Thursday, 10th June, 2021 [Day 451]

Today was the kind of day when you knew your typical routine was going to be amended and thus it proved to be. The shopping lorry arrives on a Thursday morning and we thought that the fridge needed a good clean out before it got repopulated so this took up quite a bit of time this morning. We knew that our hairdresser was due to arrive around midday so one way or another, we knew that our timetables would go awry. In conversation with our domestic help, she spoke in glowing terms about the super AirBnB in which she has stayed whilst visiting her son in Devon so we speculated how something might be available in the Conway area. Whilst we were just vaguely looking we found what seems to be a super place not far away from Meg’s Uncle Ken who we badly want to visit when we can.So, almost on the spur of the moment, Meg and I booked up for three nights away in just a fortnight’s time in one of the AirBnB’s with a ‘Superhost’ commendation. The booking was all very easily done but we rather had fun and games getting registered with AirBnB to make sure our booking was accepted. Fortunately, I had a copy of the relevant page of my passport in my computer system so this bit was easy to supply. Then what was needed was an up-to-date photo of you which had to be matched up with your passport photo within their system. I opted eventually for their system to upload a photo of me taken with our own webcam – then we had an anxious wait to see if this would match up with my passport photo (which I must say looks fuzzy and blurred to me) After 20 minutes or so the confirmation came through and I could then go ahead and confirm the booking and exchange a message with our ‘Superhost’.  I was relieved the technology worked OK on this occasion. The last time I tried anything similar, when applying for an NHS app then the images did not match and were rejected, the application froze, the computer crashed – quite a nightmare which took hours. However, ‘all’s well that end’ well so we are looking forward to our three day stay in a fortnight.

After we had our haircuts and a light lunch, I knew I needed to get into town principally to visit the local branch of Santander. When I go there, I was actually two minutes late after their closing time (of 4.30) but I was very grateful be let in. I had been sent a new debit card through the post and as it was the first time in use, I was relieved that it dispensed me my money (and I could withdraw some cash, which I do once in a blue moon) but also revalidated my pin which I suspect might only have possible from the big machine inside the bank. This worked OK – but I still have to do the rounds of the people who have my card details on file in order to get the details updated. I hate this part of getting a new card but I hope it will see me all right for a year or so. After my visit to the bank, I picked up my newspapers ( and they were amazed to see me so late in the day but at least my papers were secure) and bought a few cosmetics. Then I spent quite a long time in our local Waitrose trying (and failing) to match up the incredibly good low-alcohol lager which I acquired through my Waitrose order recently but which seems to have disappeared both from their websites and, judging by today, from their shelves as well. I found a substitute but only consuming it will let me know whether they simulate the flavour of a lager or not. I also bought, on the spur of the moment, a low-alcohol milk stout which, again, may prove to be an interesting drink experience.

Today, in the House of Commons, Matt Hancock the Health Secretary has been given his own evidence of a type of ‘rebuttal’ of the claims made by Dominic Cummings a fortnight ago. The committee have asked Dominic Cummings for some documentary evidence to back up his allegations – this has not been forthcoming as you might expect (if only because the documentary evidence to support ‘who said what’ in a heated conversation is hard to find) This will then allow the committee to disregard as much of the Dominic Cummings as they like  which will keep them in the good books of the Prime Minister and make any final report that they are to issue so much more anodyne (i.e. with any criticisms muted, which will suit Boris).  It also appears that we are still a long way of ‘herd immunity’  as although the doubly vaccinated adult population is now over 50%, there is still a huge ‘reservoir’ of the virus in the bodies of schoolchildren who, it appears. might carry the virus but not get sick from it. 

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Wednesday, 9th June, 2021 [Day 450]

Today was an interesting type of day. We were a little delayed as we composed our Waitrose order which is part of our normal Wednesday morning but that having been done, we proceeded on our way down into the park. As we walked down our access road (which is privately owned by us) we noticed that one of our near neighbours had a fence panel removed in order to allow access to their rear garden from our roadway. This is all fine and dandy but our permission should have been asked first. Also (and we have been here before) when this sort of thing has happened in the past, generally for the delivery of building materials such as paving blocks, sand, cement and other building supplies then it is not unusual for all kinds of mess to be left behind on our driveway which we then have to clear up. So I stuck my head through the gap in the fence and informed the garden makeover people that they had parked their vehicle on a private road – and I wanted/demanded that any mess be left behind be cleared up. Then we went on our way to the park and met one of our ‘usual suspects’ when we were sitting on our bench. We also bumped into our two sets of close friends who live down the road and were pleased to see them both as we missed each other for several days. One set of friends we made an assignation to come and have some coffee and cakes with them in their garden next Tuesday – the other set of friends had just returned from North Wales and we caught up quickly on some of the to-ings and fro-ings of the last few days but we still have some catching up to do when they had completed some of their grandparenting duties. I think we are all a little anxious to try and see each other whilst we can because the spell of fine weather is bound to break down after a few days so we all want to ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’ So Meg and I eventually returned home and prepared a quiche-and-salad lunch which was easy to prepare.

Halfway through the afternoon a hand-delivered note had been popped through our letter box. It was from the neighbours who were were having a garden makeover and the letter (belatedly) asked for permission for delivery vehicles to utilise our driveway. I spent some time composing a diplomatic reply – and had just about got to the end of it and read it out to another neighbour who was effected in the same way as we were when the program containing my reply crashed and I lost everything. So I had to start all over again but, fortunately, I could remember most of what I had just said and I then liased with my son, working upstairs, to make sure that we had got the tone of the reply just right. Without being melodramatic about all of this, emergency vehicles such as ambulances need to make their way down our access road which involves two 90° degree turns to get to our house. Of the houses who contribute to our Residents Association, half of us have had to have ambulances accessing their properties within the last three years so this is not just a theoretical but an actual concern. We are going to have a final pair of eyes upon the reply which has been seen by several of us before it all gets hand delivered back again. The important thing is that all of this can be and will be handled amicably but we do not want little issues to fester, quite unnecessarily. Also, we have noticed before that firms who deliver building materials are often extraordinarily cavalier about the way in which they leave a trail of sand, cement and god knows what else behind them before they drive away. They always seem absolutely amazed that they need permission to enter a private road and we have to inform them that as well as owning the roadway we also have to maintain it, clear up any of the mess that they might make and so on. Actually, with cluttered garages and an inability to get to back gardens through the ‘normal’ side entrances, it is not uncommon for fence panels to be removed to provide an easy/easier delivery point for the supply of building materials but of course the permissions should have been sought first.

There is now a substantial risk of ‘a substantial third wave’, with Delta R number estimated at 1.5 – 1.6 which sounds seriously bad to me. Third waves have got to start somewhere and this has got all of the hallmarks of a start of a third wave to me (a non epidemiologist!) More than 1,000 people are now in hospital, largely as a result of the Delta variant – the whole progress of the ‘third wave’ seems to be the result of a race between those vaccinated on the one hand versus the progress of the virus on the other. So far, it seems a bit like a 1-1 draw with my suspicions that the virus may win the penalties shoot-out.

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Tuesday, 8th June, 2021 [Day 449]

Our busy social whirl continues – well, not quite! We made a very rapid trip to the park this morning and then had only the briefest of chats with our University of Birmingham friend because we knew that we had a fairly tight turn-around as I have my Pilates class in the middle of the day. After we got back we had about ten minutes for me to change clothing etc. before going down to my Pilates class. Here we have the same four regulars but it was our first week back after the break of a week for the Spring holiday. At least one of the four us (not me!) had been busy doing Pilates in odd moments in the kitchen (peeling vegetables seems to be a particular favourite at the moment) Then after a rush home and a scrambled lunch (from the leftovers of yesterday’s repast) we then awaited our particular ex-Waitrose friends who we expecting to call round to see us at 3.30. As one of our friends is a wheelchair user, we had to ensure that we didn’t have any wheelie bins occluding the back entrance to our garden (everything was OK as it turned out). We also, on purpose, did not lay any tables or the like in case we needed to change plans and arrange for our repast in the front of the house rather than the rear. But all is well that end’s well so our friends managed to gain access by our side entrance without difficulty and we sat down to scoff that which took our fancy from yesterday’s assortments of breads, cold meats, patés and cheeses. Then we had the most enjoyable afternoon catching on various bits of news, not to mention Bromsgrove history (about which our friends are extremely knowledgeable). One of the particular pleasures to be had on occasions like these are to show relatives and friends the points of interest in your own garden (or in our case the communal areas) Having explained the history of how we came to purchase the plot of land in the front of the house, I then went on to explain some of the improvements for which we could claim some credit. One of these is my ‘pride and joy’ and that is a tree, now some thirty feet tall or even more which I rescued as very young and self-set seedling about twelve years ago. This started off its life about 4″ high and sitting in a small plant pot but it got repotted as it grew and when it about a metre high I transplanted it into my neighbour’s garden (which I was looking after and helping to maintain at the time) And so my ‘acer campestre‘ or field maple to give it its English nomenclature feels as though it is getting on for the height for a house or about 8 metres tall but they can grow as much as 20m in total. It has some lovely dense maple style leaves but many of them will turn orange and then red in the autumn. Another particular favourite of mine is the silver birch which I bought and then planted about ten yers ago to fill a gap. Finally of course, we have the recently pruned golden privet around our BioDisk which after a heavy pruning is now showing signs of bursting back into life again.Suddenly, it was not too far short of 7.0pm so we had to let out friends depart so that our daughter-in-law could get her car correctly parked.  

The latest virus news is anything but encouraging. It looks as though the total number of new infections has increased to over 6,000 new cases in a single day, which I think represents practically a doubling within a week. More seriously, the Greater Manchester and Lancashire area are to receive a ‘strengthened package of support’ to help them to cope with the increasing incidence of the Delta version of the virus which is so much more transmissible than its predecessors. We had been intending to make a trip to Bolton in about 2-3 week’s time in order to pay a much postponed visit to Meg’s cousin. However, this too is starting to belong to the category of a forlorn hope and it looks as though we need to postpone the trip for about the third time. At the same time, we know that our Irish friends from down the road have had a magnificent time Llandudno in North Wales. By way of contrast, we had tried to book into a Holiday Inn in North Wales and been told that no booking would be entertained until July at the earliest. Meanwhile, some of our park friends announced to us that they were going to go off for a days ‘rest and recreation’ in mid-Wales and informed us that they had no difficulties of any kind making a booking. So the situation in Wales is varied (and confusing, at least, for the likes of us). We need to perhaps start to think of pointing in a different direction as perhaps it is now OK for us to head towards Derby where one of Meg’s other cousins is in the process of buying a house (and may well have moved by now).

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Monday, 7th June, 2021 [Day 448]

Today was the day when we knew that some of our close friends from Oxfordshire were due to break their journey here in the Midlands. So we had a complete change to our routines this morning. As it happened, Meg had not been feeling too well and spent the morning in bed – in the meanwhile, I raced off down to the newsagents in the car and thence to our local Waitrose. As I had gone down to town in the car, I did not bother to wear my trade-mark Australian leather hat and the newsagent almost failed to recognise me as, hatless, my appearance had changed so much. – at least I did not have a repetition of what happened last week when a 3-4 year old tugged at his mother’s arm upon seeing me in my hat and exclaimed ‘Mummy! There’a  a cowboy who has lost his horse!‘ This morning when I was wondering what to wear, I looked through some of my range of shirts and reminded myself that I had a Batique shirt that I had bought when working in Indonesia – as I had not worn it for about 20 years, I thought now was quite a suitable occasion to  try it on for a change. Batique shirts are meant to be worn close fitting and I must say I have probably put on a little rotundity over the course of the last 20 years but I could still get it on without every button straining at its fastening so I gave it a go. Batique designs are a little difficult to describe if you haven’t seen the design before but it is intricate, with many interlocking swirling shapes and motifs that look vaguely like flowery or fiery shapes – anyway, it is a special occasions type shirt and the Indonesians tend to wear them for particularly smart and/or formal occasions (without a tie). Dressed in this, I popped into our local Waitrose and bought a selection of breads, cheeses, patés and salads such that we could throw together a meal when my friends arrived. I needed to do a minimal degree of wiping down of our external garden furniture and then I complement the metal chairs with some large cushions that I had bought in bulk from Oxfam a year or so back and which we keep in the garage for just on those occasions when we are going to eat outside. Our friends arrived shortly after midday and I was delighted that Meg had sufficiently recovered to come downstairs and to eat a meal with us in the beautiful sunshine. Normally, I would have erected a parasol to shade the outside table and this was sorely needed today. Anyway, the last time I got out the parasol, the mice had had a good old nibble at it all the way around the edges making it look like Cinderella’s dress on a good day (and so it had to go) Today we started off in the sunshine but decided to move the whole table into the shade as the midday sun was so hot. We had a wonderful couple of hours chatting and enjoying each other’s company until was time for our friends to depart and carry on in their journey through the Midlands (where they are due to call in on another of their old friends) with their ultimate destination being Scarborough (on the basis they had never been there before).

Our avenues of unalloyed pleasure is set to continue tomorrow. We had made some tentative plans to meet  with some of our Waitrose friends that we FaceTime regularly but who we have not met face-to-face for over a year now. Tomorrow is my Pilates day which rather messes up the middle of the day- we had made some outline plans to meet in Webbs,the huge garden centre down the road, but we decided to rip those plans up and come and have some afternoon tea in our garden. Our friends had seen the outside of the house but not the inside or the garden so we are going to negotiate access for our friend’s wheelchair down the side of the house (which we think we can do with no difficulty) and eat out in the garden again. If all of this comes to nought, we still have lots of options to eat at the front of the house (as we are quite private and some of our neighbours do the same). We are looking forward very much to tomorrow and our friends are going to bring a cake and we have lots of salad-y things left from today so we shall not go hungry. I must say that I felt that Meg felt so much better having made the effort to get out of her bed and see our friends and they have certainly given her spirits a huge fillip. Whilst the weather is good, we are making the best of seeing our friends whilst we can – next Wednesday, if all goes to plan, our local Waitrose cafe may soon reopen and let us see then how many of the old crowd will reconvene.

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Sunday, 6th June, 2021 [Day 447]

Today was an indeterminate kind of day – the kind of day in which Denis Nordern the famous comic who used to broadcast regularly on Radio 4 when asked to make up an ‘un-newsworthy’ news item that might appear in a footnote to an obscure column in ‘The Times’  would venture ‘Small earthquake in Chile – not many killed’ The pattern of the day followed the normal routine for a Sunday in which I walked down to town in order to collect our newspapers crossing the path of absolutely nobody (typically a jogger or a dog-walker) whilst en route. Then, of course, we watch the Andrew Marr politics show and again we have an appearance by Matt Hancock who must be by now of the most visible’ Health Secretaries on record. He was rebutting the argument that he sent people unvaccinated (certainly untested ) straight from hospital wards (in order to clear them) back into the residential homes from whence they came. His rebuttal has become second nature to him by now i.e. to repeat like a mantra that ‘we put a policy in place’ to vaccinate the elderly (repeating the fact that they had reached their target of 100,000 or whatever) completely ignoring the question that although they had a plan in place, people actually did progress straight from hospital to residential homes. At one point, there was a slight chink in his armour when he let slip well ‘it was a  question of priorities‘  but Andrew Marr did not seize upon the remark as he should have done. Matt Hancock was in effect right – as a ‘question of priorities‘ then the elderly occupying much needed hospital beds were a ‘lower priority’ then COVID patients. Eventually, I walked on down to the park alone this Meg because Meg was having a slightly ‘off’ day and was resting at home. In the park, I met up with one of our park regulars and we had quite a long quasi-theological discussion whether it was legitimate to seek to persuade people from holding whatever views that they may have with conviction. We were of a like mind  in that that we did not think it was legitimate to dissuade somebody from whatever view which might be deeply and sincerely held, even though we might disagree with it. On the other hand, we both agreed that we were rankled if we had an encounter with someone of pronounced religious views who were convinced of the truth of their own position and had attempted to teach us the error of our ways.

In the late afternoon (and thinking about our friends who might be visiting us tomorrow and who are keen gardeners), I decided to plant up the stone planters I had recently acquired from a friend. In these, I put a combination of both top soil and some of my own 2-year old compost but I had run out of bonemeal/Growmore that I generally deploy on such occasions. Anyway, they got planted up with some spare plants that I had around the garden and are sitting on the front of some decking to form a sort of leafy boundary or instant wall. However, after a good watering I must keep on remembering to water until the plants are established/reestablished.

I have just this evening experienced one of these really frustrating half hours that beset us from time to time. As we all know, the Sunday newspapers are replete with supplements of various kinds. Various things such as ‘Style’ or ‘Fashion’ goes straight into the bin whilst other sections are flipped through incredibly quickly to see if anything catches your eye. So I spent at last 45 minutes scanning each of the supplements of todays (and yesterday’s) newspapers, trying to discover an advert for a patio cleaning fluid which I am sure we need. Of course I couldn’t find the advert even though I had recourse to the vertical filing system (aka. green wheelie bin) Eventually, I found what I was looking for as I had already detached the relevant page and saved it ‘in a safe place’ but that was a fruitless half or so spent on a fruitless search.

Tonight, there are more and more hints that a full end to the lockdown is not to be forthcoming in two weeks time. Matt Hancock is quoted as saying that he is ‘open’ to an incomplete end to the lockdown on June 21st. Given that the infection rate is 70% higher than a week ago and the Delta version of the virus is judged to be 40% more transmissible that the previous variant, then one can understand that the government is going to backtrack like mad. What I find interesting is that the right wing of the Tory party and much of the press are constantly urging an end to the lockdown but my judge of the public mood (Vox pop on TV, people I meet in the park) all seem to think that having endured 15 months of COVID restrictions, then one month more is not going to make a lot of difference.

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Saturday, 5th June, 2021 [Day 446]

We have another beautiful day in prospect, so it is a case of enjoying this spell of fine weather whilst it lasts. However, I am finding that I need to religiously water some of my pot plants in the evening as they could quickly  become dehydrated. Some of the trees bordering our communal grassed area are growing beautifully tall and are doing a good screening job but some of the leaves are looking a little heat distressed and look as though they could benefit from a good soaking. Although we did get plenty of surface rain in May, I am not sure whether we got the really good soaking that helps to fill the underground aquifers and wherever else surface water eventually gets stored. We walked down into the park and soon teamed up with a group of regulars for a pleasant chat. However, only for about the second time in about fifteen months, I dropped the full flask of coffee just as I had opened it and spilled practically all of its contents on the ground.  So after I popped off to collect our Saturday ration of newspapers, I had a good look in on of the compartments in my phone case and was relieved to find an emergency £10 note which I needed to press into service. With this, I treated myself to a bottle of refrigerated ginger beer which I have not drunk in years but sounded  superior to peach flavoured tea and other offerings in the newsagent’s chiller cabinet. This morning, I was hunting out a short sleeved shirt (which I rarely wear because I prefer long sleeved shirts if only to obviate the need to plaster arms with sun-tan lotion) After I had located my short-sleeved shirts, I was delighted to espy a particularly psychedelic tie (which screams 1960’s at you) and which I thought I had mislaid. Anyway, despite the weather, I decided to wear this tie if only to prove to my park friends that I really am a child of the 1960’s. Mind you, to complete the outfit I feel as though I probably need a kaftan, some beads, some John Lennon/Yoko Ono style sun glasses and perhaps a stock lot of popular phrases such as ‘Make Love! Not war! (which I do believe in, by the way) I think I will have to work on all of the other items and then, of course, what are the occasions (apart from garden parties in one’s own garden) when you would actually want to wear the full outfit. Having said that, I took off the tie and decided not to offend God , the priest and the rest of the congregation by wearing it for the evening service this evening.

This afternoon was a quiet afternoon which it always is when I know we have to bestir ourselves to leave the house at 5.30 in time for the evening service. We have to book in for this as soon as the subscriptions lists open at 6.00 on a Wednesday evening and it is easy to get caught out and miss one’s slot – it happened to me once only a month to so so back. We get sight of some of the regulars in the congregation but we cannot really stop for a chat until the present regulations, which may well soon be lifted in any case.

All the signs are present, at the moment, that our press is preparing to come to the aid of the government which looks set for a ‘U’-turn on the complete unlocking on June 21st (two weeks on Monday) There is quite a lot of speculation as to what measures may well continue after the ‘end’ to the lockdown. Top of the list is the use of face masks which looks set for continue. Another hot favourite seems to be advice to carry working from home, where possible. A slight delay to the date of the unlocking, say for another fortnight, may well be on the cards as well. Apparently, the government is going to be faced with a really difficult policy decision in a week or so because the government ‘line’ has been that the unlock down is going to occur ‘come what may’ on June 21st or the government feels that it will lose all credibility (not to to mention the wrath of the right wing of the Tory Party but as we know, this always be taken as a constant). The problem for the government is that much of the data seems to be pointing in the wrong direction and we will have to wait until almost the last moment to have a more complete date set (with projections about projected numbers of hospital cases and so on) At least they do not have the problems being experienced in Belgium were the country’s leading virologist is being targeted by a far right military shooting instructor who is pursuing a vendetta against virologists and Covid lockdowns and is on the run with a rocket launcher and a machine gun (and the Belgian police cannot find him).

 

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Friday, 5th June, 2021 [Day 445]

Today, the spell of fine weather continues and so we were delighted  to start our walk, after our customary chat and exchange of news with our domestic help who has been ‘doing’ for us for at least the last ten years. Then we made our way into town but did it in a series of ‘three hops’ so that Meg could manage the various stages in the heat without undue distress. First we popped down to our loca and Meg sat outside on some benches whilst I popped around the corner to pick up the newspapers. Then we both ventured forth into town and bought some toiletries from a local ‘Health and Beauty’ type shop – having completed the second leg of our venture we could not wait until we continued to the park and consumed our coffee and comestibles (the only slight problem being that any of the local dogs who have been let off the lead bound towards us in the inspection that they might get fed). After that, it was home for a fairly quick lunch before we settled down to our Friday afternoon activities. The principal activity was to get the lawns cut which includes the communal green area which is in front of the house (and which I have affectionately in the past nicknamed as ‘Meg’s Meadow’) and then our own private lawn towards the rear. The lawns look so much better once they have been transformed from their wispy appearance once the dandelions have done their worst to a much tidier condition which looks great in the afternoon sunshine.  Then I needed to get some heavy stone pots which I had recently acquired into the positions I had chosen for them. My daughter-in-law helped me with some of the heavy lifting involved and then we scoured the garden for some plants with which to populate them. Our daughter-in-law had already been busy with her dahlias which she had uncovered ready for the new season and she had sown and planted some sunflowers (in variety) in various parts of the garden so we just have to give them a bit of TLC now in order for them to thrive.

In the early evening, one of my ex-colleagues from Hampshire FaceTimed me (we generally do each Friday evening and he always seems to have such a busy life with organising this, that and the other) We are still vaguely wondering whether it would be possible to book ourselves away for a few nights in North Wales and, as things stand, we should be seeing Meg’s cousin in about three weeks time. Last night, I made some tentative attempts to make a booking at the Holiday Inn we have used several times before but did not get anywhere. So this morning, I telephoned them only to be informed that they are not contemplating opening again until July at the earliest. (I am not quite sure whether this is because they come under the Welsh lockdown rules which differ a little from the English, in any case).

I am finding it interesting that a lot of political heat is being generated today by the Government’s decision to move Portugal from the ‘green’ category (no quarantines) to the ‘amber’ category (which implies a fortnight’s quarantine plus a couple of tests upon your return) It seems that one of the factors behind the government’s decision is an understandable nervousness about exposing British holiday makers to the ‘Nepalese’ variant (which seems to be a variant upon the Indian variant) It might be the the UK government are being over-cautious at this point, but I don’t think so. They were rightly criticised for delaying putting ‘India’ in the ‘red’ zone thereby exposing the great British public to potentially hundreds or even thousands of people flying in from India perhaps carrying the new mutant strain of the virus with them.Now without wishing to sound ethnocentric, it must be of concern when a variant itself mutates because the so-called ‘Nepalese’ variant could evade all of our current vaccines and our subsequent defences. 

The COVID news tonight sounds genuinely scary to me as coronavirus cases in the community rocketed by 76.5% in just one week, official data for England indicates. Waves of infection have got to start off from very small beginnings and this looks incredibly like the start of another wave to me. Also, the R rate has moved up too a figure in the rate 1.0-1.2 which probably means about 1.1 This means that every 10 infected people will generate a further eleven infections and so on. The date for the end of all lockdowns (21st June, only 17 days away) is now looking very uncertain at this stage. If we were to completely unlock down then, we might be releasing the whirlwind!

Tonight, Donald Trump has been banned from FaceBook for the next year and a half at least.The timing means Mr Trump will not be able to use his accounts ahead of the November 2022 national midterm elections, when his Republican party will be competing for congressional seats. But tens of millions of Republican voters are still providing Trump with their support (at least nominally)

 

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Thursday, 3rd June, 2021 [Day 444]

Today has been an interesting day for us. We were a little delayed in our normal walk because the Waitrose shopping was delivered (back onto our normal schedule from 9-10 on a Thursday morning) and, of course, all of this needs putting away. It was a day for our gardener who calls on us about once a month and for whom we rely to do some of the heavier shrub and bush trimming. Once we had a chat with him we set on our way and I dropped Meg on our normal bench whilst I went off to collect the newspapers. This sort of routine may only carry on for less than two weeks because the famous Waitrose cafe is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, June 17th. When it does, we will call in there for our morning coffee and it will be fascinating to see how long it will take for the old networks, current about 17 months ago, to manage to recreate themselves. Beyond a doubt, some of the regulars will have go themselves in new routines, watering holes, friendship groups and the like so will have to wait and see. I have asked the Waitrose staff that I see when I pop into the store for a quick forgotten item (as I did this morning as we were in danger of running out of coffee) to remind the manager that the old regulars should be rewarded with a bottle of champagne or similar on their reopening day. Although Waitrose do sell newspapers, I shall continue to patronise the little newsagents around the corner in order to keep the more personal relationship going. My newspapers are always put on one side for me which means that they get delivered to me from where they have been put aside in the back room of the shop and I know that they will always be there for me.

I knew that after lunch, I needed to walk down into town for one or two urgent things. In particular, I needed to get into the local branch of Santander because my debit card cannot be introduced into any of the ATM machines. Within the store, it was indicated to me that I could have a replacement card with the same number on it about which I am mightily relieved. What I feared was that Santander would give me a whole new card with a new number on it and this would mean contacting quite a lot of online payment services where my card. details are ‘lodged’ in order to update the details. I know that from post experience, this can be quite troublesome not to mention time-consuming, so if I can get an exact replacement, so much the better. Whilst in town, I availed myself of some of the local charity shops that I have not frequented for months now. I acquired an incredibly well-illustrated guide to Spain for £2.00, beautifully illustrated with some excellent high quality photos. I thought I was buying myself yet another travel guide to Spain but in practice this is more like a mini-encyclopaedia on the history, art literature etc. of Spain. As such, I think it will give Meg and I lots of pleasure but no doubt it will fill us full of longing to get back there again but I suspect that next Spring may be the earliest date that we can realistically expect. I could not resist the temptation to go into my local ‘The Works‘ (which sells remaindered books and a variety of stationery) and as I was completing my purchases, the shop manager plonked a ‘long’ 2021 calendar which appears to have a psalm for every month of the year. The complete package, which I haven’t had chance to open or examine yet, also contains a small 2021 diary again replete with psalms. The shop manager practically threw this item at me (marked down from £10 to£2.50 to 50p) saying to the assistant ‘This is for the gentleman‘ so I suppose I must have looked badly in need redemption or something. Now an interesting question arises whether I keep this little package or not because I happen to know one of my friends would quite like a ‘long ‘ calendar but she probably won’t thank me for suppling her with one with religious motives on every page!

The COVID-19 news this evening looks particularly grim this evening. The UK has reported 5,274 new coronavirus cases and 18 further deaths and this is the highest daily jump since 26th March (two months ago). Also, this news comes as Public Health England (PHE) revealed the number of cases of the Indian (Delta) variant have almost doubled in the past week – rising by 5,472 to 12,431. This is surely sounding the death knell for any immediate release from the lockdown restrictions. As it happens, Boris is pictured receiving his second jab today but in the race between ‘second jabs’ and increase in the Indian (Delta) variant of the virus, it looks as though victory is going to the latter.

 

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Wednesday, 2nd June, 2021 [Day 443]

Wednesday morning is always quite a busy morning before we have a chance to think about our daily walk. The first and most important thing was to write a reference for a close friend of ours- although I only got the request about a day ago, the accompanying letter indicated that no employment would be forthcoming without a completed reference so I was anxious to get this completed and despatched. It used to be said that in the ‘bad old days’ (and I am going back about thirty years now) that employers in both the private and the public sector used to give terrible references on the people that they wished to retain and absolutely glowing references on the people with whose services they wanted to dispense i.e. hoping that they would get another job and leave. I am sure that things are much more professional nowadays  but it is quite a long time since I have actually written a reference for anyone. After this had been completed, I refined my Waitrose order, ready for delivery tomorrow morning and finally prepare our elevenses ready for the park. We had a most delightful walk down the hill with beautiful sunshine and a very gentle breeze. When we finally got the park we encountered two of our regular park friends and enjoyed both the weather and the good conversation. Meg is teaching one of our friends some Spanish (or at least Spanish phrases) and whilst I shoot off and get the newspapers, Meg is busy teaching all she knows. The point about languages, I suppose, is that when you are in the country itself you hear little phrases repeated over and over again and this seeps into your consciousness, as it were – the grammar books evidently aim to be comprehensive and ‘correct’ but of course people actually talk in all kinds of unconventional ways.

Later on this afternoon, I Skyped one of my Hampshire friends and we rather went down memory lane, talking about the early computers which we had either owned or upon which we cut our computing teeth, as it were. I remember quite well my early Commodore-64 days which I learned how to program in 6502 machine code. Where to put one’s code ? Actually, there was a bit of space in what was called the ‘second cassette buffer’ which nobody actually used and this space ran from 828-1022 i.e. 192 bytes of space which is less than one fifth of 1k.  So anything you wanted to do (e.g. sorting programs, graphics programs) had to be fitted into this space. It used to be said by one of my favourite authors that the machine code ‘fitted together like polished mahogany’ and there was certainly no room for viruses or the like. Talking about things that have to be adapted, on my Thinkpad there is no  Windows logo key (IBM refused to pay the royalties to Microsoft which the latter were demanding  as the price to be paid for putting this key on your keyboards) So I found out how to alter the registry entry so that the Caps Lock key (which hardly anyone actually uses) is remapped so that it now functions as a Windows logo key. My friend and I were using Skype for over an hour and a half as we had a lot to catch up but we always exchange tips, hints, things in which we know the other will be interested) These chats are always so enjoyable so we will catch up with each other again in about a fortnight’s time.

The political rhetoric is getting quite interesting at the moment. I notice that the right wing of the Tory Party (e.g. Ian Duncan Smith) always seem to be willing and able to be interviewed on any contemporary political issue. This time, of course, it is the ‘finally balanced’ decision as to other to lift the lockdown completely on June 21st or whether to retain some residual restrictions. The rhetoric being used currently is that the scientific community are ‘bullying’ Boris Johnson into an incomplete release of the lockdown. Now the use of this term is really very interesting as scientists are only in a position to advise and their collective advice can be accepted or rejected by the government. On the other hand, the right wing of the Tory Party knows a thing or two about bullying as they can dispose of Johnson in a moment should they decide to withdraw their support from him. As it was, there was a massive rebellion when we had ‘Tiers’ and it looks as though Kent (yes, Kent!) was going to be placed in Tier 3 as it was then. This revolt on the Tory benches were right-wingers to a man and I find it fascinating that they would collectively use a term like ‘bullying’ to describe legitimate pressure on the government coming from the scientific community. It does look, by the way, that several scientists are now calling for Step 4 to be delayed by several weeks as the Indian variant of the virus looks threatening.

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Tuesday, 1st June, 2021 [Day 442]

The spell of fine weather is continuing and after one of the wettest Mays on record, we are now facing a spell of warm weather in which the temperatures here are said to exceed those in the island of Ibiza – one of the Balearic Islands off the eastern coast of Spain. So we made our usual trip to the park and there met with a couple of our usual companions and as we normally do enjoyed half-an-hour of banter and amusing conversation. We were joined briefly by someone we know who quite regularly walks 8-10 km per day (as his daughter-in-law checks on him with an Apple Watch) and we find this amazing for someone in their mid 80’s. He doesn’t stay and chat for too long in case his muscles get cold! The other day when I was in the park I remember watching a father playing with his daughter who looked about 8-10 years old. They were throwing and catching a kind of spaceship shaped object to each other and I noted how, even over the space of 15 minutes, the young girl’s ability to throw and also to catch the aforementioned object improved considerably. It did make me wonder how important it was for hand-eye-brain to be stimulated in order to develop and how children, deprived of such stimulation, might exhibit a failure to thrive. One thing we have noticed in our daily visits to the park are the kinds of bikes that the very young children are riding. The very simplest for the 3 year old seats have no pedals but are just propelled by their feet – this, I suppose, helps the child to develop the feels of balance and coordination required. After that they may graduate to a two-wheeler bike with stabilisers – the rather old fashioned three wheeler bike seems to have had its day. The point about stabilisers is that they can be removed once a child has acquired the necessary confidence and presumably fixed back again when the bike gets handed on to a younger sibling. Then, of course, there are a variety of scooters not to mention skateboards and the adolescent (males, usually) can whizz along the paths at a fantastic speed upon these on their way to the skateboard part of the park which is always very popular. Eventually, Meg and I collected our newspapers and then progressed to home where we enjoyed a nice meal of lamb, delayed from the weekend.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I enjoy messing about on my newly acquired IBM ThinkPad running Windows 7. As I have so little memory (about 1.25GB) and a 1.4GHz CPU it is one of my aims in life to find the least resource hungry applications I can find – to fit the specifications of a machine probably first specified about 15 years ago. Now I want you you to imagine the following scenario – on your Windows computer screen you have nothing else displayed apart from two icons – one indicating the Microsoft ‘Word‘ program and the other representing the Microsoft ‘Outlook‘ program. How would you use each one? The answer is evident, of course – if you had to compose a document for work or other purposes you would use Word to compose a ‘Word’ document. Turning your attention to the Outlook icon, you could dah off a quick email to a friend and even use Outlook to send the document you had just created to wherever. Then, as I was staring at the formatting toolbar in the Outlook clone I have just acquired (actually, OE Classic which stands for Outlook Express Classic) and noticed the formatting toolbar (which, in essence, we have noticed in the various versions of Word going back probably for 25 years). Then, as they say, something has been hiding ‘in plain sight’ over the years (I have used Outlook on and off for probably 25 years). I thought to myself ‘Why don’t I use Outlook as though it were only a word processor‘ – after all, via the formatting toolbar I can choose the font, size, colour, background, bold, italic, strikethrough, margin indents, link insertion, bullets, numbers etc) So I started a series of experiments in which I used Outlook as though it were only a word processor and using a bit of native cunning managed to produce a document complete with header, miniature table with coloured cells to remind me of the various formatting options) and variety of formatted text (bold, italics and so on) To which the question is : why on earth bother? And the answer is that I can produce a document (in html format which I tend to want anyway so it would display on a webpage if necessary) with a program which loads in about 5 seconds and occupies about 12,000k in memory rather than the official Word program which takes about 60-70 seconds and occupies 27,000k in memory and then you have my answer!

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