As usual I took my camera with me but didn't take a single photograph. Did have a chat with a few neighbours although I'm not sure how that works with only being able to talk with one other person.
There is an awful lot of nonsense being peddled on social media from people denying the existence of COVID - claiming that it's a Government plot. I don't think any Government would make up such a frightening scenario and virtually wipe out an economy out of fun or some sinister idea,
It does concern me that we are now in a more dangerous situation than at the height of the first wave in April.
I wonder if scientists/medics etc are looking at China which seems to now have very low incidents of COVID. Perhaps that country holds the key to ending a virus that it is likely they started in the first place.
I'm now going to tell you of a sadness that overwhelmed me on a short stretch of yesterday's walk. Just over nine years ago our first grandson Oliver was stillborn. It took me a long long time to get over the shock and I was overcome with grief for some time. One of the things that helped me deal with that grief was long walks round the village. Oliver was buried in St Remigius graveyard and it was a long time before I could visit. I'm not sure what it was but something prevented me and I guess what little faith I had evaporated that year.
On my long walks, I listened to music and for some reason I played over and over again a new album by Nick Lowe entitled The Old Magic. One particular track get stuck in my mind and made me burst into tears which is quite ridiculous because it isn't a particularly poignant or romantic track. But somehow it stuck there and every time I heard "Spotlight Roses" I was reduced to tears.
One of the things I have done on Spotify is to set-up a number of playlists that I can listen to during my strolls. One is simply entitled 10,000 tracks. The title is wrong because at the moment it has around 1,000 tracks but the idea is a simple one - when I have some idle moments I add new tracks to it. I then listen on shuffle safe in the knowledge that every track will be music I like. Today I got The Move, Richard Harris, the Monkees, The Easybeats and much more but blow me down just as I was approaching St Remigius Church what should come on but "Stoplight Roses."
I stopped in my tracks and shed a quick tear and then went on my way. It did bring back some very painful memories though. A couple of other tracks from that Nick Lowe album also resonate - "Sensitive Man" and "I Read A Lot." I leave it up to you as to whether the first of those refers to me but I can tell you that the second is certainly something I can claim to do.
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On a lighter note I'm not sure whether I was annoyed or amused by an advert for Iceland (that's the store and not the country) on television. It tells us that "this is the party season." Not sure that is appropriate during lockdown when we certainly can't party.
Have given it a great deal of thought but on balance I think we will be staying at home this New Year's Eve. It was a tough decision between that and wandering aimlessly around the village in the cold!!!
I will have to avoid the horrible cod enthusiasm of the television shows. They will all be pretending that, on the stroke of midnight, all the doom, gloom and despondency will magically disappear. Apparently Jools Holland's Hootenanny is usually recorded in November or early December. So it is a fraud with an audience celebrating a new year when there's still a month to go of the old one.
Instead of counting down from ten to one they should (by my reckoning) be counting down from approximately 2,678,400. Now there's a thought.