Sunday 24 May 2020, Day 24 of Level 4, after 35 days of Level 5 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for my energy this morning, after a fabulous night’s sleep, heading out at 7h15, my earliest Exercise Time so far, being determined to get to the other end of Clifton, 11000 steps 7,5 km, and high Cardio exertion, earning me 300 Discovery Vitality points; for the number of people I meet along the way, often with a little chat; for it not being so busy as the weekend days normally are; for the fabulous service from Absolute Pets, when I went to buy a cat harness, treats, and catnip for Minsky; for finding my cat kids safe and peaceful when I arrived back home; for bonding with Minsky while KitKat went out wandering; for eventually being able to bring both cats into the apartment space, having had to separate them last night; for going shopping in Sea Point; for a lovely relaxed afternoon, both cats at peace with each other now; for enjoying the last sun before winter strikes tomorrow; and for feeling happy and healthy. 🙏💙
I stayed strong in my exercising resolve to only pick up litter on my way back home, but today the litter was the worst I’ve experienced, one not being able to walk more than single file at one spot at Glen Beach, the bags being so badly torn that I had to scoop up the loose litter and put it in the bin so that walkers and runners could pass there. A sign of how desperate the Homeless persons have become for something to eat. On my way back I tried to shove broken black refuse bags into the green bins in Clifton, but most of them were overflowing with refuse already. A kind runner helped me to push some litter together and to close the torn bags. I definitely did not expect the Council to collect garbage on a Sunday. But they did, I having a contact now that I can Whats App, and then he sends the truck. 👏👏👏👏
I passed a lady walking with her parrot on her shoulder. And a lovely couple have been chatting to me all week, asking me if it is my apartment with Maya, wanting to know everything about her and concerned if she has had a hip replacement op…. 😂
I’m learning so much about cats 🐱 . The Absolute Pets lady is fantastic, clearly loving cats, and she guided me to put the catnip on the scratch board Minsky came with, KitKat loving it too. So great to be able to shop after exercising.
I’m addicted to Smarties, one pack a day, like a smoker… Pick n Pay has not been able to get them for the past 10 days, so I drove to Clicks Regent Road, where I managed to get a month’s supply. But I did not want to be served by the cashier who was wearing a Perspex visor but no mask, unlike all his other colleagues in the store. I asked him to call a manager. She said he had been wearing one, but didn’t send him off to put it back on again. I had to go to another till, and have someone else count each box individually after the previous guy had done so too! The manager had no control over what was happening and told me to buy elsewhere next time! 🥵🥵🥵
My visit to Woolworths Sea Point was far nicer, I looking for the thermal type tops, in three colours. Staffing was non-existent in the clothing department, and I had to ask to find the till to pay for my purchases, at Customer Services. But then it was like Christmas – one of them was a discontinued line and therefore free, not indicated on the item, one was on a sale and also not marked as such, reduced by about 50%, and the third one was charged at the full price. 🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏
I wore my worn but patched linen shorts this morning, Petra Renate Quinlan having done such a fabulous job in fixing them with heart shaped patches. It gave me a spring in my step whilst walking this morning, loving its pockets for my phone and keys. ❤️
We are in for a heavy winter storm tonight going into tomorrow. Slim chance of walking tomorrow morning. 😱☔️
I’m adding a moving piece written by a Cape Town restaurateur:
‘WISE WORDS FROM A RESTAURATEUR:
Some things to consider during this time where restaurants may only deliver:
1: Many restaurants were never going to do deliveries, through their own service or through a third party service. Some never were going to offer take away food for collections either. A lot of us restaurateurs are thinking on our feet, day to day trying to adapt and improve the service we are currently offering by learning through trial and error.
2: I can promise you, that not a single small restaurant is trying to make a profit right now. Everyone is just trying to get by, so that hopefully we can one day soon have a viable business again and give all of their staff their jobs back.
3: Mistakes will be made. Staff are now doing jobs they never signed up for when they first applied for the job at the restaurant. Waiters are now delivery drivers, chefs are packing food into boxes instead of plating on plates. Some boxes don’t have a clear lid, so seeing the contents become very difficult etc etc.
4: Dishes can’t always be explained as well in writing as they can in person by a waiter.
5. If a mistake happens when you are dining at the restaurant, if can be brought to their attention immediately and hopefully be resolved in a few minutes. In a delivery situation, that becomes a lot more difficult.
6. Adding to my last point, everybody needs to remember that there is a curfew in place, which applies to restaurant and delivery staff. The curfew is 20:00.
If an order is delivered at around 19:00, but something is wrong with the order for whatever reason, be it the fault of the restaurant or the customer, it is unfortunately not possible to rectify that same day.
By that time the kitchen will have been least for the most part been cleaned down and everything packed away.
The best thing a restaurant can do in that situation is to then promise to make up for the issue on a future order.
7. The curfew means that the restaurant will (hopefully) receive a huge amount of orders for the evening but less time to fulfil them in. Luckily a lot of customers are pre-ordering which helps tremendously. Normally you’d have from about 18:00 until 21:30 to 22:00 for a dinner service, whereas now the peak time is 17:00 to 18:30.
8. Every restaurant and operator is different and has their own way of doing things. They are allowed to have their own way of doing things! Some require the order to be placed the previous day or further in advance, some don’t. Some have online ordering platforms (which are brand new and not perfected), while some have a more manual system.
We ask that you please bear with us and go along with our requested ordering system.
9. We as restaurant operators, are allowed to choose what works for us and what doesn’t. We’ve always been allowed to do that – some people struggle to accept this.
If we decide that we can’t do a delivery 20km away during peak time because it will affect our other deliveries, we are allowed to do that. If we reach capacity for orders for a particular day or time, and decide we won’t be able to successfully fulfil more orders, we are allowed to decide to not take more orders. The curfew also plays a huge role here.
10. Regarding third party delivery services. Restaurants themselves do not have any control over these. We can choose our trading times, which menu items are listed and we can temporarily go offline. That’s where it ends. We have no control over their delivery radius, their apps being able to handle demand etc etc.
I’ve probably left some points out. Personally, I’ve found this to be an incredibly overwhelming time. Our business has been going for 4 years and just as we’ve ironed out most of the kinks, we’ve effectively had to start from the beginning again and figure everything out.
Food costs and cleaning product costs shooting through the roof, paying far more commission on sales than ever before, packaging expenses, no beverage sales and way less business just to begin with.
We’re all trying our best.’
Sunday night President Ramaphosa Speech to the Nation :
SA Corona Status: 22583 cases 429 deaths 😷😢
FitBit 18000 steps 13 km 👣
Lovemylife❤️
The Corona Virus Lockdown (Level 5), announced by our President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this week to commence on 27 March and to continue until 16 April, subsequently extended to 30 April, and lowered to Level 4 from 1 May, is an unprecedented event in my lifetime. I am posting my daily Facebook post to journal this Corona Lockdown Journey, perhaps to serve as material for a future Book.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein
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