Lifeline or chimera!

 A few weeks ago to my joy and old friend offered me a lifeline,  I could go and stay with them and sort out my residency from their place.  Just one caveat they had to come to the UK first for several things.   Getting here was touch and go as all the countries involved in his journey were technically in lockdown,  so he had to have special permission to get here.  Then he had to quarantine,  and now he cannot do many of the urgent things he had to do whilst here as the country is still in lockdown.  However, I was still hopeful that I could get a flight mid December and still be in with a chance.  Except that he has now told me his passport is not up to date and he does not expect to get the new passport back till just before Christmas by which time all official offices will be shut.  

Very blue. 

I felt rather guilty pressing my friends abroad to see if any of them could help me.  After all does it really matter,  yes I am totally bereft,  but I should have worked out how to sort it and somehow the time has passed and I am still here.  The block that I have not been able to move is still down.  Now I am trying to think again.  I could rush off to France again, but then what as I could not get the information I needed to help me actually work out how to do the paperwork.  

Outside it is misty and moody and melancholy and of course out there there is also a killer and that does not help, but the cavalry is supposed to be just over the hill as there are now three vaccines in the offing.   However, the Brexit cavalry seems to be just a chimera,  right now cannot think what else to do. 

AGM Premiere's local film.

 I went to my first zoom AGM yesterday and watched the premiere of a film created by Trestle Theatre about the local community.  

Originally they had hoped to create a theatre piece with them, and at the time I had talked with them about some of the racism that my son had faced in the area.  Then the lockdown came and the project shifted, and I did not think that the new project was aimed at people like me however, the director remembered our conversation and asked me to contribute.   Watching myself last night was quite emotional.  I did not realise when it was filmed that I had been that emotional.   What is lovely now though is to see it alongside other people's contributions and to hear their stories, their poems, and their thoughts.   I really like the way the company have integrated our preparations with the contributions, very clever and how lovely to see how varied the local people are.    Just follow the link head over to their webpages to find out more.  

On the scrap heap or a new life ahead. I think I prefer the latter.

 It is a warm windy mild wet day the perfect day for sorting through things and throwing them out, but I am aware that this pleasant autumnal duty has a new resonance as now I really can throw things away, things I have kept for years just in case I need it to teach with as from next February that is it.  

I am very lucky, I have taught in a wide variety of settings from schools in the UK to schools in Austria, Germany , Italy and Turkey, most memorably in Senegal and Kyrgystan, and I have taught people in my home, so I have needed a wide variety of resources, some gleaned from the companies I worked for but many that I created myself. 

This all of course means I am now in the at the risk age,  so it was with interest I learned that in Taiwan 7 people have died of the Covid Virus so far, in England alone, the figure is over 50,000. We are being culled here!.  

Zooming along

 In some ways life goes on as normal for me as I work from home, but yesterday was a nice example of how zoom can benefit one's life.  I had zoom yoga at 10, then joined a local online coffee morning, had a walk and did some shopping and cooking, rested then read and at 4 my new lodger gave me a French conversation class, so person to distanced person.  Then it was back online for a singing group with Delia Rosenboom and after that work followed by a French movie on Netflix and some preparation for today's online meeting and work. 

It is a beautiful autumn here and despite the lockdown many firework parties have been held locally, so whilst I teach I get these wonderful pictures but none of the ghastly noise.   

A vaccine looks as if it is ready to roll out!

Currently 238 v 213 with all to play for.

 Up at 3 am watching the news coming in from America.   Had a dread feeling when the whole process started at about 10 UK time, that this was going to be awfully close and the worse thing for the planet, was at risk of happening again.  By the time I woke the whole thing still not resolved, but apparently it is male voters who have voted for their favourite "jock" who might have let this ecologically dangerous man back in, even Latinos have voted for him in droves, but there is still the vague hope that Biden, who will go back into the Paris climate accord could succeed, knife edge stuff.