Adapt or Die - Pandemic Mindshift
We were enjoying a carefree dream holiday in the stunning Cape; traveling from the Overberg mountains to the little harbour town of Struisbaai, just before the reality of Covid hit our shores.
We returned from our holiday, very relaxed but soon became quite perplexed after seeing hospitals overflowing with Covid patients in Europe on the news and hearing about the number of deaths.
Our country went into a draconian lockdown just ten days after our return from this wonderful holiday where we could travel anywhere and of course not have to wear masks!
My son had been following developments around Covid from the very beginning, studied it in depth and warned me:
Mom, I did not expect to ever experience something like this virus in my lifetime; it's going to be devastating!
I was a tad alarmed as he is a VERY bright young man but I thought he was over-reacting, although a little voice reminded me that this son of mine is very level headed and researches subjects of interest in-depth!
The reason for his interest in this virus was that his lungs were compromised many years ago by another infectious illness so this disEASE spelt danger to him.
Little did I know how right he was and the impact this pandemic would have on our world!
Our bnb had to close its doors which meant zero income from that source for just on 12 weeks so we had to rely on our corporate pension income.
It's a Kind of Magic - Hive is Born!
Then something magical happened with the birth of Hive just at that moment in history, and I could convert my Crypto blogging earnings into rands and cents, something I'd never done before.
I started powering down and received my weekly Hive income until we could open up our bnb again!
We all know that powering down takes 13 weeks, but I was able to stop at 12 weeks and mostly used my old Steem earnings as I left that platform that was taken over by unscrupulous thugs who stole the funds of some of the big accounts.
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash
Changing our bnb marketing strategy
Even though we could operate again, the leisure guests stayed away and we mostly received business bookings, so we changed our focus to catering for that market, and it has worked, so we slowly rose up from the ashes and starting growing again!
Sadly many of the bigger players in the hospitality industry closed their doors forever and all tourism operators are still struggling.
We are super thankful that our little business survived although it's been a load of hard work.
Photo by Nagara Oyodo on Unsplash
Covid Vax - should we, or shouldn't we?
In the beginning we were listening to the many twisted facts about the dangers of the Covid vaccination, but came to the conclusion that it is due to vaccinations that many infectious diseases have been eradicated over the years. We've always gone for annual flu vaccinations and stayed healthy so took the advice of our son and my nephew who is in medicine, had our vax and are thankful that our whole household now is safer; even our staff could not wait to have theirs!
I'd rather not take the chance as we all will get Covid one way or another, there's no escaping it; although the severity will be less for those who have had their vaccinations!
Photo by Lea Böhm on Unsplash
Our New Normal
We've made our home our little haven, but are tired of the same scenery day after day, so it's great to get out and take a drive down the coast and get some fresh sea air, sit and listen to the ocean, let the wind blow away that feeling of being closeted up at home; or just a drive inland to see the countryside.
We do avoid small enclosed spaces as we can still get Covid, but thanks to the vax we will have a much faster viral clearance.
When hubby and I went to one of our large shopping malls recently, it felt like we were going out on a date!
We no longer take things for granted and enjoy exploring new outdoor places and are discovering some really awesome spots, but do miss seeing some of our friends!
For us it's been a case of Adapt or Die, and I think you've gathered by now what our choice was!
This has been my unofficial contribution to the Silver Bloggers #bow - Blog of the Week and the theme is
Has the pandemic changed your future plans?
You have until Monday 20 September to tell us how you were affected, plus stand a chance of winning a good amount of loot😉
Banner created by @zord189
Original Content by @lizelle
Thank you for stopping by
Copyright @lizelle – All Rights Reserved
Do you know this Badge?
It says "Thank you for partnering with the Papillon Foundation by participating in the
Weekly Hive Charity Giveaway."
Do you want this Badge?
If you like this badge and if you want to help too, you can learn more about @combination and the badge in their blog post:
Some Exciting News! Badge release!
CLICK IMAGE IF YOU WISH TO JOIN SILVER BLOGGERS:
Artwork by @artywink
Banner created by @derangedvisions
JOIN Hive using my referral LINK
https://twitter.com/LizelleBright/status/1437509098510200834
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
The pandemic made everyone stay indoor all through..it was quite a season...I pray we move fully over it
We can just pray that this virus will indeed the devastatimng effect it's having in some countries and that common sense will prevail so that people stop all the conspiracy theories and take control of their own health so that the world can heal. Covid apparently will be with us always, just the variants will change over time!
Thank you for stopping by @ijohnsen
True though...I got your point there..
You're welcome.. 🌝
This pandemic has been a blow to so many people. So happy you were able to build your business again. Thanks to HIVE for coming to the rescue.
Thank you @leelektrik, we were really worried at the time plus then when those awful riots took place earlier this year, it meant another blow, but fortunately that only lasted about 2 weeks as the guests started returning. We could not even buy fuel, it was just terrible!
I was shocked to hear that your Mom had Covid, but thenkful that she's well again; she really has the best kids;)
yes, it was a shock to us too - 13 days in hospital - but she was not very sick and didn't need a ventilator. We were so happy to have her home again.
Thank goodness for that as many don't make it once they're put on the ventilator!🙏🏻
Very scary - but my mom is strong - and thank God she is well and healthy
I'm so glad you and your family found a way to successfully navigate this mess. What an insane experience this has been!
At one stage it really felt like we were living in one of those sci-fi movies, just crazy and taking way longer than any of us ever thought! We are just thankful and try to make the best of each day!
Congratulations @lizelle! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 17000 comments.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
The pandemic taught me to never take moments for granted. It could be the last, or not.
I'm glad you're still kicking, regardless of the changes from the pandemic.
Very true words and thank you for the good wishes @akubillionnaire
You are welcome:)
What a story you have, @lizelle. I know there are millions of such stories, but I find it very touching to hear/read each one of them. You did something amazing by adapting and changing, and had Hive and your Steemit account as backup. It’s a great “rising from the ashes” story of survival.
We also were on vacation just before the lock down. Who knew it would go on this long?
I don't think many of us thought this would go on for so long! My older son warned me but I didn't quite believe him, probably just as well as we would have found it even more difficult! At least we can hope for better days.
The virus has mutated, that means it has adapted. But we humans are slow to adapt.
Electronic-terrorism, voice to skull and neuro monitoring on Hive and Steem. You can ignore this, but your going to wish you didnt soon. This is happening whether you believe it or not. https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism
Honestly when the news about covid first started pouring out, I was kinda sighing about how bad people were panicking. Why? Because I had worked at a hospital in infectious disease during the H1N1 freakout - and people were, indeed, FREAKING OUT - and it wasn't as big a deal as everyone was making it out to be then, so I figured this was going to be the same. I just thought, ahhh, it's another thing for people to panic about. So I was wrong, obviously, but I think that just goes to show - our news media is always about the BIG EMERGENCY STORY BREAKING NEWS PANIC OMG and so it's like the boy who cried wolf. I just kind of tend to "yeah, yeah" over a lot of it. It would be a lot easier to discern what's really a big deal and what isn't if they wouldn't make everything out to be The End Of The World.
I can understand the shock and suprise when we had to be on lockdown.
We have all somehow managed to go on with our lives having to wear face masks and practice social distancing.
Thank God for Hive you can be engaged lockdown or no lock down.
Thank you so much for sharing @lizelle .
I think we should actually all get the vaccine to protect ourselves and loved ones.