There’s a countdown clock on TV, clicking off the seconds until we go into lockdown here in South Africa.

And this is a real lockdown, with pretty much no movement out of your house allowed. No going for walk, even alone. No jogging. No walking the dog. No take away food vendors or fast food or food deliveries. No veering off the path to the grocery store if you don’t want to be stopped by the police, backed up by the army. It’s pretty much martial law.

Only essential workers will be permitted, with documentation, to go to work. That includes medical professionals, grocery store workers and a very short list of others. The ubiquitous taxis, those minivans jammed with people, which are the plague of South African highways, but indispensable to the local population, can only operate between 5-9 am and 4-8 pm to transport those essential workers.

People are “encouraged” to shop at the store closest to home and for the majority of the local people, it means going to the spaza shops, which are supposed to be assisted with supplies by the government.

Supply lines are supposed to stay open to deliver food to the spaza shops and regular grocery stores, but I am concerned as even in normal times, these delivery trucks are hijacked or caused to crash in remote areas so the food can be stolen. I’m assuming that the trucks will now travel with armed escort vehicles.

Not a good time to be out on the roads!

This morning I decided to nip out to the store to be there at 7 when it opens, only to find a queue forming in the parking lot. I’d done most of my shopping on Sunday morning, at the same time and there was no one around. My, how a few days change things. But there was no shortage of anything that I could see, even toilet paper, although a couple of the shelves did look a little sparse. By the end of the day, it might be a different story.

I am all set with food and gin to keep me going. (Liquor stores are closed, so I’m glad I stocked up when I did!) And I know it looks like overkill but I couldn’t make up my mind which of the local craft gins to buy, so ended up with 6! The store, Hillcrest Tops, is amazing and I believe has the most South African craft distilleries represented of any store in the country.

So as the clock ticks down, should I stay up until midnight and watch the clock turn on the lockdown? Probably not! I think I will be locked into Netflix or my current library book - both total escapism to get through the next three weeks of isolation.