The resolutions I kept...

 The Guardian newspaper has a series called "The Resolution I Kept". The latest one is about a woman who ran away from life to live at sea.

Well, my two resolutions for 2020 were a lot less demanding and dangerous, and I managed to finish them last weekend.

Firstly, I promised to read a "Trollope a month". I'd started reading books by Anthony Trollope in the summer of 2016. Recommended by Sinead Darker, an Irish woman working in the sister company of the Japanese pharma company I worked for in London, I thought I would save him for retirement. However, in 2016, I thought I'd try one out just to see what he was like. I read The Warden and fell in love with the main character at once and had to find out more of the Barchester series. Wonderful stuff. Anyway, it wasn't so easy to get more Trollope books out of the English library as I'd read them all, so I got a couple out of the university library (including his autobiography) and from globablgreybooks.com - a website run by a very nice woman in England.

Secondly, I challenged myself to read two French books a month. And I did. Thanks to the main German library. I was smart enough to get two books out for December in the middle of November - before the stricter lockdown took hold again. One good thing about French books is that French authors know how to write short books - 270-330 pages is a good length for a French book. 

Anyway...I'm in two minds as to what reading challenge to pick for 2021. Either a Dickens a month or a Russian book in translation (English or German) a month. I'm still mulling that over. Or maybe even both.

You know the year has been very strange when...

 ...you get complimented on how pretty your face mask is by the woman at the supermarket checkout.

I don't get the logic: singing's not allowed but jogging is?

 One of the courses I do is singing. This last term, there were only 8 of us rather than the usual number of somewhere between 20 and 30 people. 

We had to sit far apart - two metres at least between us to the sides and fore and aft. We all had to face the front and there was no moving about. And we had to keep the same seat week after week. The windows were kept open until we started to freeze, upon which we shut them but kept opening them every 10 minutes or so. As soon as this 'lockdown lite' was imposed, however, the course was cancelled. "Too dangerous," they said. "Have to close it down."

Today, I walked to the university library and went through a huge park to get there. Time and time again, I was either overtaken by pairs and even groups of joggers or had them run towards me. These people are moving through the park, panting heavily as they go. And we walkers are then forced to walk in their wake, breathing in their stale, sweaty air. How the hell can that be safe?? 

As you may know, I go out with a walking group. All our walks in the countryside (not public parks) have been cancelled as a) you can only walk in pairs and b) each pair has to keep 5 metres apart from each other. That's not always practical with walks in woods, especially if there are lots of pathways and you are turning left and right all the time.

I read some official guidelines months ago that stated that whereas walkers had to keep 5 metres apart from each pair, joggers had to keep 10 metres apart and cyclists 15 m apart so that they don't breathe in each what the others have just breathed out. 

Joggers in parks are a danger to other park users. If singing in a well-ventilated room while keeping one's distance from each other is not allowed, then jogging in public should also be banned forthwith.

Library - a major source of entertainment right now

 Since all the fun things are not allowed right now - no sitting in cafes pontificating with a friend, no gyms, no swimming pools, no venues like ZAKK that organises fun events like Anja's Singabend, no cinemas...you get the idea - since they're all shut, libraries have become a major source of my entertainment - besides reading.

On Thursday, I traipsed to the English Library in town to exchange some books and enjoy a 6 km round walk, which I extended by walking along the Rhine in search of a glühwein. There was one place selling some drinks on the Rhine, but the queue!!! Forget it.

On Friday, I had had enough of work after performing a few linguistic miracles during the week (some larger texts done in double-quick time, plus a few minnows). I therefore made an executive decision to give myself the afternoon off. After dropping into the post office along the way, I spent a relaxing 3 hours (3 hours!!!) reading German journals. At least I get into a large airy room with a lot of like-minded people, even if we are spaced apart. 

On Saturday, I walked into town to pick up a few small things, and was mostly unsuccessful. On the way back home, therefore, I dropped into the main library again for another hour with the newspapers, including The Financial Times, which is more interesting than you might think. It's not all about finance.

And now today, Sunday, I decided to give myself the goal of a nice long walk with the university library at the furthest end of it so that I could return my last 'Trollope of the Month'. Mission accomplished. I have now achieved 13,000 steps and can veg out for the rest of the day (literally - just fruit and veg on the menu today).

I'll probably manage another half-hour in the library tomorrow on my way to my Monday evening course. As it's going to be my last lesson with the VHS until February, the libraries in town are going to play a very important role in keeping me sane - after having spent all day at home slaving over a hot keyboard from 8 in the morning.

Long live libraries!

What the Daily Mail does best

 The Daily Mail, also known as the Daily Wail and the Daily Heil (it's so reliant on World War 2 stories to keep its readership satisfied), does do a couple of things right.

What it does best is pictures. Especially when it reports on the results of photographic competitions or, as in this case, lists of the most beautiful places in  the world or just the UK. Click on the link below and enjoy 50 stunning photos of various locations around the British Isles.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/escape/article-9009487/The-50-beautiful-places-UK-2020-revealed-Isle-Skye-Oxford.html