I remember reading something about how many people die in aeroplane crashes AFTER they’ve survived the crash landing. They’re so relieved or shocked or whatever when the plane finally stops, they just sit there and don’t get up and run for that damn emergency exit. Then they end up succumbing to asphyxiation or something else unpleasant.
That’s the stage we’re at with Covid.
We’ve survived the crash – we can’t fall at this last hurdle – we have to calm the fuck down over Christmas. No, I don’t want to be calm either, I want to party like it’s 1999 and GOD I MISS MY FAMILY SO DAMN MUCH and I just want to jol with them. Actually, I didn’t party in 1999 either. Two days before New Year, I found out I was pregnant with the twenty year old, so I actually spent New Year at a MASSIVE party at Gwahumbe Game Farm fighting with the husband. As my brother and SIL said to me, “That’s how you know you’re pregnant, you have a massive fight with your partner.”
Tick.
However…ahem…although I behaved myself on NYE, I did drink a bottle of champagne on Christmas Day in 1999 with my inlaws (before I knew I was knocked up), so now if the twenty year old has problems with anything he blames it on his foetal alcohol syndrome – and even mentioned that he had FAS to one of his teachers – which kind of cemented my rep as a #badmother. Aside: my Aussie BIL, after a bottle of Malawian gin at said Christmas thrash, did promise to take us all to Ireland for his fortieth. His fortieth was ten years ago? Eleven years ago? Whatever. It was a while ago and he still hasn’t taken us all to Ireland #justsaying.
I finished watching #ChasingTheSun.
GUYS!! Oh my God, you have to watch it. That last episode when Rassie speaks about Mapimpi had me and the husband lying on the floor blubbing like two year olds. And no, I am not exaggerating. It was perfection. Why am I bringing this up now? Because what I so admired about the Boks performance in that whole tournament was their restraint. Their ability to delay gratification (which is a predictor of success apparently).
We need to learn from the Boks and hang on a bit longer. Entertain outside with only the people in your bubble, don’t go to crowded places, wear your damn mask, sanitize and I also saw a new study on the effectiveness of mouth wash in killing Covid (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/17/coronavirus-30-seconds.) Might not be a bad idea swigging some mouthwash now and again. No. Vodka doesn’t count (or maybe it does? Doctor people??) Also, if you have peeps inside your house OPEN THE WINDOWS AND DOORS. Seriously. It helps.
Covid depression is still an issue so I will be taking calculated risks, socialising in my bubble and going out to places where I feel comfortable.
Last weekend the husband and I went to the movies at Cinema Nouveau Rosebank Mall. It was the first time in eight months, and we used to be that family who went to movies just about every Sunday arvie. It felt a bit grim going in because there was no one around, you have to buy all your refreshments etc…when you buy your tickets. We bought vitamin water, which they didn’t have so they gave us an extra bottle of mineral water instead. You can’t buy wine or get a cappuccino which is a bit sad, but it felt be good to be at the movies again. We were the only people there, so I didn’t feel like peeps were breathing their auntie Rona all over me. Plus, the cinema was the most damn clean I’ve ever seen it.
The less said about the film we watched the better. It was called Misbehaviour, about the 1970 Miss World Contest, it was trying to be a light comedy, but it didn’t really work. Also, if you’re making a movie about women’s lib and you make all the activists completely unlikeable and humourless, you’re not really going to get your message across, the beauty queens were MUCH MORE FUN.
The best part was Greg Kinnear who was great as the lechie Bob Hope, that and the ending when we found out what all the former beauty queens are doing now. But Lord, they need to stop disrespecting the South African accent – Miss Africa South was gorgeous but sounded German. No maaaaan. I felt disrespected on all fronts this week re accents. The Irish half of me was truly appalled by the accents in the trailer of Netflix’s Wild Mountain Thyme. ALL of my ancestors were spinning in their graves. Ugh.
I also went to a new bar over the weekend called Sin+Tax. It made the hundred best bars IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN WORLD list . It’s tucked away at the back of Bolton Road collection, you enter through the weird alleyway, the décor is gorg and they were playing such fab music, I wanted to have a little dance. I had two of the MOST DELICIOUS COCKTAILS I’ve ever had, but Lord, they were so strong, I had to get my husband to finish my second cocktail and then I had to go home and have a little lie-down.
Cassandra and Matthew hosted us and they are FAB, gave us great recommendations, made sure we drank lots of water and are SO KNOWLEDGEABLE. That award is well deserved. They are planning to expand into the parking lot and have an outside area which I think will be STUNNING.
I also popped into the Parkview Pop-up Christmas Market and I got this cute bag with a map of Parkview on it. I LOVE it. Look out for pop-up markets in your area and try and support them.
On the reading front, I’ve rediscovered Elly Griffiths. I just read The Stranger Diaries and it was so riveting, I completely gobbled it up. I loved all her Ruth Galloway books, and her new protag, DS Harbinder Kaur is wonderful with the most fabulous sense of humour. I also started reading No Be From Hia by Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda. It is WONDERFUL and I hope when I eventually am able to visit my beloved nephew and his fam in Lusaka that I will get to meet her. If not there, then at one of our lit fests.
That is the beauty of lit fests, that you get to meet and mingle with AMAZING international authors that you have only admired from afar. I haven’t mentioned it for I dunno, at least a month, but can I just say AGAIN that I would’ve interviewed Marian Keyes this year at the Franschhoek Literary Festival if it had actually taken place. Yes people, THE ACTUAL MARIAN KEYES whom I’ve adored and looked up to for the last twenty-five years. Marian’s book GROWN UPS has been given a fabulously festive cover for Christmas. It would make a great present for someone so look out for it.
The book launch (at Love Books naturally) of my first novel Ms Conception popped up in my Facebook memories this week. I felt this terrible wave of nostalgia for the good, old days when we could go to book launches and throw wine down our throats and take maskless photos without worrying that we were breathing our Covid germs all over each other. But we just have to accept that for the moment, we can’t, we have to hold on a bit longer.
I know KeDezemba but we have to be sensible. Soon, we will have the vaccine or herd immunity and we will be able to get together like we did before – and hopefully with a new appreciation of each other and bookshops and lit fests and movies and theatre and rugby games and FAMILY and all the things we’ve missed. Until then, be like the Springboks and delay that gratification and STAY WELL. Love and strength and good health to you all xxx