Frustration. Ageeeing with POTUS - or not. Hotspots. Testing. And loonies.

 Day three of wrestling with the new interface on blogger. I am wasting an inordinate amount of time trying to put right odd changes that occur in the process of publishing: the font is changed, but not for the whole post, just a section; the font size is changed, again for just a section; even the text colour is changed! I discover a typo and try to go back and correct it but discover I cannot actually reach that bit of text. I try to see a preview of a post, the system says it is loading a preview and nothing happens. Extremely frustrating!

Practically as frustrating and odd as discovering that I almost agree with President Trump:-

“President Donald Trump said the United States must look “very seriously” into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, but that his administration had not yet seen any proof.

“I think we have to look at it very seriously, if it’s the case,” he said, “I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look.

“It is interesting that everybody’s always mentioning Russia … but I think probably China at this point is a nation that you should be talking about much more so than Russia.”

Well, he’s right that we have no proof about what happened to Navalny but I doubt the Chinese had much to do with it.

While accusations are flying around, including Mr Trump calling Coronavirus the Chinese virus, here is a link to an article about an Austrian ski resort called Ischgi, dubbed ‘Ibiza on ice’, not far from the border with Northern Italy. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/05/everyone-was-drenched-in-the-virus-was-this-austrian-ski-resort-a-covid-19-ground-zero 

Some 6,000 people apparently think they caught Coronavirus there. Others imply that it contributed to the spread of the virus throughout much of Europe and beyond. Amazing!

Getting back to Mr Trump, I read that he has directed the Office of Management and Budget to crack down on federal agencies’ antiracism training sessions, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda”. That sounds like an enlightened view of things!

Meanwhile a new report tracking political violence suggests that 93% of Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful. From the media we have the impression that it has all been huge violent confrontations. And there have been those, of course, and very frightening and worrying they are too. The report also said that the US government has taken a “heavy-handed approach” to the demonstrations, with authorities using force “more often than not” when they are present. And so violence is answered with violence. And all of that makes for much more lively television news reporting than a peaceful demonstration. And there is probably not time to report all demonstrations. However, we need to be reminded to keep things in perspective.

Back here in the UK, Greater Manchester is being released from enhanced lockdown restrictions. Well, most of Greater Manchester, anyway. The Manchester Evening News tells me:

“More business will be allowed to reopen in parts of Greater Manchester following the latest lockdown announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Casinos, skating rinks, bowling alleys, exhibition halls, conference centres, and indoor play areas will be able to reopen from next Tuesday in all of Greater Manchester apart from Bolton.

Meanwhile tighter restrictions in Oldham that prevent households from mixing indoors and outdoors will remain in place.

The Department of Health also said the rate infection is “still too high” to lift the restrictions on gatherings.”

So it goes, but the children will still go back to school.

And testing continues to cause problems, with the North East of England running out of testing kits. It seems that government officials said it was necessary to ration tests to divert capacity towards infection hotspots, such as Greater Manchester, and that it would soon open a new laboratory enabling it to double its swab-testing capacity, to 500,000 a day, by the end of October. By then, of course, children will have been back in school for half a term. Hmmm!

And that is where the loonies come back into the game. Letters are circulating on social media, letters that it is suggested parents should send to schools, threatening legal action if their offspring are “made to wear masks in school”. Here are some examples of content:

“I am deeply concerned at the potential for detrimental health issues from mask wearing, and I serve this Notice of Liability on you to inform you I DO NOT CONSENT to my child being compelled to wear a mask at school and will, if any harm or injury arises from same, hold you personally liable for damages and or injury.”

“There are powers within the Coronavirus Act 2020 to detain and take away anyone deemed to be infected and I say again, I DO NOT CONSENT to this abuse of unlawful power.”

“I would like to make you aware that some hand sanitisers through excessive use can contribute to eczema, dermatitis and the active chemicals can be absorbed in through the skin and adversely affect health in the long term.”

Teachers’s unions and lawyers have had to get involved. Every crisis brings out the crazies.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Fish and chips. Quarantine. Testing. Fans as face masks. Weather.

There is something wrong with the world when the deputy leader of a political party puts a post on Facebook wishing everyone a Happy National Fish and Chips Day. Really! I ask you, what are things coming to? I know I have ranted before now about these “days”, some of which I can almost understand, but this one really takes the biscuit. Some people will no doubt argue that our national dish is fish and chips but even so, does it really merit a “day”? I am flabbergasted!

Lots of other people are flabbergasted about what is going on with returning from Portugal. Do you or don’t you have to quarantine? England has wavered but come down on the side of no quarantine. Wales demands quarantine. Scotland brings in quarantine from midnight tonight. At least I think that’s what’s going on. Hardly a united kingdom. (By the way, as my fingers stumble and slide over the keyboard on my iPad, I realise that united is an anagram for untied. Are we becoming an Untied Kingdom?) If you arrive back to a English airport, eg Liverpool, and travel to Wales, do you still have to quarantine. Apparently, yes! But as there are no border controls between England and Wales, how is anybody going to know who has driven from Liverpool John Lennon airport as they return from Portugal? Are there even flights from Portugal to John Lennon airport?

All might be sorted if we had a proper system of Covid testing going on. The ideal would be to test before you go away on holiday, someone on radio has just said. However, Covid testing stations seem to be in short supply - news reports told me yesterday that some people have to drive 100 miles for a test!  It needs a rethink. And I swear I heard a government person, maybe even the Health Minister himself saying that now nobody will have to go more than 75 miles! I thought maybe this would be like our having to go to Leeds but in fact that’s only 25 miles. It would be like our having to go to Leicester! Supposing you need to go by public transport! Oh boy! Here’s an article about it. 

Thinking about testing and wearing masks and generally protecting ourselves from Covid, I read something by Adrian Chiles wrote about social norms which he has culled from an article in The Tatler. Hugging - out; air kissing, from a distance - in. Here's an extract:

“I have to report that the Tatler piece wasn’t without merit. I learned, for example, that the Queen’s favourite dining spot is a place called Bellamy’s, which is described as a “U-bolthole”. The proprietor is a man with the not-very-posh-sounding name of Gavin Rankin. He expects the new normal to herald “a resurgence of the fan as a sort of face mask”, complete with old-age flirting techniques. He also predicts “air-kissing, only from a greater distance”, but table-hopping “will be out, thank goodness”.

Adrian Chiles questions the use of fans as a face mask. He asks: “How can a fan be a “sort of face mask”? Apart from anything else, don’t fans, well, fan air, and so waft all manner of germs everywhere. And what are these “old-age flirting techniques”? He has clearly never seen old film of Spanish ladies, and Japanese ladies for that matter, using a fan to cover most of the face, effectively a face mask, leaving only the eyes to communicate flirtatiously with gentlemen across the room! Of course, a fan would really only work for ladies. You see few gentlemen with fans, even in the hottest of weather. Ladies, however, can have fans of different colours to match their outfits, as is becoming the case with face masks as well.

Yesterday reversed my theory that the morning is the best part of the day. My washing did dry successfully outdoors. In the late afternoon we decided to go oit and stretch our legs. It was still gloomy and grey when we set out but the cloud cover shifted as we walked and by the time we were almost home the sky was turning a nice sunny blue. 

And the evening was very pleasant. Today is grey again though. So it goes.

I have spent more time than I like today battling with the new blogger interface, intended to make things more straightforward, especially for people working from their mobile phones, apparently. That may be so but it has been driving me mad. Yes, I hold my hands up to the fact that I am not a great fan of change but I am fairly flexible. However, when a system works for me, especially if it involves IT, I really prefer not to have to unlearn it and acquaint myself with a new set of rules. But no doubt I’ll adapt to this as well. So it goes! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.

Weather. Figs. Parking. Names. Back to the office. And Coronavirus hotspots.

After a reasonable start yesterday was a bit of a washout. So we just stayed at home, pottered about in the computer or iPad, read, did a bit of art and craft work and so on. We consoled ourselves with some nice fish baked in the oven for our evening meal, with some roasted figs and a glass or white wine.

When I was a child figs only ever appeared in fig biscuits, a sort of squishy mess wrapped in soft biscuit dough, usually served at Christmas time. One of those that you ate as a child because they seemed quote grown-up biscuits but which you were never quite sure if you liked them or not. It’s only with hindsight that I realise that the squishy mess was actually the inside of the fruit. I had no idea what a fig looked like and even less of what one actually tasted. And nowadays they appear as regular as clockwork at this time of year and I like to serve them up in various guises as long as they are around. Last week the Italian fruit and veg shop in Uppermill was selling individual small figs for 75 pence apiece. Yesterday the figs were enormous, almost twice the size of last week’s but still selling for the same price. How odd!

Today is forecast to be a little better: quite a lot of cloud but the 20% chance of rain looks like being an evening affair. So I have hung the washing to dry in the garden, taking a risk and keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe we’ll even manage a walk later in the day.

On the radio they have been talking about parking on the pavement, which is about to become illegal in Scotland apparently. Good for Scotland, say I! I can understand drivers’ wanting to get their huge vehicles - modern cars are so-o-o-o much bigger than cars ever used to be - as much off the road as possible but it’s a real pain for those of us who walk places. The number of times I have to step out into the road to get round parked vehicles is astounding. For myself it’s just a nuisance but if we are off on one of our family “adventures” with a baby buggy and a four-year-old to cope with it’s positively dangerous. Okay! That’s that rant out of the way.

In my youth I always rather fancied the idea of having a son, some time in the then far distant future, whom I would call Sean. And then I spent a fair few years teaching and came across a host of rude, lazy, obnoxious little Seans and that potential name went out of the window. And yesterday I came across a list of the “naughtiest names”:

Naughtiest boys

•   Jack
•   Harry
•   Charlie
•   Oliver
•   George

Naughtiest girls

•   Mia
•   Ella
•   Isabella
•   Amelia
•   Sophia

Now, I have a nephew called Jack who has always been a bit of a charming rascal. But he was named for his grandfather, my father, just about the nicest Jack you could meet. And our granddaughter Mia, although quite capable of throwing a bit of a temper tantrum for her parents, is a high achieving angel in school. What’s in a name? One of my daughter’s friend has just named her new son Hector, an increasingly popular name at present. I wonder how the little Hectors will be viewed by the time they get to school and are judged by peers and teachers.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, among the best behaved children Isla turns out to be he best name for girls while for boys, Arthur takes top spot, with just 4% of those surveyed expecting Arthurs to misbehave. Most likely to be associated with being quiet and shy are all the little  Noahs. Is this because they keep a low profile so that nobody asks them about all the animals in their ark?

Here is a link to an article by Joel Golby, questioning the “delights” of being back in the office. He wonders if Jeremy Hunt, who extolls the “fizz” and “excitement” of being in the office, has ever really works in an office. I was never an office worker but some of the same problems arise for classroom workers: going into the staffroom for a lunch break only to discover that someone has used your mug and not washed it up, or indeed has taken a fancy to it and walked off with it, leaving it to fester in a distant art classroom; making a coffee and going to the fridge for the milk you have clearly labelled, “This is Anthea’s bottle of milk - please leave her enough for her next cup of coffee”, has been completely emptied; finding the kitchen too disgustingly dirty to use. So it goes!

That is, of course, without mentioning the Coronavirus risk which has now been added. Coincidentally, I hear that former Italy PM Berlusconi has tested positive for coronavirus and is in quarantine at home. I an resisting the temptation to say it could not happen to a better person. He hasn’t mentioned bunga-bunga parties but apparently he stressed that he would continue his political activities.

“I will be present in the electoral campaign with interviews on televisions and in newspapers,” he said during a video-conference of Forza Italia’s women’s movement.

However he recognised “the limitations imposed on my activities by testing positive for the coronavirus... but I will continue the battle.”

We shall see!

Meanwhile, the virus keeps popping up. France has seen in increase in cases, as have a nuber of other countries. Spain is ordering immediate lockdown, to stay i  effect for 14 days, in the tourist town of Benigànim  in the mountain region of Valencia but just 60 miles from the coastal holiday resort of Benidorm. 

A long way from the Iberian peninsula the island of El Hierro - in the Canary Islands, the place we have been told by so many commentators that it should not be included in the blanket decision to require quarantine for returnees - has closed its beaches immediately because of a serious outbreak.

All of this, as with the Coronavirus positive people flying back from Greek islands, makes me wonder whether the tourists catch the virus there or take it with them and upset the health balance in the tourist place. Or it might just be a second wave - JUST a second wave!!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.

The best of the day. Celebrations in a time of crisis. Gardening therapy. Systems falling apart.

Once again the weather favoured me for my Wednesday cycle ride to the market, confirming my belief that the early(ish) morning is the best time of the day at the moment. As I unlocked it, unshackled it, more likely, from the fence outside the delicatessen somebody stopped and asked me if this was an electric bike. Not at all. It’s probably a matter of stubborn pride that I can tackle the hills around here a little better every time I go out. Rain is forecast for later and certainly by lunchtime the sun had disappeared again, we shall see.

Today is our granddaughter’s fourth birthday. For the last few years we have made her birthday an occasion for a family reunion, our son and his family coming up from the London area to join us briefly before their little one goes back to school. Two years ago we took over a local Italian restaurant, taking our own home-made birthday cake with us. Last year we celebrated at home and the two little girls, birthday girl and her slightly older cousin, put on a show for us in the living room: a medley of nursery rhymes, counting songs and selected songs from Disney films such as Frozen. This year is a much more subdued affair but the birthday girl seems to have been happy with a restricted immediate family visit to a local farm cum petting zoo. We might be able to join in festivities with an “adventure” walk later, provided the rain hold off.

Out and about on my travels, I have admired allotments here and there. And our next door neighbours have worked hard to develop a bit of a raised flower bed in the back garden, cultivating kale, impressive sunflowers and even pumpkins! Apparently this has been a common escape-activity during lockdown. Here is a sample from an article in the newspaper:

“A week after lockdown, we were offered an allotment. The previous week, our wedding had been cancelled the night before it was due to take place, when Boris Johnson announced the closure of pubs and restaurants.

We jumped at the chance. We were desperate for something to distract us from the escalating madness. We had no gardening experience and it’s been a steep learning curve, helped along by more experienced plot holders.

The allotment has been the silver lining to the big, black cloud that’s been over us.”

There you go! One of the odd consequences of the virus!

Personally I have done very little gardening apart from trimming overgrown bushes and pulling up a few weeds. I have completed a number of art and craft projects but the garden has not been one of my escapes.

On the radio news, I have just heard that a group of singers will perform Land of Hope and Glory on the Last Night of the Proms after all. Will there be another outcry? Comments about storms in teacups spring to mind.

Over in he USA I understand that one big fear is that if Mr. Trump loses the presidential election he will refuse to concede. 75% of Joe Biden supporters believe this to be the case as do an alarming 47% of the country as a whole. At the same time 41% of Trump supporters apparently believe that Biden will lose but refuse to concede. This stems from ongoing rumours about the lack of security in the voting system, some of the rumours encouraged by Mr Trump himself. Good grief! Democracy is falling apart in the USA! We shall see!

And now the rain has arrived!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Opinions of adventuring. Statistics about education. Playing with the truth. Diets. Film festivals and eating in cinemas.

The fine and sunny weather continues today. If it weren’t for the quagmires still hanging around in places the sun does not really reach, you could almost forget that we have had so much rain. So the weathermen who predicted a really cold Bank Holiday Monday were not quite right.

We planned yesterday to walk our “forest path”, the track through a bit of woodland behind Dobcross village, to see how the rainy weather has treated it and to check on regrowth of all the nettles and brambles that Phil removed on our last foray down there. Muddy in places and some regrowth but not overwhelming was the answer to our question. That had been all our plan but not long before we set off our daughter suggested we meet in Dobcross and do a bit of a walk from there.



And so we met in the garden centre carpark, admiring and trying to identify certain mysterious trees while we waited.

Then we walked up, the hill, down to the canal towpath, back along the lane behind Uppermill and back onto the Donkey Lone bridle path. There we split into two groups and went our separate ways.

This was a longer walk than expected and so when I proposed a ramble today past the millpond and on towards Castleshaw, where there are the remains of a Roman fort, Phil demurred, saying two days of long walks were quite enough.

Goodness me!

But it is a very nice day! So it goes. A stroll round the village will have to suffice.

Out in the wider world, where schools will be reopening this week, some of them indeed today, I read that the “gap between rich and poor pupils in England 'grows by 46% in a year'”. A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research, based on interviews with more than 3,000 teachers and heads at more than 2,000 schools, apparently shows that disadvantaged and black and minority ethnic children had gone backwards compared with their better-off peers since March. Undoubtedly true, but where does the figure 46% come from? Estimates by teachers it seems. But estimates are not really very scientific and sometimes appear to be pulled out of the air. Certainly one gets the impression that politicians make them up to suit their purposes almost all the time.

Talking of politicians, how about Mr Trump declaring in his speeches that Mr Biden will defund the police and lead the country into total mayhem and lawlessness. If you repeat a lie often enough lots of people will believe it. Mr Biden needs to shout a bit louder that he has no intention of doing any such thing!

Here’s an article about the latest plan to reduce the number of diabetics by putting many of them on a diet of low calorie soups and shakes. “The year-long plans will see those who could benefit provided with “total diet replacement products” such as specially formulated low-calorie shakes and soups for three months, alongside support to increase their exercise levels.”

All very laudable but surely there must be a better way than a diet of “shakes”. I have known people to lose weight on such liquid diets, only to put it back on once they resume normal eating.

The cynic in me wonders which of the friend of the cabinet members has a diet-shake company or maybe has received a contract to produce the same without any experience of doing so before!

Oh dear!

It’s already September and we are getting round to film festival time. Venice is gearing up to a Covid-free festival this year. I did wonder if enough new films would have been made to merit a festival but then I suppose most were made before the Cornavirus crisis. Will there be enough for next year though? That’s another question for another day!

This year, “ahead of the event guests have been sent a list of Covid-19 guidelines, including information on passing through thermo-scanners as they enter the festival and anyone found to have a body temperature of 37.5°C or higher will be denied access.

The guidance also states that face coverings must be worn at all times, including in outdoor areas. It is not clear how that rule will be enforced, or whether attendees will be allowed to eat or drink while in screenings.”

It’s the last point that intrigues and mildly annoys me, as it always does when films and cinema are discussed. Why do people need to eat and drink while watching films? Beforehand, in the interval and afterwards, I can just about understand but why can people not watch a film without stuffing their faces? New modern cinemas cater for this by having drinks holders next to the seats. Crazy! Will diabetics on the new diet be able to take their low-calorie shakes in with them?

The mind boggles!

And I run the risk of turning into a grumpy old puritan!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!