It’s been more than a week since the lockdown and still pretty much stuck at home. Weekdays are mostly occupied with work from home. I tried to keep myself busy on weekends. I did some cooking dash yesterday by cooking pansit. I love that there’s a vegetable stand at the corner from my apartment, and I dropped by yesterday to buy some fresh vegetables for my pansit
I also bought some stuff in the grocery for the lemon pound cake that I also baked. I have this stand mixer that was given to me by my manager at work a week ago, too. The history there was that I had a failed experience in buying a mixer in Amazon, there were some parts mixing. While I was telling my disappointment with her during our hike some weeks ago, she said that she got an extra and she’s actually thinking how to get rid of it because she wants to buy a new one for her daughter. Voila! She decided to give it to me instead, and it was good as new. I tried it for the first time yesterday and I love how it wasn’t noisy and a very efficient machine! I look forward to make some bread or even cinnamon bread soon! Yum! 🙂
It’s the third day of the lockdown, and my friend texted about the church being open today for mass celebration. So I made an attestation from the Covid Tracing app and went to the cathedral. Today is All Saints Day, a Catholic holiday.
It’s my first time to go out since the lockdown started and I don’t really like it much because I have to fill up an attestation to justify my presence outside. I would rather stay indoors. But during the 1st lockdown, I also rarely go out and it almost drove me nuts, trying to overcome cabin fever. We can still go out but, in order not to defeat the purpose of this lockdown, we all have to respect the rules, and most especially to stay indoors as much as we could, and only go out when we really have to. Gosh, I have another mission this week, an appointment at the Prefecture, so I have to go out again, and just thinking about it is making me apprehensive.
Last night, France watched and listened to President Macron gave the details of the current COVID situation in the country. I waited in bated breath (yeah, I was really anticipating this the whole day. It’s what we all talk about in the office earlier) on his announcement on what will be the next measures to protect everyone from the virus and to help the healthcare workers from oversaturation of French hospitals.
And there, he said it.
France will be back into lockdown this Friday, October 30, until December 1.
I woke up this morning, somehow disoriented because the someone perhaps decided to fix the roads around my area and ended at 3am. I went out to drop the clothes and other stuff that I want to give away, and passed by the nearby boulangerie. I need a fix of some good baguette and pain au chocolat to start this day.
I deserve this!
As the day continues, I could feel the people’s reaction from last night’s announcement. Traffic is everywhere. It’s a bit noisy outside, and when I went out for a quick grocery run (I did not buy toilet papers, I have enough), there are lots of people outside, too!
After work, I decided to go around my place, too. I walked down the road of Albert 1er and passed by people who seemed to be in a hurry. There was a queue in a store for hair products (I understand them. I bought a box of hair coloring, too). There were lots of people at the sea front, most seemed to be like me, looking out at the sea and appreciating the moment while we’re still not in lockdown. I took some photos (I shared some of those in my IG) and continued walking. I reached the old town and walked around, too. There were lots of people going their way, preparing for the lockdown for sure. I dropped by Antibes Books, the English bookstore and bought a couple of books to read at home. I continued going around, wherever my legs could take me. I ended up buying myself a smoked salmon sandwich for dinner. I had it wrapped so I can enjoy at home. Asia Freres, the Asian grocery, was also full when I decided to drop by. I bought a few items and then, went home.
I’ve been telling myself, this will only take a month, although some news say that this was only the initial plan and may be extended. I don’t know. But what I hope is that this second lockdown will help the health workers. I hope this lockdown will work. I hope this ends soon.
How about you? What did you do to prepare yourself for the lockdown or quarantine in your area? 🙂
This week, I downloaded Tous Anti Covid, a tool here in France that was created to trace the chains of contamination of the Coronavirus 19, especially in areas that are high in numbers of circulation. This can be downloaded in Apple or Google Play.
I admit that it’s scary to activate it, as shown below, because the mobile app requires you to open your bluetooth. When the bluetooth is open, you have an option to activate it. This will enable to detect anyone nearby who uses the app – and reported that they have tested positive with COVID19 – to notify you when you have come close in contact with them. Once this happens, it will send a notification in your mobile phone, sending awareness that you isolate yourself to avoid spreading it out to someone else as well as some instructions on what you can do. It is important to take note that everything and everyone is anonymous. Privacy is still respected here. You will only know that you have been in contact with someone within a meter for at least 15 minutes – but you will not know who. It is now up to you to self-isolate/self-quarantine to protect yourself and others for further contamination. The app has several guided information and what’s good about this? It’s in English! Maybe, it automatically defaults to my phone since that’s my personal preference, but I hope that it also has something in French. This should be easily utilized by everyone in France and it will be very helpful that it is well-understood by most locals.
I activated the app on my phone. I’m grateful that I’m safe.
It is free and voluntary, so we have an option to activate or deactivate. Since the aim is to be able to have an early detection and prevention, this will work only if a lot of people will download and start using the app.
I think that this will only work effectively if a person who took a test or tested positive with the virus was able to download and record it in the app. Otherwise, we will all just be walking around with this app in the background and not knowing that an asymptomatic person have already come close in contact with us.
The government released a whole page dedicated to inform everyone about this new tool and it is found HERE.
Also, since there are now 54 Departments and one overseas territory under curfew for the period of six weeks, the mobile app also has a link that provides the certificate that you need to fill up if you want to go out within the period of curfew from 9pm to 6am. It’s almost the same certificate that we have to fill up during the 3-month lockdown last March – May. I just wonder who walks their dog beyond 9pm…
I hope this information helps. The app still makes me anxious. I try my best to live with the virus, doing the normal things but with utmost caution. I hope that I won’t get any notification from it. Anyway, it will help us protect ourselves and other people. I also hope you would try to download and use this. And hopefully, we could overcome this pandemic soon.
I just got home from an impromptu dinner with a dear friend. I went to her to get some insights in my current situation and she also shared with me some of her experiences. It was all inspiring and insightful, and after a very good meal of osso buco and risotto (my first time, actually!), I went home ready to call it a day and rest.
This morning, I went to the mountains with some friends. I forgot what is it called. I may have to check the photos later to see the details. But all in all, the hike was great, I had a good time and I had a good view of the coast.
Wandering Pinay 