Oh, a bit melancholy today! Maybe a come down from upbeat birthday mood. Quit a lot of time spent in in front of computers, upstairs, downstairs…. Lots of exercise in a 3 floor house, 4, counting the basement.
On the plus side, the gulls that nest on the roof of the industrial units at the back of the house have again managed to hatch chicks! So far we have only seen these two. In previous years they have had three, which must have meant a lot of heavy lifting for the parents. So below is the view from my eyrie at the top of the house.
Also Clifton Wood.
Looking the other way – here is my de-cluttered notice board. Those of you who have seen my room will know just what a departure this is. Usually several layers deep.
Yesterday also held a couple of Zooms. A fairly predictable conversation with our very lovely financial advisor. She’s sort of down to earth, very English, in a way I can’t really describe, except to say she looks as though she would be happy in green wellies, walking a Labrador or a red setter. We discover she has a robust attitude to over-cooked holiday lets with inflated prices, preferring trailer parks in quietly beautiful coastal areas. We find this re-assuring. For the rest, it’s the usual lecture on risk, terms and the appallingly low interest rates on savings accounts. I suppose the last time I did this ‘sell up and go’ thing, I happily stuffed the proceeds of the sale in the bank, eschewed pension funds and financial instruments and enjoyed the double figure interest rates, and the feeling of freedom that came with it. (The story of Kiwistar and Barcelona, but that’s not for here.)
Of course this blog is not really about quarantine, it’s about the tectonic plates of our lives shifting as we make the transition from Bristol to Crete. Quarantine tends to focus the mind, without the option of being able to run away to the library or a coffee shop.