Feest Isolation Days – 7 October
My oh my, don’t these days go rolling by! Here we are 207 days into this lockdown. The virus is beginning to rear its ugly head again. There are many of us who have been so scrupulous that we aren’t going to be changing very much at all. As we don’t do: restaurants, pubs, clubs, school, shops (three times since March!) not much changes. Several of our friends have said they are beginning to roll back on some of the things they had begun to do. One by one the small steps we allowed ourselves are being withdrawn again.
I agonised a bit over going to my book group this week but holding it inside someone’s house with six of us just didn’t seem right. So I declined to go. The numbers of people testing positive rises and so does our level of caution.
Still, we carry on with the things that we can. We have our bubble friends that we visit for meals and they can come here. That hasn’t changed. There are three couples and that’s that. Who knows if that will have to stop soon too.
We do what we can. We had our flu jabs this weekend. If you want to feel old, pitch up for a flu jab at our surgery! It was brilliantly organised. Go to the back entrance up the slope walkway and use sanitizer when you arrive with your mask already in place. When we got inside ( we both went) we were asked if we were over 65. Yes. Straight ahead. No stairs and out we went quick jab and that was that. Under 65s went down the stairs. And then of course had to walk back up the stairs. Honestly if you want to feel old…
I always love learning a thing or two, and Zoom choir last night was Zoom Quiz. I didn’t do too badly but sure learned a few things and of course I thought I’d share just a bit of my new knowledge with you.
I liked this one possibly the best. Who shared a house in Brooklyn with Benjamin Britten during 1940 and 1941? (W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Gypsy Rose Lee and more!) The house idea was set up by a former fiction editor at Harpers Bazaar, George Davis an unemployed gay man who was missing the creatives he had worked with. He invited two of his most recent authors to join him, McCullers and Auden and it grew from there. Britten joined the bohemian group in order to write an opera with Auden, Paul Bunyon. The opera never worked, as Auden said, “It is a forest full of innocent beasts,” he wrote “It is America, but not yet.”
The house no longer stands as it was demolished in order to make way for the Brooklyn Expressway. That seems to be a worrying metaphor. In any event, you can read all about this time and these interesting authors in the book “February House” by Sherill Tippins. I shall be ordering it any minute now from Abe Books! (the antidote for all of us readers to Amazon)
Stay safe and keep your mask on! I shall say no more about that, you know who I’m talking about. Makes me furious….
Enough of the fury, more of the enjoyment. Try this one from Saturday Night Live.
https://screenrant.com/snl-best-skits-ranked/
Enjoy!
With love
Kathy x