Mission accomplished - getting what I need. Out and about. Travel problems for some ... but not for all.

The other day I realised why my distance glasses, useful for reading the subtitles on foreign language films and TV series, were feeling uncomfortable. The bobbly bits, the nose-pads, had fallen off. One remained in the glasses case but the other had disappeared completely. This reflects the fact that one side had been feeling a bit scratchy for a good while. But finally, having found the stray nose-pad in the glasses case, I took a careful look and found the reason for the scratchy feeling. Why had I not looked before? Goodness knows!

So yesterday I got on my bike and set off for the optician’s in Uppermill. I hadn’t bought the glasses there but I still didn’t fancy a bus ride to the centre of Oldham to the optician’s section of Boots the Chemist. However, I was hopeful that the Uppermill place would be prepared to do a small repair for me anyway. And so they did!And free of charge. Mission accomplished!

As I was in Uppermill I popped into the coop store with a small shopping list. On my list for weeks I have had All-Bran and have been unable to find it. Those of the family who still go to supermarkets or order stuff from the big stores on line have been on the lookout for it for me, all to no avail. Consequently I was very pleased to find it back on the shelf in the coop. I briefly considered buying more than one packet but in the end I decided that panic-buying and stockpiling was not really my thing. But it was a small success. Such is life at the moment!

Later in the day, actually into the evening, we went for a walk along what we call our forest path, aka “the secret path”. There are always interesting things to see along the way.

Bits of beauty everywhere! We consider ourselves fortunate. There were even flowers to coordinate with my hoodie and my bag.

On the radio programme, You and Yours, they have been discussing holidaying in the UK. Reports are mixed. Some places, most places in fact, really welcome the return of tourists but a few are feeling inundated with people who do seem to know how to behave at seaside places - litter left around and people urinating in full view of family groups! Levels of tourist politeness varies too. One Cornishman described going for a walk in his local area. He has not been out and about much during lockdown and stopped to sit down and admire the view, only to find a group coming and sitting really close to him. So he reminded them about social distancing, only to be threatened and sworn at. So he’s not feeling very happy about tourists.

I suppose he was lucky only to be threatened and sworn at. There was a news report in one of the papers about a shop assistant asking a customer please to wear a mask in the store. The customer got out bis handgun and shot the assistant. When police went to his home to investigate the incident, he turned an assault rifle on them. He wasn’t dealing well with the virus crisis! This was, of course, in the USA. Fortunately we haven’t quite reached that stage yet.

Some of us, quite a lot us by all accounts from what the radio commentaries tell me, might be feeling more than a little limited by the virus crisis. Travel options have been seriously reduced but it could be worse. I have been reading about young people in particular feeling cut off from home, in fact, actually cut off from home. Chinese students, Mongolian tourists, Palestinians from Gaza and many others have all found themselves unable to return home, often meaning separation from close family, economic hardship and uncertainty about the future. This is largely because of borders being closed and airports restricting the number of flights allowed in. Mongolians seem to be suffering the most as their country’s borders are closed. Government evacuation flights exist but they only run once a month from Frankfurt and Istanbul. Tickets are expensive. Students whose study visas are running out cannot afford them, cannot even afford to get to the Frankfurt and Istanbul and the cannot afford to pay for a mandatory 21-day stay in a government quarantine facility on arrival. Just another of the Coronavirus consequences.

One person who has managed to travel seems to be Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, emeritus King of Spain, who abdicated a few years ago in favour of his son King Felipe. He is reported to have - maybe, possibly, but nobody is sure - travelled to the Philippines, escaping from the various scandals that have been revealed about him recently! Once he was a hero, seeing his country through the transition from dictatorship to democracy, standing up for what was seen as right. As time has gone by his image has slipped, financial shenanigans have come to light and he has become an embarrassment to his son and, indeed, his country. How are the mighty fallen?

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!