Thursday 16 July 2020, Day 46 of Level 3, after 66 days at Levels 5 and 4 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for a beautiful ‘Spring’ Day, wearing shorts and a sleeveless top, dressed for a hard day’s work; for the wonderful satisfaction of spending five hours in cleaning up the Camps Bay Beachfront, removing kelp and beach sand, with the help of local resident Haakon and a number of homeless persons, getting Camps Bay back into shape again after the winter storm; for Haakon’s generosity in buying coffee and croissants at Maison J, the homeless persons saying it felt as if they had come to Camps Bay on ‘holiday’, to be spoilt so ❤️❤️❤️; for the loan of a broom and spade from The Bay Hotel, and a broom from Vida é Caffe; for no Loadshedding;  and for feeling happy and healthy. 🙏💙

I was trying to finish my Blogpost this morning, but ran out of time. I posted an appeal to Camps Bay residents early this morning for support and help to clean up, to meet at the beachfront at 10h30.

Joel is a homeless person living in Safe Space in town, and helps me every two weeks to clean up Camps Bay. This was cleaning up of a different kind. As he and I walked to our meeting point, we walked past some homeless persons, and took them on board. We were loaned two ladies working for the Council, cleaning up at the tidal pool, Melody and Olga helping to pick up all the kelp on the pavement at the green rubbish bin, our first challenge. 🙏 Rasta Victor joined our team too. Joel removed the sand underneath the kelp for most of the day, there was so much. Haakon joined us, and we removed a mountain of kelp on a set of steps going down to the beach. We picked up all the kelp on all the Beachfront lawns, and created piles of them all along the way. After the coffee and croissant treat, we bade Haakon farewell, and Charlotte, Vincent, and Amina cleaned up the lawns at the lifesaving building, making more piles of kelp.

When I saw how much kelp and sand there was further down on the Beachfront, I called them back, and we tackled all the kelp on the lawns opposite the Sportfield. Our last task was to sweep all the beach sand from the walking path, quite a job, Joseph joining us, dancing with the spade in clearing the sand so that Charlotte and Amina could sweep the remaining sand.

A fabulous day’s work, the helpers saying that they will always remember this day. So special. And I was happy to be able to give them some money for a job well done. 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

In the five hours at the beachfront I exceeded my step goal, and my feet don’t feel as if they can do any dancing tonight, but I love a challenge, so will do another 2000 steps before going to bed. 💃💃💃

I did drive through to Sea Point, making the mistake a second day in a row to drive on Kloof Road, where the tree came down, only one lane being open. It was a shopping outing to DisChem, shocked that their raw nuts increased in price by 10% compared to a month ago…. 🥵. At Clicks I found my month’s supply of Smarties, and bought a few Peppermint Crisp slabs for a future rainy day treat. Pick n Pay has been unable to get both for me at its sister stores.

SA Corona Status: 324221 cases 4669 deaths 😷😢

FitBit 16000 steps 11 km 👣

Lovemylife❤️

 

The Corona Virus Lockdown (Level 5), announced by our President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier to commence on 27 March and to continue until 16 April, subsequently extended to 30 April, lowered to Level 4 from 1 May, and lowered to Level 3 from 1 June, 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.

About Chris von Ulmenstein

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein