Afternoon all,
What a year 2020 has turned into. Everyone in the UK and eventually on planet earth has had their way of living changed, not for better or worse but for necessity The last time we spoke was May 17th as Covid began it rampage across the United Kingdom killing hundreds of people A DAY.

Health Secretary.. Matt H
We turned the TV on at 5 every evening to see the coloured graphs surging upwards and listened to Matt Hancock most of the time, to his left and right stood a scientist and a medical expert who carefully fed us information, though I suspect they knew or suspected a hell of a lot more but would have probably been catastrophic to the general public had they said at the time..For example 6 months into it and there are murmurs of no vaccine for a year..or two..if at all. I listened to Matt H at the podium for weeks on end yes he does come across a bit stiff and stares a lot but at least he does sound normal…

Boris Johnson, who has been elected the U.K.’s incoming prime minister, arrives at the Conservative Party’s headquarters in central London on Tuesday.
Our Boris…The Prime Minister
Unlike our Boris, his Churchillian troop rallying fist waving speeches sprinkled with catchy phrases just dont wash! On the flip side he is a colourful character and an ideal answer to the orange bleach drinking idiot across the pond. Not too sure what Comrade Putin or the geezer from China makes of him though. The daily statements of the struggle to provide PPE showed to me how slow the government were in reacting. Ironic too the fact that the bulk of it came from China!

Media centre from the 1960’s The Radiogram… I remember scanning for the police on ours when I was a kid… and listening to the top 20 on Sunday night. We had a TV too, wey hey!

The all singing all dancing colour TV.. Ours was only 2 foot thick…Note the wall multi plug working its nuts off….

The Mobile phone…combines all TV, Radio and Camera technology
The TV has taken over the from the stereo unit over the years becoming the central most important source of information /entertainment and just about everyone has one. Computors are taking over along with those ever so clever mobile phones that Captain Kirk and Scottie would give their right arms for and are taking over from the family TV, supplemented by laptop and table top ‘putors. The information that ordinary citizens the world over can access is fantastic and instant, though some governments probably wish we couldn’t. Another new word “Social media” has entered our vocabulary and encompasses the many platforms available to us, use of mobile film clips of incidents are used all the time to show what traditional news teams cannot…The BIG explosion in Beirut city for example. Reading and watching anything and everything that anyone can put on means we have to determine whats real or not. Either by cross checking or digging about online for info on the author before deciding. THAT is the downside of free speech and unregulated media, say something long enough and loud enough and folk start believing!
Arthur Scargill. Leader of the National Union of Mineworkers..The greatest orater Ive ever heard, would have you believing black was white
So Whats happening in my little world you probably not thinking… No longer do I look down from the bridge at the almost empty M18 motorway, getting a toot from one of the few truckers and wondering who is going where, no, its all back to normal levels on the roads. Id taken plenty of photos of empty streets, they too have returned to normal (ish)

Me as of 2 minutes ago. photo from..yes, my fone
The big pond down the lane soon got discovered by folk early on who started walking on the instructions of the government, word spread and before you knew it underpants towels odd socks and a red size 34 bra hung from branches. Dozens upon dozens of empty alcohol bottles littered the place, it was heartbreaking to see, a couple of us went down in a pick up and filled it with sacks of refuse. The 6 of us swept around the ponds edge and cleared it up toot sweet including dozens and dozens of shiny little gas canisters that littered the edge.

Collecting other peoples crap was the easy part, disposing of it was the hard part…
Seeing on TV..or the laptop..other well known beauty spots getting badly littered beggars belief. Not ONE person owned up to being a lazy dirty S.O.B! The extraordinary self imposed two month exile we all put ourselves through rebounded when “Lockdown” began to ease with selfish uncaring bouts of littering the scale we have not seen before. The mass exodus to beauty spots cars being dumped anywhere and everywhere, the need to get out was that great, remember too the beach fiasco at Bournemouth? The basic need for many to just get out was that great. For all its negativity and problems caused to the folk at Bournemouth and other beautiful places it probably helped a lot of peoples deteriorating mental state and probably served as a barometer of the people to the government as to how far they can push.

Bournemouth
About “getting away” Ive never felt the same way, our self imposed exile was actually pretty well the norm as we are both retired and live down a lane, have no near neighbours can walk about safely seeing next to nobodyand getting on with retirement, we sat in the garden most days with Pooka the cat, Julie often nipped across the lane in the field with her horse BETTY most days. We had little rubbish, I had a little fire pit and burnt the burnable. The house maintenance jobs were done, stuff I needed was purchased on line. The only odd bit was the weekly trip to the supermarket. the lines we had to follow at safe distances and in one direction only and spray basket handles and hands, hardly anyone had masks on back then, not helpful they said back then! I drove maybe 5 miles a week so didnt put fuel in the pick up for 2 months at least!
Like thousands of others I signed up online to help the hospitals as soon as they asked and sat back waiting to be called but it never happened! Not once was I asked to help in the 3 months I had the app set to live. Our NHS appears to have survived so I have switched the app off, Im happy to help but keen not be be taken advantage of..if you get my drift…

Even Mother Nature joins in thanking our NHS
Last week we ventured out to PC WORLD at one of the retail parks, I was going to buy a new CD player as the study one had finally broken, the place looked like it was closing down, sales staff sparse and limited to their area I had to go find someone but the choice of items where limited and nothing I chose was in stock, I couldn’t buy the one on the shelf either so when and were’s it coming from? Bloody China again and no we dont know when sir… Looks like Amazon or E-bay again LOL!
The Black Lives Matter movement appeared and disappeared from our screens when a black criminal died after his arrest in America, Someone stood over the policemen and filmed his arrest on a phone. Unrest and demonstrations against police brutality in the states quickly erupted. Here at home the same demonstrations appeared then took a turn as they attacked British history and statues in the UK were vandalised, one even ending up in the river Avon in Bristol. Demands from BLM grew for the removal of several others, it seemed quickly to change from demonstrating against police brutality to demonstrating against our country and our roots. Is it any wonder I frown!
August now and slowly we can begin to touch base again with our fave cafe/ restaurant and pub but with restrictions and masks that we all have to wear and its bloody awkward isn’t it? It makes one appreciate even more what our nurses and doctors are still enduring.. Slightly funny too that I cover up with a black face mask before going into the P.O to post some photo’s. Personally Ive got back to photographing some horse events that with restrictions are happening again, have to say there is no issue with distances as horses dont stand that close to each other, riders are easily 2 metres apart. There isnt a toilet issue as equine folk would nod knowingly. No close gatherings at all TBH, occasionally a gazeebo with hot water boiler and coffee or tea is on offer but most horsey folk bring a picnic and sit around horse boxes with their horses, y cant get up close as ponios dont have the same manners as they barge about a lot munching from hay nets or hoovering the lush grass around them, often you will here raised voices “WILL YOU STAND STILL!” or “STOP THAT!” Its not like having a dog…

Lots of pleasure rides are being organised on private land up and down the country

The rules are evolving all the time as we know! Bubbles of 6 were fine on this ride.
Holidays? Think not at the moment. Ive no wish to put us through the pullava that others are doing, being retired means holidays are not as essential to me as they used to be, every day is a holiday to be honest for us. Yes my 4×4 trip to Morocco in March was ky-boshed as was the other one in June to the wilds of Portugal. Im in the mind of “There’s always next time” Im looking at a week or so in the Scottish Highlands in the land Rover, being self sufficient means I can be very flexible Ive been nebbing on a couple of land Rover sites at comments and posts today and it looks like October might be the time to go. All the kids should hopefully be back at school..some have started already in some places. A certain amount of “suck it and see” and a careful eye on the infection rates. Doncaster and my area has a very low rate of infection at the moment but that could quickly change.
Since March Ive listened to the experts and read about pandemics and such…its quite sobering reading and quite frankly what happened in the past, whats happening right now and whats possibly in store for us in the future is quite frightening. On saying that, I will see you all again sometime around January for another natter. Chins up everyone!
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