My Experience with Covid19, Mutation and Immunity

 A week ago, on January 19th, I went to take a Covid19 test. I was feeling bad and I thought it was a cold, that I had an ear infection.

My oldest daughter, a teenager, had told us over the weekend that her friend had tested positive. She was visiting her the weekend before. She had not had symptoms, but at home her father presented them.

Visiting Mont Rochelle two weeks later

That is where our story with the virus began in Cape Town, South Africa, where we have resided for more than a year.

This blog is supposed to be telling you about my experiences in this wonderful country, showing you the beautiful places in South Africa, but no, today I have to tell you about my contact with the fearsome Covid19 virus. This is my experience.

Symptoms

My symptoms appeared on January 13th. I had gone shopping with my oldest daughter. I didn't feel like going. I had done Yoga in the morning and I was weak. I had taken a two-week break without practicing it and so the fatigue hadn't seemed strange at all. I got in the car and turned the air conditioning on high. My hair was not dry after the shower. I wanted to dry it naturally. That day I thought I had a cold.

With fever

The next day I had my virtual Zumba class. I danced in the patio and without a cap. In the afternoon I was tired, I thought it had been from dancing almost directly in the sun. On Friday I woke up without fatigue or pain or anything, happy that it was cloudy so as not to do great activities that day. A friend had come to visit me to meet our new dog, Lola, the sister of our Toy Poodle, Chica.

On Saturday I went shopping with my husband. Nothing special, just the pantry for the weekend and Monday. When I returned I did feel tired but I never thought it would be because of the virus. It was Sunday when I started with a little fever, 37.5. On Monday my fever rose to almost 39 degrees. I had no muscle aches or anything like that to indicate signs of Covid19. We had eaten dinner and I had no trouble with tasting food or drink. My suspicion with Covid19 was still not present because my ear and my throat hurt a little. But from time to time in my adult life, I have had ear infections that started in my childhood. Nothing strange this time, thinking that I had abused the sun and the air conditioning at the same time.

Happy when the fever came down

My daughter and husband had tested negative on their Sunday exam. So I did not even think that I could have the virus. Especially since my daughter was the one who was in direct contact with her positive friend. Anyway, I could no longer guess the cause of my fever and on January 19. I decided to take the test.

The results did not arrive that day, they came to me on the 20th. Yes, 2020 continued to echo in my life and unfortunately that night I received the results by email and SMS. It was positive.

A Laboratory worker told me about all my Covid-19 Phase.  I will explain how it all started. On January 8, my infection began. My first symptoms appeared on January 13th. This meant that on January 23 my sick phase would end. I could go out on the street, which I didn't do, only when I didn't have any fever anymore. Luckily my fever came down on Thursday the 21st. It lasted four days.

The fever and uncertainty of a respiratory machine

It was difficult to accept that I had the virus. Me, a 50-year-old woman, who was exercising. Zumba instructor, eating juices and trying to eat healthy. No diabetes, high or low blood pressure. With a happy life. The virus that was killing lives had reached my family and I suffered from it. Well, that wasn't important anymore. The most important thing was to survive the virus

I started to get better, with a cough, but with much more energy

Finally, just as my cough appeared, suddenly, that Thursday the 21st my fever began to drop. Nothing more beautiful for me than seeing the digital thermometer with a low temperature. I arrived at January 22nd without fever, but I did not leave my house so far, and it is already Tuesday 26th. I'm not in a hurry, I'm just enjoying being at home and not being connected to a respiratory machine. I was lucky not to be part of that 5 percent of the sick who enter a hospital.

I'm not overly exhausted. My head and body don't hurt. I spend a lot of time sitting and now I really want to read and solve some pending issues of my new activity, taking charge of the Membership of the International Women's Club in Cape Town. But I take my time. Take it easy, Baby!

I was feeling better after a Chicken Soup

Did I have the new mutation, which Europe is so afraid of?

My family took a test again, even our housekeeper. They were negative. We were all happy. I have no idea if I acquired the new strain of COVID19 that is so widely talked about in Europe and the rest of the world. The one which is now more contagious. When I was sick with a fever, I remember the Prime Minister of England, Boris Johnson, giving a press conference, and warning of the new mutation in his country, which, according to research, was more deadly than the first strain in 2020. At the time, I just wanted to survive as fast as possible in those days. Get out of the fever.

Now that the worry for me has passed a bit, my husband jokes and says that now that I am immune for 6 months, I am the official person in charge of shopping. But was I not before? Yes, I always walked everywhere looking for the things that we needed. I didn't go to the gym, I went to the beauty salon, always careful. I don't know how many times I cleaned my hands with disinfectant. But apparently I couldn't stop the virus.

Something that made me weak despite all my care: not getting enough sleep

Trying to eat healthy with Daily Dish

There is always something that makes us vulnerable to disease. To avoid this, since March 2020, we are eating healthier as a family. 4 days a week I cooked a plan for Daily Dish, a company that provided us with 4 recipes with all the necessary ingredients, without having to go to the supermarket. Obviously the other days of the week I also try to eat healthy with my recipies.

Juice with spinach, carrots, celery, pineapple,
cucumber, beet root, ginger, lemon
turmeric and cinnamon

For more than 8 years, we have been drinking juices in the morning, before breakfast. From Monday to Friday, the weekend we take a break. Basically alkaline, with more vegetables than fruit. But since we lived in Cape Town, I included more fruit than vegetables. But since January 2021 we went back to alkaline, at least my husband and I. My daughters continue to drink the fruit ones.

After Christmas 2020, I came out of my comfort zone and increased my running on the treadmill for 20 minutes instead of 15min. I wanted to do something to improve my metabolism, because since I reached Menopause, in the year of Covid19, I have noticed that it is easier for me to gain weight. Everything was going well, until I started to sleep less because our new Toy Poodle puppy took woke us up every day at 6 in the morning. I have always slept excellently since I arrived in South Africa, but since December arrived, it took a while to get to sleep at night. So doing the math, I managed to sleep at 12 at night, to wake up at 6 in the morning.

I ran 20 minutes 3 times a week. I was not
SpeedyGonzalez, but I was feeling great!

I'm not complaining, but I was a little tired. Now my sleepless nights are gone and I've been sleeping since 10:30 at night. We know that this stage will pass when our puppy grows up.

Grateful with life as never

All this doesn't matter anymore. I am improving and I know that soon everything will return to normal. At home we will be more careful because I do not want my husband to be the next to be infected. For now, no pijama parties for our daughters. We lowered our guard and gave them permission so that they could live a little more socially in this phase of isolation with the virus, but unfortunately it did not work, because we fully came into contact with someone who was infected.

I am Zumba Instructor since almost 9 years!

Be infected from Covid-19 for me had 2 sides. I just had fever, no muscle pain and I could always stand up and eat a little bit. I was weak, like if I had a flu. But the mental impact on me was so big, specially when I got the cough. I was afraid to go the hospital and be connected with a breathe-machine. 

Now I am feeling well, I am very happy I always did Yoga and meditation. Since Lockdown level 5 I always used the App Headspace. And I used some breathe exercise during this time with Covid-19. So I can get more calm and don´t think the worse. Yes, I was trying to be positive. And of course, my Husband always told me, "You will be fit again!"

Yoga is great for body and mind
Yoga and Zumba, best combo ever!

I am very convinced with Yoga you learn a better way to breathe. And I guess your lunges get strong. And you get calm and happy in your live. For me Zumba and Yoga are the best combination to be fit. Of course I like to do Pilates, but with Yoga I always have this sensation of being flexible and less stressful. And if you dance in a Zumba Class, you feel like you can fly. You are the queen of the dance floor!

The news about to be inmune and my feeling getting Covid like the vaccination against Yellow Fever

In March I heard the news about the immunity in South Africa. It's been revealed those infected with the newest variant of the virus are not only protected against this variant in future but also against earlier ones. The announcement was made by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande at the first week of March.

Ok, now many weeks after I had Covid 19, I can tell you something. In those days I was suffering more or less like when I get my Yellow Fever vaccination before I came to South Africa.

Yes, we needed to get this vaccination when we applied to the Visa in Switzerland. I had this kind of symptoms. This is my feeling about having this virus at begging of 2021.

Unfortunately we do not know when we will be vaccinated. Here in South Africa the plan is not concrete, unlike the countries that started vaccinations since December. We try to be positive despite this uncertainty. And we are especially grateful to those who write, because despite my contagion, I was able to stay home and I am coming out of the disease without too many problems. I never thought of catching it, but it happened and now I can thank life for surviving. Health is the most beautiful gift you can count on. I kept taking care of myself and mine. Stay Safe, don't forget the mask and the hand sanitizer!

Celebrating one year living in our new home, Cape Town

South Africa mountains

Hello! I'm already back on this blog to tell you that we already celebrated a year living in Cape Town. It has been a beautiful year, although we have stopped seeing many new places in this country, due to the Corona Virus epidemic.

But today I'm going to tell you how we got to this house that is located in the Bakoven area. Between the mountain and the beach.

Bye, bye Dubai

As I have told you in my previous post, we live in several addresses before reaching our definitive home in this city. The reason for the delay was due to the fact that the container with all our belongings could not enter the port of Cape Town due to bad weather. For this reason, the ship with our container had to first travel to the South African port of Durban and leave other goods.

Our weeks of waiting were many. We left Basel, Switzerland, in July 2019. From July to September we live with the uncertainty of the arrival of the container. 5 weeks were expected. Of course, there were more. With this uncertainty, we went on vacation to Dubai, as my husband had a meeting in Europe. At the end of a week in the United Arab Emirates, he would continue his trip to Switzerland, and we would return to the new house in Bakoven, Cape Town, to receive the furniture, because just before traveling, they had confirmed the date on which our container would arrive. This was on October 8.

The day has come, the African-style move, but first, to prepare our beds

Our container finilly arrives

We arrived from Dubai on October 7th. The plan was to sleep in a hotel, because although we had the keys to the house, we didn't even have a glass to drink water. But before we go on vacation, we buy some folding mattresses. It was an investment, but we no longer wanted to sleep in hotels or vacation homes as we had been doing since July.

That was how we found the Snooza store, on the internet. We bought two mattresses for weights of less than 80 kilos and one of more than 80. These mattresses would serve us for when we had visitors. And yes we have used them because our daughters have had many guests to sleep during the weekends.

They opened the seal 
from Switzerland

The task of planning all this just before we went on vacation was not easy. We had to buy pillows, sheets, plates and glasses to eat and of course, napkins and even towels. We even buy rugs to get out of the shower. Warm bedspreads were not necessary, as we already had three. The nights in South Africa are cold and those we find in hotels and vacation homes were not hot enough. But these have been a very good investment.

Finding a new place for 
this garden chairs

First meal at new home

We arrived from the airport. It was almost night, but we had rented a shuttle to get home safely, to the new home. Everything went great. We went into our new house and well, we had a refrigerator that we had bought in September. The typical American refrigerator. And we had filled it with three packets of frozen pizza, Tetrapak milk, and some wine. That was our first dinner in our new home.

The night was short, I slept after taking a bath to relax from the trip. The next morning I would have to take my daughters to their new school, the International German School. So I set the security alarm and we went to sleep.

The packers arrived, but not the container

And on October 8 I returned very excited from the German School. The container with our furniture from Europe, would arrive at 9 in the morning. And yes, a group of 5 people, 4 men and a woman rang. They were ready to unpack. The only problem was that the container had not arrived.

Packers option to empty 
one box

These 5 people were waiting for the driver who was transporting the container. Apparently, this one had no GPS and could not find the address. It took him an hour and a half to get to our house. Meanwhile, the packers rested. Good, because afterwards they had to take down a lot of boxes.

The truck arrived. Three packers lowered the boxes and two controlled the number of each box on the list that had been sent to them from Switzerland. I have many comments about it. In Basel many packers arrived. They were very well organized. The boss was a grumpy man, but he knew what he was doing. In contrast, the packers here were not organized. Three people were not enough. Too much physical work, especially since our house is level. And the worst thing is that the next day only two were unpacked the boxes.

I tried to organize them, explaining where the boxes and furniture would go. But they were just too tired to go up to the right place and they were leaving everything in the most accessible place. I was nice to them, but suffered to see them all disorganized. At 3 in the afternoon, I saw the whole garden full of boxes. Rain was threatening and I went and said very kindly to the woman who was checking the boxes, that I did not want those boxes that crossed an ocean to get wet. She assured me that this would not happen. And so it was, they managed to put everything on safety in the garage. At five in the afternoon, they returned home to come back the next day.

New place for our lounge

My job was to accommodate and find everything related to the kitchen. That day I had planned to have dinner at home, we no longer wanted to go to restaurants. Spaghetti with tomato sauce was our menu. I just needed a pot and the strainer. The woman at the moving house had unpacked most of the blocks pertaining to the food. I just needed exactly those two things to start cooking. Finally, after half an hour I found them. That was our first dinner in our new home. And that day we finally slept in our beds, not on the folding mattresses.

Second day of move in, 4 packer instead of 5

The next day the move continued. Now they had to continue assembling the furniture and finish putting all the boxes in their place, the ones they had placed in the parking lot.

With only two packers, the move took a long time. The men kindly tried to put everything in its place, but fatigue got the better of them, of course, because more packers were needed. Time went by very fast and I didn't see them ending. Almost at 5 in the afternoon, they couldn't take it anymore. I started asking them to finish picking up the plastic from the furniture because they were almost out of the house and they hadn't finished.

Finding inspiration at the stores

I also reported some leaks, like cups and plates. But definitely what was his problem was putting the Ikea closets back together. I told them they could search the online page for how to put them together, but they weren't interested. They said someone else would come in the next few days to do it. A handy man.

And finally they left. They almost finished with everything. I signed the papers and goodbye. But now all our clothes and belongings were with us. There was still a long way to go until we could sit quietly knowing that everything was ready.

Buying some Africa feelings

The week passed very quickly. Our daughters were adjusting to the new school and my husband would arrive on Saturday afternoon from his meeting in Switzerland. Work awaited us, but every day the sunset inspired us, a wonderful view of the sea.

Ready, with all our belongings in the new home

Finally my husband finished putting together the closets. A handy man came and yes, he was able to put together some, but he didn't finish because another job was waiting for him. That is how my husband decided to do it alone, because the boxes were in the way. If one day he loses his current job, he can dedicate himself to this profession, as a handy man, because he does it very well.

Another Africa solution

This is how the wait for our move ended. Everything arrived and now a task awaited us to organize and decorate our new home. My husband always reminds me of what I said to him in Basel, especially when we are queuing at a decoration store, or buying something new online: we don't need to buy anything, we already have everything.

One of our first sunsets in this country

In this change of country, we learned to adapt. To be very patient and to calm down when we despaired of the different way of working. South Africa is a very beautiful country, perhaps a little more disorganized, chaotic, if we want to call it that, but warm and full of friendly people. 

We were very lucky at this days, because when the packers left, our neighbor arrived with typical South African flowers and a card. A great welcome detail.

Welcome gift from our 
neighbors

Thanks for reading and until you next time. I will tell you more about our adventure in South Africa.

Reaching the fourth and fifth houses before we got our home

Lion´s Head mountain

Hello! Back to our story of living in a new country, in South Africa. Today I continue the story of our temporary homes. In the previous post, I told you about our three residences. In mid-August, we reached the fourth house. Located on Geneva Drive, in the Camps Bay area.

Living like tourists: Geneva Drive

Living in a new address

We picked up all of our Woodford belongings and drove up this street. There we were welcomed by the owner's sister-in-law. Well he lives in Johannesburg. We really liked the house. It had a pool, and well, we didn't go much, just once, on a sunny Sunday, our youngest daughter was encouraged, even though she told us afterwards that the water was freezing.

Camps Bay football feld

View from Cape Town from the
International German School

In those three weeks, it was even easier to enjoy the beach of Camps Bay, since the house was about a two minute walk. Almost daily we went to dinner at restaurants visited mostly by tourists. Every weekend with sun, we took the opportunity to walk on the beach, before going to dinner. From the house, we also enjoyed the sunsets. We were very lucky to have the view of the famous Lion´s Head mountain. All this while my husband worked in his first weeks in the new position, and our daughters began their academic life at the German International School. While they were busy, I began to walk the typical path of an expat mom-wife: carrying and picking up daughters, shopping and in the gym, which I loved: the Virgin Activ, an institution in Cape Town.

Meanwhile, our patience was decreasing. We already wanted to have our things that still came from Switzerland. The new house was waiting in the Bakoven area. But the ship with our container still did not arrive. We had to wait!

New address before going to Dubai

The last home before we got our definitive
 address in Cape Towh

The three weeks passed, and it was time to change the house again. The reason was that it was no longer available to us, as someone had already made the reservation in advance. For this reason, an apartment on Victoria Road was waiting for us.

This time the apartment was facing the sea. I cannot say that we suffered, even though we had not had a home since mid-July, because with the sunrise and sunset views, we forgot very much about the absence of the container with our things.

Perfect view from this house

The new apartment was approximately fifteen minutes walk from the shops in Camps Bay, which made us walk, which we missed a lot. We were walking in a very safe area, there was no need to be afraid, because the country is insecure. This is a very touristy area and during daylight hours there is no reason for concern.

The temperature in Cape Town was increasing. Summer was felt. August was giving us hotter days, reason for our daughters to arm themselves with courage and enter the pool in the afternoons to enjoy the sun. And we enjoyed them with the ocean views.

Definitly, we love our new home city

But soon we would pack up and leave this apartment as our daughters' vacations would begin. My husband would have a meeting in Switzerland. So we decided to spend a week in Dubai and then he would travel alone to Basel and we would return, to our new home, to receive the container furniture. We were already getting close to leaving the life of nomads. But I will tell you about this in my next post. Thank you very much for reading me on this adventure in South Africa!

Living in five different homes. Part 1

Hello, back to tell you more about our new life in South Africa. The road was still long when we arrived back in the country, after leaving our home in Switzerland. In total we live in five homes, all of them in the Camps Bay area, one of the most visited tourist beaches.

Blue Views

In Blue Views

The first place we stayed was Blue Views. This was the first week in July in which we visited the city to find a new home. Blue Views is located almost in front of the beach. A very safe place because the Camps Bay Police station is right in front and because access to restaurants is only 3 minutes walking. It was very nice to live here for the wonderful view of the sea and especially for the walks on the beach just minutes from the apartment. Another aspect that we really enjoyed was the possibility of buying food for cooking in this department. Just two minutes away we had the Pick and Pay and Woolworths stores.

Camps Bay

During that week, we live sincerely like many tourists who arrive at an apartment in Cape Town. We definitely recommend this place to stay. By living here we were very sure that yes, we did want to live very close to Camps Bay. Why? Definitely for the views. Our dream was to find a home with an ocean view. I will tell you this later.

The President Hotel

With the view of Lyon´s Head

Just after a week, we returned to Switzerland and said goodbye to Blue Views. It was the time when we left our home and took care of moving and other important things in Switzerland. We spent our last night in Basel at our favorite restaurant, which is also a hotel. Au violin That July night, it was one of the hottest nights in Switzerland and of course, there was no air conditioning in the hotel, something very common in Europe.

And we travel again to Cape Town. We were at the end of July and it was still winter in Cape Town. We were living two weeks at The President Hotel. A place located in the Sea Point area, very popular for its shops and restaurants and for its beautiful boardwalk. We were in a room overlooking the sea. The hotel has a nice pool, but we didn't even get the idea of ​​going inside. We were only sunning ourselves a little in their beach chairs. We were very impressed by the national and English tourists because they did enjoy the icy water.

No place for the fridge?

The hotel is very famous for its restaurant. My favorite dish was fish cakes, fish cakes. Delicious. There we had a room type apartment, but without kitchen, only microwave oven and refrigerator. By the way, from this last device I can tell you that they left it in the middle of the kitchen. It was our first impression about Africa. The table in place, the shelves in place, the plates in place, each piece of furniture in place, but the refrigerator, no, was in the middle of the room.

Sunset at The President

This did not discourage us and we really enjoyed those two weeks at Sea Point. Especially because we visit many restaurants. But time was pressing and we would soon visit our third place to live. Another apartment in Camps Bay. Meanwhile, we really enjoyed the walks on the beach and we even walked to the Waterfront.

Sea Eagle: getting to know the winter side of the city

And we arrived at the new apartment located on Woodford Street. Until now we had been very comfortable regardless of whether it was raining or cold. The new apartment was one of three in a house known as Sea Eagle. This was a recommendation from our Relocation agent. On the internet it looked great. Well, we arrived and our new abode was in the pool area. It had no main entrance, it was entered through the garden door that connected to the pool.

Nice view in this swimming pool apartment

First we had to wait two hours to take care of the departments, Lucas. We are very desperate for his delay. Then we begin to realize the negative things about this place. The pool was the most beautiful in this apartment. We were not happy to enter through the pool door and also could not close from the inside. We had to close it outside and enter one of the bedrooms that were next to the pool.

We suffer a lot from the cold. Apparently, not all houses are well insulated and this place was an example of that. If we watched television, we covered it with a quilt. In the bathroom we froze when bathing. We had to buy a Dyson heating. Even extra bedspreads we had to buy to not freeze at night. The house had an electric heating that of course we do not hesitate to use. But it only heated a room.

We celebrate in this place my husband 50th birthday

The apartment was not bad, but our biggest problem was security. We were almost in a basement unlike the other departments of the house. In the garden, anyone could cross the fence without any obstacle .. There was no electric wire and barbed wire, it was totally scrapped. On top of that, the windows could be opened or forced easily. One night, our youngest daughter told us that she had seen a man in the garden. It turns out he was in charge of surveillance, but we got scared. The oven on the stove did not work and you even had to go to the supermarket to buy electricity.

We needed to buy electricity

Enough. After three weeks, my husband dedicated himself to finding a new home before our furniture arrived at the new house. So we said goodbye to the Woodford Street apartment number 4, Sea Eagle.

Bye, bye Sea Eagle appartment

In the next post I will tell you about our last two homes that had better security. For now, I wish you a good week. Thanks for reading!