Wednesday 5 May 2021, Day 66 of Level 1 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for a fabulous and efficient day, packing a lot in after a solid 6,5 hour sleep; for starting writing just after 6h00, getting everything done so that I could fit in a power walk on my secret Bakoven path, gaining another 300 Discovery points; for tackling the email of response to the R1 million plus maintenance quote for our EbbTide apartment😱; for 2 Discovery Gameboard plays, giving me a R100 Woolies voucher; for a lovely lunch at Roots Café & Kitchen at Roeland Square, across the road from Wembley Square; for a lovely client meeting at Anatoli, spoilt with Dilmah Earl Grey tea and lovely crunchy chocolate biscuits; for a fabulous hot restaurant news update; for a quick shop at Hartlief; for the weather being less dramatic than was predicted for today, without the thunderstorms forecast ; and for being warm in my winter pyjamas, happy, healthy, and free. 🙏💙

Today I posted the May update of restaurants opening and closing in the past 13 months, during Lockdown: 75 restaurant openings and 100 closures.

Lockdown Restaurant closures in Cape Town & the Winelands now at 100! More than 70 new restaurants have opened in the past year!

So sad to hear about another Restaurant closure : Oxalis Eatery on Wale Steeet. 🥲

Siblings Mel and Jason Laing took over Roots Café and Kitchen at Roeland Square a month ago, having previously worked at Firefly in Camps Bay. They invited me to check out their restaurant. It is a small interior, with lots of outside seating. Chef Mel made me a Smashed Avo with poached eggs, and sent me home with a croissant and slice of chocolate cake. #thankyou 🙏💙

I’ve never seen such a mass of South-Easter clouds at Table Mountain as I did this afternoon, not finding a good place from which to photograph the full cloud mass. I drove up to the Cableway, to get parts of it. I wonder if the weather forecast was exaggerated, but on Kfm I’ve just heard that the Southern Cape is receiving lots of rain, with large hail stones. ☔️

I am so grateful for two fabulous reviews for Utopia in two days, on the Cape Town Restaurants – the good, the bad and the nastyyyy …: Facebook Group. 💙💙💙

SA Corona Status; 1 588 221 cases 54557 deaths 😷🥲 353181 vaccinations

FitBit 10000 steps 7 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, lowered to Level 3 from 1 June, lowered to Level 2 from 18 August, lowered to Level 1 from 21 September, and moved back to Adjusted Level 3 from 29 December,  extended to 15 February on 11 January, extended but relaxed on 1 February, and relaxed back to Level 1 on 1 March 2021, 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.whaletalesblog.com www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide