Many weird things have become pat of normal life now, like bumping elbows when you meet somebody, or wearing masks, or knowing your own temperature at any given point through the day. Zoom calls are the norm, with new learned etiquette: how many of us have been ‘un-muted’ whilst somebody is shouting in the background or sitting on the toilet nearby or worse? If I’m un-muted I personally feel a bit under pressure because the bulk of my normal conversation is mostly of the chit-chat variety rather than big opinions or profound statements. To “un-mute myself” means that I’m considering my next words to be of enough importance that I’m prepared to take centre- stage. Eeeek! It’s not very helpful on zoom to say ‘oh never mind’…..or ‘I forgot what I was going to say’…..or ‘I like your top’. I do enjoy nosing around at peoples’ houses very much though, and making my dogs wave at small children – that never fails to brighten things up.
Here’s another funny thing: during football matches on TV now there’s a crowd-noise-sort-of-machine. When the team are pushing forward on the offence the noise level rises appropriately; if there’s a foul there’s aggressive shouting; if it’s boring the “crowd” get restless, and if the referee makes a blunder there’s even booing. WHO is operating this machine and how can I apply for the job?? And wouldn’t it be so interesting to run a study on how much their choice of button-induced-noise affects the match? How much are they influencing the players if at all? I imagine the Noise Maker standing behind a curtain somewhere with levers and buttons like the little guy in the closing scenes of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’.
Even more weird -just lately there’s been huge expanses of plastic covering the seating areas in some stadiums (we watch a lot of football in this house). And somebody has designed tens of thousands of faces to be printed on to them! Again, who got that job? And why was it considered useful – so that the players wouldn’t feel unsupported and alone on the pitch? Oh my word, what weird times we are in…
Back in our real life in Hilton today, we visited some friends who are in possibly the most COVID-avoidant setting I know. Their house is that white dot in the middle – ha ha!
And just for fun, here’s their latest baby on the left, and a blind pig, Jasmine, that wanders around freely on the route up the hill. She is quite a local celebrity.
And here’s my smug picture of the day – celebrating fetching husband’s VISA tomorrow (assuming it’s good news), plus friend starting a job, plus getting a new lodger here in our flat today. If the background were in focus you would see Midmar Dam that I’ve mentioned before.
Cheers to you, dear reader. Hope you have a delightful week, enjoying Spring feelings if you’re in the UK, and Cyril moving us to lockdown Alert Level 1 if you’re in South Africa tonight.
Big Sleeves 