THE NEW NORMAL

I returned from Russia only hours before South Africa’s lockdown was implemented. I made it by the skin of my teeth, otherwise I would have been stranded like many other South Africans who needed to cope, unexpectedly, in Japan, New Zealand, Korea or Brazil. Getting back to South Africa demanded some fancy footwork, choosing the right airline and the accessible transit airports. Rome, for example, was not a good idea.

I was in Russia to plan a new series. In our quest to travel the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South