Day 1 of COVID-19 Lockdown

Cape Town, 27 March 2020.

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I woke this morning to an unusual silence. Very little traffic or people noise and while it was pleasant it didn’t seem right. I had to wonder – was I mad, in a coma or have I just watched Life on Mars too much? Seriously though, lockdown has finally reached Cape Town. Businesses, beaches, restaurants and comic book shops all shut down for 21 days. Had Thanos snapped his fingers? Luckily Fandom and I are well prepared: Life on Mars, a shelf full of novels and comics, some PC games, LEGO, Kenner characters and a rather large MCU collection. The thing we may be a little shy on is food but I just couldn’t bear standing in the queues behind all those people and their 300 rolls of toilet paper.

One of the main impacts to me is that I now have 22 copies of my Melkkamer book sitting on my dining room table awaiting collection after the 21 day lockdown. I did manage to get the other copies delivered to their buyers in the pre-lockdown period. Fandom and I think this lockdown time may be a useful opportunity to write some more books. He is currently writing the Blue Blood Saga, The Second Imperium Trilogy, some Tintin stories, some Star Wars stories and a couple of other things on the way. You can follow his progress on these here. As for me, my general go to is non-fiction so perhaps another historical effort is looming. I do have a nearly completed academic piece which I am writing for submission to the Irish Genealogist as well as the never ending Miners, Mercenaries and Millionaires. Perhaps now is the time to finish these off?