{"id":1072,"date":"2020-09-24T19:44:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T19:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2020-09-24T19:44:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T19:44:53","slug":"thursday-24th-september-2020-day-192","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/2020\/09\/24\/thursday-24th-september-2020-day-192\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, 24th September, 2020 [Day 192]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today seemed a bit\u00a0kinder day and although there was some rain in the air, we did not appear to be threatened by continuous rain as happened yesterday morning. My normal newspaper shop had run out of\u00a0The Times<\/em> by the time we got there so I popped round the corner to redeem my voucher in Waitrose. Whilst (briefly) inside the store I enquired of some of our favourite staff\u00a0whether we could still use the table\u00a0and\u00a0benches that they had outside the store and they affirmed that we could. So the possibility arises that when we next meet some of our friends, we will meet not in the park but just outside \u00a0our old haunts (is there a symbiotic link I ask myself?) Apart\u00a0<\/span>from that, we settled into our regular routine and I was reminded of a long-standing joke in Endeavour<\/em> (TV series based upon the younger Morse<\/em>). Every time, the elder detective Fred Thursday) was wondering what the sandwiches\u00a0prepared by his wife would contain that day, Endeavour would reply along the lines ‘It’s Tuesday – so it\u00a0will be cheese and pickle<\/em>‘ (He was\u00a0invariably correct) Thinking about detectives and lunchtime meals, I am also\u00a0reminded of scenes from Maigret\u00a0which I think I\u00a0remember correctly from when I used to read\u00a0reach novels for ‘A’-levels. Maigret’s wife was a cordon-bleu chef and the meals that she prepared for her husband were\u00a0always described in loving detail – Maigret by contrast came in and bolted his food with hardly a word of appreciation (My memory may be suspect at this point but I do wonder if Simenon was being semi-autobiographical at this point) As the\u00a0rain came down, we thought we might have to undergo another coffee-partaking session in the bandstand but, fortunately, I looked skywards and saw that the\u00a0rain cloud was just passing so took out an old\u00a0tea-towel, freshly\u00a0laundered as it turned out, to\u00a0wipe down the park bench so that we could eat and drink in peace –\u00a0which we did.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This afternoon, I set myself the task of linking a\u00a0keyword and mouse on my iPad. When I was last in a stationer’s shop, I saw a Bluetooth keyboard for sale at an incredibly low\u00a0<\/span>price so I went onto Amazon and ordered a\u00a0keyboard-plus-mouse (from the same manufacturer, sold as a set) which arrived yesterday. I am always a little suspicious of Bluetooth technology because although in theory devices ought to recognise and pair with each other effortlessly, in practice I have had my struggles in the past. But having inserted my batteries (not supplied) the\u00a0keyboard, mouse and iPad did all recognise\u00a0acth other and work very well. I was a little disconcerted not to get a usual mouse pointer but a little grey circle (whose colour you could change in the ‘Settings’) which seems to be the Bluetooth way of doing things. I am pleased to say that the technology is now working just as I wanted – and I even had a spare Bluetooth Logitech mouse if the supplied mouse were to fail. The keyboard\u00a0itself is only 4mm in depth (plus a raised area that gives the keyboard some rake ) and some 13.5″ in length – anyway, easily transportable within a suitcase for when we go away, so\u00a0this will be a permanent feature of my suitcase from now on.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This afternoon, Rishi Sunak, was announcing the Job\u00a0Support Scheme<\/em> which is intended to replace the furlough scheme for those already in work. The new scheme will be less expensive (estimated 3.6 billion per year with employers raising their\u00a0contribution towards the wages of employees from 25% to 55%) – this\u00a0compared with the eye-watering \u00a340 billion that the furlough scheme has cost so far. Perhaps one of the most\u00a0significant things that the Chancellor had\u00a0to impart was that the new arrangements were to be in place for at least six\u00a0months if not a year. Moreover, we would have to assume that the shape of the economy would be fundamentally altered – this is the first\u00a0indication that we have had from a member of the\u00a0government that it is not just a case of getting through this crisis and then back to normal. Meanwhile, we have the highest rate of new infections ever (6,634),\u00a0Glasgow University are having to cope with 124 COVID-19 infected students\u00a0and 500\u00a0self-isolating. One has to wonder what is going to happen at other universities up and down the country, two weeks behind Scotland. Just as a reminder of old times, Morrisons supermarket is\u00a0experiencing a run on toilet\u00a0rolls, disinfectant, bleach …\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today seemed a bit\u00a0kinder day and although there was some rain in the air, we did not appear to be threatened by continuous rain as happened yesterday morning. My normal newspaper shop had run out of\u00a0The Times by the time we got there so I popped round the corner to redeem my voucher in Waitrose. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1076,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions\/1076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}