Saturday, March 14, 2020


A good enough day, starting with an interesting Italian lesson in which we talked about the coronavirus and never got around to Dante at all. Poor Federica is bloccata a casa. Then I thought I would get ahead of the game by ordering in some groceries for delivery Tuesday, to feed C. and me in Kirkmichael later next week. I usually order one day and take delivery the next. Today, there were no slots available until FRIDAY.

But Helen took me to Waitrose, so all is well. I took on board your excellent tip, Sarah – for which many thanks – and panic-bought a supply of cat litter. I bought the rest of my trolley-ful in normal quantities. I got everything on my list, but shelves were on the bare side, and there was no lavatory paper at all.

Everybody seems to think it is a good idea to go to Kirkmichael, and that I should stop going to Mass. I’m getting sort of scared.

But I got some knitting done – through row 51 of the Cameron Shawl borders. Row 50 is a plain-vanilla knit row: I should be strong enough to polish that off this evening. I’ve read a few pages of “The House of Leaves”. It does a good job of this-is-going-to-be-really-scary at the beginning, without being really scary.

My Saturday treat is the weekend Financial Times, on paper: the only physical newspaper I read, these days. I love it. It comes with a frequent supplement called “How To Spend It” which usually contains, among much else, a page about some stylish figure with pictures of objects he/she loves. Today it’s Kaffe. I’ll tear the page out and keep it. I don’t think I learned anything except that there is a rose named after him, from a German breeder.

6 comments:

  1. I think it is all the indecisiveness around which makes things difficult - everyone has a different opinion of what one should or shouldn't do. My contribution is to wash all the pianos I use with a sopay flannel before, during, and after each teaching session. The pianos have never looked to clean before.
    And no-one stops to work out exactly how much loo roll they are realistically going to get through - a moment's calculation and it can't be more than quarter or a roll per person per day, surely??
    I'm not going to church tomorrow, but that's more becuase I am lazy, and Sunday is the one day of the week, inc Saturday, that I don't have to rush off somewhere to teach. (The Lent resolution to go to church more often crashed in the first week!)
    Kirkmichael sounds lovely... have a great time there.

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  2. The Archbishop here told Catholics not to go to Mass. That’s a first, I think. A young cashier the other day chatted with me about all the TP buying. She said “I share a house with four other girls, and we wouldn’t use that much in a year.”

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  3. I am dismayed here in the US by the number of people who seem to believe that our current situation is only the media inflating the news all out of proportion. The idea seems to be that this bad news hurts Trump and will help the Democrats win in November. I find that I just can't even try to talk to these folks. I mean, what can you say? I just hope that none of them come face to face with reality. Everyone stay safe.

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  4. =Tamar6:39 AM

    Cat litter was a good idea; cats can't adapt as easily as humans can. Now I'm wondering idly how many people will just use up what they bought instead of replenishing as it is used. This situation is unlikely to go away before the year is up.
    Bottled water, powdered milk, TP, hand sanitizer... I suppose soap and cleaning products in general will be next.

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  5. Enjoy your break. After all, it is pretty isolated up there, isn't it?

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  6. Anonymous3:19 PM

    A rose for Kaffe Fassett! A lovely thought to contemplate, in the midst of such stressful and fractious times.
    -- Gretchen (aka stashdragon)

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