The
enthusiasm for the outdoors early in the morning!
Well, the general enthusiasm had markedly
diminished by the time I got onto the Paseo at just after 7 am! The First Day zest had cooled as I rode down
a sparsely populated sea front. Don’t
get me wrong, there were more people there than usual (I mean the usual of more
than six weeks ago) but given the masses who were relishing their new found
freedom yesterday, their staying power was something of a squib!
I did my stint from the house to Port
Ginesta beach that is at the far end of the gentle arc of the bay that ends
with the train tunnels that eventually lead to Sitges. This journey I saw nobody whom I knew and my
trip was personally uneventful.
What was interesting was the positioning
of the police at the roundabout at the end of the Marina, guarding the road
that leads into the beach part of Castelldefels. This was obviously there as a deterrent to
any ‘visitors’ to the beach, as we all should be exercising near or rather
‘near’ our homes. The positioning of the
police links up with what Toni told me yesterday when he noticed the police
stationed on the part of the beach road that links Castelldefels with Gavà. Toni also mentioned that the end of his walk
was getting closer to the cut off time for our age group of 10 am, and the
police are not hesitant in dishing out fines to those who break the
regulations.
I am just over five months away from being
cast into another age group when my times for exercise will differ from those
of Toni – but who really has the slightest inkling of what will really happen
in those countries which have suffered (and go on suffering) the most from the
virus in five long months. Given the
speed of the news cycle nowadays we may not be able to recognize the world as
we knew it as having any real relationship with the way that we will be living
then!
The incubation period for the virus is two
weeks or thereabouts, so we should be checking the infection statistics on May
16th to see if the relaxation has had any numerical results. I hope to god not, but given the way that
people are responding to the fine weather and the new freedom, I fear the
worst.
At
the moment Toni’s family is having a joint ‘meal’ via the Internet to celebrate
Mother’s Day. Unfortunately Toni’s mum
does not know how to join the videoconference and so she is present in thought
only! Though now she is being contacted
by phone in the hope that it can be converted into some sort of joint
effort. I do not hold out any lively
hopes.
I suppose that what we are stuttering out
way through at the moment could become the fabulous New Normal that everyone is
talking about and no one knows how to make real practical sense of it. If physical distancing continues for the
foreseeable future and travel between towns is banned, then the videoconference
is the only way of giving a form of immediacy with sound and vision. Like so much else, what is now new and
unusual will become the everyday. Mobile
phones and smart phones are a case in point, who now does not own one and, more
importantly, know how to operate it at a level of sophistication that would
shock the selves of just five years ago!
If this does become more usual then I am
sure that there will be something like a curated service that will guarantee HD
quality sound and picture and give a firm electronic link – and there will be
plenty of people who would be prepared to pay for something a few shades of
sharpness better than that you get for grainy nothing!
After
the 8pm clap for health workers I made my second bike ride of the day along the
beach path to Gavà, and it was fairly full.
I only saw two illegal kids who should have been indoors at the time
that I was there, but it was the other people who made me wonder about how this
is going to turn out. There was little
evidence of physical distancing and, when I returned I went in the opposite
direction on the Paseo towards Port Ginesta, there was even less. As far as I could see, the people on the
Paseo looked and behaved as if it was a normal Sunday evening. And that is worrying!
My
collection of poetry, Coasts of Memory, continues to frustrate. I am satisfied with the general editing; it
is more the practical production of a printed version that is causing me
heartache! The Brother printer that I
have was bought specifically for its ability to print booklets. I make problems for myself by adding colour
photographs to the mix that have vast implications for the memory. Even with cutting the size of the file it is
too unwieldy to sent via email. I
therefore took the decision to reformat the colour photographs and ‘transform’
them into artistic black and white productions.
There were yet more printing difficulties
and the photos had to be redone.
Again. But, at last, I managed to
get something printed with which I am almost satisfied. I think that I will have to see if I can get
a professional to give me a quotation for the printing of the chapbook in
colour. Otherwise, the black and white
will have to do! And I have to admit
that the final product does look quite elegant.
Now, on with my plan to distribute it via
email and ask for a donation to the NHS charity of a country of choice! Onward and upward!
