CORNAVIRUS WEEK 38: LOCKDOWN RESRICTIONS INCREASED

We have been at Level 3 (out of 5 levels) of Lockdown for about 6 weeks.  Now,  along with the city of Glasgow and adjacent counties have moved to a level with more restrictions due to the high R rate.  It is to last for 4 weeks.  The hope is that there will be a greater suppression of the virus enough to allow an easing over the Christmas period.  (Other areas where the population is less dense are at a lower level, e.g. highland and island communities.)

What I would like to know is .... what is driving the increase in infections?  Is it students?  Care homes? Prisons?  Areas of crowded (read 'poor') housing?  Bars? Gyms?  It is a difficult ones e.g. a scrupulous bar owner is inundated with cheering football fans who celebrate Scottland's recent win.  I wonder if making him get rid of his TV in the lounge would help things?                           

We live in a middle class area of mostly detached houses.  It appears one of the biggest problems being faced in this type of area is teachers and/or school children off school either ill and/or self-isolating.   Yes, the testing system is in place but, as we have seen this week with young Alastair (aged 12 years old and in secondary school) ... He was kept off school, quite rightly, as he had a cough.  It meant the whole household had to be kept off school or work until the test results came back.  Forty-eight hours later they came back negative... thankfully! It appears that the rate of early winter flu is down and so is vomiting and diarrhoea incidence.

So Friday all shops and premises dealing in non-essential services shut for 4 weeks.  I am really sorry for them.  From what I have seen they have been super attentive in all aspects of their work and still they get hit.

Schools and universities stay open but blended learning is being encouraged (some home; some at uni).

Life simply rolls on much the same for us however.  Cafes we go to will shut so that is going to affect our one and only social set-up where meet and greet on a Friday.

Vendée Globe Race, Week 2:

There is lots of feedback from the various boats and agencies following this circumnavigation junket.  Big boats with big (plus not so big brands) plastered all over their sails and hulls are out in the Atlantic heading for the Trade Winds.  Most have now crossed the Equator after roughly a week of sailing. 

I thought this route map was interesting.  Basically this group of 33 boats are heading down the Atlantic Ocean for the tip of Africa and into the Southern Ocean returning by way of the tip of South America and back home again.  

This writer thinks the whole thing is ridiculous; why not call it the 'Round Antarctica Race'? Why not have starting line somewhere like Deception Point in Antarctica, sound the starting gun and have a race back home again?  

But interesting and interesting-er is this:

The French word or expression for The Doldrums (a zone north of the equator  of windless weathe where the northeast and southeast trade winds converg)  is Pot au Noir.  I am finding difficulty figuring out why this has been given this name.  I am still working on it (and my French)!

Life in MacLeod Towers:

One week is much like another... but we both keep well!

I join the Zoom sessions every Sunday afternoon with the Young Fiddlers.  I have my iPad set up (next to my keyboard) on a button box that belonged to Iain's mother A tiny external speaker helps the sound.  

The arrival of a load of Christmas trees at Dobbies this week.

I am still able to bring in flowers from the garden albeit the colour comes from the seeded of the irises. The child plant is from Ottilia... no peppers appearing after flowering however.

There's a moose loose about the house!  The last of the shortbread I made earlier in the week.  The kids prefer plain biscuits so this one is a candidate.  I use a recipe I picked up in Orkney; it uses semolina to give it crunch.

Lastly we  enjoy the weekend papers in the November sunshine.  I am reading Iain Rankin's latest book A Song for Dark Times which is a detective story based in modern day Edinburgh and also Caithness.  He absolutely nails it for setting and current cultural references e.g. Brexit, Northern Coast 500 Tourist Trail (scenic route around the north coast of Scotland).