Category Archives: Sharing My World

2020: Lockdown life October in review

This is part of my year in review. Writing one post will make it too long, so I’m breaking each month into a separate post. This is the latest instalment of lockdown life.

 And so we get to October. It was quite an auspicious month not only because it was my birthday, but it was also the month that our family got together since February. And what better occasion than my birthday :). Isn’t my birthday cake gorgeous, baked by The Pastry Chef Bakery?

lockdown life birthday cake
Sprinkles birthday cake
©2020 Regina Martins

The lockdown life photoshoot

Back in April, I organised a professional photoshoot for my niece’s prom – which was cancelled due to Covid restrictions in South Africa (of course, it was also the right thing to do in the context of the pandemic). So I repurposed it to a family photoshoot.

The lockdown life amaryllis

One other thing of note that happened this month is the amaryllis flowered! Look at how gorgeous it is!

The lockdown life rebounder

I ordered a rebounder and was eagerly waiting for it. The seller informed me of the delay in imported shipments due to Covid at Durban harbour. I felt that sitting the whole day in front of a computer wasn’t great for my health and fitness. There was no time to do a meaningful daily walk and rebounding was something I could do at the end of the day. I’d done two classes in January that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s also a great lymph flow and drainage exercise – essential for good health.

On a general note: during the course of the year, local deliveries became efficient and my expectations were frequently exceeded. I’m so impressed at how they courier came to the party; this also meant that people still had jobs.

That’s it for October. Have you checked out September?

 

Weekend coffee share: edition storm brewing & writing streak

Welcome to this week’s coffee share. From this week it’s been hosted by Natalie the Explorer. There’s a storm brewing with thunder rumbling in the distance. The wind has whipped up and it may blow the storm away. I hope it doesn’t because the garden needs the free water. And on another water-related fact – I feel so chuffed that the Vaal Dam is at 62.6% full :). The Vaal Dam feeds the Gauteng province of which Johannesburg is a part and is part of an integrated water system consisting of fourteen rivers and at least four major dams. It was below 50% a couple of months ago. But with the moderate summer rains so far, it’s filling up nicely.

weekend coffee share storm brewing
There’s a storm brewing
©2020 Regina Martins

Come on in – I’m glad you made it before the storm starts. There’s a variety of Nespresso, Starbucks, filter coffee, french press or espresso machine type of coffee. To eat there are cookies and a gluten-free, sugar-free loaf cake that tastes just like cardboard. With a bit of jam and cream, it becomes a really healthy treat!

This week, WordPress was kind enough to send me a daily shout-out about my writing streak! Yesterday I was on seven days and I almost didn’t post. That would’ve broken my streak, but I didn’t want to disappoint WordPress ­– they must’ve been eagerly waiting to press the enter button to congratulate me on my eight-day writing streak. So, I did what any trustworthy blogger did – I posted! After a break of some years, I entered the Which Way photo challenge. Its one of my favourite challenges although I haven’t posted there in a while. Come to think of it, I haven’t been terribly good at posting in general in recent (years).

I received great feedback from my niece about This time of year is such a joy – I loved writing it, expressing the sights sounds and smells of my neighbourhood. It’s not often that I engage in creative writing and I felt gratified that the words flowed. And it was such a joy to me that my niece enjoyed it 🙂 – this means a lot.

Part of the time this week I engaged in cleaning, clearing and tidying up the house. It was long-overdue:  my spring cleaning in summer. This was a good functional exercise workout and the Fitbit registered it as steps, calories and minutes active. I addition I managed four rebounding and weights workouts and I even dedicated some space in my house for a mini gym. I’m so proud of that – having the equipment out, accessible and ready to use is the best motivator ever!

We’ve had some moderate thunderstorms up here and it always amazes me that the street-smart fighter felines come running inside at the first sounds of rumbling to hide underneath the nearest piece of furniture. They’ve been exceedingly busy this week asserting their territorial rights to our garden – Chè and I observed Nermal sneakily following a ginger intruder around the pool. The ginger intruder was none the wiser; but something must’ve warned him because before we knew it, he’d jumped on the neighbour’s wall and was off leaving Nermal either relieved or disappointed (we don’t know which).

I’ve enjoyed the many coffee dates with you all this week, and I’m looking forward to many more this week.

Until then.

Regina