Lock-down Day 312

Mippies were hyper on my bed this morning - they just love to play around me. Well, they'd love more to play WITH me, but will settle for just my company ...

Looks like we had over 10 mm rainfall. That's with yesterday afternoon's 1-2 mm. Lovely!

Anyway, I got everything on the go, then quickly went to Spar. No Fresh Milk Special - had to pay the exorbitant 'standard' price. Took only 1x 2L bottle. However, coffee creamer and long life milk were both on special! I'm down to the last 2L long life, so I took 2x 6x 1L and a 500gr creamer - better to have than to need! I asked for 2 cartons cigarettes - they didn't have sealed cartons, so they went through the shelves and brought me 20 loose boxes! Ha Ha, nice of them to go back and forth through the shelves until they had 20, though! Funny - most of the time, service there is absolutely awful, and then, out of the blue: extra mile!

Then, as I'm scrolling mindlessly around Facebook, there's a post that NDZ is going to court over the tobacco ban ... underneath, someone posted a link to an online store. They have a tobacco cutter! The only item still missing in my tobacco making! It's also the cutting process that's kept me from making my own cigarettes for so long. When cutting with a knife, it has to be done at just the right time - when the leaves are neither too wet, nor too dry. That means I have to be indoors to check on them ... when I go into the garden, I forget everything! And with all that work to be done in the garden, I just don't have the time ... 

Remember during the hard lock-down, when I was at home, and first discovered the tobacco leaf supplier? And I spent a lot of time researching cutting methods ... and this is the best, that I could find. Well, apart from expensive electric cutters ... and I don't want to even try a pasta machine, although they sell those as 'tobacco leaf cutters' as well. Anyway, I couldn't leave it - so I bought one! Now, come what may: I'm covered! Another mission accomplished! Happy, happy!

Oh, I don't believe they will be able to ban the sale of tobacco again ... too much opposition and too little substance. That claim that 'smokers with COVID-19 will overwhelm the health care system' has absolutely no substance. Not only because COVID-19 is not a respiratory disease - but, in my opinion, the strongest point is: banning the sale of tobacco products does not reduce the impact smokers (or even forcibly ex-smokers) have on the health-care system ... lungs don't restore to factory settings overnight! Anyway ... not dwelling on that ...

Good start on my budget, eh? Ha Ha! First day of the new month and I start with an unplanned purchase! I won't regret it, though. If I can get the cigarette making going again - time wise - that will save me the cost of cigarettes! I'm already buying local brands, as they are cheaper, but they're not very nice. I prefer the cigarettes I made myself! I still have plenty of tobacco, and filters and papers to keep me going for a good while. And even IF it doesn't work as well as I hope - I would have bought it sooner or later anyway, so at least now I'll know for sure!

I'm just looking at the tobacco leaf supplier's website - I see they now offer cut leaves as well! The price ... R65 for 100gr vs R250 for 1kg leaves. But 100gr = 3-4 packets of cigarettes, and I pay R28 per packet. If you add the price of paper & filter ... negligible though it is ... pre-cut tobacco is still cheaper than a pack of cigarettes. AND tastes much, much better! Especially, since they offer some flavours, too! Oh, not available online ... yeah, that's South African law! Not legal to sell cigarettes online! Nor cigarette tobacco. Ah, well ...

My delivery has arrived! Cat food and my phone! Looks nice and big ... comes with only a Quick Start Guide ... no use to me, with my complete ignorance. Apart from noting that I must first charge the phone ... found the user manual: 119 pages! Yikes! Well, I figured out how to plug in the charger! I'm just going to charge it for the rest of today, and switch it on at home. I've mailed the user manual to myself, so I'll have it at home, too.

Oh, great! Another 'Family Meeting' - Level 3 version whatever-now! Hopefully alcohol sales will be allowed! That industry is in such dire straits! And it's not just the vineyards and breweries, but the hospitality sector - most restaurants sell their meals at almost cost, and rely on liquor sales for profit!

Well, I'm not planning on any major activities tonight. I'll start by watering my veranda - maybe do some gardening, that'll depend on the weather - but I want to be inside early, so that I'll have time to play with my new phone! Well ... it'll be a long while before I can actually do anything other than look at the screen in puzzlement!

I've stumbled across a planting calendar ... now I want seeds! Ha Ha Ha! I've had a stern talking to, and will wait at least a week, until I know what SPACE I actually have!

And then I see a 'one day birthday offer' on seeds ... tomorrow ... I just can't resist that ... really! They have such lovely seeds! And - after all - I don't have to sow everything right away! No, I really just can not resist ... must ... buy ... seeds! Ha Ha Ha! I'm incorrigible!

Back at home, a bit of a drizzle. No Smeagol. Mippies not happy that outies is wets! Sigh ... We had about 8 mm rainfall - most of it during the night, not the day.

First I carry everything inside, then I fill Smeagol's bowl, water the pots, pack everything away ... then try to see what I can do with the phone. And we're off to a fantastic start: How would you like to unlock your phone? Facial recognition? Sounds good! Okay, capturing face ... Face not recognised! Again. Face not recognised. Great, isn't it? Ha Ha!

Okay, try the next step. Connect to WiFi. Enter password. Sigh ... it's inside the router, but it is so tiny, I can barely see it, let alone read it! Plus, the font is one of those awful, unclear one's where you can't distinguish the numbers ... could be an 8 or a 7 or a 3 ... Sigh.

Fun part: my simple phone, I just hold down one key, and the phone is on. Ready to use. This one? Okay, first tell it you want it on by holding down the power button for 2 seconds, then swipe the screen to tell it you want to use it, then type in your PIN to unlock it! Very smart!

I think I managed to download and install WhatsApp ... and I think I've had enough for today! I think I'll take it to work tomorrow to see if I can make sense of it.

Time for the family meeting ... oh, okay, just about the vaccines ... oh, nice! Some restrictions being lifted! Going forward again! Nice.

Well, mippies came a bit short tonight, so I had better make it up to them. Mini already got a full 15 minutes brushing, Ziva went off after 5 minutes, now it's Mewthos' turn. Sigh, it's ten to nine ... not enough time to watch an episode ... not happy about that!