Salut!

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (24) too many post-lockdown maybes

Bill Taylor's photos come without captions in this series for the goodish reason that they are mostly drawn from the past and therefore have no direct relevance to Covid-19, leaving the reader to work out the indirect allusions, itself a rewarding exercise.

I did say the series had run its course  but would also remind contributors that anything they provide will be published. Bill's are easy because he posts them anyway at Facebook and I merely reproduce them ... meanwhile, join the fun at Salut! Live and nominate your best 10 male singers, any genre and your best 10 female ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (23) 'what would a Fox News protective mask be like?'

 

Bill Taylor's updates on life in Toronto speak for themselves but always deserve to speak to the Salut! audience. He would join me in directing you also to the pages of Salut! Live ... there you can challenge my lists of 10 best female and 10 best female singers ...  no photo tonight (Typepad wouldn't let me post it)

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (22) rebellious Canadian youth in search of paradise

NAME YOUR TOP 10 FEMALE SINGERS - CLICK ANYWHERE ALONG THIS LINE TO REACH SALUT! LIVE AND ADD YOUR LIST

I never much liked Easter. This time, it is destined to be associated for ever with the drudgery of lockdown, which no permitted walk in the park ("only 20 minutes, madam, since you're not alone," the officer told Mme Salut as he passed us, not quite observing social distance from his colleague) or visit to the corner shop can ease. So I turn again to Bill Taylor and his Toronto notebook. It won't last ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (21): a wish list for now and afterwards

Wasn't going to but relented ... Bill Taylor's wish lost made me chuckle 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: 20 not out

 

 

 

 

The Editor writes: I cannot recall when I stopped laughing at people wearing masks in the street or believing the only times they're useful are when treating an infected person or suffering from the infection. Anyway, that was a first for both of us today when we went shopping to the Co-op. And yes, I still felt ridiculous.

 

Meanwhile, Bill Taylor keeps us entertained from Toronto. His jottings will continue to appear here, just less frequently. The Covid-19 Diaries, packed with fine writing, can be browsed here

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Harrow: (4) 'excuse me sir, are you sure this isn't your second walk today?'

Tony Evans: 'taken in Uganda in the 1960s, with my arm in the lion's mouth this shows what a fool I was for a good story. The lion trainer said I would be fine, so I believed him.  My daughter Victoria(6) was very laid back about the whole thing, and tangled her little fingers in the lion's tail and yanked  -  hard.  Fortunately I'd moved my arm by then'.

 

And now for Tony's further thoughts on lockdown, with lack of exercise -  er - exercising his mind. See the full Covid-19 Diaries series here

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (19) home truths - and it's not all about memes

It seems time to scale down the Covid-19 Diaries series. Bill Taylor will continue to post daily thoughts from Canada at Facebook, which is where this all began. I may, every few days, reproduce them here as I have been, until now without fail. I will discourage other contributors from devoting to their own lockdown notebooks though any disinclined to heed my advice will see their work posted as and when I get the chance.

 

My thanks to Bill and all others who have made this an uplifting and at times even useful exercise. See all their efforts at this link. All good things come to an end and it is time to acknowledge that series, or at least the relentless daily posting, has run its course ...

Covid-19 Diaries. Liverpool: (2) do we stick with our old but suddenly squeak-free Citroen?

                                   Sefton Park

We're told it's not a good time to think about or go ahead with moving home. What about cars? John McCormick, in his second Covid-19 diary from Liverpool - please see the full series at this link - ponders a decision that's been looming for while ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (18) Somerset Maugham, taxing apostrophes and reduced to cleaning windows

Bill Taylor remarked that the Covid-19 Diaries had taken on a life of their own. The same could be said, with more force, about Bill's mighty contributions to the series from Toronto. Today, he's up to 18 and his daily missives really need no elaborate introduction ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries: is democracy in danger from wartime-style crisis powers?

Ian Evans and I have been friends since we met on holiday in Peru as long ago as Sunderland AFC were in the Premier League and Peter Reid was the manager. He lives in Ipswich and tries his best to support his local club*.

Just before lockdown, he and his wife joined another couple for a meal followed by a concert at the Ipswich Regal Theatre, part of a farewell tour, now curtailed, by the Irish band Clannad. Both friends were later found to be suffering from the wretched Covid-19 though they appear to have recovered and Ian and Jude have suffered no similar symptoms.

If that illustrates the random nature of the virus, Ian - a lawyer who served the judicial system for many years before retirement - has identified a potentially alarming if political side-effect ....  I thought about it yesterday when taking a short walk in the park at the end of our street and one of two men in uniform, somewhat closer together than social distancing guidance regards as advisable, told my wife: "A maximum of 20 minutes, madame, because there are two of you...."  While it was no great hardship to comply, the request did slightly unnerve me ...