Mmmm….this ain’t going to be a walk in the park (see what I did there?). Hauled my bones out of bed, put on the excited dad face (which make me look high / like a drunk sailor / insane / special in the wrong way)…then spent 90 minutes making pancakes. Not because I like pancakes, but because that was 90 minutes taken care of. Must’ve made close on 50 of them. Small. To make the batter last longer. They got nailed by the family in 90 seconds. It was still only 9am. I did some half assed exercise thing….and had a loooong cold shower. It was 10am…still 4, sorry did I say 4, I meant 3, what was that? 2? yes 2 hours away from G&T o’clock…then a funny thing happened. My kids stopped fighting. My wife stopped asking me to do stuff…I’m not sure if it was the soothing Gin sliding its way through my system, or the awesome new AirPods Pro (noise cancelling) which I was breaking my 8 D Audio cherry with…try it if you haven’t (8 D Audio). Either way the day got better…like ‘you’ve been jogging barefoot on broken glass with a broken toe and then someone gives you a pair of Air Jordans and a foot massage’ better.

Snooze time called – 30 minutes nailed. Quick jump in pool, followed by a really slow, long bbq…because they’re slow and long, made interesting by some SA rock star doing a show from his rooftop…Sugarman rendition better than the original…thanks Ard Matthews. I hadn’t realised we were neighbours. Glad we are. It was awesome.

Then later they came…the first personal cheek cleaners of the pandemic. I was standing in the upstairs spare room (read, where the dogs and I often end up sleeping) and the valley suddenly erupted; 8pm. The nightly salute from windows, roof tops and tall trees each night to show support and appreciation for the emergency and health crews at the coalface of this shit show. There was whistling, shouting, strobe lights, cheering and mouldy, dusted off soccer world cup vuvuzelas … flashing, blaring and echoing down the valley…and I cried. The true madness of it all hit me. Better out than in. Day 4 to follow.