What's in a name ? Schizophrenia.

What is normal anymore when a pandemic is raging across the world ? The numbers and statistics of cases and fatalities are overwhelming. It is impossible to process the tsunami of information which comes 24 / 7 from all corners of the globe.  I can only write at first hand about what is happening in my small corner of south eastern Wales. Restrictions are still in operation here that have been lifted in England.  Here are some examples of how life as changed .  We cannot yet go inside cafes pubs and restaurants to eat and drink. Instead an alfresco culture has sprung up where possible. The weather has been largely favourable to this in the spring and summer months since lockdown. Everywhere chairs and benches are filled with groups enjoying a coffee, a beer , a pizza or a pie. Social distancing is in use so that we sit at a distance from people we don't know.  We have become accustomed to sanitizing our hands on entering a café to place  or collect an order and ...

What's this? A few months ago masked men in your house would signify an armed robbery with all the fear and sheer panic such an event would generate.  More realistically armed robbers these days would probably wear a full latex face covering with the features of a clown  or  David Beckham  or another celebrity.  Prior to that in the days of T.V detective shows like the Sweeney in 1980's Britain  a  black balaclava was likely to  be the robber's choice of headwear.  Further back in time , in  the olden days ,  as they say ,  of the 19th and early 20th century , robbers  might have worn a bandanna face covering in the manner of the cowboys of the wild West. Cowboys wore them as protection against the dust of the open plain as they herded cattle to market. Of course in stories and films there have also  been  'good' men who wore masks. One  such is  Zorro who was a vigilante character defending the oppress...

Photo of Osaka at night. The mystery package  An unexpected parcel arrived at my house  yesterday.  Very exciting as it was marked Japan post and was festooned with labels for the  customs and postal services. I spotted that the sender's name was Aiko and the city of origin was Osaka . Aiko was a student of mine when she lived in Wales and I taught her English. This was some 5 years ago. I used to travel to her home on the eastern edge of Cardiff most weeks and give her an English lesson. We have kept in touch since she returned to Osaka and last year she met my second Japanese student , Mari in Tokyo. The two had not met before. A few of the towels  The parcel contained five. small face cloth size towels. Each is about 8 inches square.  They are beautifully hand made with  illustrations of animals in lovely pastel colours - pink , lemon, green, dark green and orange, lilac , photo above, and cream. The maker's  name is embroidered on each one....

Bubbles  are  those fragile globular  shapes of soapy water which shine green,  purple, pink  and silver and float for a short while  in the air before bursting silently on any hard surface.  A tube of bubble liquid and a plastic wand will effortlessly and cheaply entertain most young children.  Surely they don't  mean anything beyond their pretty ephemeral selves ?  Bubbles have, strangely ,  taken on a new meaning during this time of  the Covid 19 pandemic. We are allowed to socialise within ' bubbles '  to escape the lockdown within our own home. A bubble is not fixed in size they say. It can contain the members of two families who are allowed to meet  with each other  indoors exclusively. A single person can join just one other household for meetings . A bubble may also be used to separate groups of children within a school.  In this case the bubble may contain a much larger number. The aim of course is ...