Escape to the dungeon

A somewhat monotonous week with the main highlight being a game of Dungeons and Dragons via Skype with our good friends Ian, Adam and Leo. It was a fun evening that allowed some escape from this confining existence of COVID19 restrictions. Our Dungeon Master (Ian) set up a splendid scenario using Desktop Simulator and we spent 4 hours or so on Tuesday evening fighting past wolves and werewolves into a dungeon to rescue some allies. Tomo and Leo enjoyed themselves. I probably drank too much wine (a common scenario most evenings these days). It certainly was nice to spend time "with" other people though. 

Ruin Lava (left) and Kromdur Hazelaxe

The rest of the week passed by in a monotonous haze. We were told that we face at least another 3 weeks of this lockdown quarantine, and it is seriously starting to get to me. Today (Sunday), I went for a walk hoping to at least enjoy the woods, but there were so many people out there that it was a fraught and thoroughly unpleasant experience. I don't really have much else to say at the moment. I am "back to work" tomorrow.

Tuk Tuk the Mighty!

We spread the Easter Egg hunt over a couple of days. Nozomi wrote out some clues in Japanese and hid Tomo's eggs in various spots around the house; with a new clue placed alongside each chocolate treat. As much as he protests about studying, his Japanese is better than he thinks and aside from a few Katakana characters, he was able to read the clues and claim his rewards.

I decided to make one more egg to answer Helen's Easter challenge and so I present "The Mighty Tuk Tuk" as he stands victorious over a would-be usurper.

Challenge Met!

Pottering about for Easter

The weather was absolutely stunning leading up to and including Easter Weekend. So, we were able to continue enjoying the garden for our lunches and I decided to sort out the junk pile in the garage while it was nice and warm.

I basically spent three days pottering about moving junk from one shelf to another, hanging hooks and sorting out the flotsam and jetsam that has accumulated in the garage for the past few years.

Once it was all done, I managed to persuade Tomoki to help me iteratively design and create a stand for his bike. He usually leans it against the workbench and this always results in his mudguard twisting out of position. I think it was a good opportunity to teach him a few basic skills; how to use clamps, prepare and drill holes, measure and mark for sawing wood, and to keep the work area clean and safe. It was quite a challenge as the available wood remnants were not particularly suitable in length or thickness. It took us a bit of trial and error, but eventually, we managed to cobble something together that is stable and holds his bike in a freestanding position. It looks a bit ragtag, but is sturdy enough and does the job.

Scrapwood Bike Stand by Tomoki and Mark

On Saturday evening we decided to go for a short family walk to the local woods. It turned into a fraught affair at one point. A youth with a dirt bike decided to push his bike and weave his way between us and another family of four that were further along the narrow path on his way to the local wood for his (illegal) ride. He showed utter disregard for the social distancing, choosing instead to push his way between us at less than the 2-meter minimum distance required by the authorities. I gave him an earful and asked him how he knows we haven't got COVID19, even if he thinks he hasn't?

A couple of minutes later we saw another lady and her child on the other side of the road and she was angrily telling her daughter that the man on the bike was "an idiot". She apparently had also been similarly exposed to his idiotic behaviour.

The incident shook me up a bit and the walk was a rather sombre affair after that and it was hard to enjoy the sunset, even if I did make an effort to take a photo of it. I think Tomoki saw through my forced joviality for the remainder of the walk and we soon returned home.

Spoiled sunset

In good news, Prime Minister Boris Johnson Is no longer in hospital. 

Odd jobs and mad science

The past couple of days have been occupied with general pottering about and minor DIY. I finally wired up and installed a "Recording in progress" light that Tomoki received from my dad at Christmas. I had to patch odds and scraps of trunking together and so it looks a bit Heath Robinson, but it's the best I can manage until shopping trips to DIY stores are permitted again.

Major news is that our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has been admitted to intensive care with COVID-19. It will be a major blow to national morale should he succumb to it. The odds are pretty poor at around 50/50.

The weather continues to be stunning and Tomoki and I have managed some nice lunchtime walks (albeit with a few zombie dodges to maintain a safe social distance from other walkers).

Helen set us a challenge at the weekend. We were tasked with decorating an egg for Easter. So, here is our mad scientist.

Easter egg

Good eggs, bad haircut

I began the day with a tough workout on the exercise bike. My thighs were trembling afterwards as I had powered my way through all 56 minutes. Felt good though. After showering, I had a craving for eggs. So, I poached one for breakfast and boiled one to eat later in ramen (having soaked it in a few hours in some mirin and soy sauce).

Egg 1

The weather was amazing once again and so after morning coffee, Nozomi and I went for our allowed walk in the local woods. We had to step off the trail in many places to maintain social distancing. It was busy out there. I think we will soon lose the right to exercise. I suspect beaches and parks had way too many people in for comfort today. 

When we arrived home, we had lunch in the garden.

Egg 2

After lunch, I gave Poppy a bath and got the clippers out to trim her. She did have an appointment booked with the groomer this coming Tuesday, but that is no longer possible as it is not essential business under the current quarantine laws. So, it was down to us to give her a clip. I did it in the bath as it is easier to manage her in there. Let's say that she was not impressed with the endeavour and is currently giving me the cold shoulder.

How very dare you!

Lion head

Is nature trolling us?

The weather gods are mocking us again. A splendid Saturday that should be spent enjoying the great outdoors. Instead, we need to zombie dodge our way around a guilty walk in the normally quiet local woods and be home inside the hour to help prevent the spread of the contagion known as COVID19. I'd prefer to use another term for it right now, but young eyes might read this blog so I shall refrain (rhymes with 'smother plucker'). 

So here is a picture of some blossom as provided by the troll known as Spring.

Sakura Troll by Spring

Yesterday morning's drama was that our boiler broke down. The shower felt a bit tepid,  and naturally enough, when I descended to the kitchen to take a look, the boiler was flashing a "get an engineer in" code (L/F) and refusing to ignite, Naturally, I tried "rebooting" it a couple of times, but no avail. No doubt it was blocked with sludge again as happens every year or so. So, I scrambled to get an appointment from our service provider to get it fixed. "Due to COVID19, computer says not until the middle of next month". Er, great! Fortunately, after a phone call, I eventually managed to get an appointment for Monday. This was possible due to my existing medical condition as I am apparently on some priority list. Small mercies eh? Luckily, we have an immersion heater for backup hot water, so the crisis was not that bad, but what if that breaks?! Ok, breathe. My propensity to catastrophise is at least unaffected by the current situation.

As I stepped out of the shower this morning (Saturday), the phone was ringing. Expecting some marketing or scam call, imagine my delight to be talking to a gas engineer who said they had an appointment today! Huzzah! So after morning coffee and a slice of yesterday's pizza, I cleaned up the area around the boiler; disinfecting everything and awaited the engineer. 

He showed up as promised, though not before the postman delivered a package containing two glass jars of Easter eggs, one of which had sadly broken, resulting in me hollering for help in a shoeless state with shattered glass from the upended parcel scattered around me like wedding confetti. Duly rescued by wife and child, the mini eggs themselves were salvaged and set aside to form part of the hunt next Easter weekend.

Anyway, as expected, the boiler was full of sludge which the engineer efficiently and cheerfully cleaned. He was a pleasant chap, who lives just a mile or so up the road. At a respectable safe distance, we had a good chat. It was nice to talk to someone else for a change (other than via video conferencing). After he left, I disinfected everything that he had touched or may have touched on his way in/out and where he was working. Then I prepared lunch of chicken sandwich, chips and coleslaw which Nozomi, TomokI and I enjoyed eating at the garden table. (Our own little pub garden for the duration). 

After lunch, Tomoki and I spent some time cleaning our shoes outside. He needs yet another pair as the sole is pulling away on one of them. Kids and shoes! They are barely 2 months old. He selected some new walking boots online after we finished the cleanup.  Hopefully, they will be delivered soon. Home deliveries (groceries notwithstanding) have so far been pretty good.

After shoe cleaning and a spot of gardening,  it was a walk in the woods for me and Poppy (our little dog), a nap for Nozomi, and Minecraft for Tomo.

Eep! Too many people. I had to duck and dive into many a bush and it was quite fraught in one or two pinch points as I scrambled to maintain at least 5m distance from other people. The woods are usually fairly quiet, but people are desperate to get out I guess, and it was a little too busy for my liking. A somewhat stressful walk all-in-all, made slightly more bearable by the excellent BBC podcast about the Apollo 13 incident 50 years ago.

Time for a beer.

Grey goo begone!

The days seem to be merging into one grey blob of time. I am minded of the Grey Goo hypothesis which postulates that one day, we shall invent nanotechnology that will get out of control and proceed to transform our world into some amorphous blob of grey goo. It is now the end of the second week of confinement and still no end in sight to this interminable pause of our human activities. Unemployment is shooting up all over the world, social gatherings are forbidden and humans avoid it each other like, well, the plague whilst performing a permitted dog walk or grocery expedition.

Well, at least it is officially the Easter "holiday" from today for the next two weeks. I customarily booked two weeks off work (to coincide with the school holidays) before we all went into lockdown. So, I will have the next two weeks off work.

I sense a lot of DIY and painting in my imminent future. I guess it will be as good a time as any to finally paint the family room after 13 years of living here!! I will attempt to banish Nozomi to the home office (she has been working from the dining table) and paint the walls of said room at some point in the next fortnight. The garage side door could also use some TLC and paint.

It's been a strange week. I had a very bad day at work on Weds (or was it Tues?). This contributed to a very poor night of sleep (maybe 3 hours?) with my mind flitting between work and COVID19 worries like a tongue over broken teeth. I finally relented to the inevitable and arose at 5:20am (having tossed and turned since 2am) and performed my usual morning exercises. I was basically on autopilot and am sure I probably nodded in and out of sleep mid press up at one point. 

Time to make dinner. (Home made pizza). To be continued...

Home made pan pizza

Ingredients

1. Self raising flour (250g ish)
2. A bit of salt
3. A splash of olive oil
4. Half a cup (ish) of water
5. Toppings of choice

Method

1. Stir and then kneed into dough (add a bit of flour and water as required until its maleable and not sticky or dry). 
2. Roll out the dough until roughly frying pan sized. 
3. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in the pan. 
4. Fry both sides on a medium heat. (Check underside every couple of mins until color/crispiness you want).
5. Stick whatever the hell you want on top. Today was a dollop of jar pasta sauce, sliced mushrooms, red peppers, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, another layer of pepperoni, and some parmesan cheese.
6. Stick under a grill at 180C and keep an eye on it (turn your back and it will burn because - grill).
7. Enjoy!  (It was lush!)

Spring clean

We took the opportunity of enforced confinement to have a bit of a spring clean this weekend. Nothing too drastic. Didn't get as far as washing the windows. (Gotta save the ammunition. Don't want to run out of fun things to do for the rest of the spring eh...)

Nozomi had a half-day on Friday and made a successful excursion to purchase supplies at Tesco. There were a couple of substitutes, but generally, she managed to get a typical week's shop in. Well done dear! The weekend itself was simultaneously dull, and yet numbing. Upon waking, for a few delicious seconds thoughts of COVID-19 are out of mind, but it is only for a few seconds. The crushing reality of the current situation soon settles like a mantle of iron across the shoulders. 

We are trying to keep things normal, so on Friday night, we had our usual movie evening - The Rock. We cleaned half the house on Saturday. In the evening, we had some fun playing games on the Switch. First Streetfighter and then Overcooked 2.

I squeezed in an extra workout for the week on Sunday morning. (What the hell else am I gonna do?) . After a call with Nozomi's family in Japan, we cleaned the other half of the house. There has been a case of C19 in their neighbouring town of Chikugo. In a way, it is good that Nozomi's dad had to give up his driving license recently due to poor eyesight. It keeps them at home. Nozomi's mother's condition is getting worse though. She seems to be developing dementia. The fact that international travel is banned for the foreseeable future is a weight on our minds as it is impossible for us to offer much in the way of practical assistance. I doubt we will be able to go to Japan this year. 

I will be on "vacation" next Monday and it will be a relief to not have to sit in front of the laptop. There are some painting and repair jobs to do which will keep me plenty busy and I intend to make the most of our daily walk - assuming we are still permitted to exercise outside for an hour a day next week...

Sunset walk, 30th March 2020

Snack attack!

It has been a strange week, with Nozomi, Tomoki and I all working and studying at home. So far everything has been relatively harmonious. A few notes and observations from the week:

The good

• Tomoki has been cooperative, even enthusiastic about walking the dog in the morning and in studying during school hours.
• It has been nice to be able to eat lunch together.
• We have been able to sit in the garden as it is sunny and warm.
• Nozomi has made dinner several times which is a nice break for me!
• I have enjoyed reading a chapter of The Belgariad (by David Eddings) to Tomoki each day 
• My outpatient appointment has been rescheduled as a telephone appointment - I don't have to go to the "plague" hospital for it. Phew!
• It was nice for everyone to applaud and cheer for the NHS on Thursday night at 8pm.

The bad

• Nozomi is enjoying snacking during the day as she works at the dining table. Could be dangerous dear! Just saying...
• I am drinking too much wine every day (around a bottle). Could be dangerous mate! Just saying...
• I have a mild cough which could be something or could be nothing. It is not affecting my exercise or daily life.
• Cases of COVID-19 and deaths continue to rise at an alarming rate. There is no end in sight to this confinement and necessary wrecking of our way of life.

The ugly

• Being limited to one short walk a day while spring is in full bloom is incredibly frustrating.
• I am getting concerned about my stock of wine but am scared to go to the shops! Will need to start rationing it.
• It is impossible to get a delivery slot for home deliveries of groceries. We will have to go shopping in about a week or so.
• My retirement plans are in tatters if the market doesn't recover.

 

 

Sunny chills

The Covid Pause gets frosty...

Tomoki and I are continuing with our morning walk before work/study as it is the time with fewest people around. The weather gods continue to mock us and the daily temperature continues to hit a new maximum for the year as each day of this wretched week passes. The sky is blue, the sun shining. One or two aircraft contrails can be seen but there are hardly any flights these days. Never quite seen anything like it. It was however frosty when we set out this morning - in more ways than one.

There has been a change in the mood since the Prime Minister's announcement of Monday night. The cheerful 'Hellos' of the weekend have become frosty grimaces or a thousand-yard stare as people walking past each other just want to be on their way. There is an almost guilty atmosphere as if we are doing something wrong simply by walking the dog. I absolutely hate it. We are only permitted one sojourn outside for daily exercise and it has become a somewhat fraught experience. The delight of an empty trail ahead is soon turned to a sinking feeling when someone steps onto it and starts heading towards you.

However, we are trying to make the best of the situation. I set Tomoki a challenge today. He was tasked with taking photos of interesting looking plants and collecting some samples. He will then need to try and identify the plants using whatever resources available. (Mainly this will be the internet). Then he has been asked to research some interesting facts and to document his discoveries by means of a blog article. He can also draw the leaves and buds we collected. In this way, I explained to him we can cover his ICT, science, English, art and exercise all in one challenge. He seems quite enthusiastic about it. がんばれ！(do your best).

[Here is his report]

We had a video call with Adam, Akiko, and Leo yesterday evening. Adam will be working from home from today thank goodness. They have everything they need. It seems that shops continue to improve though with strict distancing measures now enforced. We have managed to avoid going so far thanks to home deliveries. Another one arrived yesterday thanks to Nozomi's efforts but it looks to be the last for many weeks so we will probably have to start going out for a few things within a week. I am eyeing up my dwindling wine stock with some concern as I am drinking way more than normal. Oh well, once it's gone it's gone. 

I continue my morning exercises although I am allowing myself to get up a little later. I started at 6:30 today (rather than the usual 5:45). My regime involves about 15mins of bodyweight exercises, and then 56min on the exercise bike in front of a Netflix show. Today was Better Call Saul.

Ok, back to work. Enough brain dumping for now.

Shutdown

So that's it. The first Covid lock-down. Will it be the last? We are now allowed out once a day for exercise with only people from our household. The entire nation effectively imprisoned in their own homes. I keep thinking I will wake up in a minute, but this nightmare seems set to continue for many weeks if not months. As if to taunt us further, the weather was once again glorious and sunny today.

This was the first day of homeschooling for us. Tomoki showed great initiative and self-drive and gamely worked his way through the suggested itinerary that the school sent home with the kids last Friday. Nozomi also worked from home, and some good news. She can do that every day now. Her company has finally relented to the inevitable. So that is one less vector that the disease can reach us from.  She is also doing a stellar job arranging online food deliveries so that is not a big concern yet.

We walked the dog this morning and at lunchtime. There were far fewer people about this morning so we will make that time our allotted exercise slot. It was very very quiet this morning, but at lunchtime, there were plenty of people about in the woods where I had hoped it would have been quieter. It wasn't crowded by any means, and it was easy to stay a good distance away from people, but the morning was definitely better. Fortunately, Tomoki and I are morning people so we should be fine.

I had very little enthusiasm for work, but I managed to get the first draft of some training slides I have to present next week done. I can get back to more interesting project work tomorrow. Nozomi has discovered she likes working at home. We managed it quite well I think.

I read to Tomo for half an hour this afternoon, and I think he is enjoying the story. Part 1 of The Belgariad by David Eddings; The Pawn of Prophecy. A great series. After dinner, (Pad Thai for us, hot dog for Tomo), we played some music together. We practised Tarantella and then we fooled around with the Tetris theme. It was good fun. I had to glue on a false thumbnail today to fix my own shredded one for guitar playing. So far so good. Sounds a bit duller than a regular nail but at least I can pick the strings properly again.

A fly is buzzing around and is driving me nuts at the moment. I hope the dog can snap it in half.

Al Fresco

A strange day. At any other time, it would have been an almost perfect early spring Sunday. The sun was shining, the wind had lost some of its bite, early blossom is not hard to find and there are daffodils aplenty.

I woke up with a somewhat stuffy nose and immediately thought "uh oh". Temperature was a perfectly normal 36.2, and it was gone after my shower, After the morning ablutions, I went downstairs for a rare treat. A BLT with slightly stale bread, but the bacon grease and mayonnaise did a respectable job masking the fact. After that, it was a dog walk on a beautiful spring morning. In contrast to yesterday, I thought I would walk by the local Tesco Express to see how things were. I didn't get too close, but it was apparent that there were many empty shelves, however, there were some glimpses of greenery in the veg section and a few patches of red in the fresh meat fridge. Judging by a few grim if relieved looking shoppers, it is possible to at least purchase something to eat. Maybe the pressure is easing. I am not worried too much yet, but it is a nagging fear that the food supply won't improve and once the warehouses are empty, we could be in for a rough ride. Need to bury that thought for now. We actually got a delivery from Sainsbury's this afternoon thanks to Nozomi. We have enough.

I Facetimed Helen whilst walking to wish her a happy mother's day. She sounded better than the last time I spoke to her. She has had pneumonia since the beginning of the year and I strongly suspect it was a C19 infection, but she hasn't been tested for it. She spent some time with her mum Peggy, last week, so I hope not. She thinks it was the flu as she had symptoms around Christmas time. 

Anyway, the walk was good. There were people about, but we all kept a respectable distance from each other. In other parts of the country, this does not appear to be the case and I fear a total lock-down is not far off. 

When I got home, the garden was lovely and warm, so I got the outside table ready for lunch so that we could eat outside for the first time this year. We had chicken burgers and oven fries, Tomo ate his burger without complaint. A minor victory!

After cleanup, I prepared a space for Nozomi to work tomorrow. Had to drill a couple of holes to hang an adaptor so she can plug her laptop in. I didn't hit a water pipe or electrocute myself, so a successful job.

I had a long chat with dad whilst making dinner. He seems well, but he has got a list of shopping that he hopes Samantha can get for him. Worst case, assuming we are permitted, we can take him some things next week. He has a full freezer though. 

After a dinner of tebasaki (chicken wings), rice and broccoli we had a quick family meeting to hash out a study plan for Tomoki tomorrow. We will adapt it as we go, but the school gave us some good material to begin with.

Tomo and I practised playing Tarantella together for 20mins or so. He is really good at chord changes. I think we will have a respectable version in a few days or so. 

Dumbbells

Day 2 of TCP started quite well. (I wonder when I will forget that number? I may stop counting). It was a sunny morning, so after a muffin, egg and ham breakfast (we still have food - might as well enjoy it) I took the dog for a good walk. As usual, Tomo turned me down. It has become an automatic response when I ask if he will come with me. "Nooo" comes the reply when I holler up the stairs. The attractions of the internet are far more alluring. From Monday, I will insist as part of his daily exercise regime. I am trying to treat this as a normal weekend in as much as possible, so he was off the hook today. We had a fun movie night together yesterday. The billing was Rocky 3 and First Blood. He preferred the latter.

There were a fair number of people also walking around and about, either with dogs or with children, but no groups larger than 3 people. One old boy was determinedly walking nowhere in particular at a brisk pace and staying well clear of others. I exchanged morning greetings with several people. Maybe it's my imagination, but everyone seemed to be making an effort to be more social (if from a safe distance of several meters). I studiously avoided walking near the local shop. I can't stand the sight of people grabbing everything in sight, or worse, the now familiar and surreal reality of empty shelves.

Before I left, someone from the local Facebook group put out a request for dumbbells because the local gym is closed and they "can't exercise". I responded and said she could have mine for free. I haven't used them for a while. They offered to get us something from the shops if we need anything. I hope I don't have to call in that favor. I was happy to help someone out. Just pay it forward, please! We need a bit more kindness and generosity at the moment. 

Anyhoo. When I got home, I gave the car a good wash and valet. This weather is too good to waste and I wanted to be outside. It is bitterly ironic that the signs of spring are taking place while this horror is taking place. As I was finishing, the dumbbells were collected. I had given them a good wipe down with white spirit but advised 'Belle' to also sterilize them. Can't be too careful with C19.

Yesterday, I made a pan pizza for dinner (with a leftover meatball sauce for topping). It was pretty good, so I ate the leftovers for lunch with a salad. Tomo and Nozomi chose ramen. We found some fun quizzes on Alexa while making lunch. Need to up the difficulty of the maths one though as Tomo was too good at the normal level. It was fun though, and I am sure we will find other things on there that can be somewhat educational. (I bought an Echo Show for the kitchen last week so that I can talk to dad easily while we prepare our respective evening meals. I think we are talking more now than we have in years, so a silver lining).

We had a video call with Jeremy and Akiko today. They are living in France and have to print out a permission slip to take the children out for exercise. They seemed well and it was good to chat. Apparently, the same panic shopping happened out there last week, but now the shops are better stocked. Hopefully the same will happen here now people are bedded in for isolation, but looking at the news - not yet...

This afternoon, I had a little nap. Then I tried once more to record myself playing the guitar. I am trying to overcome performance anxiety and videoing myself is almost like having an audience, but damn fingers feel fat and clumsy. I shredded my thumbnail a couple of weeks ago which is a bit of a pain for the Travis style fingerpicking that I favor. Plenty of boo-boos, but I managed to get a few reasonable recordings done. I may send one to Helen tomorrow for mother's day.

Nozomi's family in Japan is healthy at the moment. I missed the chance to talk to them as I was walking the dog when she skyped. Hopefully tomorrow. Nozomi seems her usual cheerful self. My lovely sunshine wife. She must be worried about travel restrictions. I can't imagine.

What else? I fixed our laundry hamper (broken lid). Exciting huh?!

Beer O' Clock

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNF7k552CCkVDommZmJ_jMYBY37QVrKz24_tkhT

March 20th, 2020: TCP Day 1

TCP Day 1

So, it has begun.  The COVID Pause, hereafter known as TCP (seems somewhat apt, if not ironic I guess). 

We are all currently healthy. No coughs or fevers, or other symptoms.
 

School closed at 13:15 today; probably for the last time for those in Year 6 like Tomoki. I have been quite low these past few days thinking about the end of school activities he will miss and the psychological scars this period could leave in his memories. He seems to be relatively unaffected at the moment, but time will tell. He's chuckling about something upstairs currently so for today at least he appears to be fine. He will not be sitting his SATs and his Grade 4 keyboard exam has been indefinitely postponed.

Nozomi is still commuting to work, although she just texted to say that she will be "allowed" to work from home on Monday, Thursday and Friday starting next week. I continue to work from home as I have these past years. We had a special "Virtual Fruit Friday" meeting online at work today. I guess it will be a regular thing. I may or may not attend in future depending on mood. The company has discouraged WFH the past few years, so it was somewhat entertaining in a dispassionate way. Maybe after this virus has faded, the company will be pressured to rethink that policy. I expect that WFH will open the eyes of those that don't usually do it.

I did no shopping today. We have enough for a period of a couple of weeks or so before food will become an issue and the shops are carnage at the moment. When I went to collect Tomo from school this afternoon, there were many scared looking people dragging heavy bags of shopping home. I hope this panic buying ends soon, or we will be facing rationing of some sort. The fear is palpable though. Some people will meet your gaze with a watery smile. Poppy (our little poodle/bichon cross helps there), but most people have darting eyes and a grimace as they go about whatever task needs doing. It's pretty grim. 

The weather was a bit brisk, but at least it wasn't raining. It looks set fair but chilly this weekend so hopefully we can get out to the woods for some fresh air. We are not quite in full lock down yet. You need permission to walk the dog in some countries at the moment. I fear we won't be far behind in the UK.

The virus numbers are not worth repeating here. The history and statistics of this will be available for all to see and study for decades to come once this disaster has played out. Suffice to say, it looks like we are "doing an Italian" or possibly even worse if the trajectory of our COVID19 infected continues in its current pattern.

I am really missing our friends. We would normally be having our neighbors Adam, Akiko and their son Leo over tonight (or be going to theirs) for good food, drinking and mahjong or some other game. It all feels desperately sad and lonely.

Nozomi, Tomoki and I will be spending some part of the weekend working out how Tomo can continue his studies. The school sent some material, and we have a few ideas for music, Japanese studies etc. We will structure his day as if he was at school. Details to be determined. He will not be playing video games all day!

Made dinner (home made deep pan pizza) at the same time as dad via the Echo Show. He seemed well and I am glad we gave him an Echo last week for his 70th birthday. Apparently, booze is now hard to get. Glad I had the foresight to get enough in. Gonna need it!