CORONA LOCKDOWN - MAY 2020

CORONA LOCKDOWN - CAPE TOWN

Sunday, 24 May 2020

i woke up and decided today is the day to blog.

incredibly this is my first post of 2020. and this entry is mainly for me. i want to chronicle this Covid-19 pandemic that has shut down the world and yours truly. but where do i begin?

my last entry was about me lollygagging around the US over thanksgiving and christmas. the blog reviews were dreadful. "boring". and mostly true. my blog normally tries to offer adventure and fun and the US tour was killing time in a sense. do i even remember why? not my flashiest blog. no lions and tigers.

i had finished a less than stellar oceanic crossing from Brazil to Tobago, as one does, and cured my itch to sail the globe. resoundingly. so glad i tried it. and yes, my captain may have been an old salty dog hard-boiled egg, but i learned so much on that trip. mostly, that i didn't want his existence. and that boats are slow and take a lot of maintenance. read: upkeep. read: money. BOAT= Break Out Another Thousand. yup, i saw it first hand. not my cup of rum.

then i saw family and friends in ten cities which took over a month. the reasoning was why not spend the holidays in the States with the above instead of by myself in Cape Town. so that's what i did. it was long month but it was good to see everyone. 

living at the end of the earth on the bottom of Africa, it's not easy to get around the northern hemisphere and see peeps, so when you are above the equator, one tends to take advantage. and i did. tick that box for another few years. USA sorted.

january and Feb were beautiful back home in CPT. and i shot a short film, PB&J which was a ton fo fun. i also took an office space in early Feb which has turned out perfect for producing, rehearsing, prepping, and cutting. i even have taught a few HAMC classes in it. a short walk from my flat. it works, even if it's in a skid row part of town. i lived near skid row in my DTLA days. 

then in March whilst we were planning our joyous screening party, suddenly this Corona virus thing kicked up and started to become real. 'who should we invite?' became "who will come to a crowd function?' so we scrapped it. then we applied to a few film festivals but what are those nowadays? Zoom screenings?

here is a post about my state of mind a few sundays ago...

sunday morning May 17, 2020

okay, here's my situation...

i live in Cape Town, South Africa, Western Cape.
i have been in lockdown now for 58 days. Level 5 was complete lockdown and Level 4 isn't much different. (at least in Level 4 you can order in Uber eats. but no one can really afford that now.)

as Western Cape has the most Covid testing there are more reported cases so our Level 4 will last longer than most of ZA. and could go back up to Level 5 if there is a spike with the slight easing in Level 4. (allowed to go back to work if your work place is open.)

the thing i miss the most as a single person living alone is the freedom to go to a restaurant or coffee shop and just hang out. meet friends, work on a laptop, people watch, talk to strangers, chat to the barista or barman. plus i like spaces. being a visual person, i love hanging out in cool spaces. my 900 square-foot flat got old after Week 1. i'm entering Week 9. when will it end? i'm going batty.

plus i miss the normal life of talking to people. being around people. i talk to everybody... servers, bussers, tellers, tourists, bus drivers, etc. presently living alone and walking to my office alone (face masks are enforced by the police) and working alone, i don't have any interaction. WhatsApp and Zoom on occasion are fine but it's not the same. and forget a nice supper with a bottle of wine with a friend. no restaurants are open for seating and no booze for sale, well, for 8 weeks now and counting.

hey, i'm blessed. i'm safe, i'm healthy (heavier now), i have provision and shelter. i have a balcony with sunshine. life is good. but life isn't really living. i'm in solitary confinement. counting the days but this sentence is open ended.

sadly we have had 261 deaths so far over the last 8 weeks. i would wager as car accidents are the leading cause of death in africa, we would have close to the same if life were normal. that's 261 deaths out of 55,000,000. or .00047%. 261 deaths in 60 days. haven't we flattened the proverbial curve yet? will it ever truly be 100% safe? ever?

and yes i get it that the densely populated townships are still in danger. okay. but people need to eat and make a living too. and there won't be any jobs left in cape town if the lockdown continues. even when coffee shops and eateries are allowed to open, no one has the cash to indulge themselves after 60+ days of no work. we're all feeling a bit skint.

i'm glad i'm not the president. to be fair, i'm just one white-privileged westerner ex-pat wingeing about my lack of freedom. but yesterday i felt defeated. come on. let me decide if i am well enough to go inside a restaurant or feel safe enough to have a coffee sitting down.

it's post-apocalytic with a twist. there is life everywhere. but we're all shut in. places are going under. cape town is a tourist town. all of that is gone. it feels like a ghost town. everyone wearing a mask. afraid of each other. and shops are closing for good.

i miss everything that was ho-hum before. i never could have imagined this worst world-case scenario. or that it would wear me down. get to me. but it is and has.

thanks for listening. share your situation. i'd love to hear.  (the end.)

i'm hesitant to post such posts as i never want to come across like i'm moaning about my life. i am beyond blessed and have food and shelter and good health. but i was unraveling a bit. i think i'm better nowadays.

one positive is i finally finished a film treatment for PureFlix. a rom com to be shot in ZA. but for 9 weeks i had nothing. flat. pissed. wait, not drunk pissed, i was pissed off. (no booze during lockdown) but i survived all of the isolation and wrote my treatment and a production update. now we'll see if they like my ideas and we proceed or this thing goes bust. i'm okay either way however it goes. there's lot of loose ends.

the other positive is i got a call from my realtor in Stanford. a couple from Santa Fe is interested in my cottage. and they've watched the little video i made in iPhoto in 10 minutes. 

https://youtu.be/Oh_-THVV3kI

so that would be huge. getting the cottage sold and off my plate opens a lot more options for my future. 

the other idea that has popped up during this 60 days of lockdown is maybe move to Lisbon, Portugal. retire there. proper retirement and travel throughout europe. at least do a recce.

portugal has excellent and cheap health care, easy Visa process, cheap standard of living, and Lisbon is 35% English speaking, a diverse ethnic population, has an old Europe feel to it, cuz it is, and has a metro, a tram system, busses, trains, lots o public tranpso. no car purchase necessary. lots to like about it.
https://youtu.be/owMNL3FgjqA 

so that's out there as an option but only after the cottage sells. so we'll see how it all plays out. if the cottage sold, then i can pick up stakes anytime. part of me is wondering if i have another start-over in my. not knowing a soul in Lisbon, etc. Cape town is certainly comfortable. i have a small community of friends and merchants i like. we'll see. selling a house in this economy and global pandemic is a challenge. it could take awhile. a long while.

the other dilemma is whether to rent out the cottage again come 1 august, or enjoy myself, put it back together as the Zebra Cottage, and have it ready to show and sell. i would winter there (aug-oct) and get back into the swing of village life and see if Yoda the cat will forgive me. IDK. it'd be fun, but part of says i've been there, done that. still, if i'm stuck here til it sells, isn't nicer to be able to enjoy? at least i have 2 months to decide that. and i'd give up my office end of july to takeover the cottage again. unless present tenants extend their lease.

work is pretty much non-existent. i did do a VO gig last week for a repeat client and thankfully i had a commercial renew that runs in USA. that helps. but with no work, no castings, and no HAMC acting classes to teach, things are slow. i'm sure for everyone everywhere as well. but as age kicks in the jobs are fewer (being a show pony for most of my life, read: actor). 

so what to do? how to spend the third act? waiting for the phone to ring at the end of the world or maybe moving to Lisbon and traveling and seeing so much of Europe and eastern europe i haven't see yet? IDK.

This corona thing is so nuts. people are tired of lockdown. here in ZA on June 1, 2020, we'll go to Level 3. no restaurants open yet, but at least we can order wine on line! but it's interesting how the world is fed up with lockdown. 

my sense is people globally are saying "hey, i'll take my chances. let me out. let me decide." so we're wearing masks and still washing our hands, and social distancing. fair enough. but we want our freedom. and there is much unrest if this whole corona thing is some bill gates conspiracy. and fauci. hmmmm.

so my life, like the rest of the world, is mostly on hold. waiting for things to open up. waiting for int'l flights to be allowed so int'l production can come back. and my line of work can continue. so in the meantime, i'll wait to hear back from PureFlix on the rom com and see what the final status will be on the cottage, rented or sold, and then of course holding thumbs on 1101.

winter is coming. raining hard today. and after our drought that's always a good sign. we can exercise/go for walks all day long now so that's good. i'll hop a bus to Camps Bay and walk down through Clifton and Bantry Bay to Sea Point. on the coast. dramatic. and salt air! need to get out of my flat!

that's it for now. no trips planned. COTW sidelined. maybe sneak in a recce to Lisbon this year. might be hard. Let's see how all the variables to weave together. see what the Divine plan will be. stay safe. 

using my office space for rehearsal of PB&J

micharn and willem did great!

camera dept production seat! scripty had one as well! great for shooting.

cape town city hall and table mt. always majestic!

view of my hood from my office. 

pre-lockdown view of Lions Head

lingering sunset before the world went pear-shaped.

anri at 12 Apostles upper outer terrace...it must be Friday sundowners! B.C. before Corona.

i did a recce for the rom com and saw some game. never gets old!

king of the jungle. truly. they fear naught.

the ellies have become my faves.

my luxury tent. nice recce!

we had 8 rhinos.

Cheetah Run is the working title.

chow time after the run.

home of my luxury tent.

picture perfect. slept like a log.

last recorded beer of 2020. march 25th.

busses are running again.

from the archives...editor of Action Now Magazine 1981.

early days in ZA free on a cruiser! how we take things for granted!

winter is coming. view from K-04 in Adderley Terrace. 

roofline view from my parking structure where i got my daily steps in.

The Cartwright. looms over my complex. 

my cityscape view

Hockney-esque still life.

not a lot of trees from my flat, but the buildings are impressive.

essential call by a plumber to fix my basin! 

Another angle of my office.

getting into the swing of it.

it's been a slow easing, not nearly back to normal yet.

wow! the Woolies suprette opened at the Engen petrol station! that was exciting! 

one of my favorite subjects.

another car park view, love the tiles.

skyway at twilight.

alternate angle and time of day.

remember?

my first walk back on the promenade. 30 knot winds!

drama at sea

a freer time! 

i better post this before May is over! it's already Thursday May 28th! stay safe!!!!
p.s. i may have a new situation next month that would be very exciting! ciao!