Today I have had lots of energy and motivation, been feeling good 🙂
Although, I didn’t go for a long run or walk with Honey, instead I went to The Melting Pot. After working from home for so long, I feel resentful towards all this travel time, it feels like a waste of time. So I try as much as I can to keep my eyes open to capture things for the blog.
Today was the last day of the UK government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, it was super busy in town with everyone eating out and queues everywhere.
It will be interesting to see if people continue eating out or whether the pubs and restaurants all come to a standstill? It think the scheme was great to get establishments up and running and develop their Covid Safety strategies. I think it has really boosted the confidence in people, that they are save sitting in. Plus I guess it has boosted business takings, so all in all I guess it has be a success.
The parks were also really busy too, so great to see people out and about in the city centre again.
Today I saw in the media the use of a new word I haven’t seen before ‘Covidiots‘, will be interesting to see if this word takes off!
I had less success on The Just Eat Cycles this afternoon. I arrived at a bike station, the App said there were two bikes available and sure enough there were, one electric and one not. I selected the non-electric bike on the App and then realised that it was not the same name as the bike I was wanting to pick up. It wasn’t unlocking the physical bike, but now said that I had the bike (of the different name), which wasn’t true. In fact I could see where it was being cycled on the App, but it wasn’t me.
I contacted customer service and they fixed it. I then walked to another bike station that said there was one bike was available, when I arrived sure enough there was one bike. But then the App changed and said there were no bikes available, even though I was standing next to one. I contacted customer service again and they said they couldn’t fix the problem, so I had to walk home 🙁
Some of you probably know that my sister, Anna was diagnosed with ANCA vasculitis in 2018.
That means her body ‘attacks’ one of the white blood cells resulting in inflammation in the small blood vessels. It affects both her lungs and kidneys and when it is active she struggles to walk.
Treatment is with various immuno-suppressant drugs.
During lockdown she decided to run a marathon, I think it is her first marathon?!
So on Saturday 19th September she will be running the New Forest Marathon.
It is a huge undertaking and will be an amazing achievement with her health conditions. I think for anyone to run a marathon is an amazing thing to do, let alone for Anna with all her health difficulties.
So if you would like to sponsor her, she is aiming to raise £1000.
She is running to raise money for two charities which relate to her health – Vasculitis UK and The British Thyroid Foundation.
To find out more and sponsor her – https://www.justgiving.com/team/AnnaNFM?fbclid=IwAR1MOo05h8o6jFbLBK0Db5ZXKoPS1Gn6f2HuQU5Ca5oxnZh2dBrPuT2JDac
Face-Mask Corner
Today we have Joyce and Fi on the ferry from Canna to Malaig.
Fi said she got her face-mask from Peace with the Wild.
Thanks for sharing, looks very stylish 🙂
Readers Corner
Just one sharing today from Pat.
Pat
Pat put a Facebook comment about yesterday’s (Day 160) Face-Mask Corner, he said:
“Definitely Underpants That Mask….😉😉..☘️🏴☘️🏴”.
Thanks Pat, glad someone else agrees with me!
It Made Me Smile
I must admit that I am a bit of a EastEnders fan. So delighted to see it returns on 7th September after a 3 months break.
What made me smile is the lengths they are going to film it. They have drafted in the actors real life partners for intimate scenes, been using CGI and video editing to make the actors look closer and even been filming with glass perspectives to keep them separate, but will not show up on the screen. All too ensure Covid Safety.
Check out the full article – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53936399
Music Corner
There are two parts in this section today.
Firstly, I have been slowly putting together another Spotify playlist from a cassette, but I have got stuck on a song. Shazam doesn’t recognise it due to the poor quality of the recording and I can’t find it by searching the lyrics online.
So I am returning to old school ways of working out the song, putting it to you the ‘blog community’ (Brayshaw, MJ, 2020). Any ideas? Brian says the band is The Supernaturals. But I also need the title to find it in Spotify or perhaps its not The Supernaturals?
If anyone gets it right, I will name them with ‘Special thanks…..” in the playlist description.
Whilst I was searching through The Supernaturals on Spotify, it started playing other songs of a similar genre. So I decided to start adding them to make a playlist for today.
I have called the playlist – The Last Day of The Fringe 2020
Today would have been the last day of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in fact most if not all the August Edinburgh Festivals
- Edinburgh Art Festival
- Edinburgh International Festival
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe
- Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
- Edinburgh International Book Festival
- Edinburgh Mela
- Edinburgh International Television Festival).
It is marked with the Edinburgh Festival Fireworks, which is 45 minutes of fireworks above Edinburgh castle set to live classical music played by an orchestra in Ross Bandstand.
For me it marks the end of an amazing 3 weeks or so, performing at The Pleasance Courtyard, meeting lots of amazing people, staying up way too late and generally having an awesome time. Check out the wee video I made to capture those 3 weeks in 2018.
The Festival Fireworks also marks, for me, the end of the summer. From June to the end of August having lots of fun. But of course this year none of that has happened, so I am feeling a little lost.
So here we have –
The Last Day of the Fringe 2020 – The last day of the Edinburgh Fringe is usually a sad day with very few shows and the end of three intense weeks of performing. The highlight is the Festival Fireworks! Of course in 2020 there was no Edinburgh Fringe. But this is what I listened to marking the occasion (playlist cover from 2019).
As I come to the end of the blog, I am feeling so much more energised and motivated to write this blog compared to the last few days.
I think going to bed before 11.30pm for the last two nights has really helped and on course to do that again. Last night I slept right through the night until I woke up at 7am, usually I struggle to wake up when the alarm goes off at 8.10am! Definitely a new plan for the next week weeks.
Today the weather has been warm in the sun, cooler when not. This morning I went out in shorts and felt fine in the sun, but cold in the shade. It’s great to be warmer after last week of rain and wintery conditions. Lovely clear skies this evening.
Hope you’ve had a good start to your week.
Jim x