Salut!

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (26) man's inhumanity blights Nova Scotia

The only part of Canada I have visited is Nova Scotia. It was an uplifting experience which enabled me to write at first hand about a great music festival, Celtic Colours, held at the very time of year when the colours are quite sensational. From Nova Scotia last night came news of a shocking, tragic event. A worthless and presumably deranged individual identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, had dressed himself as a policeman and shot dead 'at least 16 people' in a grotesque act of mass murder following which he, too, was killed.

I re-open the Covid-19 Diaries series to allow Bill Taylor to reflect, briefly from Toronto, on the 'evil and insanity' that may have combined in a bleak drama that started in the village of Portapique but spread ...

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Small northern town (3) teacher’s blunt mid-term report on Government

I said the Covid-19 Diaries series was more or less done and it is. But I also said anyone who still sent contributions would see them published. Bill Taylor is a different matter - he simply includes me when firing off his daily chunk of life under lockdown in Toronto to Facebook. I've reproduced 25 here and am glad I have done so, but Bill and I agree the series has probably run its course.

Still time and space, though, for more thoughts from my home town of Shildon, Co Durham and my great friend Pete Sixsmith, retired teacher (head of history, no less), returning paper boy and suffering fellow Sunderland supporter ....

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (25) end of the trail

 

Bill Taylor chalks up his quarter-century of lockdown notes from Toronto. His offerings have been the prolific heart and soul of Salut!'s series of Covid-19 Diaries and he will continue to post his thoughts at Facebook for those of you who know him there. The series has been worthwhile - just look to the left for a glance at the menu - but will be added to only occasionally from now. Thanks once again to all contributors and most of all, of course, to Bill ... 

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: (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 ...