Skip to main content

It is all relative

I long for the day I can get back on the tennis or golf course.  I want to travel to see my family and just to get back to going anywhere.  I am fortunate,  however, that I live in the country and can walk or cycle from my front door.  A friend e mailed and said he walks round and round the garden like Rudolph Hess in Spandau prison and my sister lives in a tiny apartment with no garden in the middle of a concrete jungle.  A friend in Florida was moaning  that the beaches were closed so she had to swim in her pool every day,  while a friend in California is also confined to her house with just the pool and tennis court.  Life can be tough.

The UK has vaccinated millions (although it is not clear how many have had their second dose), the French have vaccinated 400,000 and all appointment slots are full, and that is just for the over 75s.  A dismal effort, bordering on pathetic.  France has continued to carry out normal operations, you can see a GP, get a mammogram, and the schools have remained open throughout.  In the UK you can't see a GP, operations are not being done and the schools are closed.  There are pros and cons in all countries.

Yesterday the rivers filled up, overflowed and flooded the fields at an amazing rate.  I went out to move the car to higher ground just before a foot of water covered the road.  36 hours later the waters are receding but I think I will leave the car where it is for a while.

This morning I was stopped at the traffic lights behind a driving school car.  As the lights turned to green the learner driver stalled the car, twice.  The woman behind me honked her horn repeatedly and when I looked in the rear view mirror I could see her waving her fists in the air and shouting, probably expletives.  Continuing to blast the horn she then got out of the car, just as the learner driver managed to pull away, followed by me, and oh dear, the lights turned red before she could back in her car, leaving the irate  woman shouting at herself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Equality

 I don't want to hear another person  say that women should be equal to men.  There is no 'should' about it, women ARE equal to men but they are not treated equally.  It has never occurred to me that I am  not equal to any man.  Am I treated equally?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  It requires a step change in the way women think of themselves as being equal before we can hope for attitudes, legislation, economics to  follow and that is my rant for the day. Ever since I have lived in France I have noticed a stark difference between the French and the British sense of humour.  The dry, irreverent humour of the British is completely wasted on the French, and the Dutch and the Americans sometimes for that matter.  Clearly the British humour is unique.  Yesterday I gave an article to a French friend to read.  It was a humorous piece, self deprecating about a woman suffering an attack by an insect on her face with hideous result...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mondays

 Last Monday my son and daughter in law were due to catch the 8.15am ferry from Portsmouth to Caen.  It was 6.45am when I stepped out of the shower and heard my phone  going.  I snatched it up.  It was a video  call.  'Mum, we have big problems here,'  and before I could speak he thrust the phone into the hands of a Brittany ferries' staff member and said, 'Talk  to my mum.'  Barely conscious of my wet, tangled hair and trying to cover myself up with a  towel which thought gravity was fun, I asked what the problem was.  Apparently they had the wrong vaccination certificates and were being refused passage.  I asked what I could do and she said they could go and get a test and take a later ferry.  'Where is the nearest test centre in Portsmouth?'  I asked.  'There isn't one,' she replied, 'there  is one in Southampton, or Havant.'  What!  No test centre in Portsmouth?  They both have learni...
1 comment
Read more

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more