This and that!

So here we are again, another day older, another day wiser? Maybe, maybe not! As you might imagine, life around here isn't exactly bursting with excitement at the moment, but that doesn't really matter any more does it!

So what is new right now, if anything? Oh, on Sky News last night they showed a report on another upsetting aspect of the pandemic in Italy - as if they haven't got enough to deal with already. The northern part of Italy is the richer, more developed part of the country, while the south and Sicily depend more on agriculture and tourism. While the south doesn't (yet?) have the pandemic-level number of coronavirus cases it is being absolutely hammered by the economic consequences of shutting the country down. As the money is drying up and people's savings, if they have any, are also disappearing, they are now finding it more difficult to buy food and, in some cases, taking the law into their own hands! And to be honest, you wouldn't want to be in Sicily when people take the law into their own hands would you. One clip from the report showed a man trying to kick his way through a LIDL entrance so that they could get their hands on some food, while his mother was standing in the background begging the police officer to show some compassion. Now in this particular case the family were all living off the mother's small pension, but at that moment the bank was closed and they couldn't get their hands on any money to buy food. What a nightmare! In other instances, however, the reporter was explaining that although the government had set in motion "bail-out" cheques to help these people, many would not be eligible to receive this money since the south tended to "operate on a cash economy", and they were not, therefore, registered. I think we all know what that means don't we. But oh my goodness it struck a raw nerve in me seeing this because it does make you think (well me at least) "there but for the grace of God go I". And I know, I know, people all over the world go hungry and die every day but I think it takes something much closer to home to make it real somehow. I have a few smaller charities that I donate to every month and I also collect food for the food bank in town but at the moment, while I have a crate of food ready to go, I'm not sure about being allowed out to deliver it. They are only open on Tuesday evenings anyway so I'll have to try to get hold of them some how (so far unsuccessfully) to see if I can get down there and back without being hammered with a €135 fine for breaking curfew - money that could be much better spent on buying food don't you think!

In other news we put the clocks forward today so that was probably the only exciting event in my life this weekend - well that and moving my car over in my driveway by about 10 feet because (a) it needs to run occasionally and (b) I find the brakes seem to stick if I don't use it very often. Oh the excitement! And I saw on my 2020 calendar from the fire station that today is St. Gwladys' day. My mom's name was Gwladys and I've never seen it spelled like that outside of Wales, so maybe it is a Breton spelling too. But I guess that's just more trivia that serves no real purpose in my new daily normal!

Since I wrote yesterday about using technology to keep in touch, earlier this week I saw a clip of a group of workers in the US working from home who had set up a video-conferencing meeting. Unfortunately, one of the ladies must have forgotten it was a video-conference (I think the word "video" in "video-conferencing" was a bit of a giveaway though don't you) and she took herself off to the loo for a pee - while her horrified co-workers looked on in utter mortification. Way to go Jennifer!

And finally, again talking about "technology" issues, did anyone else see the video of the Italian priest who was trying to live-stream mass but accidentally turned the special effects on? Oh the poor sod - but what a hoot! Now that's how to make church interesting again I reckon!