Life During Quarantine

It's been slow around here. I mean it's usually slow for me, as in there isn't a whole lot to write about at the best of times.. now it's pandemic time so...

I've done nothing, very close to literally nothing if you exclude the occasional breathing and walks outside which are still allowed, mostly.

I have spent most of my time in, just hanging around, despite the weather which for once has given us a beautiful start to the spring, but here are some photos from my few minutes outside this month. Happy quarantining.

Interesting Times

This is it, we're living in history, an actual global pandemic. That sounds bad.

I hope all this panic and what seemed like overreaction is just everyone (in many parts of the world anyway, including this one) is just being extra precautious (not sure that's actually a word, but it should be) and that's just what it will take to stop the spread of this virus and nip it in the bud.

Here they've just closed schools, then all gyms and restaurants etc. Advising people to wash their hands, stay home etc. That I don't mind, and have been spending a lot of time at home as my working hours have recently decreased significantly for reasons entirely unrelated to coronovirus... having said that, my work is in the tourist industry, my company, for reasons unrelated etc etc is already going through difficult times... so how much work there will be going forward I can't exactly know. I have another job I occasionally do, or did.. that's with a school, which are now all closed. The future is unclear.

So, I hope everyone is well, keeping safe, washing hands in hot or cold water, avoiding crowds, wearing masks/not wearing masks, postponing travel.. and whatever else it is you're supposed to do or whatever it is that helps.

It just started raining. Is that good or bad for the spread of this thing?

One in every 4...

years, there is a 29th day of February.

Here we are.. an extra day of the year to take a leap, get something done, live a bit extra.. personally I have.. I have.. um, well I've...

Here's a picture

That about sums it up.

I learned a new word today. Kakistocracy. It means "a system of government that is run by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens."

No comment 🙄

Another vaguely palindromic day is coming up on 20-02-2020, ie Thursday, though not quite as exciting as the last time, but one can still observe.

It's also Fat Thursday, which is not some American Pie eating celebration but the last Thursday before Lent and strangely enough it's a day of feasting. Not so much a day of praying but nevertheless St Vitus Cathedral, at home in Prague Castle (one of) my workplace(s) is opened only limited hours that day for "liturgical" reasons, and Fat Thursday seems to be the only Catholic holiday happening that day, so they might make that work. Either that or the Archbishop has a thing.

Anyway I'm not even there on Thursday but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

This is not St Vitus Cathedral, but St George's Basilica, and convent, also at Prague Castle.

I hope those links are all correct because they're a pain in the ass to do on the phone and I'm not going to bother checking if they work ok.

02/02 2020

                            02022020
Hey nerds, it's here! First completely palindromic date since 11/11 1111, which likely passed by with nary a notice by the average peasant, too busy ploughing the fields and eating turnips and dying of the plague to appropriately celebrate this momentus occasion. Don't know what day it is or even the year? No excuse!

Yeah I know the plague came later. The fever then, the common cold, anything really. Point is they didn't pay attention. Or at least I have no evidence that they did and assume, without any further investigation, that they didn't.

So it's up to us to mark this date. Which I just did, so that's done. I'm leaving you with an image that is entirely unrelated to the subject.

Fabulous February..

or Fab Feb, as one would obviously shorten it too. It's here, meaning the ominous month of January is over, at least for this year.

I'm afraid there's not much change. All my problems haven't disappeared, and nothing spectacularly unrealistic has happened to make things infinitely brighter, and it's been 19 hours already! I'm a tad disappointed.

However the month does hold some gems, particularly this year and especially if you're a bit of a nerd, as I am.

First of all it's (along with September) Alliteration Month, something I'm sure was just made up by me but it means that it holds days where the day/date/month all begin with the same letter. This Feb only has one which falls on Friday the 14th of Feb. Which brings me to...

Valentine's Day, on the 14th... Alliteration Day...the day o' love. Doesn't really count as I don't really celebrate this bullshit Capitalist holiday, but it's still there if you're into that sort of thing.

This year we get a bonus February day, being a leap year, and Leap Day which isn't an official term as far as I know, but I'm not the only one to use it, which means all those people born on the 29th of February get to have another birthday, after a 4 year break. The rest of us just get to take a leap and do something adventurous, which also isn't necessarily a custom but it was on an episode of Frasier and it's as good a reason as any to do something..

Spoiler alert. I almost certainly won't do anything exciting or different or even the least bit interesting on the 29th.

Now, drumroll please, we've come to the most exciting one. Tomorrow February the 2nd is palindrome day!!! The date is the same backwards as it is forwards, and I mean with the whole date with the full year and everything!

Well you need to put an 0 before the date and month, but you should anyway. Then you get..

02/02 2020

Isn't that just remarkable? And it works whatever order you do the date in, whether it's the American way or the right way. A very rare occurence, it hasn't happpened since like 1111.

Tomorrow's also Groundhog Day where a rodent tells of the coming (or not) of the early spring. And the annual rewatch of the Bill Murray film of the same name, for people who do that kind of thing.

Happy Nerdy February all!!!!

Nearly Over

It's nearly over, the month o' Jan, this dreary, broke, empty, drizzly, miserable month. Just over 6 hours now.

Then what? Well the sun will come out* all my problems will disappear and nice things will start to happen... like it always is...

(This is where you insert that now somewhat outdated record scratch side effect)

Ok so previous years this hasn't always, or ever been the case, but it's still January's fault, it has to be, otherwise all this bullshit is a symptom of this new year, this whole year which is going to last a year!!! Or just my life.

So I'm being optimistic, or perhaps delusional but I've decided that this shit belongs with this month and this month only!

*well not as it becomes February as it will be midnight

An image to brighten things up..

in this miserable month..

St Vitus Cathedral, at Prague castle, in the cold winter sunlight.

I should, for once stop being so negative and count my blessings, January is not so bad, it has it's positives, like;

* January is the deadest month of the year, and if you are working in the tourist industry, which I do, it makes the work day a little more laid back, and if you are something of a lazy person, which I am, that is a blessing.

Especially now, as late last year a combination of poor management and Prague bureaucracy took our main sales team out of the most prolific locations of the city and for us it's even quieter than usual this year. It also means the company is downsizing which is going to be a complete disaster for me but we can't have everything.

*It's winter so there's snow, although there hasn't been any snow.

*All the shows come back after the Christmas/New Year hiatus, at least by late Jan.

That's all I got. Still sucks.