new normal of how Covid19 changed their lives.
I became aware of Corona/Covid19 from early January starting in various parts of the parts and honestly I did not think it would literally cancel out 2020 and so much would just be put on hold.Every single part of our lives have changed from the way we pray,mourn,shop,wear and even what we can drink.My first travel experience with some Covid19 practices put into place was when I travelled to Mauritius for Maha Shivarathri.Temperature scanners on exiting South Africa and arrival in Mauritius.Little did I think that ,that trip would be my first and last international trip for 2020.
When I returned from Mauritius I started seeing online how fast Corna was spreading in Europe and Asia.Mum and I did abit of panic buying in terms of non perishable groceries with a long shelflife.Not into 2 weeks of my return a National Lockdown was put into place.But a week earlier schools,colleges and Universities were closed.Teaching and learning came to a halt as we started facing bigger battles of loss of jobs,death and illness.The lockdown imposed on South Africans included the banning of Alcohol and Tobacco sales,curfew times,only essential stores opened for food and medication ,places of worship closed and no takeaways.It felt like a shock to the system and literally the entire world changed over night.
The first two weeks took some adjusting in terms of sleeping patterns and how we would spend the day.But soon we had a routine and we embraced the changes lockdown had brought to our lives.Balancing my job as a lecturer and running a full time can be exhausting not forgetting all the travelling inbetween and YES 2019 was jampacked and the break was rather welcome to be honest.
Our new daily routines included :
1.Getting up later.
2.Intermittemt Fasting.
3.Reading.
4.Cooking meals from scratch and eating two meals a day.
5.Afternoon coffee on the balcony.
6.Praying
7.Taking Vitamins
8.Afternoon siestas sometimes.
9.Talking to loved ones !
10.Talking to each other.
Without the distractions or noise of the world we we taken back to the basics of life and were given numerous life lessons that would mould our character and how we would lead our lives going forward.Who knew wearing a mask would be apart of our daily life and disinfecting would become such a serious task.My first shopping trip out in Covid19 made me very anxious and lead to me actually writing a blog post on Shopping & Meal Planning during these times.
As I was not travelling I started focusing on the food aspect of my blog and even started a second Instagram account.I hope you are following my Foodie adventures here.
http://www.instagram.com/spicegoddess_eats
Lockdown and Covid has been very heartbreaking for us as a family as we had my uncle and aunt pass away from Covid.As a very supportive family unit ,it was extremely hard to mourn our loss and say our final goodbyes especially due to the restrictions for funerals.We had to watch a Zoom setup for both funerals leaving us broken and not been able to actually process our grief.
As for work things are so different we literally go in teach and leave.There are no opportunities to actually see your friends it is just a wave as we pass each other by.In terms of the blog there are no events and travel for now.But instead online launches and media drop off packages.As someone with a full time job I often missed out events but now online works for me.I actually even went on a Virtual Media Trip to Victoria Falls ,it was amazing and is defo a place I want to visit.We got to see and interact with staff and beautiful spaces out there.I guess our other senses do get heightened and that is what makes a virtual experience so amazing.
In terms of travel local travel is now the big trend especially as we can not leave South Africa.It is now time to travel local and buy local.
Some highlights of 2020 include:
1.Working on an amazing campaign for FrysFamily and wait for it getting a full page advert sharing my recipe in the newspaper.
2.Heading off on the #MazdaVirtualRoadTrip was the first time we left home in 4 months for a roadtrip.
3.Getting to experience Maha Shivarathri in Mauritius.
4.Having a food campaign I worked on appear in a full page advert in a local newspaper.
5.During this time I have had the amazing opportunity of working with some fantastic local brands and small business.