Welcome to BloggedIn!
Monday March 30th 2020
Here we are back in Gigondas from California (by the skin of our teeth) after just over two weeks of close confinement and so far I'm spending several hours each day exchanging email messages with all our friends and relations scattered around the World. That's great, it's important to stay close to friends and loved ones in these stressful times, however, being an engineer at heart, it has occurred to me that I could make this a little more efficient by writing some sort of journal and sending that out to everyone maybe once a week. OK but I think that would get pretty boring after the first week or two so here's another idea.
This blog is to enable all of us to share our experiences, thoughts, pictures, worries, laughs whatever as we live though social isolation over the next months. I'll add my two pennyworth from time to time but all of you who have received my message announcing this blog are approved contributors so get writing! By the way the opening circulation of the blog is made up of our friends old and new, neighbours, family, schoolmates, workmates and more, some of you have already met some of the others but what you all have in common is that you are all great people to know, if we could all meet in a big party somewhere I'm pretty sure you'd all get along fine! (Who knows maybe we can organise that party when all this is behind us!)
Just in case you can't remember who the hell I am (we all have those senior moments now) here I am hiking in France about 15 years ago - sadly I haven't got any prettier since.
Now the official disclaimer - I have to own up that this is my first attempt at blogging so it will likely be pretty clunky at first, I'll try to improve it as we go along, and if any of you have any tips about this stuff please let me know, I need all the help I can get!
Please check out all the pages (see the tabs up top) and the comments from everyone, and don't miss all our guest contributors posts which you'll find in the "Blog Archive" on the right.
The blog is formatted a little differently on small screens, you may find the 'phone version handy for checking the latest posts and adding a quick comment while the laptop version may be more convenient if you want to make a post.
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DeleteHi Dick and Isobel,
ReplyDeleteGlad all worked out getting back. We are well locked down but are still going to the supermarket as infrequently as possible. It was quite a pleasure last week as very few let in at a time.
The garden is getting more attention than usual which is no harm.
It looks as though the Government here is the main carrier! The Archers are still living without the bug in Ambridge.
Keep Well
Liz and Geoff from Finchampstead.
Dear Dick and Isobel,
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to hear from you and what a good idea, this blog. I hope you and all Gigondassiens are safe and healthy.
Since two weeks I am an online teacher myself. There have been days I spent 9 hours in front of a screen, video conferencing with students and colleagues. Obviously not healthy so I have been tweaking my daily schedule a bit so that it's a bit better balanced.
In the Netherlands we have an "intelligent" lockdown, meaning we can still go out as long as we respect the prescribed distance to other people. As far as I know, that works pretty well (after a few weeks of understanding that this is a serious matter).
It does raise a few questions, this crisis, doesn't it? E.g. will some things change after life has gone back to normal or will it be "business as usual". I sure hope that e.g. the appreciation for some roles/functions in society will change (people working in the health sector for instance). Furthermore, a positive development in my opinion is that within a few days, almost all teachers have learned how to make use of online tools and we now see that this can be very beneficial.
Alright, back to work. Take care of yourselves over there!
All the best,
Gilles
Hello Gilles,
DeleteGreat to hear from you, as far as I can tell all of the Gigondassiens are fine, though there are precious few of us here at the moment!
I expect this experience will change some things, we have already seen how changing priorities can focus innovation and creativity to produce unexpectedly rapid results, examples are the development of new methods to test for infection and new ventilator equipment for patients, besides the rapid adoption of distance learning that you have experienced yourself.
What I suspect will be much more resistant to change is human motivation. The coronavirus outbreak may not have resulted in a full blown pandemic had the Chinese authorities not initially concealed the true scale of infection to protect trade and the economy. One suspects that similar monetary considerations prevented the Trump administration in USA from recognising the problem and delaying action for several crucial weeks. Whether or not the balance of public safety vs. financial gain will be weighed differently in future is I think an open question.
Comments?
Dick
My first ever blog contribution also Dick, but I hope I can rise to the occasion and look forward to making a few posts. A great idea.
ReplyDeleteWe yearn to be in Gigondas but Boris will not let us out of the house (almost) and Macron will not let us in!
It's actually very quiet here, like our old Sundays used to be. If it was not so serious I could take more.
All the best,
John
Thanks John - why not sign up as an author and send us your own posts from BorisLand?
DeleteCheers
Dick
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DeleteSo here I am again, and still "unknown"!
ReplyDeleteJust tried to get a grocery delivery slot and failed again. Looks like we'll have to go to the shops. Thought we might qualify as vulnerable people and get on a priority list. Signed up on the government web site with all our age and ailments. Apparently we are too young and too fit! Oh dear, there must be some really sad cases out there.
Take care,
John
Hi John,
DeleteI've sent you an email inviting you to join the blog as an author, just click on that and you're in. When you post or send a comment check the little box that says "Reply as:" and you'll be able to enter your identity (real or not) instead of just "Unknown".
As for the supermarket priority I think you'll have to tell them you're running out of wine ...
Cheers
Dick
Running out? I'm out! The last time I visited a supermarket I was limited to three bottles. Check out man said is was because the pubs had all closed. Managed to place an online delivery with Majestic but not due until the 15th of April - the first available delivery date.
DeleteI heard there was a glut in Denmark. If there are any entrepreneurs over there they could make a killing shipping to the UK.
All the best,
John
Love this idea Dick! Many Cheers to you and Isobel!
ReplyDeleteLiz Shaltered in Place in Aptos, California
(a beautiful sunny day here)
Great blog and fun idea, Dick. Something creative and social during these lockdowns (though I prefer "sheltering in place," a little gentler. I started a blog with my life coaching website a few years ago...the first blog was about my resistance to doing a blog. Guess what, the resistance won out. First AND last blog. So we will see how I do with yours. Maybe I'll start by including some coronavirus humor. Here's one I like: "After years of wanting to clean my house but lacking the time, this week, I discovered that wasn’t the reason.” See you in your Blog-o-verse. Sally
ReplyDeleteLogged on this morning to Sainsbury's grocery delivery and felt like I had just won the lottery. Got myself a delivery slot for next Saturday. Looks like they have decided that we're vulnerable people after all.
ReplyDeleteJohn
That's a relief John - I hope the order includes at least a case of wine!
ReplyDeleteI did our shopping this morning at Carrefour, they seem to be doing a good job, had everything we needed and they are making efforts to individually wrap more items.
Now we have food for two weeks, and wine for a couple of years so that's good!
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