Confining Journal

Monday 20 April 2020
Read the confining journal of one of our coworker...

Day 1

March 17th, 2020. At noon, the lockdown will begin. I took advantage of my last free morning to hit the road. I decided to spend the shelter in my chalet, lost in the mountains. A very limited WiFi connection awaits me but enough so I can manage a minimum of work (and access Netflix). I decided the isolation of the mountains would be good for some “me”.

Day 2

March 18th  I woke up at the break of dawn for a relaxation session in the great outdoors. I took advantage of the total silence and calm to recharge my batteries. The sky is superb, and while observing the sun's rays on the dewdrops, and the butterflies flying I realized how very special this place really is spectacular. Being quarantined will maybe actually be a good thing.

Day 3

March 19th  The pond next to the cottage is calling out to me. Today, I will try my hand at ricocheting like when I was young ! It won’t matter if I don’t get it right straight away I’ll have many days ahead to practice...  This morning, next to the chalet, I believe a saw tracks hopefully they are from a dog not a…

Day 4

March 20th  I jumped into a new book, the cover enticed me, ready for an exciting read. With the first 5 pages read and I still haven't a clue what it's about. It's difficult to dive into anything at the moment. On top of that, the birds outside my door are chirping and singing so loudly I can’t concentrate. Wonderful you guys are happy and gay while I’m going a little stir crazy.

Day 6

March 22nd  You sound like you're making fun of me, tweeting and singing like that all day. If you can call it singing. Hold on, I'm gonna go get my bb gun and have some fun, still want to chirp now ?

Day 7

March 23rd  No wait, I'm sorry I said that, I have felt bad since yesterday. It's nice to have a friendly face around... Can we be friends ? My success is yet to come at the ricochet game I think it comes from the pebbles, useless things can’t even skip. So the “dog” well I believe it is actually a wolf I was hoping it wasn’t and in fact there are many of them and they’re lurking just outside my window. After hearing them howling last night, I went out to try to spot them in the woods well I did and now I'm freaking out.

Day 13

March 29th  I saw "The Call of the Forest" before going into lockdown. And... imagine that I find gold in my pond. I'm gonna be rich once I get through this. There is a lot of gold in my pond (but you don't know where my pond is).

Trying out new things today cause I am pretty hungry and veggies aren’t abundant, I ate mushrooms for lunch. Yippee. I found them this morning in the forest. I believe I know my mushrooms so thought nothing of their color… red. Very red but oh so good.

Day 19

April 4th  Wowza ! Those Red mushrooms were a really bad idea. Total blackout ! I just woke up from it... is lockdown over? I'm so hungry so so hungry. I gonna find me some food with my bb gun here I go hunting for my food like many before me and I know what I'm gonna eat first. Sorry, buddy.

Day 20

April 5th  Awhile back I took a half-day botanical course with Quentin, my guide. He seemed very knowledgeable, but I can't remember what he said about the many herbs and grasses round me, well they can’t be worse than the red mushroom. So happy I found some that tasted like cucumber so when I closed my eyes I and imagined I was having a gin and tonic with cucumber.

Day 21

April 6th  My precious... my precious... Olala what's that? Mommy... I'm scared.

Day 25

Yes! Really super bored I started hunting round the chalet and I found some Genepi, stock of vials in the mazot. Amazing, amazing, so smooth, a little too smooth wow  I am feeling a couple of sheets to the wind, luckily cause I hear sniffing sniffing sniffing and I am not even worried about the wolf and his many friends.

Day 27

My precious... gold, so much gold from my pond in your pockets. My precious...

Day 30

What day is it? Still in April or is it May ? My morale is good, I've only been here 2-3 days right. I'm going to throw more pebbles into the pond. What about the gold, could there be, maybe I could find some real gold ? My friends the shriekers are still hanging round scoffing at me.

Day 40

10 days have passed and I am proud to say I have made some new friends, the wolves, we’re friends now. I think food isn’t the issue they just want to hang out. I observed I studied and I shared some food and I have become a part of their clan. They seem to recognize their scent on me. From now I will only whimper and or howl.

Day 45

Aaahoouuu

Day 47

Aaahoouuuu Aaahoouuuu Aaaahoooouuuuuuu

Day 55

So back to the cabin they in fact didn’t consider me like family but wanted me to be a big part of the family meal… It's freezing outside again. I've got so much company in the cabin. I decided that sharing was the only way out intact. So I'm teaching Savoyard patois to the little people of the forest. They seem to like it.

Day 58

Fou pâ pètâ pè iô kon-n-a l'ku, atramèn on s'fâ on golè é rên. Ok?

Day 78

It snowed last night. When I opened the door, I saw traces of strange little paws. Looks like the animal is limping... Is it wounded? And there... I see it. It's dark. It's looking right at me. It's staring at me with its big black eyes. Only a few meters away. It's... it's crazy. NO No it can’t be the dahu exists. The mythical character from the Savoyard story books and I am the chosen one. He's chosen me this evening to say I have seen the dahu. My friends will never believe me.  

Day 80

Fou pâ pètâ pè iô kon-n-a l'ku, atramèn on s'fâ on golè é rên! Don't fart higher than you’re a.., or you'll blow a hole in your kidneys! It's not that complicated, eh...

Day 83

I can hear the echo of bells coming up from the valley. What the hell is that ? Can’t a man have his peace and quiet please ? The light's blinding me outside. I hear people screaming. They're shouting and they're getting closer. They're shouting out a name, that I don't recognize. Are they coming for me ? How awful. Haven't I almost died enough times in the last few months ? Spare me, I don't deserve this!

But... wait those faces look familiar. The little beings in the forest had the same heads. Am I still delirious, am I seeing things. Up ya go another tiny bottle of Génépi straight up...

Michelle? Damien? They've come for me!

They have wasted no time, in the van on the way home, they gave me a laptop to work on. Of course my story is interesting but what experience can we make from it. I have to get to work since in fact I didn’t do anything for the last 83 days.

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