Lock-down Day 35

Last day of Level 5 Lockdown, tomorrow the entire country is on Level 4. And the president does not have the authority to make the rules - the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is in charge. I can't find any information what that department's purpose is. The President announced that the ban on the sale of cigarettes will be lifted in Level 4, Dlamini-Zuma overruled him.

There was an interesting debate in on of the groups, and some interesting links to news articles, which explained the actual reason behind the continued ban - interestingly enough, my comment with one of the news articles, was removed by an admin, ha ha ha! Not only mine, though ... admin is currently in overdrive.

Funny how many people actually believe this is about cigarettes ... actually, no, it's frightening!

With my current rationing, I have enough cigarettes to last another two weeks. Before the president's announcement, the Cigarette companies had announced legal action - I'm waiting to see if that's back on the table.

I don't normally write so much politics ... the Democratic Alliance presented government with a reasonable plan, which is founded on South Africans being adults. The ANC prefers to dictate and control us, like children ... true colours being revealed ... 

In other news, anyone hanging midway between moves ... can't. Whether you had arranged to move on 1st April or 1st May ... not allowed. Paying rent, however, is enforced ... so ... which rent? I'm just glad I no longer have to deal with those thieves in PE!

I think that's enough politics. I am, however, interested to hear today's Coronacast by the DA!

I can't tell whether it rained during the night, I have a vague memory of hearing rain ... everything looks wet outside, though. But that could simply be dew. Mippies ran out quite happily ... and then Mewthos came back soaking wet! He must have shaken a tree and dropped a load of water on himself, or something like that.

While I had my first smoke of the day, standing inside behind the locked gate (still too cold outside), I watched a duiker stroll past! Beautiful! Later, I watched a worm scrunching up the silky string it was hanging from, moving back up into the tree. It looked like a granny rolling up her wool, the way it was bunching the string in its front legs! And then a nasty hornet attacked it - it tried to get to the ground fast, to get away, but the hornet was just as fast ...

Not long afterwards mippies are trying to catch a mouse in my kitchen, which is hiding behind the door. Mewthos gets hold of it, I take it off him ... place it back outside, but the poor thing is bleeding, so I doubt it has a chance. I washed my hands, but now it's itching ... I doubt whether that's related as that palm often itches.

The internet keeps going on and off all morning ... since this page is open, I can type, but not save. Then I can save, and then back to 'can't save'. I can't get into my game at all, though.

I think the next Episode of Spring Cleaning should take place in the kitchen ... mippies did catch the mouse, after all, I just found its head ... sigh. That's not the only reason, though. I'd like to re-arrange my kitchen as well, re-pack things I use very rarely - like the juicer - and place things I use regularly more conveniently.

The fridge is leaking water again ... it's the fridge, not the freezer, though. I think that would be a good starting point to clean, ha ha! Internet is still awfully slow ... somewhat frustrating. Unfortunately, I'm just as slow today ... I'm too lazy to do anything.

I watched the Coronacast as best I could, but the internet kept going down and then the PC crashed. What was interesting, however, is that now the DA is saying that government isn't listening to them - when last time they said the exact opposite. My guess is, that last week government RECEIVED suggestions from everybody, but last night's announcement proved that they LISTENED to none! Which is giving credence to some conspiracy theories ... such as the question: if alcohol kills the virus, why ban the sale of alcohol? Stores have run out of high-alcohol hand sanitizers, now we can't make our own, either.

Oh, and a new Facebook group was started: Smokers against SA Cigarette ban!

This time, I listened to the Coronacast from the kitchen, while I baked a batch of muffins. I used the last 3 eggs I got before lock-down, almost the last baking powder and almost the last cake flour - not enough left of either for another batch, so I'll just mix it in.

I've tried to find some reliable document regarding the true and actual regulations, rather than unqualified interpretation ... it's really, really tricky, as the ONLY document I could find, was the Government Gazette - and we all know how difficult THAT is to read, eh? But from what I understand, that allows the opening of ALL manufacturing to 20% ... 

Here some questions I have:
1) Why ban alcohol, when alcohol can sanitize. Legal hand sanitizers are out of stock, and now we can't make our own, either.
2) Why ban cigarettes? The 'health' reason doesn't hold water. Even IF it did, how does that apply to vaping - which is included in the ban?
3) Why limit exercising to only 3 hours per day? And why is dog-walking still banned?
4) Why the sudden need for a curfew?

Oh, I have more questions, but this has been such a political post already ... let's turn back to me and my mippies!

I go sit outside to lure mippies home. Mewthos is already sitting on my car roof, looking for mippies while Mini is patrolling the garden. It's a long wait tonight, but finally Janey arrives ... no Ziva. I wait and wait and call and call ... no Ziva. So, I give my 3 mippies 1 sachet, then go to the door again, hoping, calling, waiting ... back inside ... restless ... back to the door ... FINALLY Ziva arrives! Quite nonchalant about letting me wait, not even eager to come inside! I give them a 2nd sachet ... that's it.

Now I'm frying myself the steak I took out ... and the internet is down again. Well, what's happening is that the signal is loosing strength, regaining, loosing. Right now, I have 2 of 5 bars. And now only 1 bar ... 

I also just checked my balance, and it turns out that during this lockdown, I used 20 Gigabytes of Data! That's a huge amount of data! Fortunately, I buy data in advance, not on a monthly contract. Prepaid, valid for 365 days = 1 year. I've used a quarter of that, in total, so far, so I'm still fine. And if not, I can buy online - THAT at least is not banned.

I had to share my steak with Mewthos and Mini. Mini had enough after a couple of bites, but Mewthos? He wasn't done, until the entire steak was done, ha ha! He just smiled from ear to ear with happy eyes and an open mouth! He is going to really suffer when I go back to work ...

Well, I'm going to try and play my game now, and then snuggle kitties and go to bed. I'll return to my normal, non-political writing tomorrow ...