Feest Isolation Days –14 December
Reading the Sunday newspapers is a treat that I have enjoyed for several months now. I like going into the newspaper shop and having a few words with the owner and scurrying out and back to my car again. Only three people are allowed in the shop at any one time, and masks must be worn. Today for the first time in weeks there was one other person in the shop at the same time that I was. I held the door open as he left and then stood in the draft while the owner and I had a chat, him behind his counter, mask and Perspex screen, me by the moving air current. He asked me what we were doing at Christmas, and lamented the difficulty he is having making a choice about what to do. This is increasingly being echoed by many. What to do? The scientists are warning that the Christmas get together is going to cause a spike in cases here akin to the Thanksgiving bounce the Americans are seeing. They are recording up to 3000 deaths a day, the highest since the pandemic began. Excruciating.
We shall see what happens come the Holidays. Christmas, our Advent calendar tells us, is only twelve days away! Our key worker delivery people are already sending us notices about their last days of delivery before Christmas. The butcher and fruit and veg shop will stop on the 19th until after New Year. Our food planning has become even more careful! There are just two of us and the freezer is packed so all will be fine.
This week we will hear what Tier we will be in for the next phase of the virus. We are hoping for Two. We shall see. London’s numbers are going up, while here in Bristol ours are going down down down. This picture of Regent Street yesterday may explain some of the London virus bounce!
Antivaxxers staged a demonstration in Bristol on Saturday but only about two hundred people attended. They didn’t bother with masks but seemed to keep their distance. They marched into the city centre but there weren’t numbers like the Regent Street crowds anywhere to be seen. Bristolians for the most part do seem to be being careful!
The weather is grey and we are in the bleak mid winter. But the longest day is not far away and then the light will begin to return! Must be time for a quick quiz.
Over the past twenty years, has the proportion of the world’s population that lives in extreme poverty,
a) increased by 50%
b) increased by 25%
c) stayed the same
d) decreased by 25%
e) decreased by 50%
While the papers and media are full of doom and gloom, and the weather is foul, do take heart. The answer was correctly chosen in a survey by a mere one in a hundred people. If you said decreased by fifty percent you can join them. The world isn’t as bad as many of us seem to think sometimes. By many measures, our world is doing a better job in many areas than it has for a long time.
Nevertheless, tis the season to be generous spirited and a few extra pounds towards your favourite charity won’t go amiss. And you do have to do your bit by staying safe!
Enjoy!
With love
Kathy x