I believe that most people here in France was tuned in on TV last Easter Monday, April 13, a French public holiday. President Emmanuel Macron has scheduled a speech at eight in the evening and we anticipated that an extension of the lockdown would be announced. Indeed, the confinement will be extended until the 11th of May and at that point, I told myself that I can still manage. Sometimes, it was taking its toll on me mentally and emotionally. I have to reach out to my family and friends, and it was difficult. In those first few days that I was confined here in my apartment, I had my firsts with the things I have been wanting to do.

I was able to bake my own bread. I am not a professional baker, so the bread that I made was not perfect. But I am willing to try again, and hopefully, the yeast would be my friend soon.

I also made chocolate crinkles for the first time, and it was good! Most of the people I know back in Manila love chocolate crinkles. It is a popular pastry we have there, and if you have tried the one from the ADB canteen, it would be difficult to compare it with anything else. I have tried it before when I was still working in Makati. I went there for a product presentation and in return, they gave me their own brand – the much-talked about crinkles.

During lockdown, I was able to complete the 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle that I bought last year at the bookstore in old Antibes. I did it for six days, and when I don’t know where to put it as well as when the lockdown was announced to be extended last March 27, I decided to return it to its box.

Most of my days during the lockdown are spent working at home. Weekdays, from 8am to 5pm, I will be in front of my office laptop and trying so hard to keep the normalcy at work even when it was also difficult in this kind of situation. But I’m Filipino, and resilience and optimism flow through my veins. In between work and ‘break periods’, I would go out in to my balcony to check on my garden or sweep the floors, paint my nails, did a crazy video, talk to my loved ones, watch Netflix or NatGeo series, or take a nap. My favorite part among these is the time that I am able to talk to my family and my friends.

If there’s nothing else to do and just be lazy, let me share to you my views as I go around my apartment…

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I can say that I am still lucky during this lockdown. I know it is difficult for some, and I wish I can tell you that on my side, I am also experiencing some anxieties with everything that is going on. I still have my job even if we are in this difficult time. I hope I can keep it. Right now, I think, to make things easier and to make it go back to normal as soon as possible, we should stay home. Let’s try to help with the situation in the simplest way we could by staying at home and avoid spreading the virus. We all wish this would end soon. Our personal economies are affected, we miss our families, we miss our friends. I look forward to the time that this will end. We will go out of our balconies at 8pm (or whatever time it is in your country if you do this) on the last night of the lockdown, not only to applaud the frontliners – every single one of them, but also to cheer for them and for everyone else who have gone through this. We’re not only going to applaud but will bang our pans and pots and tin cans until it would be heard all over France, a celebration of our resilience and little sacrifice for the greater good of many.