Lockdown

Trinket is the agile one. So using the balcony railing as her runway doesn’t bother us. Skitten on the other hand - who’s twice been witnessed trying to jump onto a coffee table and failing - makes us fret every time. I took a run Friday when the maximum lockdown restrictions ended. But I need to rethink. The government’s curious decision to only allow exercise between 6 and 9 AM meant that my run by the river was like Oxford Street on a Saturday morning. Most people were wearing masks, but the social distancing is near impossible. . In general our government has given a very mixed performance during the pandemic so far. They locked down early and hard - which is good. But they’ve failed to provide adequately for the massive food insecurity, tolerated extraordinary levels of police brutality (including multiple murders of civlians), and made decisions on lockdown policies that lack any evidence base. It feels, as usual, like the conflict between the essentially competent (if unimaginative) faction of the president and his allies vs. the remaining kleptocrats from Jacob Zuma’s economic strip-mining regime - including the police minister, Bekhi Cele.

Household objects. I believe my dad bought these mugs in Johannesburg in the 1960s. Lieberman apparently. They’re objectively the best coffee mugs. Thick sides retain heat, and modest volume means that it’s still hot when you get to the bottom. I have two and I love them. My folks actually bought some more - very similar - in the ’90s or early 2000s because they were still making them. I’ve been thinking about capitalism’s gears starting to really grind. Consumerism is really bonkers. Many things that are sold everyday last for generations and don’t need replacement. At some point this century, the global population is going to begin falling. And if the game isn’t up by then, it will be after.

The couch is getting crowded with different kinds of stuff to practise. I’m tempted to bring down a fourth for some rockabilly stuff I’m working on too.