Drums, Drums in the Deep

Captain's bLog: 25 weeks.

About a week ago the government of Canada issued a statement asking - politely - for Canadians abroad to come home due to the Covid pandemic. On the same day, the travelling contingent of our family came down with a bad case of either food poisoning or 'stomach flu' - we have no formal diagnosis so I'm just going to call it IDP, shorthand for intestinal demonic possession, which I hope tells you everything you need to know about our symptoms. We are now seven days into our collective bout of IDP and while the demon ranks seem to have thinned, they have not been driven out entirely.

Oh yes, and Small Fry developed a persistent (probably unrelated to intestinal demons) dry cough around Day 3 of the siege.

So what I'm saying is, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon. We have made what we feel to be the most socially responsible decision possible under the circumstances, and elected to self-quarantine in place in Portugal rather than trying to travel back to Canada. We've rented an absolutely stunning home near the ocean, with a private rooftop terrace and solar-heated pool, a Nintendo classic to help while away the long hours of quarantine, and three beautiful bathrooms so we can all violently expunge our demons simultaneously - no lineups! All for the exclusive pandemic price of €60 per night.

In case you're now worried about our health due to IDP rather than Covid, please note that I really do think we're on the mend. We're off of the rice cakes and chicken broth and back to eating "real" food - which the demons are still battling, mind you, although not quite so vigorously as a few days ago - and while we are still weak and tired, we're feeling cheerier and moving around a bit more. DH even made a joke this morning, which I actually had the energy to laugh at, which nearly caused me to shit my pants, but which I didn't do because I was right beside one of our three, blissfully unoccupied bathrooms at the time - win! (See what I mean? Three people who should definitely not be on an airplane right now.)

Basically, all the pieces are in place for us to have the best quarantine ever. We have the time, we have the means, and we have this sweet, sweet vacation staycation quaran-cation rental to do it all in style. We even have quarantine friends now: our French neighbours the next terrace over! We just met them this morning. Actually only one of them - the husband stuck his head over the terrace wall to say bonjour. (Yes, I realise my standards for declaring friendship have lowered substantially after six months of hardly interacting with other people, but trust me - this time it's for real.) They are also travellers who are self-quarantining in place, and they want to get together sometime, which seems like an endearingly French thing to want to do while in quarantine.

I wonder if it's considered good etiquette to bring your own wine glass to a quarantine date...? This seems like just the type of question the French would know the answer to, so I will be sure to let you all know as soon as we find out.

Be well.