We’ve been out to lunch today with my Italian conversation class. We try to do this at the end of each term to compensate for doing all the classes online. We went to an Italian restaurant in Manchester, one of a chain which apparently also has restaurants in Sicily. Phil and I had a chicken and walnut salad between us, having decided it was too hot for pizza. (Today is the hottest day here so far this summer - maybe summer has arrived at last.) We were offered, and accepted, tastes of other people’s pizza, which was very good.
The conversation around the table drifted between Italian and English and we confused the poor waitress by speaking to her in Italian, which she didn’t speak. She did assure us, however, that the chef is Italian.
One of our members asked another, who had come by train, if he had had any problems with his train ticket, in view of the Crowdstrike problem, a botched software update apparently. But like the rest of us in the group, apart from our teacher, he travels on his pensioner’s bus pass, having paid his £10 fee so that it can be used on local trains and trams as well as buses. All sorts of online stuff has simply fallen apart today - medical services, airlines and goodness knows what else.
And today is the end of term for many schools. Some of them have already broken up. Consequently lots of families have booked flights for today, only to find that airports are having major problems on what could be one of the busiest days in the year.
Rather like the beginning of a science fiction story, the internet falls apart and society has major problems. Will we descend into chaos?
In other areas of world chaos, here’s a link to an article about the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s settlement policy. At the same time David Lammy has announced that the UK is about to reinstate payments to UNRWA, hopefully making it possible for aid to get into Gaza. Are things unravelling for Israel?
Meanwhile here in the UK we have had riots in Leeds last night. A bus was set alight, a police car was overturned. All to do with the police trying to take some children into care. Here’s a link to an article about it.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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