Untouchable

Posted on by nyamazela

“I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte


I’ve just completed 10 day’s of isolation for a really serious bout of asymptomatic COVID-19.

Exposure date: approx 2nd or 3rd Dec 2020 (either in the DRC or on the return flight via Addis Ababa)

Test date: 8th Dec 2020

End of 10 day isolation: 17th Dec 2020

Oh that stomach-drop feeling when you test positive for COVID-19! I can still feel it when I think back to that moment.

Continue reading Untouchable

Logical

Posted on by nyamazela

“I know what you’re thinking about,” said Tweedledum: “but it isn’t so, nohow.” “Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol

What a crazy just-over-a-week we’ve had!

Hubby and I went to the DRC (République démocratique du Congo) on business last week. We travelled there to attend a vessel christening ceremony for a Belgian-owned dredger based in Argentina, which we sold to the DRC. It’s been a long, difficult 3 year deal which I’ve alluded to in previous blogs. But, PRAISE GOD, it’s now sold and we’ve earned our commission. This is no small thing to celebrate.

The DRC is a country alive with colour, bustle, people, bananas, pot holes, palm trees and the big, beautiful Congo River running all the way through it.

It is also, as it transpires, heaving with COVID-19 – but that’s another story.

Continue reading Logical

On account of COVID-19

Posted on by nyamazela

There was an old lady“There was an old lady who swallowed a cow;
I don’t know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her!
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse;
…She’s dead, of course!”

I Know an Old Lady, definitive version by Rose Bonne 1952 Continue reading On account of COVID-19

A bit of perspective

Posted on by nyamazela

St Pauls Church Hammersmith

The Dead: A COVID-19 poem by Kathy Steinemann

The Dead can’t rescue the economy,
Can’t save the world from this dichotomy,

Can’t pay taxes or vote in an election,
Because they died from this corona infection;

Can’t sit with family, sip on their tea,
Can’t bounce little ones on their knee,

Can’t help them learn, can’t watch them grow,
Can’t buy them gifts or teach them to throw;

masked in churchThe Dead can’t save you from amoral greed,
Can’t steal your “freedom,” your rights impede;

They can’t educate you, but they can ask,
“Please be kind and wear a [bleeped] mask!”

© Kathy Steinemann

It was dark and warm inside the high ceilinged church. Hubby and I stood together. Up front, on a large screen, a worship band video played with the lyrics displayed on the side. Continue reading A bit of perspective

Sense of humour failure (SHF)

Posted on by nyamazela

Sense of fun“Life is worth living as long as there’s a laugh in it.”

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

A friend of mine officiated a wedding in the United States recently. This is how she described her day:

“Everyone was in great spirits,” she said. “There were about 18-20 of us. But I was the only person wearing a mask and there was no social distancing.”

“It felt like unprotected sex all day long. Aaaahhhh!!!!”

Continue reading Sense of humour failure (SHF)

Is 2020 trying to tell us something?

Posted on by nyamazela

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if they keep quiet, the very rocks and stones will cry out.”

The Bible, Luke 19:37-40

VirusWhat if 2020 is not really the car crash it seems to be?

Just a thought …

Things really stopped and went quiet for a while, didn’t they?

And now the cries are loud and big and scary … and demand to be listened to!

What if 2020 is a cry for help, a call for change?
Continue reading Is 2020 trying to tell us something?

Locking down the little details

Posted on by nyamazela

“I think of every little trifle between me and Dora, and feel the truth, that trifles make the sum of life.”

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Cauliflower seedling in soilHave I mentioned that bedtime is my favourite time of the day? It runs in the family. We are an early-to-bed-family … not necessarily early to rise. My Mama gets so excited for bed that she squeals when she burrows under the covers. I’ve inherited that habit too.

One of my bed time wind-down habits is reading.

My current tome is Old St. Paul’s: A tale of the Plague and the Fire by William Harrison Ainsworth (1841). The details of 1665 London, during plague times bears much resemblance to COVID-times, I’m afraid, though also with an awful lot of Continue reading Locking down the little details

Stuckhome Syndrome

Posted on by nyamazela

“After all,” Anne had said to Marilla once, “I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (Green Gables books)

X-ray butterflies in my stomach
Source: Google

We are well into 9 weeks of lockdown in the UK.

Some restrictions are beginning to ease.

But many people are afraid to go out, afraid to let their children go back to school, afraid to venture back to work.

A kind of ‘stuckhome syndrome’ has taken hold.

I get this.

What started off rather uncomfortable and restrictive, has become comfortable, safe, the new normal. Continue reading Stuckhome Syndrome

Something lacking

Posted on by nyamazela

“Across the veld were those hills of the Klein Karoo, rolling up and dipping down like waves. On and on, like a still and stony sea. I picked up my melktert and bit off a mouthful. It was good, the vanilla, milk and cinnamon working together to make that perfect comforting taste.”

Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew

tea and ruskRecipes. Hmmm.

I don’t fit into normal size clothes, I’m told by my Hubby that I ‘always’ make changes to an item I order on a menu. And though I can cook well (I’d say) and can improvise a pretty tasty meal out of random leftovers in the fridge, I’ve never been able to strictly follow a recipe, without some degree of substitution.

I’ve leave the baking to real experts – my sister-in-law, my mother, CharliesBird, la boulangerie, Phyls Kitchen rusks.

This is why I do not bake.

That is, until today… Continue reading Something lacking

A life

Posted on by nyamazela

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.”  

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

SharonOur neighbour has passed away.

The last time I saw Sharon she was her usual vivacious, smiling self. She excitedly told me that she and her husband, their grown up sons and girlfriends were leaving on safari in Botswana that week. She couldn’t wait. She clasped her hands across her stomach as we spoke and I noticed that it was distended.

She must have seen that I’d noticed. After a few seconds she quietly told me that the cancer had come back.

“I’m starting treatment at the Royal Marsdon when we’re back from Botswana. I’m in really good hands,” she said. That was September. Continue reading A life