Day 15 – Friday, 10 April

It’s Good Friday in South Africa – the Friday before the holy Easter weekend. It doesn’t feel so good, sadly, for my spirits. I have to contend with some bad news. Heartbreak, melancholy, denial, anger, frustration. I go through all stages, tears and all. There’s no easy way to get out of this mood, so I let myself sulk as much as I need, drowning my sorrow in my husband’s warm embrace – and the cosy duvet. 

There’s bedrest on the cards today. Sometime after going absent-mindedly through the news and social media feeds, willing myself to calm down, I match my disappointed mood with my next book – a dark thriller that I’ve been looking forward to read for a while, Stephen King’s classic novel, The Shining. I struggle to start reading, but when I finally do, I immerse myself in the story to forget, praying that I don’t get nightmares tonight. Outside, the clouds gather once more, the wind shuffles noisily past the tree branches. Somewhere, high up in the Drakensberg mountains bordering Lesotho, snow is falling. 

I don’t know how many hours pass undetected, book in hand, but when I finally go downstairs to the kitchen, I decide on making an early dinner, choosing a recipe that takes a bit of preparation and focus: Thai green curry chicken with jasmine rice and coconut milk. I use some ginger and green chilli paste brought from Mauritius in our latest trip, October 2019, while visiting dear family on the sunny island of love. Happier days back then, when traveling was on the cards. Who would have though that a virus pandemic were to spread worldwide just months later, causing chaos and havoc to our daily lives?