– Briiiing. Briiiing.
– What? Who? What time is it? – half asleep I pick up the phone.
– Do you have any garbage? – the voice on the other end is kind and polite.
– What? Garbage? Oh God! I totally forgot! Please give me 10 minutes. – I fall out of bed and crawl to the bathroom to give my garbage chlorine bath.
Following quarantine rules all garbage has to be packaged into black plastic bags, and sprayed with chlorine water. Done! Back to bed.
– Briiiing. Briiiing.
– What? Who? What time is it? – I grab the receiver and the whole phone collapses to the floor.
– Excuse me. Could you please tell me your temperature?
– Oh! Temperature? Please give me 10 minutes. – I jump through the room looking for the thermometer. 36.6 C.
– Blum. Blum. Blum. – This is my mobile.
– Where is it? Why is it under the bed?
– Good morning. Your food delivery is here. Please give me the delivery code.
Ok. I better get up. Sitting up in my bed I look around. I know this room. I’ve been here before.
Day 11 of my quarantine and I feel the hotel room on my body as a tight leather suit worn in the humid and hot Shanghai midsummer.
On the day 11 of isolation, the walls are physically present.
I sleep in late and don’t want to work.
A small task to record body temperature twice a day became a challenging task with tight deadlines.
Luckily for me – I learned to be extremely happy about my day if I’ve done at least this one thing: physical exercise.
And I do exercise twice a day.
Fitness keeps the walls in place.
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