LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 43 – Monday, 27th APRIL

Why does it come as no shock whatsoever that the Conservative Government is going to release the figures for the total of tests at the end of the month not at the end of the month?  Can it be that the 100k total of tests on which Hancock staked his future are going to be more problematic than he thought when he thoughtlessly uttered the guarantee earlier in the crisis? 

     So, the ‘end of the month’ becomes something of a moveable feast for the Conservatives when it comes to protecting one of their own – never mind about the people who died as a result of their failure to boost testing when the WHO was urging countries to “Test! Test! Test!”

     If the 100k is going to be difficult to reach to save the hide of little Matt, then perhaps we should steel ourselves to any one of the following:

1.              The endless month of April, in the same way as MPs are used to some debates continuing on one particular named day even if that day has long since passed.

2.              The offering of the total number of tests available rather than the tests actually taken.

3.              ‘Discovering’ tests from previous days that have not been counted.

4.              Making up the results.

5.              Lying.

6.              Redefining the concept of 100k

7.              Redefining the idea of a ‘test’

8.              Lying.

9.              Sacrificing Rees-Mogg to placate, well, everyone up to and including Tories.

10.          Lying.

And let’s deal with the, “this is no time to be replacing a key minister when we are in a crisis” as we are in the crisis we are in because of the key ministers that we have had to put up with.

     

     It’s about time that our political masters began to accept responsibility, and with that end in mind, I am glad that Johnson seems better, and he should now resign after his disgraceful lack of responsibility in going out of his way to put himself in harm’s way by rejecting advice to social distance.  If Beckett fails to get his 100k he should resign: he made it a key pledge, he should live or die by it.  And if we are presented (eventually) with 100k, then I would like the figures scrutinized by an independent body!

With the allowing of kids out and about, there is a definite sense of ‘emergence’ from the lockdown – even though this has just included one parent with up to thee kids, the pictures of something approaching normality in the streets has produce a real feeling of achievement and hope that the end of the crisis is in sight!

     People are beginning to think of what summer could be like if social distancing is still generally in place.  What are the beaches going to be looking like?  At the moment we are regaled with film on TV of groups on the beaches being moved on.  Perhaps by July we will have the beach filled with tight camps of families jealously guarding their ‘safe’ space.  One shudders to think about it too closely!

     From queuing for pollo and bread and meds, I think that people will still go on socially isolating almost like second nature nowadays, but the continued isolation in-house is the more difficult to take.  Especially is there is an element of age discrimination added to the mix!

The Catalan lesson on line was an unmitigated disaster.  My basic problem comes form the fact that in Google Meet my computer stubbornly refuses to recognize that my in-built microphone works.  In other programs of a meeting nature it has no problems but with Google Meet, although it allows my camera to work it does not extend that courtesy to my mic.

     I attempted to rectify the mic. problem by using my mobile phone as the audio component and my Mac as the screen.  This was a bad thing to do not only because I could not read the screen within a screen within a screen on the mobile phone as it was tiny, but also because electronically having both devices on produced the most appalling caterwauling interference.

     Then there was the attempt for all two of us in the class (sic) to try and open the pages that would give us the work that we had to complete before Friday.  We couldn’t find the bit to click on and eventually, after what could only be described as a painful attempt to get us all on the same page, we were sent a new link to get to the page.  That failed.  We were then sent via email the page in question with space for us to complete our homework.  That failed.

      I have done my homework, but I sent it as a separate file via email.  We will have to see how this develops!  At least we have a week to prepare for our next on line lesson.

     It will not be time enough!

Work and play

 

The ‘A4 blank sheet of paper approach’ to the writing tasks that I still need to complete has been effective.  So far.  The individual sheets forced me to break down the tasks into their component parts and I have been able to produce notes towards a draft that now look quite impressive.  I keep telling myself that, "The most important thing about a draft is that it has to exist"!

I think that my inaction was a function of having too much to do and therefore doing little or nothing because I couldn’t decide where to start!  This is a common problem and is sometimes used to justify laziness rather than anything else!  Yes, there are some problems in the completion of my work that are beyond my individual reach and I am getting frustrated waiting for a response from particularly unresponsive colleagues, but that is only one small part and should not really have caused me to do anything other than write speculatively and wait for back dated permission!

I feel energized by the amount of work that I have done in the last couple of days and the trick, as ever, if continuing the momentum in producing drafts of the individual elements that will be going into the next book.  The next book that I intend to publish has just “growed” (like Topsy) from its initial conception to become something altogether more ambitious, though, as there are photographs and illustrations, I am not sure about the economic reality of its actual publication – perhaps it will end up as a more substantial form of chapbook.  Who knows!

But I am positive about the production and I am raring to go as far as the last pieces of writing are concerned.

There is something exhilarating about having three separate books ‘on the go’ and I am hoping that the overkill of creativity will spur me on to completion!

-oOo-

Our last lesson in Catalan was something of a waste of time.  We all arrived – some of us on time – and then just sat around wondering where the teacher was.  Eventually I went to the office to enquire and discovered that our tutor was ill and that there might be a cover teacher for us.  Work had been set, but no one was found for us so we dispersed to our homes – not before a few of us had a chat and a cup of coffee (tea) to make the morning more civilized!

But what I take from that ‘wasted’ morning was something that used to be so ordinary for me.  When I found out what was going on, I marched up to the teacher’s desk on my return from the office, put the books that I had been carrying down on it and spoke to the class, informing them of what was going on and what work they had to do.  And, as I was doing it, I realized that this was the first time that I had been ‘in front of a class’ for a long, long time.  Never mind the fact that this class was not mine, and that I was delivering information in broken Spanish and English, it was still a ‘class’ and, even in the short period of time that I was out the front, a period of time that could be counted in seconds rather than minutes, I felt the old teacher in me stir, and I could swear that my tone of voice changed the pedagogue of old shook off retirement for a brief moment!

Not an experience, you understand, to tempt me back to the reality of teaching.  Just an interesting brush with the concept!

And now for the Catalan homework, it behoves me to make the effort as I was the one who told the rest of the class about it!

-oOo-

Before I go: I wonder how my watch dealt with my swim this morning.  

After my slow warm-up length and gentle warm-up exercises, I now set my new watch to monitor my achievement and progress.  For the last two days I have clicked on the ‘swimming pool’ icon and later tried to make sense of the bewilderingly complete information about my efforts.   

Today however, I made things a little more difficult because of my faulty eyesight.  With my contact lenses I can see distance, but reading is more of a challenge.  A challenge that is almost impossible when I am trying to read a small moisture covered watch face.

I clicked on what I thought was the right icon, and was passingly concerned at the lack of the 3-2-1 countdown that usually appears (with vibrations) before I start, but thought nothing of it as the watch face looked suitably complicated.  It turned out that I had pressed the wrong icon and the watch thought that I was actually running rather than swimming.

I am assuming that action is action and the watch will have registered something, but it will be interesting to see just how the watch processes it!

I have now realized (with my reading glasses on) that the ‘running’ and ‘swimming’ icons are actually different colours and that is something that I will have to remember tomorrow morning!