Lockdown diaries - COVID-19 matters!

Not even an hour into lockdown and our suburb and surrounds are plunged into darkness. Citypowerjhb attending to it (I hope). Must admit this power failure just into lockdown has made me feel a bit vulnerable and uneasy. In addition to the obvious virus concerns.

Went to supermarket, so quiet normally busy with traffic, instead a single car every 5 mins or so, noticed garage is open to sell petrol, big notice outside pointing out they are also a 24hr off license (that's never been there before). Get to the supermarket and see the first human beings of the day (normally people would be passing me constantly on the journey). Queue outside the supermarket with everyone kept at least 2 metres apart by not the usual supermarket security but professional don't mess with me else i will give you a slap security, the size of a couple of them would make any member of the England, New Zealand or South African Rugby Union Teams look like weeds!

Worked out why the queue, they were only allowing a certain number of people in the supermarket so one person needed to leave before another allowed in. Eventually my turn to find how many they were allowing in the shop at any one time was just a very few, maybe 30 but 30 in a massive supermarket is pretty much self isolation by itself. Arrows painted on the floor then realised it's now a one way system up and down isles which sometimes meant going down or up an isle i didn't even want to be able to be in position to go the right way up or down one i did. All straightforward until i forgot an item then found instead of a few seconds backtrack which would normally be the case i was required to spend 10 mins following the one way system to access the same isle again.

Now to the tills and not the usual people queuing instead only one person allowed to a checkout and the next person made (by a 7ft security guard built like Arnie) to stand behind a Black line and only allowed to the belt once the previous person had payed for their shopping and started making their way to the exits.

With all the limits, only one loaf of bread, one milk, one packet of toilet rolls (don't know why they keep mentioning that as i haven't seen toilet roll in there for nearly two weeks) and no more than 3 of any item i at least managed to get some tasty food and stuff to make meals for a couple of days despite many empty shelves and bonus got a bottle of Honey JD but still no toilet roll.

Walked home via town centre in the hope at least one shop might be open that sells toilet roll as on the last roll which to us is critical. Nope a ghost town, not a single person, every single shop with shutters down i was just waiting to see some tumbleweed drift down the road to complete the scene.

On the rest of my journey home i didn't see a single person on foot and just one Police car which slowed down to almost a standstill as i was eyed up and down, i just gestured to the couple of supermarket shopping bags i was holding which seemed to satisfy them!

It's life but not as we knew it!

Can i suggest the first option is changed to At home, my job is not essential. As i'm not essential sounds terrible as me and every single one of you are essential!

You have to put more choices. I have to work, no choice, whether the virus scares me or not.

zadiac said:

You have to put more choices. I have to work, no choice, whether the virus scares me or not.

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I am not allowed to work but totally get where you are coming from, if i had to work at this moment i would be in the got to work despite sh**ing myself category!

Up early...

Day 1 of lockdown...

Today I am going to be working on a few things I need to get finished for normal work. (from home)

To answer @Grand Guru , there are several things I have put off for a while that I need to attend to in the days ahead. One of them is sorting out and tidying my "vape cave". Have wanted to do it for a while. It's amazing how one's vape space gets cluttered over time with odds and ends - and I like to have it sorted into boxes / containers so I know where is what. Looking forward to it actually because I usually discover things I have forgotten about.

I also want to do a MAJOR pitstop on my devices. Thorough cleaning. Recoiling. And cleaning the Reos. I have about 8 or 10 devices that are in regular use - so each one needs to get some care and attention.

I have several vape juices that I have bought over the past year or so that I haven't vaped yet. I want to try them and see which ones I enjoy. Looking forward to that. When busy I find its difficult to focus on a new juice and experience it properly.

Another thing is the garage - there's a lot of stuff there that just gets "dumped" over time. Needs to get sorted and separated into piles of things to keep, donate or chuck. Not looking forward to that but if I can have a few stretches of uninterrupted time, I can get into it and get it done.

Then there's my computer - it needs a "digital springclean" - clearing out info, email etc. Some sorting and reorganisation.

And then some planning. I have found if I plan things during quiet downtime, it helps hugely when things get busy. So there are several plans I need to work on - for work, family etc.

Holding thumbs that this lockdown goes ok for SA and achieves what they want from it.

Jengz said:

Will do! I have 3 boys, an 11 year old a 9 year old and a little 5 month old so im gonna be very busy!

Few fun ideas for the kids:
View attachment 192947

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Wow @Jengz - how cool


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Also working from home been doing this already for two weeks. Just miss the people at the office...

@Timwis I apologize if I offended anyone. There is no job that is not essential in my opinion and I honestly do not think there is one single person that doesn’t fear this disease unless foolish reckless people. I just like 2nd degree humour...

I added *working from home* as it was initially omitted.

Grand Guru said:

@Timwis I apologize if I offended anyone. There is no job that is not essential in my opinion and I honestly do not think there is one single person that doesn’t fear this disease unless foolish reckless people. I just like 2nd degree humour...

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Lol you didn't offend me or i doubt anyone else, just a suggestion!

Have issued work from home protocols to all our staff.
We host and support a number of critical govt systems (the map on my desktop is a location of all the spaza shops and retail facilities in SA) and as alot of our clients are working from home as well, a few of us have been deemed as essential services. Still trying to get an official essential letter of the continually crashing govt site though, I really don't wanna get shot in the derriere by the army po-po.

Been setting up work from home all week, for both of us. Only issue is the new work from home supervisor keeps barking orders at us.

Also have an arthritic foot which has deicdd to act up this morning, and if it doesn't rectify a bit by midday, will need to venture out and get a set of crutches to hobble around the house.

We live in an estate and the complex body corp has said we can talk short walks in the complex, and walk the dogs, provided social distancing measures and sanitizing protocols are followed.
Also need to take refuse out ourselves so cannot avoid getting out totally

Grand Guru said:

@Timwis I apologize if I offended anyone. There is no job that is not essential in my opinion and I honestly do not think there is one single person that doesn’t fear this disease unless foolish reckless people. I just like 2nd degree humour...

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I'm one of those people that opts to take light in any situation. Doesn't lessen the severity or importance. But for me it is coping mechanism.

I have a feeling that ''our forum'' is going to get v. busy as time progress and people are getting bored with cleaning the pool and Netflix...

The lockdown won't affect me much, as I work from home anyway. Since I live alone, one could say that I'm always in self-isolation too . Actually, I'm lucky in that respect, because I'm used to - and enjoy - being on my own. Other single people who rely on social contact will find it much more difficult.

I'll miss my occasional jaunts to the coffee bar for a cappuccino though and my doggie will miss her walk on the beach!

Day 1 -
Woke up
Let dogs out.
Told them to be quiet
Had coffee
Told them to be quiet
Had breakfast
Told them to be quiet
Brushed teeth
Ditto
Brushed hair
Brushed beard
Ditto
Had pills, blood pressure will be back soon
Ditto
Checked mails, as if any tenders are going to magically appear to try and make some money.
Going to play with dogs a bit to keep them quiet, they are missing the school kids that come past every morning.
Decided to annoy everyone on ECIGSSA with this detailed list..........

Have a safe one guys and thanks to those committed to keeping us safe in this time, you are winners.
Going to start my spring clean early this year, like as from today!

Ramaphosa deploys SANDF on a mission of kindness, not to 'skop en donner'
2020-03-26 23:13
Tshidi Madia



President Cyril Ramaphosa has given members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) their marching orders hours before the country goes into lockdown.

"Go out and have the best of missions, this is a mercy mission, this is a life-restoration mission, this is a life-saving mission, this is a life-giving mission. Go out and save the lives of South Africans," he said.

Ramaphosa was addressing the troops at the Doornkop army base in Soweto on Thursday evening, calling on them to execute their mission with respect and responsibility.

On Monday, he announced the country would be under lockdown, a week after declaring a national state of disaster.

Updates @ https://specialprojects.news24.com/coronavirus/

It's so quiet here that I think that I can hear the sea.

I am still working from the office, live in a 2 bedroom apartment with the wifey, both on calls all day, i think we would end up bumping heads because the place is small, so my company organised that permit so i could still come in, there are very few people at work but what a weird feeling to have roads so completely empty, a car here and there but barely anything... a little freaky though, has those "I am legend" vibes going on

CashKat88 said:

I am still working from the office, live in a 2 bedroom apartment with the wifey, both on calls all day, i think we would end up bumping heads because the place is small, so my company organised that permit so i could still come in, there are very few people at work but what a weird feeling to have roads so completely empty, a car here and there but barely anything... a little freaky though, has those "I am legend" vibes going on

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Yeah I think one of us will be living in a tent in the garden soon.
Gonna have to run an extension cord and set up a workstation in there.

That said. I really fell bad for people that are totally alone physically at this time.
I'd much rather have someone to bump heads with than be in an empty house for the next 3 weeks.

Dela Rey Steyn said:

At least you are getting paid to work. We've been temporarily laid off. Now I get to queue for UIF at the end of next month. I was planning on working remotely, but since they decided to include me in the Lay Offs, I'll be tending to SWAMBO's big To-Do list while she slaves away at the Hospital (she's the Matron). The probability of us catching the virus is exponentially higher due to her exposure factor. But for now at least the numbers in Limpopo are low.

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sorry to hear, I lost my job on 10th March, which could not have come at a worse time, guess I'll be joining that UIF queue if and when all this blows over along with many many others.

the Universe and I have been knocking heads too often lately, stupid cow

Woke up
Played with dogs
Played with kids
Played World of worships
Son made toasted ham and cheese
Played Fortnite
Thinking of maybe greeting the wife later

Day 1 ... working from home as we are service provider to coal mining ... very difficult with cooped up kids but we survive

atleast now I can vape at the office