So this is how things stand here.  We're in a red zone.  We're in lock down again though not as complete as last spring.  We are permitted to get out and exercise and more businesses are permitted to stay open but we are not permitted to socialize in any way shape or form.  I begin my tutoring today but as I'm working under the table I have no excuse to be going to my student's home.  I've decided, (as I have to lose weight after a calorie fueled summer in any case), that I will walk back and forth to my lesson and wear exercise clothes.  If I get stopped I'm out for a run.   Or a fast walk.  Or just a walk.  One look at my jiggly backside and they'll believe I need it.

When I left here at the beginning of July, workers were about to start painting our building.  Workers are still painting our building.  They have finished the front apart from some trim (and the possible repainting of the balconies because of some drama about the color which is a shade paler than the rest of the building).  They've set up scaffolding in the back on our terraces.  There's been drilling and banging and various men moving around outside my windows which can be quite disconcerting considering I sleep in the buff and tend to walk around in undies a lot.  I expect to hear screams of terror some day from some curious house painter.  That'll teach 'em.

Christmas is another worry.  European countries are closing borders and requiring quarantines.   Flights and trains have been cancelled.  Panic is setting in for the holidays.  The daughter may well not be able to come back for Christmas as she would then have to quarantine for two weeks upon returning to the UK.  As she has to work when she gets back, that's impossible.  So I may go there.  Being locked up for a couple weeks doesn't affect my life significantly.  That is IF I can get a flight and IF I am permitted into the UK.  I don't relish the idea of a wet, gray, lonely Christmas for the two of us in her apartment.  But the alternative would be leaving her there alone as her roommates will have left for a few weeks.  Maybe we'll do like the Jews in NYC and order Chinese food and watch movies.

So that's what it looks like on this side of the pond.  xxoo me