Good afternoon, not my usual email/blog, but I thought a broadcast on how we are doing, what’s going on, would keep me out of Jun’s hair for a while and increase my life expectancy. After an amazing week of witnessing panic buying as if it was an Armageddon movie, showing the worst in people to seeing aspects of community spirit that will hopefully gain recognition in the future.

For people who shop daily, it has been a shock that our local supermarkets have been picked bare, and that it has been on family collective scale with several members going to different areas of the stores with separate trolley and shopping list. It is pleasing to hear that however frustrating this has been in Somerset it has not been reflected in other parts of the country, very much a southern reaction. As a former emergency planner I have always had a ‘reserve’ of tinned and dry, but Jun dislikes the former and drains the latter as a matter of routine. The freezer always has some chicken as you can never buy a single piece, so each time we buy some, three or five bits end up in the freezer for ‘the next time’.

Yesterday I had my last swim, I didn’t know it would be, but guessed as much, only four of us in the pool, three cars in the car park. In the middle of the night this was confirmed by email that the centre was now closed, as is IKEA, bugger…no meatballs in the freezer. We will manage I am sure. It was the sauce that I really liked.

The irony thing is that as it is a nice day we went to one of our walking spots on the top of the Mendips, couldn’t get in the car park and the hills were alive with people. We ended up at a less popular spot, walking in a sheltered valley watching the trees dance in the singing wind.

We are both well, but should anyone need any form of assistance please get in touch.

At the bottom of the email is a copy of an email from a U.K. based Japanese band I support, I helped fund their last EP, if you have an idle pound or two that is better used elsewhere give them a listen, they are very good.

Finally the Rev Graham Owen at Holy Trinity Church Frome is vlogging daily on FB. He is witty and we served together before he took up the priesthood. Track him down he speaks with the inner voice of calm, whether you are religious or not.

As always

Geoffrey