According to some source my daughter came across, the government is supposedly going to have, may be already having or have had, a “gold meeting”, whatever one of those is, to decide whether Manchester should be moved to Tier 3 of the Covid traffic light scheme. Now, while I was surprised to find us only on Tier 2, given the high infection rate, I would prefer not to lose what little liberty we currently have.
As the sun is shining at the moment, perhaps our daughter should pop round this afternoon for a cup of tea and a bun in the garden before that is forbidden once more.
And now Northern Ireland is closing schools, pubs and restaurants on Friday. France and Germany are seeing more cases and hospitals are filling up again. Our friend Colin sent us a headline from the newspaper Faro de Vigo informing us that half the population of Galicia is on alert for the virus. This contradicts what another contact in Galicia told me only a week or so ago another when she commiserated with our situation here and said there were no cases in Vigo but rather a lot in Orense. I can’t help thinking she was misinformed or overoptimistic. My brother-in-law sent me a message telling me the airline Jet-2 was cancelling all flights to Spain and Portugal until early in 2021. I don’t know what is going on with other airlines.
I don’t think we will be going to the chess tournament in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, this year.
Things are unravelling.
But people were dancing in the streets in Liverpool last night, before they get shut down. Not celebrating but taking advantage of the last chance to do get together on the streets and make their feelings felt. My Italian friend complains on Facebook about the number of people she sees without masks when she goes out to work in a Manchester secondary school. There are lots of crazy people kicking against restrictions.
But at least we live in the very outer part of Greater Manchester and can escape into the countryside for walks, acknowledged as having “healing powers”. The Guardian newspaper had a feature about “Covid Heroes” - people who have organised things like online singing groups or distributed meals or have raised money - and the places they like to escape to. One of these is an 83-year-old author and explorer, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, who survived Covid and has raised £37,000 (so far) by climbing Brown Willy, the highest peak in Cornwall. Unlike politicians with special powers, he was in intensive care for five weeks and in hospital for seven. When doctors were trying to wake him up towards the end of his intensive care treatment he was wheeled outside and smelt the flowers. This was a turning point for him, he said.
The money he has raised is to go to NHS hospital gardens. My first reaction was to think that maybe it should be spent on something more concrete. But he ended his comments with this:-
“During recovery, a lot of it was about that will to live, and the grit and determination to complete my expedition. I had experienced something that I would have thought of as rather wacky before this – being in the hospital healing garden – but that’s the healing power of nature. I’m now a great advocate for that and believe every hospital in Britain should have a healing garden attached to the intensive care unit. It could be a gamechanger.”
So maybe the money should, after all, be spent on gardens.
Here’s something else to finish off. The government has been talking about retraining but had to withdraw a poster showing a young dance, Fatima, and suggesting she should retrain in cyber. With the arts in dire straits, this was judged more than a little inappropriate and was withdrawn. However, it has spawned a host of spoof versions of the poster and today someone sent me this, written by a certain Steve Pottinger:-
Fatima
Fatima’s working in cyber
she’s learned how to snoop and to hack
she’s talented, driven, and passionate
her revenge a cold feast, not a snack
Rishi’s bank account there on a spreadsheet
a few clicks of the keys and ... goodbye
Hancock’s now being sought on charges of fraud
Gove for intent to supply
Cummings just never existed
his records amended, deleted
Johnson pursued for child maintenance payments
left penniless, bankrupt, defeated
Rees-Mogg’s found his place in a workhouse
learning to do what he’s told
and a freighter’s crawling to St Helena
with Priti Patel in the hold
Yes, Fatima’s working in cyber
she’s smart, and she seizes her chances
at the end of the day, puts her laptop away
picks her shoes up
and smiles as she dances.
That’s all.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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