Untukmu Para Pengunjung

Last night the most amazing thing happened. After work, John and I didn't have to squish and squash into our THQ combi. We jumped into a "champ" (a little car!) and we drove to a yoga class which was held under the stars. We stretched, breathed, felt our poor little hamstrings suffer, and felt very relaxed by the whole thing. Afterwards we drove to a Mama Mia's and had some ravioli in cream sauce. Then we drove home. Amazing! I was thinking about how "normal" this was, and yet in this context - for us - it was amazing. Amazing that we got to use a vehicle and there was fuel. Amazing that we were in an exercise class full of white people - whom we barely see in the city. Amazing that the restaurant had everything on the menu. Amazing that we paid $200million for our meal and thought it was reasonable! Amazing that we didn't have to try to hunt down a taxi to come home. I hope I always remember to thank God for amazing things!

I must admit that it is a wonderful thing to see food back in the shops. Of course it's expensive, and one could argue that it's better for no one to access than food than to create this vast disparity in who can access food. But I'm a bit of a worrier, and when there was no food in shops for 5 months, it made me a bit uneasy. I will always remember that Sunday night when a neighbour came to our house saying, "hurry - run to the OK - everything is on sale, and it's going fast!" We chose to just relax at home, thinking we'd go in the morning. The next day everything was gone. The price war had started, and people took everything they could to hoard at home and sell for extravagant prices to survive. It was worrying but I never imagined it could last. It did - for months! We would still go to the shops - and odd items would appear like shelves and shelves of mustard or toilet paper or hot dogs at one point. If I saw dishsoap, I'd buy 2 bottles, if I saw laundry soap, I'd buy 2 bags (after the initial day, every store limited you to 2 of any given item). It's a miracle that people survived. So now, things are expensive, but this past week we have found fresh milk, bread, meat, and cheese in the shops. Even Twix bars! Amazing!