Plague diary 17/08

[liv]

Mostly diary stuff. 5 months / 22 weeks / 154 days of social distancing. 6 weeks since most restrictions were lifted nationally.

Some of the last couple of weeks has been eaten by what is by my English standards a really intense heatwave, temperatures over 30 °C for most of a week and very little cooler at night. So I spent quite a lot of the time melted with no brain, but managed to have fun anyway.

I've continued playing online games as my main form of socializing. Bridge with emperor and friends, bridge with OSOs and Judith who is excitingly learning the game. Fortnite with the kids from time to time. Codenames with OSOs one evening. Stellaris with cjwatson another.

Another exciting readthrough last weekend, Marlow's Dr Faustus. It's a weird play with remarkably little plot, but very much culturally foundational, it contains the line about the face that launched a thousand ships and a bunch of other tropes.

A cycling trip with cjwatson, along the busway to Ouse Fen nature reserve. Which is about at the limit of the range I can cycle, and we ended up not having much time there as we planned the trip for the middle of the heatwave and by the time it was cool enough to set out we didn't really arrive in time to explore and get home before dark. It's been half a year since I last cycled after dark, so I forgot my bike lights and ended up having to walk the last couple of miles home. It was totally gorgeous though and I'm really glad we went.

Some extra nice dates with ghoti_mhic_uait too, one batwatching at the sculpture bench nearby, and one watching Descendents 3 in the garden, mostly after dark because it was too hot any earlier. It's in many ways a terrible movie but with some just outstanding acting and singing by Dove Cameron as Maleficent's daughter Mal and China Anne McClain as Ursula (from Little Mermaid)'s daughter Uma.

I'm continuing to learn in chevruta, traditional paired learning, but over Skype, once a week, and we've completely run out of all the material and all the supplementary extra reading from our original Project Zug class, so now we're just learning Kiddushin. I've also joined a short online class with JTS, because when other am I going to get the opportunity to learn from them? It's on Rashi and his Christian context, and the first session of three was really interesting.

What else? Hanging out in the garden with OSOs waiting for the baby to be able to see me from 2m away. Online shul when I'm not double-booked with bridge. Teaching Hebrew and working on a beginners' textbook based on the lessons I've devised over the past year.

Work continues to be interesting and mostly fulfilling. We're not likely to be back on site until at least 2021, and even then we expect a long phase of shift working so that we can maintain social distancing and other safety precautions on campus. I don't really believe I'm going to be travelling to South America in April but in theory that's the plan.

Lots of people in my circles feel ok taking holidays away from home, travelling to visit friends and family etc. I don't feel comfortable doing that yet, the one day trip to the beach was enough risk for me and I'm still only socializing outdoors within walking or cycling distance of home. We still haven't finalized plans for the High Holy Days in Stoke because there's conflict over whether we can bend the usual regulations about technology on festivals. I'm getting a bit nervous that they're going to ask me to help and I won't have enough time to prepare, but it'll work out somehow.

Comments

[aldabra]

Google is failing to tell me about a sculpture bench with bats. Where is that?

[liv]

It's in the funny little green space between Crowland Way and Nuns Way. There's a couple of carved wooden sculptures including the bench, and K discovered that it's really great for bats just around dusk.

[aldabra]

Thanks! We were just bemoaning the absence of bats last week. I might go and check it out.

[ambyr]

My bridge is extremely rusty, but if you ever need a fourth...

[liv]

I would very much like to play with you but my polycule situation is such that we rarely have an inconvenient three players. However, if partners' 11yo gets into the game, we are liable to end up with 6 and might well be looking for a seventh to be able to play jumping dummy. Time zones are not on our side here but I will see if something can be arranged.

[ambyr]

Perfectly understandable! I stopped throwing bridge parties five years ago because people kept canceling or wanting to join at the last minute, and it's not exactly a flexible game for number of players. But maybe I'll brush up on my bidding conventions just in case :).

[sfred]

I'm basing some of my decisions on the belief that I and my domestic partner my metamour through him have all almost certainly had the thing, and my understanding that that does give some immunity. If I hadn't had it, I'd be staying away from people as much as possible. I'm still being very cautious about seeing anyone indoors.