Author: Kathy

Feest Isolation Days –19 June

Ever since the last watering connection was set up in the garden it hasn’t stopped raining. In true English summer style, the rain has set in along with a darkness and both yesterday and today we’ve had lightning and thunder as well. 

Living with coronavirus is easier when you can get into the garden and into the outside world. There are no visitors in our garden sharing cups of tea. There are no  walks and outside biking and fishing is curtailed. There is no escape to the continent for some fine weather.  We are in lockdown again! 

Small pleasures will have to be found indoors. This is England. Maybe the afternoon will be less dark and rainy?  We shall see!  In the meantime, the exercise bike beckons and the blue exercise mat with all the accoutrements required for a work out wait patiently.  Today they will all see active duty.

Paediatricians are calling on the government to make a clear plan to get all kids back to school.  Over sixteen hundred doctors signed a petition asking the government to set out how students will all be able to return to the classroom. They acknowledge that many teachers have been doing a great job, but all children need school in order to thrive.  Some parents of those student years who have returned seem to think schools are unsafe. Primark shopping is okay but school classrooms are not?  I’m not quite sure what the logic is here.  I’m sure Boris will sort it out!  His decision making skills are once again in the news.  While he was contemplating not feeding poor kids over the summer with the food voucher scheme, he was making plans to spend a million of tax payers money on paint.  The plane used to ferry him around is to have a Union Jack emblazoned on it.  Where do these brain-storms come from?  Little travel is permitted by the foreign office.  How does spending money the country doesn’t have on a plane that shouldn’t be going anywhere make any kind of sense?  Perhaps the Ministry of U turns will sort it out!  (See yesterday’s cartoon)

Thinking about kids reminds me of a lovely conversation we had with my young American nephew when he visited a few years back. He was about six or seven at the time.   We were out in the garden with his lovely parents and brother on a glorious English summer day (we do have them!) and he was having a conversation with Terry about his job.  “So Uncle Terry, you used to be a doctor but now you’re a gardener?” As Terry had been fiddling in the garden his question was well observed.  Terry said yes that was one of the “jobs” he now had.  The little boy asked what kind of doctor he had been.  Terry explained he had been a kidney doctor and after a long silence the thoughtful response was, “Uncle Terry, why did you only treat kids’ knees?”  Uncle Terry wished he hadn’t yet retired as he certainly would have told that story more than once at conferences over the years! 

No kids’ knees being treated today or any other day by Uncle Terry, but let’s hope kids get back to school sooner rather than later. This is a global problem, and kids in all countries need to get back to their schools.  The paediatricians are right. Perhaps the Manchester Footballer who got their food back might spread the word, Boris is busy organising paint for his big boy airplane.

And thanks to Vera Lynn for her amazing ability to keep us going over the years.  She was 103 when she died yesterday.  Rest in Peace and Song Vera!

We’ll meet again…the anthem she made popular that we all still need!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –18 June

Then there are those days when things come together and life is lovely and we feel less worried about our future and the future for those many young people who have lost jobs, or have been separated for far too long. The “hug bubble” as the meeting with one other household has been called by some, has created some lovely moments.  One friend has a daughter deciding whether to bubble with family or friends – finally there are choices!  Another managed to bypass the family pressure and meet with his girlfriend rather than family.  Our son and his girlfriend finally reunited after nearly five months.  Bliss!  We wish them all well and long and happy days.  Hug tight!

Earlier this week the government was forced into a U turn on providing kids with free food over the summer holidays.  A footballer pressed and pressed until he got his way.  Marcus Rashford is a striker for Manchester United and England.  He managed to stop the Tory government from quashing the £15.00 a week that poorer kids get for food over the summer.  The extra £120 million it will cost the government seems a small price to pay to feed kids! Now Rashford is pressing for more concessions for people with no money.  He may have started something bigger than he could have imagined! Well done that young man.

Two people from the UK have undone the run of no new infections in New Zealand.  They were New Zealanders living in the UK heading back to NZ on compassionate grounds. For some reason, they didn’t quarantine as they were meant to and weren’t tested before they left the hotel they were staying in. They were both tested later and a positive diagnosis was confirmed.  The NZ government has now rescinded “compassionate grounds” as a reason to visit New Zealand from abroad.  These two women drove in their own private vehicle to Wellington from Auckland. And anyone who has ever done this journey will know they certainly didn’t do it without stopping!  Jacinda doesn’t mess about.  She has brought in the army to oversee all quarantine matters at all the borders, while the tracing of over three hundred people these women could have infected carries on. Let’s hope they haven’t passed the virus on to anyone. So sorry Kiwis friends.  It shouldn’t have happened.

The big guns were at the press briefing on Tuesday night with Boris doing his best. Sir Patrick Vallance the Chief Scientific Officer, and Professor Peter Horby from Oxford who has been working on drug trials were able to tell us all about the drug Dexamethasone’s role in Covid.  Boris did say the experts would be doing most of the talking.  A good idea because by the end of the briefing he couldn’t even remember the name of the drug and had to turn to Sir Patrick to bail him out.  Bojo, you blew it weeks ago. The Dominic Cummings debacle won’t go away anytime soon. No one trusts you anymore.  The Professors on the other hand…that’s a different story.  I do love my Professors! Smart people who lead us through the science and work methodically and tirelessly in their chosen field.  

My very own in house Professor was clearly missing his old nephrology work over the past few days. He has been setting up the garden with hoses and pipes and water trickles everywhere to make watering easier.  He did look like a man used to dealing with water I can tell you! The garden and the gardener’s wife are best pleased!

On the indoor home front, the Zoom dinner party calendar is filling up with three dates set up for the next few weeks.  Ah, the new normal!  I still can’t wait until the day comes when we can hug freely and entertain inside with glorious abandon.  Soon?  Who knows!  But in the meantime, Zoom it is…chin chin! 

With love

Kathy

Feest Isolation Days –17 June

The sun was shining and the evening was glorious!  Just as I started to set the table outside for dinner…the rain arrived!  Some things never change.  England in the summer means rain and intermittent sun.  The weather is so important to us at the moment.  We can’t meet indoors with our friends so we must sit in gardens. How does this square with people standing in long queues where socially distancing appears to be a thing of the past?  It doesn’t – pure and simple.  Too many people seem to think it is all over and all they have to do is wear a facemask and they are safe.  Let’s see what happens over the next few weeks.  All of Europe seems to be reopening.  Restaurants in Paris are open for indoor as well as outdoor meals.  And they don’t even have the rain to contend with!

Yesterday on my bike ride, I saw some older drunken tramps using benches and tables that belonged to a closed restaurant as they drank their cans of beer.  Yet they were still socially distancing!  Amazing to see.  They weren’t sober but they were sane.

We had planned a theatre event with our theatre pals in a few weeks time and were delighted to discover that Matt Smith and Claire Foy were going to do a two hander at the Old Vic in London.  Lungs.  The Old Vic website said that all the patrons would be seeing the same thing but tickets would cost between £10 and £65 per household.  They planned to sell 1000 tickets which represents the number of seats in the Old Vic.  Of course the only tickets left were £65. Neither we or our theatre pals thought we wanted to spend that sort of money to watch two actors socially distance on a bare stage without an audience even if it was the Old Vic.  The theatre got it so wrong!  We would have happily spent £20 or so as would our friends.  Many more people could have opted to see the play as well. Why limit it to 1000 people?

Sir Alan Ayckbourn, the award-winning playwright, reckons streaming shows to your own living room during lockdown “just isn’t theatre.” When “you watch a streamed play you might as well be watching television,” he adds.  I agree!  Still, I would have been happy to support the Old Vic and give it a try.  It’s not theatre but they are trying to pretend it is. Someone got that one wrong!  However, several days were “sold out”.  Maybe Alan and I underestimate the public’s need for theatre?

Theatre folks are struggling and the profession will no doubt be one of the last to return to normal…whatever that will be.  But theatrical folk will be waiting in the wings to make theatre again, somehow, somewhere.  Because that’s what these lovely folks do.  Let’s hope that it’s sooner rather than later.  With the lack of social distancing around we may require more, not less entertainment in a few months time! Maybe it’s time for a letter to the Old Vic!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –16 June

Today the shops open once more!  It would seem that many people – okay from the photos mostly but not exclusively all women – were desperate to go shopping!  The queues at places like Primark, TK Maxx and Foot Locker began at seven for their opening at eight.  These are notably shops that sell goods at very low prices.  No news yet on the queues at the more upmarket shops.  John Lewis isn’t opening all of its shops for ages, but the two that have opened haven’t reported on numbers. 

We converted to online shopping ages ago.  There isn’t much we can’t buy online and the deliveries have continued throughout the lockdown.  Shopping in the High Street is not something we will be doing again for a very long time I suspect.  Thankf18ully, I don’t miss going out to clothes shops, although I do miss the garden centres with their odd assortment of goods amongst the plants.

 Our plant babies bought online are thriving and are probably better than the larger and more expensive specimens we’ve had in the past.  It is such a delight watching them grow!  The tubers are especially fun to see poke through the earth. A marvel for certain, and perhaps something we will keep up when we return to something approaching normal.

What a change in our routines this lockdown has provided!  Thinking about the changes that we may keep in our gardening plans also prompts a thought on what else we might incorporate into our lives when we no longer have to stay locked down. We have saved so much money on not going out for food! Eating every meal at home is fine – after all I’m grateful that we have plenty of food – but I do long to head to a restaurant and let somebody else cook my breakfast or lunch.  Dinners in are probably better than most of those we’ve had in restaurants so I suspect our evening meals out will decrease in the future. Massive financial savings there as well.

We’ve become excellent at not over providing food and there is very little that we throw away.  We will no doubt continue to organise our food buying on a weekly basis.  I know what we plan to make each day throughout the week!  That is quite helpful for ordering the deliveries but also stops the endless what shall we have for dinner tonight daily questions we used to ask each other.  We can be flexible with our planning and do make changes occasionally but not often. 

The other routine that will remain is washing all the food and salads and fruit as they come in the door.  It will be good to stop worrying about washing all the other goods, but whereas I used to wash food before I cooked it, now it gets into the soap and hot water before its put away. It makes cooking easier!  Who knew?

We will carry on our morning coffee and afternoon tea routines sitting on the swing until it becomes blisteringly cold.  When the weather turns to winter we may have to begin some new routines. 

This is the longest in many years we haven’t travelled and here’s hoping that part of our new routine doesn’t last too much longer.  There are limits.

Enjoy your own new routines and if you are going into a shop don’t forget to socially distance…two metres…wear your masks…and keep your sense of humour!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –15 June

Next year is the fiftieth anniversary of my graduation from High School in Pennsylvania.  Five girlfriends from those bygone days decided to get together this year to celebrate and mark that occasion. We hadn’t all met since we left school. I’m not a fan of Facebook, but it did get us together again.

One of our number has a daughter who married a Brit and lives in London. When she visited her daughter awhile ago we met for the first time and made our plans.  Last year I met another of our fabulous five who visited London.  That left just two of our group who were friends who hadn’t been in touch since we were eighteen! 

The plan had been for the four women and their husbands to come to stay with us in Bristol where we would all spend a few days together before each couple headed off to somewhere or other in Europe.  This weekend would have been the planned reunion time.  A Spa day!  Nice meals together!  A concert or a play!  All our plans were coronadashed.  Instead, we met on Zoom. 

Somehow we all picked up right where we had once been and it didn’t matter that nearly fifty years had passed. Sadly, before lockdown and before the virus arrived, one of our number lost her husband.  We reached out and hugged as much as one can on Zoom.  When the virus is over we will all try for a face to face reunion again.  Meantime we will Zoom in another three weeks or so.  We have reconnected.  Not quite what we wanted, but beats nothing.

At this stage of life, reconnecting is a wonderful thing to do.  Reaching out to old friends makes you realise that you were pretty clever as a young person.  You chose to hang around people you liked.  I can recommend getting in contact once more. You will most likely have a deeper connection than you expect and as we all have plenty of time on our hands, it’s quite a good time to do this!  Silver linings and all that. 

At home, the rain that has been intermittently around for the past week has done wonders for the garden. It is green and lush and the flower pots and the grass are flourishing.  As I suppose we are, too.  In our quiet ways we are living our life and enjoying different things.

We watched David Tennent and Michael Sheen in “Staged” on the BBC iplayer and marvelled how the technology is helping us all through this.  The six part series is told in fifteen minute or so episodes all on Zoom and perfectly captures some of what our lives in lockdown have been like.

Hope that you are finding ways to reach out that work for you.  We don’t seem anywhere near finished with this virus yet!  I’d recommend connecting with old pals.  They will love to hear from you!

I couldn’t find a reunion comic or image that I liked, but I think ALL of my women friends will hoot with laughter at this one!

Enjoy…sorry chaps….

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –14 June

The deliveries have all been made. Again! The groceries have all been washed. Again!  The protesters head to London to protest Again! All of these things seem to have become the new normal.

There are some who are finally seeing others and getting hugs and cuddles where before there were none.  This must be a good thing.  Those people who live on their own are now able to create a bubble with another household and those cuddles and hugs have to be some of the best those folks ever had! Human contact is something we all need and thankfully, those poor folks who haven’t had any hugs can now enjoy them to the full.

Small tiny steps many of us are taking, yet there are those who are heading to protest ignoring any and all advice. It has been forever thus.  Sometimes it feels like the dinosaurs still walk among us.  Life in all of its splendid and not so splendid glory carries on.

This week was cleaning week (Again!) We have had household helpers for many years, but this week I had a new unexpected and unhelpful helper!  While I was dusting with my special cloth – that seems to be the only thing to use these days – a neighbour rushed by on her way to play tennis, (small steps!) and we exchanged pleasantries from my open window.  I said I was being Mrs. Mop and we both agreed we don’t like that job.  While we were speaking I pushed a dead bee off the windowsill with my lurid pink dusting cloth.  When she went on her way I returned to my cleaning and my duster did its duty along with my can of Pledge. 

When I was working on my husband’s room, dusting away I got a sting on my hand.  It stopped me in my tracks. I looked at the table I was dusting, and at my cloth, but couldn’t see why I should have felt anything.  No bees. Maybe a fly-tying something or other was on the table?  Who knew.  I carried on and finished the upstairs and dusted away in my study, finished his, and then eventually headed to the downstairs.

While I was dusting downstairs, Zap!  Another sting on my other hand!  This time I thoroughly investigated the duster and sure enough, there was the bee that I thought I’d pushed out the window. Can dead bees sting?  Well yes and no.  They can’t seek your skin out and sting you as they are dead, however if you were unlucky enough to put your skin in contact with their stinger, you will feel a sting.  My bee was probably not dead at the time, just dozy and not very happy joining me in the dusting routine.  If I was a bee and being swirled around a lot of dust laden with a ton of Pledge, I’d probably have stung as well.  I took off my rings on both hands as I now had two welts on my skin. 

My bee didn’t last long after I showed my cloth to Terry.  This time there was no escape for Bee.  The cloth hit the washing machine, at about the same time the antihistamine hit my system and stopped the stinging.

I know I don’t like cleaning the house very much, I didn’t realise it could be a dangerous occupation as well!  I won’t be so trusting of dead bees another time. I do not want that happening – Again!

Stay safe!

If you have a bee in your hand, what do you have in your eye?

…………………..Beauty, because beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –13 June

Sometimes after our quiet reflections, jokes are what we need!  Today is a collection of a roundup of funny things that have something or other to do with Covid 19 and what we’ve experienced over the past ninety-one days.

Hope there is something that takes your fancy.

Let’s start with one of the most recent and funniest …

If you didn’t laugh even once at that I fear I’m on a loser or you are in a very bad mood.  Come back again another day when you aren’t feeling so grumpy!

This next one should particularly appeal to all the medics out there….

Should we reopen the country?  Here’s what the experts said:
 
 The Allergists were in favour of scratching the idea, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
 The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about the idea, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.
 Meanwhile, Obstetricians felt certain everyone was labouring under a misconception, while the Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.
 Many Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!”  While the Pediatricians said, “Oh, grow up!”
 Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.
 Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing and the Internists claimed it would indeed be a bitter pill to swallow.
 The Plastic Surgeons opined that this proposal would “put a whole new face on the matter.”
 The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
 Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and those lofty Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.
 In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington.
 

There has to be one musical entry as a fun and enjoyable way to spend a minute or two…earlier this week I shared Randy Rainbows latest…this one is not Randy and perhaps a tiny bit more refined….

These are Classic FMs best guesses as to how Trump would Tweet about beloved Classical Musicians and their music! (They have nothing to do with Covid 19. Whatsoever. Is truth telling still a thing?? As its Mr. Trump truth doesn’t matter!)

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/humour/donald-trump-reviews-music/

Equal billing must be given to our very own Boris! This does have something to do with Covid..see if you can remember what!

See you tomorrow….

Or maybe the day after… or not, or in a few days… or not or maybe I’ll go …or not

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 12 June

I had intended an entry today packed full of jokes and funny things but instead this musing will, I’m afraid, be a less joyful reflection.

Some of you may have read the comments section yesterday and seen the message our friend Bernie posted. A day of jokes following on from that seemed inappropriate. If you haven’t read his comment, his friends have a fifteen year old son who was merely out running, tripped on the pavement, hit his head on concrete and died later in his parents arms.  Bernie said “there are no answers no words”. That statement made me pause and consider a few things today in a different way than I’d originally intended.

There are no answers and no words.

41,279 people have now died in the UK from Covid 19, the coronavirus disease, since the pandemic began. Each of these numbers belongs to a person who had a family and friends and a life that the virus took away. 

There are no answers and no words.

I’ve written before of our friend David Thomas who didn’t die of Covid, but died of a brain tumour earlier this year.  His life continues to be remembered by so many of us.  As the time passes the hole he has made in our personal universe closes a little bit, but our universe can never be entirely as it was.  I liken his leaving to the comfortable jumpers he used to wear, that we all wear.  Our garments get torn and we mend them as best we can, yet as more tears occur over the months and years we keep mending, but our garment will never ever be quite the same as it once was.   One day we must give up our own jumper and that will create a tear in someone else’s garment.

There are no answers and no words.

Sorrow is something we will all meet and have met. The degree of our grief and how we respond to it is, I think, what makes us who we are. Our capacity to feel other’s pain makes us human.  And it hurts to be human sometimes.

When there are no answers and no words

The love that we have given and continue to have for another human is crushingly, suffocatingly, painfully expressed when their life is extinguished as there can be no answers and no words.

For those of us who remain, there is only ever now and our memory and sometimes a stillness. A quiet reflection and a gathering of our inner resources. Until tomorrow comes to soothe us and we carry on as we must.

Because there are no answers and no words.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 11 June

Tiny steps are beginning to occur with non essential shops opening on Monday. We won’t be going near them. Not yet.  O- line and deliveries still appeal to us as the virus remains in our midst.

Life has changed and the “new normal” is gradually seeping into the way we live.  People move out of the way outside and help each other to continue to social distance. 

The garage at the end of our road is now open and my car will get its overdue service.  Gary the owner tells me he was so bored being at home he is grateful to have returned to work. We are pleased he has, too!  Terry and I spent ages looking in every pocket of every pair of trousers and I checked car pockets and handbags for the extra key to my car.  Gary had it!  For all these weeks.  Whew.  Chris, his helper suggested that they might keep everyone’s spare keys as so many customers lose them!  At least that little mystery has resolved itself.  I was certain it was lost forever. Never give up hope!

The weather has changed once more and was grey and cooler yesterday, but at exactly the moment we were having our late lunch of homemade bread and soup, the sun came out!  We were outside in the warm summer sun and then it went away again. The weather is expected to change once more for the end of the week. British summer is here and we are used to the highs and lows –  literally. 

We had our one- on -one Pilates class this week.  The fabulous Richard put each of us through our paces. He’s young.  And fit.  I was knackered – but in a good way.  He had a long sleeved top on and I mentioned to him that it’s the first I’ve ever seen him without short sleeves.  He said it was cool there. 

Why do Aucklanders pretend it doesn’t get cool and downright cold there in the winter? When we had our year there, our gorgeous landlord and now great friend Bernie, brought us a heater when I asked what we were supposed to do against the cold.  When I despaired that one was never going to do it we had more appear almost as if by magic.  The building was quite swish and I didn’t understand the lack of heat! The days you need the warmth are too many to ignore it in my opinion.  Stay warm kiwi friends!  And thanks Bernie! 

In America, the landscape does appear to be changing with regards to the Black Lives Matter campaign.  George Floyd was buried this week in Houston next to his mother.  His name however, will live on for a long time to come. Sometimes a horrific incident occurs and galvanises people.  There have been far too many black people killed at the hands of police all over the world, but especially in the States.  Watching  one man’s life be taken so ruthlessly by a policeman kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes has sparked a movement.  Let’s hope this one creates lasting and long overdue changes.

In Bristol, our famous artistic Bristolian Banksy has shared his idea with what should replace  the toppled slave trading Colson statue.

Meantime, in America Trump is not taking any actions of a President.  While the country and the world stand up for each other he tweets his garbage from his bunker.

I shared Randy Rainbow with you before.  He’s got a doozy for you today. The tune he uses was originally sung by Judy Garland from a song that was cut from the iconic The Wizard of Oz . See if you can spot the nod to Oz.

We only misplaced a car key, the White House seems to have misplaced a bit more than that. 

Randy gives you …The Bunker Boy!

Enjoy!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –10 June

Heading out into Bristol on my bicycle really has done what I had hoped.  I feel liberated!  I was out for an hour on Monday before the weather went all cold rainy and cloudy again.  The city is beginning to tentatively step out again…but social distancing still seemed the norm.  I saw a little girl in her unmistakable green and white checked uniform on her way back from school, as excited and interested in telling her Mother all about her day just as she no doubt would have in “normal” times. 

I’m a very careful cyclist and notice that a lot more drivers are very careful as well.  There are clearly more drivers who are cycling these days.  There is always the outlier who’s an idiot driving too fast and over the speed, but they are in the minority.  Drivers waited (sometimes very patiently) when they waved me ahead of them before they made a turn.  I waved a thank you when cars were being kind and not bearing down behind me, and moved over to let them pass me when I could.  Clearly something has changed.  Perhaps the lockdown has truly got people slowed down in terms of the rest of their lives.  We aren’t all racing to whatever it is that we do and it really does show.

There were two ice cream vans on the Downs and people social distancing as they queued for their cold comfort.  People also talk to each other in ways that I don’t normally associate with this city.  I talk to people all the time, but so often when I’ve been out, from a social distanced two metres, people have initiated a moment.  The sun does of course help, too.

One of the most uplifting sights I witnessed of the many I saw on the Downs, was a remote control model car whizzing around the brown grass at some speed.  I watched as it turned and manoeuvred backed up and then raced forward.  Eventually, when I saw the person who was controlling it, my day was made by the breadth of his smile.  The man was probably in his fifties, and in a wheelchair.  The sort that people sit in and control, much like the car model he whizzed around.  He was lost in the joy of his moment with his model and the delight on his face was like a little boy who had never done this sort of thing before.  Wonderful!

I realised it is those chance encounters, those moments that you treasure as you go about your day that I have missed so much.  Seeing other people is a delight.  We hope that this continues apace.

The news from the lab in Oxford where the vaccine trial is underway is good.  Astra Zeneca have already begun production of several million doses of the jab.  If the trials go as well as is hoped, the vaccine will be ready by September.  Let’s hope so. 

Thanks to all those people who are involved in the trial and to the scientists and the lab folks who have pulled out all the stops to get this vaccine into production in record time.  A game changer as they say and one that we will all welcome.  In the meantime, the rain stopped, Tuesday was warm again, I was back on my bike and travelling among my fellow city dwellers – nice!.  There was lots of uphill – Bristol is a very hilly city and we live at the top of Clifton, it’s always uphill coming back.  Fancy a socially distanced ride?  Let me know!

Shh! Don’t tell the editor……!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 9 June

From Monday, everyone entering the UK from all ports (unless they are on the list of exemptions) must quarantine for fourteen days or face fines of a thousand pounds. The government is holding firm on this despite uproar from the travel industry and claims from some quarters that they don’t have the capacity to enforce the measures.  Nevertheless, the plans are in place and have begun. 

The official Foreign Office website reminds us that the government view is that we are all to avoid all non-essential international travel. As some fifty million trips are made abroad each year by Brits this is a big but important ask. Most countries don’t want visitors from these islands – yet.  Get the rate of infection down first is their sensible approach.

So who decides what is “essential” international travel?  With the obvious exceptions and exemptions in place like medics, freight and so on, it’s up to the individual. It’s a very British way of answering a question. It’s up to the individual to decide what is “exceptional” travel but as insurance companies usually follow foreign office advice the “advice” remains…in other words, stay home. But if you must go, go!  But we don’t think you will be able to be insured and we highly recommend you don’t travel without insurance. It does sound remarkably like a policy discussion from that classic – Yes, Minister. 

Freedom of the individual seems to be protected in government directives. Maybe that’s why the government didn’t intervene when the protestors were demonstrating this weekend.  Against all government advice. Or could it be that was different? Perhaps the government has simply lost much of their authority. As individuals, many of us are certainly taking the matters into our own hands these days. Many of us continue to follow the science and social distance and abide by the rules. The simple reason for this is that the virus has NOT disappeared!

Several years ago we took visitors to see the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. They are worth a peek.   There were signs everywhere that said “no photography”. An American man in shorts with a big belly and a huge camera strapped around his neck asked the Beefeater what would happen if he took a photograph.  The Beefeater, using typical English irony, subtly replied, “Then I would have to tell you not to do it again, sir.”  The man walked away and there wasn’t even a single click from his camera.  The Beefeater exchanged a smile with us, and I so wish I had a camera on me then!  Yes, there are rules, and one needs to know how to get round them.  Safely. 

Meantime, I had an email from Jacinda today (Okay from her party, but it’s from her!). I liked it so much I thought I’d share the whole email with you.  Now that’s what I call success!  And yes, I am a tiny bit envious of my kiwi pals, for all sorts of reasons!

Good evening Kathy,

There are two pieces of good news that I’m happy to be able to share with you today. First, there are now no active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand. Second, we announced today that as of midnight tonight, New Zealand will move down from Alert Level 2 to Alert Level 1. 

This means that New Zealanders can return to a life that feels as normal as it can in the time of a global pandemic. There will be no more physical distancing. No more gathering limits, and no more restrictions for hospitality. It means retail is back without limitations, and public transport and travel across the country will be fully opened up.

And, it is thanks to you. We were only able to make this decision because over the last 11 weeks, our team of 5 million has managed to achieve something that many believed would not be possible – we stayed home, we broke the chain of transmission and together, we saved thousands of lives.

When faced with the threat of a virus that was spreading rapidly around the world, taking people’s lives and taking people’s livelihoods, we knew that we had to go hard and to go early to protect New Zealand from the same kind of devastation we were seeing elsewhere. 

And together, we’ve done just that. As we return to a life which looks much more normal, there is – of course – much still to do. We must also remain mindful of the global situation and recognise that the virus will be in our world for some time to come. We are confident we have eliminated the transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time – it is a sustained effort. We almost certainly will see cases here again, but when that occurs it will not mean we have failed. We are prepared for future cases.

The global economic impacts of COVID-19 will, of course, be felt for some time, and as a Government, implementing our economic recovery plan to rebuild the economy is our top priority. We all have a part to play in this. I encourage you to buy, play and experience New Zealand-made. Consider it an extra form of support, to visit our country, buy our local products and support our local businesses. 

Over the coming week, and beyond, I will be announcing more of the steps we’re taking to support jobs across the country, back our businesses and get the economy moving. But for now, I want to leave you with a final thank you, for helping us reach this milestone.

Thank you,

Jacinda

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 8 June

In Bristol there were ten thousand protestors yesterday who managed to pull down the statue of Colston who was a slave trader. The man died in 1721.  They dumped his statue in the river.  Someone knelt on the neck of the statue like the American policeman who took George Floyds breath away by that action.  

Pulling down the statue was an impressive and meaningful gesture in 2020. Look how long this legacy has been around!   Let’s hope that the protests calling for racial equality all over the world amount to some sort of positive change.  I hope too that the protestors don’t spread the disease.  BAME people are apparently highly susceptible to Covid.  That’s the last thing that community need…more deaths! We didn’t join the protest. We are still being extremely careful.  I was with them in spirit. Shame there wasn’t a more effective way of protesting. On the other side of the world there are protests too and with over four hundred aborigines having died in police custody in Australia in recent years let’s hope that there is a meaningful outcome.

In New Zealand, life is returning to near normal and my friends make me feel envious. They have no virus and have unlocked internally. No one can get in or out of the country, but those lucky folks who live there are filling every hotel and B and B from the tip of the north to the bottom of the South Island.  And it’s winter there!

Yesterday we went for a walk to the Tyndale monument that sits atop the Cotswolds and is reached via magnificent woods. 

The Cotswolds are always a delight. The name Cotswold means “sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides”. We saw a few sheep but not too many on our walk.  We picnicked in the tall grasses and Terry made sling shots from the top of the grasses that we were sat upon and I hooted with laughter – small pleasures.  These pleasures were not to be enjoyed by William Tyndale for long.  Tyndale translated The Bible into English so that ordinary people could read it rather than relying on priests for an interpretation. His reward for his efforts was to be strangled and then burned at the stake in 1536. The world can indeed be a very strange place! 

Meantime, at the foot of the monument to this poor man, who was born nearby, a very special visitor landed on my hand and filled me with delight.

People largely seemed to be social distancing and there were many families enjoying the splendour of the day.  In the crazy world we live in these days, let’s hope that there is a more promising tomorrow in every way.

Stay safe.

With love, Kathy

Feest Isolation Days – 7 June

Singing Vivaldi’s Gloria at a stay and sing certainly helps to chase away the blues!  At the beginning of the week, we had hoped that we might soon receive  a visit from our son who lives in London.  He was having an antibody test to see whether he had the virus back in late March.  If he tested positive, we initially thought that we could take all the necessary precautions that arose from travelling to us and he could come and stay for a bit. It’s a big house! However, the rules really are pretty clear that this isn’t yet an option. The antibody test was negative so there was no need to agonise at all. There will be no visit.

We’re hoping that the kids who drive and live a bit nearer will be able to come and see us when the weather warms up again. We can all sit in the garden and practice social distancing. They can get home easily and that sort of visit is allowed in the new rules.  Those poor people who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones, or the people who are separated by accidents of timing when the lockdown began, tug on my heart strings. 

Funny how friends and zoom work pretty well together, but with the kids they sort of have to be here.  Can’t explain it but all I know is it isn’t happening yet so thank you Antonio Vivaldi and Hilary Campbell the Musical Director of Bristol Choral Society who organised the uplifting stay and sing. Let me know if you want to do join in on the 4^th of July and I’ll send you the info.  It’s uplifting for certain!

There are those who are very publicly moaning about the lockdown and saying they no longer intend to follow it. Alison Pearson writing in the Telegraph had a rant this week and ended by saying she wasn’t following the guidance anymore.  Shame on you Telegraph for publishing that.  While I’m no Tory, (and she is!) I think that sort of statement in these pandemic times is uncalled for, unhelpful and ill advised. It’s the sort of rant that reminds me why I don’t actually read the Torygraph. Not sure why they send me email links or how I got onto their system but I feel an unsubscribe coming on!

Another unhelpful group are the airlines.  The travel industry is up in arms with the UK legislation that will mean from the 15^th of June all travellers into the country must isolate for fourteen days or face fines of £1000.  The airlines say this will kill off air travel.  British Airways, RyanAir and EasyJet are considering taking the government to a judicial review.  If the passengers are killed off surely that isn’t a very sound business model either!

We had some more baby plants arrive this week and they were squished and packed in a way that meant they were never going to survive the journey.  They came from Thompson and Morgan. The firm unhelpfully has closed their phone lines and even worse, say they will respond to emails in ten to fourteen days.  Sounds a bit much to us.  Beware to all  those UK gardeners who are ordering plants on line.  We have had lovely plants from many other online sources, but not from them!

Beware the slugs as well.  The little buggers decimated the coriander and two of the new beautiful baby cosmos that arrived earlier in the week. Now that the cool weather and a bit of rain has returned so have the slugs.  Pellets to the fore! 

We mosey along and hope that the R continues to fall. Must go – I promised I’d order some face masks to send to London. They will be mandatory on public transport soon.  Thought we’d better get some too.  Just in case we have to visit the hospital, they’ll be mandatory there too for all staff and visitors.  What times we live in eh?

You can’t always get what you want…but hang onto your dreams!  Enjoy!

Stay safe.

With love,

Kathy

Feest Isolation Days – 6 June

What did we used to talk about before Covid 19?  Oh I remember Brexit! But it’s another B that hit the newspapers this week (besides Boris!) –  Bonking!  The Sun – that newspaper we all know and love SO much – says that Boris has banned bonking!  Members from one household are not permitted to visit members from another household and stay the night. Apparently, according to the Sun, that means bonking is banned.  I don’t know about you, but as far as I am aware sleeping over night in someone’s house doesn’t necessarily imply bonking. It made me laugh though and in these Covid times that can’t be a bad thing!

We spoke to dear friends who live in Australia over breakfast for us and early supper and drinks for them. We discovered that in Western Australia where they live, the State was divided into eleven regions in lockdown and people couldn’t go from one region to another without written proof of need.  There were police and barriers on the roads stopping movement.  No wonder they have had not many infections and so few deaths.  Here, another friend in the know tells us that a second wave is expected in September.  We shall see.  Meantime, life goes on.

After spending forty five minutes on my exercise bike every day and doing my mat work, it seemed time to spread my wings.  I miss my swimming, (I know I know I’ve complained about this before but I really do!).  Thinking through what I missed made it possible even in these days of confinement to find a solution. 

Running has been off the agenda for me for years. Swimming means forty-five minutes of crawl plus a warm up and cool down. My strokes are fast, my glide in between strokes powers me through the water.  My gym has an outdoor pool and when we are in New Zealand the outdoor pool there is always a short walk away from our home in Parnell.  Most weeks I average three swims. Or did.  Breaking it all down I figured out I needed to be able to move faster than merely walking, and I needed to be outdoors and free to move at pace. Being able to leave the house safely and just go was also high on the list of requirements.  No prizes for guessing the solution! 

Yes I am now the proud owner of a brand new bike – not a Boris Bike! This month there was a bicycle boom and sales doubled with cycle shops selling out of many models. Terry put the bike together for me and made it possible for me to become reacquainted with a saddle and pedals.  Nothing fancy, not electric, just an “English” bike. 

When I learned to ride a bike in America, the brakes weren’t on the handles but on the pedals.  An “English” bike was defined by where the brakes were.   

Bonking is also very English. No, not the act but the word!  So lots of B’s today!  Bikes!  Boom! Brakes!  Bonking!  I’ll let you know how the bike and I get on.  With fewer cars out there it feels safer than it did last time I was on the road nearly ten years ago.  As for bonking…

Meriam Webster helpfully gives us a sentence – which I quote verbatim – using the word so we can all now be clear what bonking means:

Bonking – 1 transitive informal : hit  “Johnson isn’t the only one who has noticed the glut of acorns this fall. Walkers are getting bonked on the head, and cars are getting pelted by the falling nuts.”

Interesting that Meriam Webster associated (Boris) Johnson with bonking don’t you think?!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 5 June

How many of you have sat on a tube train in London and read a Poem on the Underground as your train rattled along the noisy tracks? Some ideas take off and we are all beneficiaries.  Spreading poetry via tube train ad spaces was the brainchild of an American woman who moved to London and stayed. 

Judith Cherniak wrote to Tube bosses back in 1986 and outlined her plans.  She was inspired by a scene from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” when lovesick Orlando pins his dreadful sonnets on trees.  Judith thought sharing poems that weren’t in the least bit dreadful might be inspiring to commuters.  Transport for London agreed, and after teaming up with the Arts Council, and the British Council, “Poems on the Underground” was born. There have been more than five hundred poems sitting alongside advertisements since the initiative began. Cities all over the world have set up similar schemes, a real tribute to the success of the programme!

One specific poem that I encountered en route to some meeting or other has always stayed with me.  It perfectly sums up, for me, the head of the British government today.

The poem is short and fits neatly onto an ad board, as do all Poems on the Underground.  My favourite was written by Roger McGough who writes poetry and more. He holds several degrees and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Liverpool in 2006. He was Fellow of Poetry at Loughborough University and Honorary Professor at Thames Valley University. Roger was awarded a CBE in 2004.   His poem:

I wanna be the leader
I wanna be the leader
Can I be the leader?
Can I? I can?
Promise? Promise?
Yippee I’m the leader
I’m the leader

OK so what shall we do?

Remind you of anyone?  To be fair to the current PM, I have sat in many committee meetings with Chairs who equally had no idea how to lead.  But to give those guys (and gals) their due, they weren’t trying to lead an entire country!

If the little poem inspires you and you want another fix, you can purchase a Poems on the Underground book from all good bookstores (and Amazon).

I wanna be the leader….

…no I don’t!   I want a quiet un virus infected life and want someone to organise our way of life safely until that is possible. Boris?  Would you mind doing your job properly? You wanted it, now you’ve got it!

A first!  I never interpreted a cartoon before, but thought it might be useful on this occasion!  I only knew one of these….

–A sestina is a poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line ends in six different sequences.

–The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle in that there are repeating lines throughout the poem. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next stanza.

–Haiku is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

Love the idea of a poetry industrial park!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 4 June

The rain has finally arrived.  Took long enough! At the moment the skies are grey and dark so it might as well just chuck it down. The gardener is hoping for that almost as much as the little plants. 

Visiting friends in their gardens is much nicer when the sun is shining but with an umbrella ready for the rain and wearing a raincoat, a friend and I managed tea yesterday morning.  It’s quite extraordinary how much we all can find to say about Covid 19 and the implications to us all.

The other subject none of us can stop talking about at the moment, of course, is the protests in America and the response to those marching.  As ever, it would appear that the images we are seeing are not indicative of the many, many positive images that are springing up on the internet – if you look for them.

Police taking a knee in support….

Or a Washington D.C. man sheltering eighty people who were stuck on a street closed down by police officers who couldn’t find their knees…if  you haven’t seen this report, do have a look – it is inspiring and reminds us that good people still can accomplish good things. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-52896871/george-floyd-death-the-man-who-sheltered-80-us-protesters

Here, a Pilates zoom followed by a Book Group zoom followed by a dinner party zoom the next day and on we go.

Like most people, I prefer the sun, but it feels like we were on holiday and now we are back home.  Perhaps it is time to finally get those summer clothes sorted….

…… or maybe not

Whatever you are up to, stay socially distanced and keep safe. 

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 3 June

The scenes on the local news last night were truly disgusting.  People were not social distancing, packing into beauty spots and leaving behind their mess and with no public toilets open they left their personal waste as well.  Do they think the pandemic is past?  Go Home!  That was the message they received from people who live in these small towns and villages that have been overrun.

Schools began again on Monday, but many children were still kept home by their worried parents. Presumably these are not the same people that were visiting all those beauty spots!

This stage of the virus – we are told by the scientists – is a worrying one.  In America the man masquerading as the President is creating havoc! Uneasy times!

As yesterday was the last day of summer for a bit as the highs over the country turn to lows, it was time to go on a little holiday.  At least from the news and the terrible images of the American mess.

It turned into a day for celebration.  We visited the garden of friends who have been shielding for all this time and raised a glass of champagne with them – our glasses, at a safe social distance.  A wonderful moment and a careful one too.  There is no point in going backwards so going forward slowly and easing into a few more nice things must be the plan. It is in our household anyway! There may not be hugs but there are big smiles and the air was filled with kisses …and smiles!  As we sat outside, a pilot drew a smiley face in the sky to cheer everyone up. It worked!

So a few more fun and or lovely things to view and enjoy while we are busy trying to process all the mess. 

Sport!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnibHJC-6uU (Rugby World Cup 2019)

Ingenuity!

Art! History! Italy! (A full hour of gorgeousness)

Hope something in all of that made you smile or helped you connect once more with a feel-good factor that you may have forgotten. 

The dunnocks graced us with their presence during our last outdoor breakfast for a bit.  Life isn’t all bad.  Promise.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –2 June

These numbers of lockdown days keep climbing! Let’s all hope that the R number doesn’t.  The weather has been so perfectly wonderful that some people have eased up just when we are at the most dangerous phase of this disease.

Socially distanced visits with friends is a plus that has meant we are taking tiny baby steps toward unlocking.  We still don’t go into shops, we won’t walk where there are lots of other people and continue to clean our own home.  Easing is not totally lifting, and we are not confident to do too much more yet.  More book groups, dinner parties, Pilates, Singing and drinks on Zoom then!

The local news last night shows hundreds of people out and about and not socially distancing.  It is as though they think the pandemic is all over!  Not only did they stray into each other but they left their mess behind as well.  This is not a pretty sight.

An airplane or two have crossed by us high up in the sky, but not an Easyjet flight from Bristol in sight, the flight trails we’ve seen are going somewhere much further away. Spain is opening up its tourism to some countries, but not the UK.  They are correct. Our rate of daily infection at eight or nine thousand means they don’t want us to visit and spike their reasonable rates.  Why is this?  I can’t understand who is getting the infection now. How come so many more people here are testing positive than elsewhere in Europe?  Have there already been too many people not following the rules?

I have avoided talking about the current American situation as it is so painful to watch. Rioting in over seventy-five cities, brutal confrontation by some of the police.  This is not history repeating itself, it is a continuation of what has gone on for decades, if not centuries.  America is at breaking point and still the Baby in Chief tweets aggressive and racist messages. A very good article in yesterday’s Guardian sums up what I think about the man and the current situation.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/01/george-floyd-donald-trump-black-lives-matter?CMP=share_btn_link

Back in Britain it seems time to think about sewing up a face mask or two. Yet this is not a skill I have. Sewing and I were never happy companions.  Running up a dress for a party is not a skill I ever possessed and even sewing a button on a shirt is problematic to me.  I blame Naomi Bieler. Miss Bieler was a small dark haired woman who wore her hair back in a bun.   She was my home economics teacher when I was in school.  We had several strands of home economics throughout the year and I excelled at the cooking and general home maintenance.  But sewing?  Nope!  It took me ages to figure out how to thread the sewing machine properly, but that was nothing to the time it took me to unpick an entire zipper that ran the length of the dress I was making.  Thankfully, we wore reasonably short skirts in the 1960’s with our little cotton puffy sleeves and A line simple dresses.  The fabric was a lovely heavy cotton and the material was a pretty shade of lemon yellow with a blue print.  To this day I remember that dress!  Miss Bieler told me I had put the zipper in and it wasn’t straight so I had to unpick it by hand and do it again.  It took forever.  Then I carefully pinned it up again and sewed the length of my dress once more.  Nope!  She said it was still not straight. Out it came along with my irritation and resolve to never, ever make anything out of material again. I eventually got the zipper in to her satisfaction and wore the dress once or twice.  Never did I make another garment. 

Any face masks that we wear will come from someone else’s machine.  Naomi Bieler, after all these years, I still recall your dour expression and unhelpful comments.  We could all learn a little something from that couldn’t we? 

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 1 June

Monday.  1^st of June.  Kids (some of them, only in England) back at school.  We can see people in our gardens up to six at a time!  Wait.  Wait.  Wait.  That does seem to be the advice of several of the Scientific advisors.  The R is just under one.  And track and trace isn’t yet fully up and running.  Doesn’t that mean hold on a bit? Steady as she goes?  Perhaps we ought to stay as we are for another few weeks until the virus isn’t infecting up to nine thousand people a day and the R is really down. We are staying alert.  Alert to the science and at the very least some of the advisors who think it is all too early.  Who can trust Boris? 

Sir Patrick gave us clear advice on Thursday at the press briefing. I share it here in case you missed it.  It’s worth remembering.   He said, “We still have a significant burden of infection, we are still seeing new infections every day at quite a significant rate and the R is close to one. That means there is not a lot of room to do things and things need to be done cautiously, step-by-step and monitored and the Test and Trace system needs to be effective in order to manage that.”

He added: “The R remains below one everywhere, but it’s very close to one in some places and there may be, both in terms of nations and places within those nations, areas where the R is very close to one. That’s why we’ve got to be very cautious. This is not a time to say ‘Everything’s OK, we’re releasing measures, everything’s going to be rosy’. It’s a time to go very cautiously, with changes, as they take place, monitored very carefully. Being prepared that there will be local outbreaks, because there will be, and being prepared that recommendations may come to reimpose measures. I think that’s the world we’re in. The number of cases remains high.

We need to keep concentrating on R below one, that means making sure that the measures that are in place are adhered to and that we all stick to them to make sure that the right thing is done and that we end up in a position where we can get the numbers down and the R down a bit. But we are at a fragile state.”

This is the advice we got from the Chief Scientific officer.  Why do I think so many would have instead listened to Boris who said having a BBQ at home was fine from Monday with up to six people? Pass me my hot dog!  Lather on the mustard and yes I’ll have another glass of your wine.  Somehow this doesn’t seem quite the same  idea as that of the Scientists.

We shall begin to see friends carefully. No the kids aren’t coming to stay yet, and sorry my loo is off limits if you visit for socially distanced tea.  This isn’t over yet.  Listen to the Scientific advisors.  Carefully.  They are giving us the messages.  Some of us don’t want to hear them, and others of us remain cautious.

Be safe, be sensible and be kind.

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 30 May

Neighbours are so good at helping each other!  On the “Next Door” local Website I saw a delightful exchange.  “New home needed for three frogs.”  The response was instant, and helpful.  “I’ve got a pond and they can move in with me.”  How good is that? Lucky old frogs!

Frogs of course got me thinking of water, ponds, rivers and lakes.  And on a flight of fancy I decided where in the world I’d like to end up if I belonged to that frog trio. Clifton isn’t a bad spot to end up in, but my thoughts then wandered to other destinations.  A hop skip and a jump (sorry) and there we frogs were in New Zealand.  You probably guessed that would be the destination!  Specifically the Rangitikei River.  This won’t be the first time I’ve mentioned this magnificent place and probably won’t be the last.  Terry fishes, I write and take in all the splendour of the place as we amble down the water for eight to ten hours at a  time in a boat steered and rowed by our great guides who live there. 

There are frogs in NZ but like most things in that part of the world, their frogs are different and have several distinct features from frogs anywhere else in the world. They have no external eardrum and round eyes instead of slitty eyes. They don’t croak regularly like most frogs (maybe because other frogs can’t hear them?) and they develop inside an egg and hatch into an almost fully formed frog without going  through the tadpole stage.

Kermit of course must be the most famous frog ever and is only a few years younger than me!  He was “born” in 1955 and his creator Jim Henson developed an entire world around his frog. 

And of course where would Kermit be without Miss Piggy?  The two were simply made for each other.  In 1979 in a Muppet Movie, Kermit got to sing a song called the Rainbow Connection, which Willie Nelson made famous many years later.  Someday we’ll find it.  The rainbow connection.

Kermit’s song……

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Kermit+the+frog+singing+the+rainbow+connection&docid=608037888514920347&mid=3AE7E889A246644D6F683AE7E889A246644D6F68&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

My Rainbow connection for today is of a different sort.  If you haven’t yet made his acquaintance, you are about to meet Randy.  He is Randy Rainbow and this gorgeous thirty-eight year old has created some wonderful and original songs that are all available on You Tube. He takes Trump themes and rewrites familiar stage tunes to parody the man. There are plenty to entertain you.  Hard to believe but his given name is really Rainbow! His father was a musician and entertainer who changed his name from Ribner to Rainbow.  Randy was born in Florida, but raised in Long Island, New York.  A nice Jewish boy who credits his grandmother as the person who inspired him.  She apparently used to kvetch (Yiddish for complain) at the television when politicians or entertainers were on screen.  Bit like our household!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Randy+Rainbow+singing+bleach&docid=608030767490532636&mid=363C7FD08973B39486D2363C

Frogs, rainbows, neighbours!  It’s an amazing world as our Kermit reminds us.  “The rainbow connection, someday we’ll find it, the lovers the dreamers and me”.   All these things are somehow connected, and so too are we. 

Until we meet again, enjoy and hold firm.  Stay safe and remember, this virus hasn’t left us yet. 

With love

Kathy x