Month: July 2020

Feest Isolation Days – 31  July

It makes such a difference to life when there is a little sunshine and  blue sky.  Even if it doesn’t last all day, a bit in the morning and life is generally sunnier for the rest of the day.  I understand wanting to head to the sun!  For the past nine years we have left the cold and wet and dark winters behind to find summer in another part of the world. I do understand.  What I find more difficult to understand is how in these covid times, people are still booking holidays abroad and then annoyed when they are not going to plan! I understand I really do. People want things to be as they once were. Who doesn’t?  But they just aren’t I’m sorry to say. Not yet. Not for awhile.

Our garden was filled with babies awhile back…of the green variety.  We weren’t sure back in March and April if we would manage to get any plants at all as the garden centres were closed. In fact, we have some of the best plants we ever had.  The on line suppliers that we found only had the smallest plants and tubers available.  The little babies are now either teenagers or fully fledged adult plants throwing up the most splendid flowers.  Begonias, cosmos, sweet peas, fuscias.  Our dear friend in New Zealand, Bernie sent us a lovely reminder from Ralph Waldo Emmerson.  “The earth laughs in flowers”.  Well I have to say in that case our garden has tears running down its green face from laughter!  Here are a few current photos. Our  “babies” have grown haven’t they?  Lessons learned from covid…start with babies and bring them on.

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We had a “matinee” this week. We never watch television during the day.  Unless of course it’s a rugby match! Or Terry might possibly watch some cricket…but because we were Zooming with friends in New Zealand in the evening we decided to watch the last of a series we’ve been watching. It seemed appropriate.  If we were in pre Covid times, we would most likely have been at the Theatre for a matinee.  Going to the Theatre Royal in Bath always started by getting on a train (don’t do that now) having some lunch out (don’t do that now) sitting in the theatre (don’t do that now) and then heading home on the train (still don’t do that now!) Our matinee experience was repeated at least a couple of times a month most months.  Our living room had to make do for this matinee day.  At least we managed to have our lunch outside as the weather has held up. (and breakfast and dinner – life isn’t so bad!)

We went for a walk not far from home yesterday and were surprised by the number of young people that were out and about.  We didn’t see anyone over about twenty five!  The students apparently are back.  What they normally do is come in July, dump their stuff and then return at the end of September for University. This year, they seem to be staying.  They have nowhere to go!  Europe is not offering the usual diversions, and all of the large music gatherings and festivals that they head to this time of the year have been cancelled.  Bored with being at home with their parents, they have stayed in their student digs.  When they head out in threes and fours on our sidewalks, they don’t move to socially distance.  They hardly notice anyone else exists.  They are in their own bubble.  Trying to grow into the next stage of your life with coronavirus around can’t be easy. They mostly haven’t lived outside of either their parents or a dorm.  There aren’t any seasonal jobs around for them either.  Good luck to them. And us.

Seeing all these young people around reminded me of one of the songs we listened to in our youth. See if it is one you remember!  Bet you do….

Be safe. Have a great weekend and enjoy whatever it is you get up to.  Life moseys along in its own sweet way.  Coronavirus changes things for sure, but while you can, make the most of what you have. The virus needn’t change us.  The UK isn’t a bad place to be.  (and for those of you in New Zealand…you really are in paradise!) Click those heels together like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz told us all to do all those years ago.  There really is no place like home.  Unless you’re a student or just starting out or are poor.  Think about them and do make the most of it!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 30 July

The results are in!  The latest report from Pipeline Women Count 2020 finds that when  women work as top executives in companies, or where at least one third of the bosses are women, there is a profit margin more than ten times greater than firms that don’t have that many women at the top.  Now, of all the arguments I have ever heard for equality, this one might actually hit the nail on the head for those men who still seem reluctant to support and work with women.  Of 350 large companies in London, only fourteen are actually led by women. Someone should tell the dinosaurs running these businesses that having women involved means the company can better understand and provide for their customers. In the largest 100 London companies, the total number of female chief executives is the same as the number of bosses named Peter – six. Priceless.

Did anyone see the results of the countries who are doing best with Covid? Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, Angela Merkel in Germany and Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan.  If you have time to read it, there is a research paper by two UK social scientists who have done a brilliant job on setting out the issues of women leaders, and why they are doing better (and they are!) at dealing with the pandemic. 

The women have it more under control for all sorts of reasons…

 

Here in Britain, there are very few women in cabinet.  And the government hasn’t quite got their covid response right have they?

We are currently watching Mrs. America staring Cate Blanchett (BBC Two). The story is about the ERA (equal rights amendment) in the US and the women who stopped Equal Rights becoming the 27^th amendment of the Constitution. As this was a period of herstory (history ….see how easy that is to do!) when I lived in the States, I knew these characters.  MS magazine was something I always avidly read, and I campaigned for McGovern the Democratic Presidential candidate.  A good, though painful slice of her story (twice!) history.

Good guys help women and treat them as equals. Sensible men include women and listen to what they have to say. 

Covid is worse for men than women according to the statistics.  Some of the reason for that is that men tend to engage in more risky behaviour, don’t socially distance in the same ways, and don’t take their symptoms as seriously. Not the men I hang out with I must say!

Women all over the world live longer than men. In what is still an unequal world for many  there have to be some built in advantages to being born female.  I can think of a few more. Can you?

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 29 July

The clock stopped.  The one in my study that has been going for years and years and years.  The battery needs to change and then off we go again.  But this time, the battery change didn’t do it.  It had had enough.  The mechanism was kaput.  I tried to find another one on the web, but there didn’t seem to be any such thing. I’d bought it so long ago…in fact it might have even been pre internet.  Remember those days?  When there wasn’t anything you could purchase if you didn’t go to a shop or look through a catalogue.  Sadly, the clock isn’t around for sale anymore. It’s a reproduction of a clock face that was once a grandfather clock.  I can buy the real deal grandfather clock, but there is already a grandfather clock in this house. One grandfather clock is plenty in a household.  Ours doesn’t bong (in fact, it does, very loudly, so I have stopped the bong – ed), it just tick tocks. Which is fine by me. My study isn’t the same without the friendly tick tick of my clock.  It doesn’t tock. It just ticks.  One of those.

Somehow the day zipped by today.  I wonder if that is because I spent so much time thinking about clocks?  Or how much I love my study. Or how I hate change.  I don’t want a different clock hanging on my wall!  I want the same one. I need the same reassuring tick to accompany me as I sit in front of the same window I have sat in front of for nearly twenty nine years.  I think the clock has probably been here that long but I can’t remember.  Too much has changed. I want to keep the things the way they were where I can.  Am I alone in this? Or do we all want to hang onto what we know. Yes, we want to move on a bit and go forward and grow but we also want to keep the things we can that remind us where we’ve been.  And who we’ve been on this journey with.

Our grandfather clock is special.  It belonged to old friends of my husband.  His family and their family were as close as close can be.  Their daughter was a little younger than my husband, and like him, an only child.  The two families spent many hours together on holidays and outings.  He remembered the grandfather clock in their house with deep affection from his youth.  When the previous owner of the clock died, the clock came to our house to live.  I do wonder sometimes who will love our clock the most and take it to live with them when we are no longer around to wind it up.  These thoughts don’t feel in the least melancholy or dark, and I’m pleased about that. There were times in my life when I was younger when I could never even think about the possibility of not being here anymore. Those thoughts  aren’t scary as they once were. I don’t want that to happen anytime soon I hasten to add, but I don’t fear that eventuality the way I did when I was younger.

Maybe there really is something to this business of us all slowing down and having time to just think a bit more about life and the inevitable.  Useful sometimes, I suppose.  On the other hand……

Is always best!

I’m delighted to say that my clever husband was able to sort my clock out.  He got an entirely new mechanism that will just replace the old one.  Thanks to Mr. Google and the ingenuity of my man. 

I’ve had time to think lots of things through and now can we please get back to normal?  Concerts, theatre, travel, holidays, swimming.  The lot. I want it all back – now. Covid seems to mean our planet’s clock is not quite right.  Could someone please change the battery?  Covid.  Harrump!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 28 July

It would have been my big brother’s birthday today. Sadly, he died far too early – two years ago – at the age of seventy-one.  He was a lovely man with a heart of gold and was very bright. He won the National Science Fair when he was in High School, and was a very able clarinettist.  In his late sixties, he got his second PhD!  The first was in Chemistry and the second in Economics.  When I congratulated him on his accomplishment, he said he had to get another one, as I had one!  Not that we were competitive or anything!  When we were kids, I would always watch him messing around with his chemistry set in the basement and lend a helping hand when he needed one. We were actually lucky he didn’t blow us all up then! He was always frantically busy. In later years, months would go by and I wouldn’t hear from him and then I’d get a letter or email that went on for pages.  We shared similar world political views, and were just beginning to have some time to write to each other and really sort out a few things from our youth when he went and left the planet. Being too busy can sometimes mean you miss what is right in front of you. Enjoy each day and those you love and do tell them often how you feel about them. 

I had to visit the GP Surgery today for a routine test and was impressed by the work they’ve done to manage during corona time.  Signs and pathways were all sorted out properly, the instructions were clear and there was no one but me in the office when I went inside.  Hand sanitizers were inside the doorway and both the nurse I saw and I wore our masks the entire time. The doors and windows were all open and when I entered and left the doors automatically opened.  The large garden had been fitted out with two mobile consulting rooms with the sort of marquee you would find at a garden fete. They have thoughtfully and carefully organised the practice and it was good to see the care they were taking while still offering the excellent service they always have.  The nurse said things were less busy, they don’t do as much as they have in the past, but they are getting used to this new way of working. While I was there I was given a vaccine against several different strains of pneumonia.  The flu vaccine will be offered to we oldies again after September.  We are trying to keep as fit and healthy as we can while carrying on with our lives.  I didn’t even know there was a pneumonia vaccine!  If you are an oldy go and get one.

People continue to moan about the need to quarantine for fourteen days on their return from Spain.  Seems to me that the government acted decisively and swiftly when they got the news that the number of infections in Spain rose 900 in a day.  Who knows who knew when this enforcement was to be actioned. And who actioned it?  It was always a possibility. The government did warn us that they might close things down in just the way they have.  Perhaps the 1.8 million UK citizens booked to go to Spain from now until the end of August didn’t believe the government would respond the way they have. The pandemic is still here.  Holidays? Maybe not quite yet.

One of the last of the Hollywood legends died this weekend.  Olivia de Havilland was pipped to the Best Supporting Oscar for her role in “Gone With the Wind” by the black actress who played Mammy, Hattie McDaniel the first black woman to win an Oscar. Olivia lived to 104.  What a woman!  From the late nineteen fifties she made Paris her home where she said she enjoyed being surrounded by real palaces and real old beautiful buildings instead of those pretend pieces that were made in Hollywood.  When she was in her late seventies, she was asked by an interviewer to explain her longevity and said, “I don’t understand the question — I’m only 78 years old!” Brilliant woman in every way.  One hundred and four….now that is  a lifetime!  As she said at a party to celebrate the 60th anniversary of “Gone With the Wind” – “Let us raise a mint julep to our stars on that great veranda in the sky!”  Here’s to you Miss de Havilland.

And to all of you…go and enjoy your life and please be coronavirus careful. 

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 27 July

The rain set in on Saturday and we busily set about doing…not a lot!  A rainy day is a great time to sort out the things that you never get round to or to just think about and continue to ignore them.

Did I tell you that the lovely woman who does our cleaning has returned?  I’m certain I must have mentioned it!  It’s such a wonderful step towards our normal.  I also had a phone call over the weekend from our amazing Claire who has been doing our ironing for nearly thirty years. Because she’s immuno-suppressed, she has been shielding since isolation begin.  Making tentative steps for us might be difficult, but she is really finding it tricky to get back to any kind of normal. I am delighted that she is going to make a start and do the ironing again.  She’ll collect it and take it home and then when she returns it, if she feels up to it, and confident enough we might have a socially distanced cuppa in the garden.  Coronavirus is not easy for anyone.

Swimming still seems off the agenda for now. I spoke to my club and asked what they had put into practice for the new opening of the pool.  Not a lot it would seem!  There is no booking system, the changing rooms are open and every other locker is in use.  That doesn’t seem enough to me. I was told that they were limiting the capacity and social distancing in the club.  That’s about it!  I might have to find another club. Then I remembered that I actually cancelled my membership in March.  I do miss my swimming, but I want to be safe. It should be one of the safest of sports if managed properly.

Meantime, one of the stories I wrote while we were in New Zealand last year, has been aired on the BBC!  I was well chuffed. You may have read it as it appeared in one of my musings.  After attending an online workshop where I was taught how to do these things, I uploaded my work to BBC Upload.  The BBC share these pieces with regional stations across the country.  Nice!  If you fancy a listen, here tis.  They did a nice job with the sound I thought. I recorded this sitting in a bedroom at the top of the house. 

People who travelled to Spain on Saturday were told they now have to quarantine for fourteen days when they return.  Shame that the Transport Minister, Grant Shapps didn’t know about this.  He left the country on Friday. And it was his department that made this new rule.  Spain has 900 new cases, so it seems a reasonable thing to have done, but how could the Minister not know?  Who made the decision?  Cummings?  As a labour MP said, you really can’t make it up!

Even bigger news, we have had our first dinner guests in the house since March! Our friends have been as scrupulous about Covid as we have and we have a big dining room table.  Plenty of space to spread out and the window can be opened to keep the air circulating.  Our normal is changing a little bit.  The dinner was great.  We chatted away from further away than we normally would and socially distanced with no hugs and close contact.  The food was excellent and the experience was almost normal.  Love it! 

For clarity… this is in Number Ten….NOT Chez Feest!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 24  July

Some fun today! I haven’t done any word games for awhile so today is a day for just a few – what’s the definition? Get your pencils out.  Are you ready?  Then we shall begin…

These are for those of us who love words and are usually convinced we know their meaning. See how you do…

1)  fastidious

      Awkward           Particular                Abnormal

2)  eldritch

      Convincing        Desperate               Weird

3)  fiat

      Error                 Decree                   Acceptance

4)  otiose

      Useless             Delicate                   Additional

5)  coruscate

      Sparkle              Fade                        Burn

Easy peasey eh?  Apparently this is good for our brains. I didn’t get them all right.  However, I learned something new and extended my vocabulary.  It is never too late to learn anything at whatever age.  I’m reminded of the story about the woman who was 90 plus. She said she had wanted to take up the violin at the age of 70 but thought she was too old.  When she was asked in her nineties about any regrets she had, she said, I could have been playing the violin for over twenty years by now and I never started.   

I have a great picture for you that I have discovered is not photo shopped but a real snap of something that actually occurred. However, the caption is not accurate. Can you discover what is not quite right about the description of the picture?  Answers to both word quiz and picture below.

Quiz answers are b, c, b, a, a.

Photo answer: The picture actually dates from 1958, during the Algerian War ( a war for independence waged against French forces in Colonial Algeria). The donkey was starving and rescued by a member of the French Foreign Legion. The soldier carried the animal back to base and the company nursed it back to health and became their mascot.  They named him Bambi.

Shame the landmine story wasn’t true.  I think rescuing a donkey from starvation and nursing it back to health in the middle of a conflict is still a wonderful thing to have done. It may not fit the current narrative as well as the caption someone came up with, but it certainly gives us food for thought.

Enjoy your weekend.

Wash your hands, socially distance and wear your mask if you need to! Remember from today wearing a mask in shops and on transport has become law in the UK!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 23 July

A real face to face sitting in a garden book group session!  We started early and sat in the sun in a gorgeous garden.  When the sun went down the fire was lit and we were all grateful for being able to spend time together. Zoom was better than nothing but doesn’t reach the soul quite the way human contact does.  The book we read  was my choice this time, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It seemed the right time to reread this and to my surprise over half the women in my group had not read it before.  As a child of the 1960’s it was a book I devoured.  Everyone without exception loved it then (all my friends did anyway) and now.  The book stands the test of time and remains fresh and timeless.  I can’t remember when I first read it or how often I have read it but it was not in the least dated. This time round I read it in a day.  I haven’t read an entire book in a day for a long time but remember a time in my life when the only important thing was reading and finishing a book so I could get onto the next one.  I was a flashlight under the covers girl.  I always had my nose in a book when I was younger. It’s a pleasure and delight to read now, although I admit that I probably spend more time writing these days than reading.  I have read thousands of books in my lifetime and suspect that my blood has a tiny bit of ink in it these days. My soul certainly is enveloped in words.

At book club we predictably discussed how lockdown and the virus was affecting us and several women said life felt more like what it used to be like when they were kids. There weren’t the fabulous holidays abroad that we all consider normal; pubs and restaurants weren’t places you went to for food. Very occasionally, as a treat you might head to the pub for a meal.

It reminded me of when I first arrived in England forty years ago. Life was certainly very different then! Pub meals were either fish, scampi or chicken in a plastic basket filled with greasy paper and served with a mountain of fries. There were no other options!  Oh yes how could I forget…sausage and chips!  Yum!  The pub was a place to drink beer. Even wine was an unusual pub drink and if you did go for wine it was served in a tiny glass not much bigger than a sherry glass and tasted like it should have stayed in the bottle it came it.   Fish and chips and the Indian were the options for take-aways. There were no Deliveroos, or Uber drivers to bring someone else’s cooking to your door. Forty years ago there was no internet, which meant no emails, and there were no mobile phones. Red phone boxes were everywhere and the mountain of ten pences you needed to make a call was heavier than an iPad.  Life had a different tempo.  Television didn’t have hundreds of channels and went off the air after the national anthem was played somewhere after midnight.  Central heating didn’t seem to exist in any of the homes I lived in, and the ice on the inside of the windows (my spell checker just made Windows capital…which windows do you think it thought I meant.!) on a winter morning was a good reason to creep back under the duvet. Books were read in front of fires in the evening.  There did seem to be more time to read them. 

Now I’m on line a great deal more and life is lived at a much faster pace. Or was. Lockdown has eased but we older folks continue to observe many of the same rituals that we did at the beginning of all of this.   Our easing means careful book group meetings can now occur.  None of us are planning yet to board a plane or travel to a hotel for a special spa break.  We don’t seem to need a break quite like that these days. Just as well.  Our lives have eased up a bit. Our diaries are not filled to bursting with all sorts of events.  When looking for the next date for book group, I had my friends in stitches reading out what my iphone diary told me was happening over the next weeks…rubbish out….garden bin out…rubbish out….not much else.  Instead, we now have time and with that precious time we seem to have the inclination to do some of the things we once did as kids. Like spending the entire day reading a book!  Two of us did just that.  Life it seems is finding a new normal.  But maybe it’s not so new after all.

Enjoy! 

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 22 July

Let’s take a look at where we are with the science shall we? It would be good to know if there is any likelihood of this whole thing stopping anytime in the next few months wouldn’t it? The scientific news of the past few days has been exciting.

Sarah Gilbert (surely soon to be Dame Sarah!) who leads the Oxford vaccine group says that there is a possibility of rolling out a vaccine by the end of the year. However, in order to do that the initial promising results need to be shown to work in late stage trials. The vaccine has an excellent response rate in terms of inducing antibodies and cellular responses, and is safe, but the UK has so few cases of the disease floating around at the moment that it’s hard to tell if people who have been vaccinated here are actually immune. As there isn’t a great chance of getting the virus, it means the trial won’t give the researchers the information they need to establish whether it works. Hence they have set up late stage trails in countries with a high incidence of Covid, in the States and South America. Also in order to begin a massive vaccination campaign, there will need to be large quantities of the doses manufactured. The final piece of the jigsaw on the way to getting from “lab to jab” (thanks Patrick Vallance for that one!) is an agreement by the regulators that the vaccine can be licensed quickly for use in what is an emergency.

Elsewhere, the most promising efforts in the States to produce a vaccine are having promising phase one results – the first phase of a trail designed to test whether the vaccine is safe, rather than if it is effective. So far so good though. But the numbers are small. Eight people of the forty-five in this trail have developed antibodies. Promising, but there is much to be done before this turns into vaccine.

Lots of twists and turns ahead for the scientists before we start rubbing our arms at the jab site. The latest information suggests that should everything fall into place as the scientists would like, it will certainly be next year before any large-scale rollout will happen. Don’t start booking those Christmas parties just yet…..

Meanwhile, there are more treatments being trialled and a small (100 patients) double blind trial of Interferon beta has shown huge success. This innovative approach uses a drug which has been around a long time, and has been used in the treatment of MS. The drug is inhaled with a nebuliser in the early stages of the Covid. The Southampton company behind the trial has suggested that the drug provides a 79% reduction in likelihood of developing severe disease and more than doubles the probability of recovery from Covid. Larger trials and peer reviews are required but the initial information looks excellent.

The BMJ best practice website looks at all of the potential emerging treatments and for more information on what is happening around the globe with treatments, peruse their page.

https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb/3000168/emergingtxs

In Bristol, frustrated by the lack of data crunched for us to easily see the numbers of people with virus in our city, Professor Feest put his data hat back on and developed a chart for us Bristolians. The number of people with Covid in Bristol is reassuringly low.

For further information about your area, ask nicely and Professor Feest might oblige with a chart.

It isn’t over yet, but there are huge numbers of people working flat out not only to help those who already have the disease, but to help us all from getting it. You’ve got to love those scientists! I certainly love mine. Stay safe.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 21 July

Then there are the days when the stars line up and you know that despite the coronavirus, or too many visits, or phone calls, or emails, or whatever is distracting you from your goal, that you will achieve what you set your heart on.

Those are the days when the anxiety melts away and the serenity and knowledge that you’ve made the right choice settles around you like a soothing cup of tea with a perfect slice of homemade cake.

What matters on those days is that whatever you decide to do, it feels right. “It” can be as simple as making that cake, or starting to knit that jumper, or moving towards a more long term plan; start making that violin, planning that house move, writing that novel or even marrying that partner!

Goethe started me on this particular train of thought when I happened upon this quote again.

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Exploring this “train” a bit more, however, I discovered more about its origin. Right track but not actually the Goethe train! 

A poet and translator, John Anster wrote the above inspired by the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Faust.”

The next bit of the journey of these words comes from a Scottish mountaineer W H Murray who fills out the commitment advice and does so beautifully.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Murray was a soldier in World War Two and was captured by a German tank commander on the retreat from the battle of El Alamein. The German spoke perfect English and when asked if he was cold, Murray replied, “As a mountain top.”  The German was also a keen mountain climber and put his machine gun away. Murray spent the next years in three different prison camps.  He wrote the first draft of a book on toilet paper while in one of the camps. When the Germans found it they destroyed it. To the amazement of his fellow prisoners he began again. The rewritten work was finally published in 1947 as “Mountaineering in Scotland”. The above quote is from another Murray book, The Scottish Himalaya Expedition written in 1951.

What do you plan to commit to today, this week the rest of the year? Whatever personal mountain you have to climb, go for it. Whatever it is, as all of these people say, begin it now!  “There is no time like the present”. That bit of advice comes from John Trusler, a priest and compiler of proverbs in 1790.  The first time this wise saying was recorded was in 1562. Now that really must give us all pause for thought.

Enjoy!

With love

Kathy  x

Feest Isolation Days – 20 July

This weekend there was a distinct feeling of a new normal in our lives with a few old ways served up in a different package.  It started on Friday at the hairdressers. Getting a hair cut used to be a social occasion and a place where you were pampered for a bit! This time there was no tea served, no magazines to peruse, no chatting with the staff. There were only three people in the salon when there once would have been about ten. Everyone wore shields and Perspex kept the receptionist away from the clients. I took my mask off for the wash and cut. While different than it used to be, I still managed a great cut with the superb Karla at Trevor Sorbie.  I shall head back there again in a few months time!

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Before and After

Outside on the street, in one of Bristol’s shopping areas there was no parking. Parking spaces have been replaced with barriers and signs telling people to walk in a socially distanced way. I walked home which takes about twenty-five minutes. Very few people were in the shops that I passed and the city felt…tired.  And perhaps a little depressed. I didn’t – but the city did. The buzz seems to have gone. People carefully walk away or around each other.  Socially distancing is in force and smiles are off the agenda.

On Saturday morning I ventured out to our local outdoor market. About half of the stall holders and customers, including me, wore masks. A one-way system was in place into and out of the market, and Farro, the bakery that sells the best croissants in the world, has returned. Hence my visit!  The stall was now facing the street and a low wall separated the goods from customers. Perspex had been placed between the food and streetside and a space was left open where you collected your goods. Payment was by contactless card which I’m getting used to once more.

The cheese stall was also well organised with tape and cones keeping customers two plus metres away from the cheese. The stall holders wrap it and place purchases in a basket on a table where it is easy to pick up while not being close to the stall holder. Again, contactless payment was the only option.  The time of corona virus could be the death knell for cash!  

Wearing a mask at the market makes it impossible to smile at people. Your eyes can smile but no one can see your face. 

The next new normal was dinner at our dear friends’ house.  After 126 days, someone else did the cooking!  It was strange going out at 7 in the evening. That too was a first. Our friends set the table so we were socially distanced as we drank our celebratory champagne and ate their delicious food. It was nearly like old times. We elbow bumped our affection as we left and plan to meet again for a meal at ours very soon.  

Rounding off the “new normal” weekend we headed to visit the kids who live near Salisbury. The last time we saw them in our garden we were less good at new normal. This time it was easier.  We were all relaxed and sat around a warm fire that kept us cosy as the wind came up from time to time.  People came and went from our fireside circle and we were able to chat to the kids one on one sometimes, as well as to their parents. Our oldest granddaughter made us a delicious cake. It all felt, if not normal, at least nearly normal! 

Life has taken on a different tempo and we have all made adjustments. Just as well we are an adaptable species. We will be living with a new normal in this part of the world for some time to come. Kiwi friends enjoy your freedoms! We aren’t there yet, but we will get there eventually!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 17 July

While I was busy celebrating my birthday yesterday ( it was wonderful and a big thank you to all!) Sir Patrick Vallance was busy talking to the science and technology select committee. He wore a mask.  He also said in no uncertain terms that Sage had recommended an immediate total lockdown on 16 March.  While the recommendation for lockdown was still later than many people thought was wise, it was a full week earlier than the government actually implemented.

But Boris’ pal Dido Harding – soon to be chief executive of the track and trace system – wanted the Cheltenham festival to go ahead. As she was then still the jockey club director, it would have been a shame not to hold off for a week.  What’s an extra 20,000 deaths when you can all have such fun wearing those pretty hats on those soon to be locked down heads? 

Shockingly, Matt Hancock the Health Secretary speaking in the Commons afterwards, said: “16 March is the day when I came to this House and said that all unnecessary social contact should cease – that is precisely when the lockdown was started.”  That is not when lockdown started. Sorry Matt.  Even you should know better!  As you said yourself, in a debate in the Commons on 2 June, the daily death figures were “lower than at any time since lockdown began on 23 March”. Shame on you!

Sir Patrick certainly has had enough of not being listened to.  He and his team didn’t get it all right at the beginning that is for certain.  It is also now clear that the government choose to ignore the “scientific advice” that they say they are always following.  I wonder if Sir Patrick will be at any more Downing Street Press briefings?

Sir Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, has asked for guarantees from the government that all the Nightingale hospitals remain open at least until Spring 2021 to cope with the possibility of another spike in the numbers with Covid. Sir Simon also wants funding in place so that private hospitals can deal with the backlog of operations that have been cancelled due to Covid.  It would appear that the “Sirs” have it at the moment.  The government announced an extra 3 Billion in funding for the NHS. This is new money. 

Sir Patrick says work from home if you can, Boris says go to work,  Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask.  I know which chaps I intend to listen to. 

Meantime, we are all trying to take steps into the world that are safe and help us get back into something like normal.  I’m going to have my hair cut!  I’ll let you know how that goes.  Have  a great weekend…we are off to visit the family in a socially distanced sort of way.  Beats zoom!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 16 July

We are supposed to wash our hands to two rounds of Happy Birthday to You.  But did you know that there are two more verses? I didn’t know that.  I did know that the reason we never hear people in films sing the full song is because of a copyright dispute and a charge for using it in films or other mediums.  The other words to Happy Birthday are:

From good friends and true,
From old friends and new,
May good luck go with you,
And happiness too.

How old are you now?
How old are you now?
How old, How old
How old are you now?

The original song is credited to two sisters who lived in Louisville Kentucky. Patty Hill was a kindergarten principal and her sister Mildred was a pianist and composer. The song was originally written with lyrics that were meant for little children. “Good Morning to You”.  First the teacher sang, then the children responded with the same line.  The first print edition appeared in 1912. There is some dispute as to where the tune came from.  Also, there doesn’t seem to be any information about how this song for children moved from the classroom to the tune we all sing each and every time a cake appears on someone’s special day.  The copyright issue however has been discussed for decades and there is plenty of information about this. As litigation is something of a national pastime in America, it’s hardly surprising to discover that  this famous song has attracted much copyright attention as it also attracts a great deal of money.  According to one source, the song is the highest single earning song in history. 

Several interesting versions are around….

Here’s a Jazz version

Here’s a wonderful adventure by the fantastic pianist Nicole Pesce with her interpretation of how some of the Classical great composers would play Happy Birthday…

And finally, the incomparable Stevie Wonder making Happy Birthday his own.

If you haven’t guessed by now why all this Happy Birthday chatter is happening today, it’s because today is my Birthday!   As I nudge even closer to that milestone of seventy my hope is by the time I get there, Covid will be a dim and distant memory.  .

Must dash, I have champagne to drink and some cards to open. Notice the order there…

Have a wonderful day and when your birthday rolls round, remember, there are two more verses you can try.

Wash those hands carefully……

How old are you now?

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 15 July

The weather was gorgeous in the morning yesterday and then it wasn’t.  The rain and the chill returned. After donning additional layers, I sat at my desk marvelling that I had managed a bike ride outside before the deluge.  Weather reports that are more and more accurate on an hourly basis are still a marvel to me.

While sitting at my desk dreaming about the summer sun, I glanced towards my pinboard and noticed a laminated poster I picked up in a church awhile back.  During that pre Covid time when you could go for long walks, have a pub lunch, and mosey into a church that you found along the way.  I’ve always loved old English churches. There is something about the history and the smell that carries you away into another time and place and makes you feel like whatever is going on for you at this point in your life will change and you can always but always begin again. Those are the sentiments expressed by Max Ehrmann on the poster I found in that church’s shop and pinned up in my study. To Begin Again. It’s hardly easy sometimes and other times it’s a dawdle. I was just starting writing a second novel after a first went nowhere and needed those sentiments. 

It never occurred to me until today when I looked up the author of my poster that Max and I had met – so to speak – before. He wrote the Desiderata. That wonderful piece joined me over the years in many of my homes and I never had the time or the inclination to find out about the man who wrote it.  Predictably, he was an interesting chap.  Born to German parents in Terre Haute Indiana in 1872, he did his first degree, then went to Harvard where he did law and received a PhD. He went back to Terre Haute and stopped practising law in order to write. The Desiderata was first sent to friends as a Christmas Card!  He was a near bachelor until three months before his death when he finally married his long time girlfriend, Bertha. 

Desiderata spoke to several generations of Americans, but it wasn’t until Democratic Governor and Congressman Adlai Stevenson, (the best President America never had) died in 1965, that it reached far into the population.  Mr. Stevenson had kept a copy next to his bed.

I’ve never watched Pirates of the Caribbean, but the character Jack Sparrow apparently has the piece tattooed on his back. I might have to watch it just to glimpse those words!  Leonard Nimoy recited it on an album, and everyone I knew in High School had a copy displayed somewhere.  It’s nice to be reminded of the Desiderata for all sorts of reasons.  I bet you owned a copy at some point in your life, too.  Enjoy!

Desiderata

GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

By Max Ehrmann © 1927

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 14 July

I hope you enjoyed my great nephew’s post as much as we did.  If you missed it, have a look at yesterday’s post, Day One Hundred and Twenty One.  Fun and insightful.  Excellent work for a twelve year old!

Well!  Our world is opening up! Yesterday we went further than we have since all this began.  We headed to Exeter and saw the family in the garden. No hugs, and we were all so careful to socially distance.  That didn’t matter. It was a joy to see them in their home and the sun shone.

We didn’t stop on the way there or back and the car parks at each service we passed were full to overflowing. Planning loo breaks has become an essential part of going beyond our home.  Apparently we are not alone.  This is an issue for many of us, and timings of drinks before leaving has become a crucial element of travel these days.  Who knew?

Next stop was Exmouth where we visited old friends.  They have a magnificent view of the sea beyond their flourishing gardens.  We needed the sun shade up as the sun was beating down on us while the seagulls squawked away. 

It’s been a very long time so you might not remember the story, but I take a little Teddy Bear when we travel and photograph him in the locations we visit. I then send this to my friend who lives on Cape Cod and no longer gets to travel far at all.  Even Teddy wore his mask!  What is Michael Gove thinking when he says everyone will do the right thing and that wearing masks in shops should not be mandatory. A day later and Boris says he thinks we all should wear masks in shops and he will explore in the next few days “whether or not tools of enforcement” are required. Is there any wonder people are confused about what they should and shouldn’t do?  I for one will see what Chris Whitty has to say.  Without regular Downing Street briefings, it is hard to find the latest from the Scientists. We will just have to trust Boris…or maybe our instincts.

Our friend took matters into his own hands when Ted took his mask off!

Lilies are currently out in our garden and they are a delight.  They might be my favorite flowers.  The only downside of a lily is the yellow stain that they can leave on clothes, tablecloths and other items where they may drop their stamens. If you have never learned the trick of dealing with this yellow menace, you are about to learn something that will have you praising my name when you next save your favorite cloth item.  Take a bunch of sticky tape and pat the yellow powdery stuff with the sticky side of the tape.  It will adhere to it and hey presto the cloth item no longer has anything yellow staining it. Whatever you do – don’t put water anywhere near it. Simple as that.  It’s like a magic trick that you will never forget once you have tried it.  Enjoy those lilies, and don’t forget to make sure you have some sticky tape in the house when you do.

• 

• 

Where will you go when you head out into the world again?  If you are one of my kiwi friends, I’m not sure I want to know. You guys can go anywhere in your country.  And stay overnight. And go to concerts, and restaurants, and cafes and you don’t have to wear masks.  Am I envious? Of course!  And also delighted for you all. Enjoy New Zealand those lucky enough to be there.  For the rest of us, we will carry on enjoying our carefully planned travels.  Lockdown it would seem, is slightly easing. Stay safe.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 13 July

My twelve year old Great Nephew lives in the States and I have asked him to give us all some insights to what the past months have been like for him living with this pandemic.  I think you’ll agree he has a way with words and I certainly have learned a few things!  I hope you do too!

Love

Kathy x

A young voice from America…

My name is Alex Ighemat and I am the author’s great nephew. This Covid pandemic was a very unprecedented time and this is a little bit about what my family did during the quarantine. I am a twelve-year-old boy living in Pennsylvania, USA. My family was lucky during this pandemic because we stayed safe during the period. My dad could work from home, my brother and I could learn online, and my mom’s business was closed so she stayed home as well. Finally, after 105 days of quarantine in Pennsylvania, we went green on June 26^th. This was the last stage in Pennsylvania’s reopening plan. This allowed non-essential businesses to open at reduced capacity and restaurants to open indoor seating.

I had to finish my sixth-grade year online because of the quarantine and I can tell you, it’s not the same as being  in the classroom. We definitely didn’t learn as much as we would have if we had been taught by a teacher right in front of the class. All hands-on experiences in class such as science experiments were cancelled. We were also supposed to study a stream nearby our school but that was cancelled as well. It was definitely a different experience than the normal year would have been if we were in school.

My family and I have been staying extremely careful, doing the best we can to keep the house clean, not to go out without a mask, clean the handles of doors and other high-touch areas, and even bleaching the grocery bags so as not to get the coronavirus. We wouldn’t go out unless it was completely necessary. We washed our hands until they shined and didn’t trust restaurants for a while. We definitely did a lot to stay safe from COVID 19.

I have started a comic strip about fruit during this pandemic and hope to get it in a newspaper someday. It’s a great feeling for me to make people laugh, so I hope this will help me achieve that.

Here is one of my strips:

This Summer is also lacking something that other Summers have and that is gatherings. We can’t gather at pools, have picnics, take walks, and do many other things unless it’s with close family. Of course, we’ve still found ways to have fun like running through the hose and playing basketball. I started a garden this year and have had somewhat of a harvest of green beans and sweet peppers. Hopefully I’ll get more vegetables soon. That’s what my family are doing to have fun this Summer.

We’ve just started gathering again with people but sadly, it seems that some parts of the US are going to have to go into isolation again in the near future. Hopefully people will make good choices and another lockdown will be averted. We must keep optimistic and hope for the best as only time will tell what happens next.

Alex Ighemat

Feest Isolation Days – 11 July

Some days you need to break out of the routines you’ve established and head out into the world. We did precisely that yesterday. A friend called round for coffee and we managed to find that sweet spot between the rain and the cool breeze to sit in the garden and chat and for a few moments – we even needed our sunglasses!

After he left and we finished a late lunch I suggested we went for a drive.  Off we went to Wales. The first time since March.  We went to Tintern Abby and enjoyed the ancient ruin all over again. It opened in May 1131.  There is something about seeing that sort of place that does wonders for the soul.

There were only a few cars there on a day that in normal times would have meant we couldn’t find a place to park. After a very short walk the rain returned and we drove into the forest which we’d walked in many times before. Today as it poured, we sat in the car and drank our cups of coffee from our flask and dunked our digestive biscuits into the milky warmth and felt grand. 

For the first time in weeks we had a store prepared meal, so cooking was a pop in the oven and an easy to put together salad.  Some days it’s good not to have to cook. Or do the washing up.

 We then binged on the last three episodes of the third series of a Bosch we’ve been watching. Huddling under our blankets we thought it was time to turn the heat back on as it got so cold again. Nevertheless as we watched the rainfall from inside our cosy warm house we decided it had been a delightful day. Sometimes life has to happen unannounced and unplanned. Sometimes you just need a break from routine and a step or two out in the world and life is okay again.

Although things are beginning to open up, many of us, especially we older folks are not obliging.  We will wait and see. It seems a safer bet.  Speaking of betting, when we were in Wales we passed the Chepstow racecourse. We watched a few horses on the track running around in the rain with no spectators in the empty stands. Trainers and jockeys were wandering around as were a few groundsmen but no other people.  There was one man on the outside of the fence looking into the track. He was up a ladder in the rain wearing his green mac and holding a huge umbrella trying to keep the Welsh misty rain away from his view.  He must have placed a whack of money on one of those horses! Either that or he, too, was having one of those days when you coast and let it happen. But on second thoughts, who carries ladders with them…

Hope you have a few of these sorts of moments yourself in the next few days.  We are heading to Exeter to see the kids one day this weekend.  See you again on Monday.

Have a brilliant and safe weekend. 

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 9 July

Whew! What a lot of choices for a Wednesday evening. The weather was wet and cold but the opportunities on Zoom were varied and all experiences were from the warm and cosy comfort of our lovely home.  We couldn’t have our nibbles and drinks with friends in the soaked garden, but there was song and exercise and plenty more on offer.

Zoom singing is great. It only took me a few goes to realise that I can be the star of the show!  I can sing along with the Soprano soloists! No one hears me sing (except for the husband and occasionally the neighbours) and its fun. Singing along with a soloist is as good a way as any to learn how to improve your singing I reckon and there is no danger of anyone spotting the wrong notes I hit as this is all done while muted and wearing headphones. Verdi’s Requiem is a stretch at the best of times but it gets the blood pumping.  A masterpiece of choral music. Sadly, I had to leave the choir for an hour to do my regular Wednesday evening Zoom Pilates.  This one on one with my lovely Simone from Auckland is a feature of my week that I won’t let go anytime soon.  After three bike rides in a row my back was feeling a bit sore, and within an hour I felt better.  Better enough to scoot back up the stairs to rejoin the sing through of the Verdi.  Thankfully, someone else was lost and asked what movement we were on, and what page!  I was back in full (ish) voice.

The other Zoom options were a Novel writing evening with a published novelist and a Playwriting Course normally held at the Bristol Old Vic – both of which I would have loved to do but music and Pilates won the day. Life’s always about prioritising even in lockdown.  Maybe especially in lockdown. 

Which shop am I willing to enter, am I happy to go away and stay somewhere else? What about restaurants?  Hmmm.  These decisions are beginning to be upon us.  The answer to the shops is easy.  Not many. A health food shop that sells flowers was safe, I’ll do that again. Staying away? Nope!  Restaurants?  Nope! These are a long way off yet.  Yesterday the Chancellor unveiled his money saving plans for people who head to eateries like Wagamama.  He surprised customers at a Waga in London by serving them.  Where’s your mask RIshi?  No mask.  Customers didn’t seem very far apart and none of them wore masks either.  Not a good advert for dining out in my book.

With great reluctance but with as much caution as I can muster, I plan to visit a hairdressers shop next week.  I’m sure I’ll be fine, but the thought of even worrying about this is weird.  It’s just a haircut! My long hair is thick and heavy and needs attention.  I know I can’t hold my breath the entire time, so a mask it will be.  And no talking.  Now that will be a challenge! 

I’ll let you know how it goes.

What are you willing to begin to do again?  Knowing what you will and won’t do as we ease into the new normal is useful.  It’s all about setting your priorities. 

Don’t forget your masks! Unless of course you’re in New Zealand.  To you fortunate folks, don’t forget to book your tickets for the next Symphony Concert.  I can’t wait until that can be on the top of my to do list! I wouldn’t mind not singing along one little bit.  Enjoy – you lucky people!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 9 July

I haven’t done much with words lately. Except of course for playing Words with Friends.  And another word game that I play on my own, Word Avalanche oh yes and the word game Terry and I play together – 3D Magic Words. We have played this for years now and it keeps our brains active and we only ever play it together.  We have played a gazillion games.   I also play Letter Pad and Word Solitaire.  I’m a woman who likes words. Words are powerful building blocks. They form the basis for a society to hold discussions and enables society to function in a democratic and inclusive way.  They express our feelings and our likes and dislikes. Words are how we communicate to each other and now that we can’t be together they are even more powerful. The non-verbal clues are not there to help us. We only have our words.

A newspaper editor at the New York Times employed a Republican to write an Op Ed. There was such uproar the editor had to resign! Resign?  What happened to open discourse?  

The same newspaper has stopped publishing political cartoons in its Global editions after a cartoon was offensive to some.  Something has gone wrong, in my view.

I’ve been troubled lately by the notion that a writer can’t write a character that is anything other than themselves. In novels these days, authors apparently have to be gay, or transsexual or black in order to write a character that is any or all of those things.  What has happened to the imagined world, true freedom of speech and the possibility of exploring other through a different lens?

 As a white middle class woman, I sometimes feel marginalised these days. There are often writing support schemes for people of colour or people who are poor, or identify as a member of a group that is other…whatever other that is. There is an ever expanding band wagon for marginalised people and it isn’t welcoming to anyone “other”. Dialogue and discussion seem to have flown out the window.

We were having dinner with friends (when that was still possible) and they had a guest visiting from Florida who joined us.   I was “warned” that the woman was a Trump voter.  Warned is the word. It made me cautious.  I was curious. The woman, who I ended up sitting across from at the table, was an intelligent professional lady married to a man of colour. Or should I say, from the BAME community? Or Non white?  Indian? I can’t even get that right anymore.  Anyway, I really was curious. Why did she think Trump was the man for her?  When my friend (being provocative I do believe!) asked her why she voted for Trump I was hoping for a thoughtful and interesting discussion. That didn’t happen. Her initial answer was that Trump  brought jobs and under his tenure employment had increased.  When I gently suggested – remember I was warned – that perhaps that might have had something to do with the previous administration, what else was there that hooked her, she shut down.  She  refused to speak. “Whatever I say you won’t accept it so there is no point in having a conversation.”   No matter what I said she refused to talk.  There was no discussion.  Facts were not welcome, nor was my curiosity.  No matter how carefully I tried to speak to her, she became quite hot under the collar. Finally, I withdrew from the conversation.  Whew.  That went well.  There was no discussion. 

The atrocities of the past should not be air brushed out of history.  They happened.  They were awful.  Nothing excuses the dreadfulness of what has gone before.  Yet there still needs to be discussion. The dangers of a right wing world are clear to see. Ask the Hong Kong people what they think about the freedoms inherent in words. 

These thoughts have been swirling around my pretty little head lately as I try to understand how we got to where we are.  Some of us who consider ourselves liberal, democratic and open are being challenged at every turn.  And silenced. This recent article in Harpers signed by 150 people including J.K. Rowling voices these concerns well.

https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

Words are what bring us together and pull us apart.  In our words we can have debates and examine the past, the present, and the future. We won’t always agree.  When we are silenced by whatever group, we are headed in a dangerous direction.  Oh yes and there’s a virus around.

A little levity to help….Michael Macintyre at the Dentist…when words are changed by anaesthetic…

Enjoy!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –  8 July

There are just some days that you feel miserable. Not deep down miserable just fed up and oh no not another grey sky and a weather report to thwart our plans for socialising with nibbles and drinks in the garden tomorrow! When the lousy weather keeps at it and the cancellations keep coming, it’s probably healthy to feel a bit miserable. Wednesday is house cleaning day and that ALWAYS makes me feel grumpy so I decided I’d kill two birds with one stone and feel miserable while I cleaned today.  Who knows tomorrow might be a better day.  At least the house will be all bright and shiny and smell of polish!

Actually I feel better now that I’ve made the house hum and it’s not pouring at the moment so I can go outside before it does and enjoy the garden for a bit.  The frolicking puppy next door and the little gold crest darting in and out remind me that there is no need to feel anything but positive.  Life is playing tricks on us but it still goes on and we still have lives to lead.  Phew.  Glad that’s passed.  And that’s the thing.  These funny strange times give us funny strange feelings sometimes.  I’m not sure we’d be human if at some point we didn’t get a teeny weeny little bit annoyed! No point in yelling at the virus or the weather though, or anything or anybody really.  Deep breaths and find a good book to read. Or some gorgeous music to listen to or something else that might inspire you back to feeling just fine. Or go for a bike ride. You never know what you might see. This is always on my route and it makes me smile.  The weather has meant I’ve never seen anyone splashing in it but that needs a big…yet.

There were three pubs that closed already following the big opening on Saturday.  They all had served customers who informed them they had tested positive two days after being in the pub.  One bright spark lady landlord in Burnham on Sea decided she’d phone all of her customers.  Ninety people were on her list and they were all informed by her personally of the situation. Now that is what I call service.  She said she felt it was her duty and wanted to make sure that her customers were all told as quickly as possible.  Apparently they don’t all have to isolate, or get tested but that seems strange to me.  Why not?  I sometimes don’t understand the latest thinking on this.

Meantime in poor old Melbourne, Oz, the entire city is firmly locked down once more after 191 people tested positive.  They authorities are concerned and have said that the lock down will carry on for six weeks. 

It will be ages before this thing goes away!  Those baby steps we take go backward as well as forward it seems.

Fish for dinner tonight…the fisherman of the household is out catching fish.  Some things thankfully do change. He’s had a spell of not catching so will be in a much better mood tonight.  Four trout returned with him from the Lake!

The trout don’t care that there is a virus around. They won’t even notice when it’s gone.  Lucky old trout.

Stay safe.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 7 July

After the gales and rain and shockingly cold weather for the past while, the sun has finally appeared this afternoon.  What a welcome and wondrous sight it is too.  For the first time in days, I’ve been outside on my bike rather than on the stationary one sitting in the garden room.  Much more fun being out in the world a bit!  Biking means you see people doing all sorts, and hear snippets of conversations that are intriguing and tell stories in a sentence.  There was a man on one of the greens who had strung a sort of ribbon like length of material between two trees and was practicing his tight rope skills.  I didn’t hang around for long but he seemed fairly confident and competent.  A little further on, a little boy wearing his school uniform, walking hand and hand with his mother said, “Do you remember Mummy before the bad virus came and we used to go to Ben’s house to play after school?” That was a bit of a heart breaker.

The city is a mixed bag of lots of people queuing at food shops, and much less traffic than normal. There are also the usual idiots about who make you take extra care when biking in traffic.  I had stopped and was standing next to my bike waiting to cross the road at a blind spot and a guy nearly hit me.  He was way too far over nearly on the verge. He yelled out the window, “that wasn’t very clever was it”? I retorted, “no it wasn’t terribly clever of you”! He clearly wasn’t good at accepting a driving mistake.  Just as well I was stood far enough away from the road not to be mowed down.

The rich tapestry of life.  Sometimes we forget that there is a pandemic around – but not for long.  A friend came for a cuppa and cake in the garden this morning and it was bliss to see her. We talked about the tiny steps we are all taking to move back into the world.  Carefully.  We are in a book group together and will try and have our next group in the garden socially distancing of course.  Zoom is okay in a pinch but we all so prefer seeing each other in person.  Fingers crossed that the weather turns back toward summer at the end of the month.

Boris Johnson has said people “overwhelmingly” followed the coronavirus rules during the easing of the lockdown in England over the weekend. When he was asked if social distancing mixes with alcohol, he said,  “I think they can mix if people are sensible. Actually my evidence I’ve seen is yes there have been some places where people have been imprudent and you can see there’s been some people who have been getting it wrong. But actually, overwhelmingly, over the weekend I think the people of this country did the right thing. If we can keep it up, if we can keep going in the way we are, maintain discipline, enjoy ourselves but enjoy ourselves safely, then we will continue to drive down this virus and we will be able to get back to life as close to normal as possible as fast as possible.”

We live in hope. The World Health Organisation thinks we will have another spike because we aren’t following the rules.  We shall see.

Life is so often about perspective isn’t it?  I have a little gem of a short Oscar winning video to remind you of just that.  Watch it to the end. It’s a goody.

With love,

Kathy x