Quarantine Diaries, Day 32

(Posted 18 Apr 2020, 13:02)

20:05 Walked past Westerpark and saw this portable electronic sign dissuading people from visiting…

Fine = €390 • Stay Inside! • 1.5MFine = €390 • Stay Inside! • 1.5M

…and keeping their distance if they must or risk a 390 € fine.

19:30 While the shortages of toilet paper, canned food, pasta and rice, all too common during the early days of the lockdown, have subsided, the shortage of flour continues to beset grocery stores in Amsterdam. Apparently the entire city has taken to baking with an almost religious fervor.

Unlike a typical family from Northern parts of India, we don’t use it to make chapatis at home1 but rather use it as for making pancakes on weekends. And even there, it’s just a member of the supporting cast holding other ingredients (mostly oatmeal) together. A packet lasts us a few weeks. We’ve been looking for one for days. Today the wife asked a grocery store employee about its availability and was guided to a bottom shelf that looked empty but had a packet lying further behind - just beyond the prying eyes of other customers. She went on all fours and fished it out. Our weekend pancake breakfast ritual can continue.

Basic wheat flour wholegrainBasic wheat flour wholegrain

10:31 After using The Scream emoji 😱 in the post yesterday, I realized that the painting depicts a person touching their face with both hands. A truly scream inducing prospect these days.

The ScreamThe Scream

08:30 Nothing gets blood coursing through your entire body like changing the bedsheet, duvet and pillow covers. The fitted bedsheet is one of those inventions that is a great idea only if you don’t have to change it yourself.


  1. Which is not to say we don’t crave them. Just that pita bread, tortilla and supermarket naan bread does their job just as well.↩︎


Date
April 16, 2020