The days turn into nights and the nights are never ending…A day in the life…

Beautiful statue at the beach in Pondicherry.

At some point, we’re going to run out of photos to share of India. In that case, we’ll have no choice but to post without photos or add a few photos of the same date years ago.

 Let’s face it. For all of us in lockdown, our days and nights are relatively uneventful at this place in time. We eat, we sleep, we read, we watch the news, we stream shows, we play games, we talk, and we laugh. Click “replay.” It happens all over again.

For those of you with homes that are most of you, you do laundry, clean, make repairs, rebuild, re-do, re-design, cook, sit outdoors, talk on the phone, or whatever one does when trapped in your home.
A church we visited in Pondicherry.

In some ways, it’s easier for us. We don’t have a wall staring at us pushing us to paint it, a closet to clean, a garage to reorganize, or windows to wash. All we have to do is hand wash our clothes each day, prepare the day’s post, answer countless email messages from our readers, and pay our credit card bills at the end of the month. 

Are we bored? Surprisingly, we’re not. We could do this for many more months if necessary. We’re bracing ourselves for that possibility. As long as we are safe and have a roof over our heads, we can handle it. How about you?

We awake later than usual due to the darkening drapes in our room, often as late as 8:00 am. The routine for us is simple and uninspiring. We take turns showering and dressing, then head downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, often ordering the same items as long as they remain available.

Our Lady of Angels Church is the fourth oldest church in Puducherry, a Union territory in South India. The original structure was built in Greco Roman architecture by Napoleon III in 1855, with the architect being Louis Guerre. The only church offers mass in three languages, namely French, Tamil, and English.

Back up to our room after breakfast, we go online, checking the news for updates, often shocked by the new number of cases in the US that were calculated while we slept.

We work online, with me preparing the day’s post and Tom reading and reviewing his points of interest, often looking up facts and figures for me as I write.

When the cleaners come, we head downstairs to the lobby until they’re done. Once we return to the room, I begin my daily practice of walking in the halls, once every hour, to continue to build strength in my legs.

The stunning interior of Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Pondicherry.

Usually, by 1:00 or 2:00 pm, I have completed and uploaded the post. Tom proofreads it for errors (we often miss several) and forwards a “text-only” email copy to his blind brother Jerome, who reads it daily from his talking computer.

From there, Tom listens to his favorite podcast, Garage Logic, from Minnesota while I watch mindless drivel on my laptop, simultaneously playing with my phone. 

As somewhat of a reality TV junkie, I’m currently watching “Married at First Sight,” the Australian version, and I am on episode 5 of season 7. At least 25 episodes remain. I can stand to watch two episodes a day. 

Entrance to the cemetery in the French Quarter in Pondicherry.

When I get through season 7, I’ll backtrack and start watching earlier seasons. That should keep me busy a few hours each day in-between stopping to walk the hallways.

Today, while it’s the middle of the night in the US, I will stay on hold on the phone for what may be hours in a continuing effort to get a refund from Kenya Airways when we were turned away for our flight to South Africa last Friday. 

I’ll do this while watching my show, setting the phone down with the speaker on while it’s still plugged in. It’s a toll-free number, and I can wait for hours as long as I stay busy doing something else. 

At 7:00 pm, when the restaurant opens for dinner, we head down to sit at the same table each night. By then, I’m starving. When we’re living in a holiday home, if we get hungry for a snack, we grab a piece of cheese or raw veggies. Now we don’t have such a luxury. The snacks in the minibar aren’t suitable for my way of eating, so no help there.

A shrine on the interior of a temple in Pondicherry.

We aren’t ever hungry at lunchtime, and we’ve always waited for dinner for the next meal. But during the late afternoon, I often find myself thinking of something to snack on. 

Oh well, this is our life right now, and we must make the best of it. Usually, a cup of tea or two gets me through those few hungry hours. In the realm of things, it’s no big deal. Tom never seems to get hungry for a snack, so this is not an issue for him.

After dinner, it’s back to the room where we’ll get comfy and stream a few episodes of our favorite shows, currently Survivor and Seal Team. By 11:00 pm, we’re off to sleep to awaken the following day to begin it all again.

What about YOU? We’d love to hear how some of you are spending your days and nights during the lockdown. Please post a comment at the end of each post for all of our readers to see. It’s comforting to know we are not alone. Feel free to do so “anonymously” if you so choose.

Stay home. Stay safe. We’ll all get through this!

Photo from one year ago today, March 27, 2019:

Check out the muscles on this huge animal, a male kudu. “Little” is taking a drink from the cement pond in the background. For more photos, please click here.

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