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

Oops!

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....
1 comment
Read more

I'm Free

 After being incarcerated in my son's house waiting for the results of the day 2 test I was finally allowed out today.  I went to Chichester and was saddened by the number of familiar shops that have disappeared from the town centre.  Bognor is the same.  You wouldn't die of thirst in either town though as the number of cafes has increased.  Both town centres were busy making it difficult to keep a safe distance from others but many people were wearing masks in the street. I was pulled over by Customs in Caen.  As I opened the trunk of the car one of the officers asked me if I was carrying goods.  'Yes,' I replied, ' French Champagne and French wine'  They nodded approvingly and waved me away. During my 3 days in the house, I have cleaned, filed all their paperwork, mended the shower, cooked dinner and tried watching television, the latter being totally uninspiring.  The news consists of covid, travel restrictions, forbidden Christmas parties...
Post a 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