Black Friday/November

I don’t often shop at Checkers. I mostly shop “local”, at either the Spar or Pick’nPay in my neighborhood and there is no Checkers in either of our two shopping centers. Today I went to a Checkers that is about 3ks from home and has been open for about a year or so. It’s a pleasant shopping center, and also has a Woolies food, a Pick’nPay clothing store, a Mr.Price Sports store, and a few other stores. It’s not a large centre, but because it’s end of the month and Black Friday time of the year it was packed, so forget about social distancing. The threat of Covid-19 still lurking in the air doesn’t put bargain hunters off. I didn’t intentionally go because of Black Friday bargains, just simply because I wanted to see what that Checkers and the shopping center was like and I paid the price for that what with people swarming all around. It’s not just because of Covid that I don’t like packed shopping centers these days. I don’t enjoy shopping when the masses of humanity are out in full force and I haven’t for a long time. I don’t go to shopping centers for leisure. I go out of necessity – like making sure I don’t starve or when my clothes start looking a little frayed! I’m no fashion guru that’s for sure. That’s why I do most of my grocery shopping after my night shifts, early in the morning, before the crowds amass.

I wonder how many South Africans know the origin of Black Friday? Black Friday is an informal name for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of the United States Christmas shopping season since 1952. Black Friday in South Africa has been popular over the last few years – I’m not sure exactly when the first Black Friday in South Africa was. From what I’ve googled, it looks like it was 2012. We were a little slow on the uptake to get going, but once we got going in South Africa with Black Friday mania we made the most of it. Well, not me personally – I am not part of the “we” collective if I can help it. I read an article (from November 2019) that research has shown that the Black Friday phenomenon has grown faster in South Africa than any other country in the world. If that is true, it’s not surprising. South Africans are always on the lookout for bargains. I’ll admit, I make the most of grocery specials throughout the year, but I don’t go into a shopping frenzy doing so, and certainly not at this time of year so I can fill my trolley to the brim with 21 packets of Omo, ten 750g tins of Ricoffy and a dozen 18 packs of toilet rolls. The first Black Friday I remember was about 2015 and many people went a little dilly to grab their bargains. Supermarkets were packed and shopping trolleys filled to the brim.

All I can say for the now, is that I intend to avoid shopping during peak hours until mid January!

Sunday Roast Chicken for Peasants.

Just about every Sunday, without fail, when I was growing up, lunch was always roast chicken. I don’t remember any other meat roast, be it beef, pork or lamb. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I’m quite sure it was always a roast chicken. Saturday dinners were often roast beef. My life as an adult is somewhat different from my parents. I don’t have every weekend off, being a nurse. Every alternate weekend that I work, one thing is for sure and that is, I am not waking up and cooking a roast chicken for lunch, or even for an early dinner for that matter. My husband bless him, will often make me supper over the weekends, to take to work. As nurses, we have different habits from normal people. Like eating your “lunch” at work at 11 pm, or if you are busy, you just scoff it down as quickly as you can, when you can. Anyway, today being a Sunday, I cooked(you guessed it) a roast chicken. I always roast my chicken a cast iron pot, in the oven and it comes out perfectly tender and succulent.

As tenants, our previous homes had built in ovens. When we moved into our home where we live now, we weren’t so fortunate, so my husband suggested getting us a mini oven and I was happy with that. It’s done us well. I’ve done some roasts in it, and it does the job just fine. I’ve even baked bread in it a few times. A few weeks after my husband bought it, he told a “friend” of his he’d bought a mini oven. His friend has a bad heart, (and a bad attitude) and doesn’t get out much anymore, so my husband sent him a whatsapp photo of our set up. We also have two gas bottles on the table that the mini oven is on. Being South Africa, gas bottles always come in handy during power cuts, which happen from time to time. Well, the prompt reply from his friend went something along the lines of – ‘You could have bought your wife a decent oven, you really are a peasant”. Grumpy old git. They aren’t friends anymore – not because of that incident though, but I won’t get into that. He’s simply a miserable person, and he seemed to delight in being nasty at the best of times. Sometimes no matter how much you try with a miserable person, they will always be miserable. When my husband told me he called him a peasant, I was irritated. After a while though, I thought, really? Peasant? What has he got that makes him any better off? So we don’t have a big oven? Is that part of a measure of a person’s success? To be honest – I don’t care. Why do we need a big oven anyway? It’s just the two of us and it’s not like we cook huge meals. How many people can’t afford an oven in the first place, even a mini oven? So he can call us what he wants but my mini oven cooks a mighty fine roast chicken and I’m more than happy with that.

Memories.

I wrote the paragraph below a few weeks ago, and it’s been sitting in my drafts, so time to post it. I may well over sentimentalize my childhood. I grew up in simpler times – well at least I think they were simpler. From my perspective, I’m glad I grew up in the era that I did. So what if we didn’t have the internet, computer gaming, Netflix etc – we didn’t know any better. We rode our bicycles to our small town cinema, not needing parental supervision (for the most part) and life was much safer back then, than it is now.

It’s a quiet Wednesday afternoon. I can hear the hum of the freeway traffic not far from where I live. If it wasn’t for the duplexes on the other side of the street, from where I’m sitting in the living room, I would actually see the freeway. Upstairs from our bedrooms, without the obstruction of buildings, we can see the freeway. It always sounds a little quieter during the early afternoon. Probably because people are having their lunch and taking a break. I’m working tonight, so just taking it easy for a while, before I have to get a few chores done and then get some supper on the go. Being a Wednesday, I remembered my hometown. I grew up in a small Zimbabwean town and most of the town came to a standstill on Wednesday afternoons. Most of the shops closed. It was the midweek break. People did what they did to have a little break. Maybe it was an afternoon nap for some. Or a catch up with friends, a tea party for the housewives maybe, a round of golf for the men. That was the eighties. Us small town people back then knew the importance of not getting caught up in the rat race, and taking a breather. I have no idea if that’s how life is now, in my small hometown that I grew up in. Things have changed a lot in Zimbabwe. Times are harder now economically, and I would guess that most people cannot afford to take a Wednesday afternoon break anymore. We live in such a 24/7 world now though. During the week, the shops and grocery stores would all close at 5pm – there was no late night convenience store open. You made sure you had everything you needed for the night. On Saturdays at 1pm, the shops would all close, and on Sunday mornings only the small convenience store would open for a few hours, so you could get the Sunday paper, which my Dad always did, and maybe a treat or two. I could go back to that way of life now, quite happily. I find the hustle and bustle of life tedious, the constant rat race mentality of city life. Which is part of the reason why I work nights. Things slow down just a little at night time and that’s the beauty of nights for me.

Covid 19 Vaccine – For or Against?

So. Cyril Ramaphosa, aka President of South Africa, addressed our country last night. I was off last night, very tired and did not have the energy to watch it, nor did I want to, to be honest. However, having had a good night’s sleep, and feeling refreshed today, I’m giving it a listen now.

I know everyone is fed up with Covid, but needless to say, it’s still around, and will be around for some time to come. Breaking news over the last week, has been a vaccine developed in Germany. Vaccines are a very sensitive subject, especially for those totally opposed to them. Humans have been getting vaccines for years and vaccines have undoubtedly saved many lives. Those who oppose vaccines claim they cause medical disorders, like Autism and have mercury in them, however from what I’ve read in general, it is that vaccines used to contain thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to stop the growth of bacteria and fungi in vaccine vials, but thimerosal was removed from most vaccines in 2001, and it has since been shown to have no adverse health problems. The way I look at it, and maybe it’s because of my nursing background, most medication has side effects. Any surgery has the possibility of complications, mostly from the anesthetic, so do we not put people under anesthetic anymore, because of possible complications? Do we stop taking all modern medication, (especially life saving medication) because they have side effects? Do we stop taking tablets for high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, heart problems, etc. Yes, certain tablets do cause more serious side effects for some and allergies as well, unfortunately. Or is all part of “big pharma” just out to get us? Are most Doctors who prescribe medication and pharmacists who dispense medication conning us? Do we go back to life several hundred years ago? Where few surgeons and Doctors believed that the simple act of washing their hands would save patients lives. Where do we draw the line between theories of a new world order and common sense?

As for this new Covid vaccine, taken off this site – https://www.lifenews.com/2020/11/09/new-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-not-created-with-fetal-cells-from-babies-killed-in-abortions/ – “Pfizer’s vaccine was developed using genetic sequencing on computers without using fetal cells. As a consequence, the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute listed the vaccine as “ethically uncontroversial. So, if this vaccine can save lives, and is safe, why shouldn’t we take it?

If anti vaccers can say they shouldn’t be forced to have the vaccine, fair enough. It’s their choice. I’m not judging them. However, on the other hand, I’d also like not be judged if I decide to get the vaccine. I’d also like not to be judged as a sheeple, just like I’m also sure they don’t want to be judged as conspiracy theorist nutcases. I’d also like not to be judged as someone who is part of the “new world order”, or as someone who is anti – Christian because I think it’s sensible to get the vaccine, and continue wearing a mask in shops and malls that are crowded, until Covid19 is no longer a serious threat. Am I a bad person because I think wearing a mask helps, or think a Covid19 vaccine will be beneficial to humanity and don’t believe it’s part of some new world order?

Regardless if you think Covid19 is a man made disease unleashed on the world, or that it simply made that jump from animal to man in a Wuhan “wet food market”, it does not make the virus any less real. I work in a hospital in a South African city and where I worked, July and August were very difficult months. The Covid surge or wave was a reality then. A temporary mortuary was erected on the hospital grounds as the local undertakers could not cope with the higher amount of daily deaths in the city. Yes, fair enough, many of the patients were elderly, or had underlying health conditions, but if it hadn’t been for Covid, they unlikely would have ended up in hospital at that point in time.

This from the Port Elizabeth area – https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-11-health-crisis-nelson-mandela-bay-sends-out-sos-as-active-covid-19-cases-approach-6000. All the people who believe Covid19 is a farce will say this is mainstream media blowing things out of proportion again, there wasn’t a first wave to start with. Well, I work in a hospital. Were my hospital managers blowing things out of proportion when they put up that temporary mortuary to cope with the unusually higher number of deaths every day and night during July and August? Were they being hysterical? Were they lying? If that is not proof for people of what happened in July and August, well then, I can only shake my head and try not get too irritated.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of the current lot of corrupt politicians within the ANC and because our country was on tenterhooks economically, having been relegated to the junk status heap before Covid, when Covid did hit us, our economy all but collapsed – not quite maybe, but it’s barely hanging on by a thread. I’m not saying every ANC politician is corrupt, but many of them with influence are and if we’d had a strong economy led by a morally strong Government, we’d certainly have withstood lockdown better than we have. Which gets me back to Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address last night. He extended the nation’s state of disaster until 15th December. No further lockdowns for now. I do believe that first lockdown, was necessary to some degree, to stop our hospitals from being completely overwhelmed but another enforced hard lockdown will certainly cripple this country and the Government has got to look at other ways of dealing with Covid19. If a safe Covid19 vaccine is part of the answer, it will certainly help. That’s my take on it anyway.