Saturday 28th March
My birthday! Chantal and I traditionally celebrate my birthday with a dog walk, usually in the Peak District, with a pub meal at some point in the day. This year we had planned to be in Wales, staying at a friend’s cottage, and no doubt having dinner in the local pub, renowned for its extensive menu. We always have a family gathering on a weekend close to my birthday. None of this is happening this year. Derbyshire Police are using a drone to monitor and “publicise and shame” groups of walkers who decide to meet and walk together on remote Peak paths. In Bala, close to the cottage where we stay, there are large hand-painted signs “Go Home, Idiots”. The signs are written in English, in Welsh-speaking Wales. Enough said. But I still have a social birthday. I have a Facetime call from one “drinking buddy”, and phone call from another, and more Facetime calls, from my sister in Yorkshire and from Chris, Lucy and Bridget and Megan in Hampshire. The Hampshire call starts as a WhatsApp video-call, but this doesn’t seem as reliable as Facetime. This afternoon I meet with Simon & Kate in Lutterworth and Matt & Sarah in Rushden, using “Zoom”, where we each see and chat to each other. Zoom has dropped its limit of 40 minutes for free, and we chat for almost an hour and a half. I am on Zoom again this evening – a trial with friends from Church in preparation for an online service tomorrow. I have only recently come across Zoom. Scouts have been using it for virtual meetings, my sister Ros has virtual choir practice via Zoom, and a colleague has used it for a Campaign for Real Ale meeting. At the moment they can only dream of Real Ale festivals. I can feel a virtual Zoom Tuesday night pub session coming on. Self-isolation has encouraged exploration of virtual-socialising technology. Maybe, once the crisis is over, we will be in visual contact more often with distant friends and relatives. This morning, while we are walking the dogs, a group of runners pass in a stretched-out line, carefully paced to be over 2 metres apart.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
