Well, it’s been a decent enough week. The weather has been (mainly) pleasant – warm and sunny, apart from the daylong downpour on Wednesday. Spring feels tantalisingly close! Or, at least the blossoms in the garden would suggest so.
The government’s Track and Trace system is still working, apparently. £100 billions of tax payers’ money and I finally received the “ping” I was expecting following Penelope’s positive Covid test result. Six days after she reported her test result. During which time I could have been wandering the countryside coughing and sneezing over whomever I pleased. Definitely money well spent on another “world-beating” programme.
And, last Friday was the day when the UK finally, officially defeated Covid. On Friday all restrictions ended and it was confirmed that (a) free lateral flow tests will no longer be available and (b) funding for a variety of organisations which crunch the numbers will also end. Hooray! It’s straight out of Trump’s playbook – if we don’t test and analyse the data, there won’t be any Covid cases. Ironically, all this on the same day that one of the organisations whose funding will be ditched reported a record high in the number of cases reported in one day. Hospitalisations are also showing record increases – just the right time to declare the war with Covid over! I know we need to learn to live with Covid but that doesn’t mean we should pretend that it doesn’t exist. I don’t think the pandemic will see it that way.
Penelope, thankfully, is recovering and finally tested negative again on Thursday. She has been struggling with acute exhaustion but once again I have been unable to rein her in. She decided on Wednesday that she was feeling well enough for a short ride on the exercise bike. She then spent most of the rest of the day in bed barely able to lift her head. Me? I am still testing negative – like Mr Trump, I guess I must be immune.
We watched an excellent film the other day – Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan. I won’t give anything away other than to say her performance was outstanding and the plot is utterly gripping. I don’t know why I hadn’t heard of it before. We both thought it was outstanding.
And, the third series of My Brilliant Friend has finally arrived on our television screens. We absolutely loved the first two series and this one is every bit as good. The whole series is based on the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante and follows the lives of two perceptive and intelligent girls, Elena (sometimes called “Lenù”) Greco and Raffaella (“Lila”) Cerullo, from childhood to adulthood and old age, as they try to create lives for themselves amidst the violent and stultifying culture of their home, a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. It’s on Sky in the UK but it’s a co-production between HBO and RAI so if you have access to HBO in the States you might find it there. My only complaint? There are only eight episodes in each series.
After the brief hiatus of the broken bike, I’m making good progress on my virtual ride along the length of Route 66. Somehow, I neglected to mention a significant milestone – I crossed the Colorado River from Arizona into California at Needles week before last. I remember visiting Needles on numerous occasions as a young boy. It’s on the way to Las Vegas which we visited a couple of times when I was young – my mother’s brother and his family lived there. Also, on the couple of occasion we visited the Grand Canyon we passed through the town. I seem to recollect that we stopped at a diner for lunch on a couple of occasions. I also remember that there wasn’t much there and it was hotter than hell. I guess there still isn’t too much there – the population in 2000 was not quite 5,000 sturdy souls – and it’s still hotter than hell.
From Needles it was a mere 96 miles to Amboy, California and the wonderful hospitality of Roy’s Motel and Café. Just a few miles down the road lies the Amboy Crater, a dormant cinder cone volcano which was used as a location in the 1959 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth starring James Mason, Arlene Dahl and Pat Boone.
YCNMIU
We’ve all been watching the horrors unfold in Ukraine and, as I wrote last time, the UK’s response to the refugee crisis has been dispirtingly slow and utterly lacking in empathy – we’re still the only country in Europe demanding that refugees complete a visa application to seek safety in the UK. Responding to the criticism and pressure, the government “proudly” unveiled their “Homes for Ukrainians” in response to the crisis, another “world-beating” initiative. Any Ukrainian can now be sponsored to come to the UK
However, they still need to complete a 50-page visa application online. So, people fleeing a war zone, many of whom will not have terribly great English and who may have been forced to flee without their passports or other documentation, need to find an internet café somewhere or try to complete a visa application for themselves and their children, perhaps, on their phones. Very generous indeed.
It gets better, though. The UK government is not actually going to do anything other than process the visa applications. Ukrainians who make it through all the hoops can come here only if they are “sponsored” by a UK resident offering accommodation for 6 months or more. And will the government be helping to match those fleeing the country with those willing to accommodate them? Nope. Either one has to already know a Ukrainian refugee or find one yourself. The only way to “find” a refugee if you don’t already know one is to register with one of the voluntary/charitable organisations trying desperately to help.
I’m not even convinced that many Ukrainians, apart from those with relatives here, would want to come to the UK in any event. Most, I guess, will want to stay close to Ukraine so that they can return to rejoin their husbands/brothers/fathers who have stayed behind to fight. In any event, who would want to come to this hostile environment when the rest of Europe is welcoming them with open arms.
We have space and we have registered with both the government and a number of charitable organisations. Still, it may come to nothing as most of the organisations trying to help suggest that refugees would be most successfully settled in towns and cities where they would have access to services and other forms of help. Not only is Moreton Pinkney in the middle of nowhere, we also don’t have any access to public transport. But we’re ready and willing to help if we can.
So, once again this government is proclaiming their “world-beating” generosity and empathy yet putting every possible obstacle in the way and relying on ordinary citizens and the voluntary sector to pick up the pieces.
You could not make it up.
And finally, this turned up on my New Yorker desk calendar in the week – I thought it was cute.
And finally, finally how about a couple of wonderful young women looking their best on a Friday morning? Annabelle about to go to school on a Pyjama and Crazy Hair Day and Julieta looking fetching in a boutique hair wrap.
Absolutely gorgeous.
And finally, finally, finally – the highlight of the week. Julieta brought her big sister and parents for a visit yesterday. What a delightful young lady – hardly made a peep all afternoon. I guess it must be Grandma’s influence.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg