Catastrophe in action

 A lovely sunny start to the day. I felt sad not to be able to go to the midweek Eucharist at St Catherine's so I read the liturgical scriptures for the day (the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary) and recited the service off by heart instead. In the lunchtime post came a letter confirming my surgery date. The leaflet giving instructions about self isolation prohibits leaving home, except for medical emergencies. It's annoying to receive this the day after rather than the day before I was meant to start. That's exactly the same as it was when I returned from Ibiza. Quarantine instructions from NHS Wales arrived more than forty eight hours after I reached home. 

In both instances I knew and did the right thing, in terms of keeping well away from other people. It's hardly any wonder some fail to take seriously public health edits, with a catalogue of inconsistencies and delays in time critical communication. So it's back to the cramped daily household exercise routine, and no more photographing autumn colours developing, no matter what impact it has on my physical and mental state. 

The surge of infection rates all over the UK is leading to more localised restrictions, and this has yet to bear fruit in noticeable levelling off or reduction in rates. Some though by no means all University campuses across the country are seeing abnormally high infection rates. It will be interesting to see what analysts make of this. Is it about student behaviour in some communities? Or is it to do with how those students are accommodated and how those residential communities are being managed? Or is it just the random misfortune of the odd anonymous 'superspreader' event revealing flaws in social arrangements, another illustration of catastrophe theory in action outside of expectations?

Tonight we watched the last heart-warming episode of 'The Shtisels'. It ended in a way that suggested a further series, and when I checked IMDB I found out that there is indeed another set of twelve episodes from 2015, the first having been in 2013, and there's a third series in the pipeline. I wonder how we can acquire the second box set?

Self isolation - together

Yesterday was a day of intermittent rain and windy dry spells, and still rather mild. In the morning, I had a chest examination at our GP surgery, to confirm my cold is really on its way out. Very little coughing now and the doctor said that I'd be OK to spend the next two weeks waiting in self isolation for operation number four. I was also given a 'flu vaccine injection. Clare also had hers later in the day, having booked one at the pharmacy so we're both covered for the winter now. 

After lunch I had a call from the surgeon's secretary to check that all is as hoped for, and that I know what's happening. She told me I'm listed for a morning operation, That means checking it at the Spire hospital for seven o'clock, leaving at a quarter past six to be sure to arrive in good time. It's like that necessary flight departure time - you may hate the sleep disruption to get there as required, but there's no alternative but to put up with it..

The Taff water level was a little lower than yesterday so much of the island of stones in the middle of the river was visible again, Unusually, there were a pair of cormorants and a heron keeping vigil over the waves, hoping to spy and catch a fish. Owing to the gusty wind, there were scores of gulls and crows grounded on the sodden grass. 

We again spent the evening watching another three episodes of 'The Shtisels' It's entertaining but gives a lot to ponder on, about power and control, love and freedom in an extended family striving to do their best to keep their conservative traditional faith and lifestyle. With nothing in the diary for either of us in the next two weeks of lock-down, we can work our way through our collection of videos we've never got around to watching.

Today was the first day of quarantine, wearing a face mask out in the street on the way to the park and keeping at least five metres from anyone passing. And, not touching anything with hands, i.e. opening gates, or pressing the button at the zebra crossing. No visits to shops etc. It's stricter than usual, but not too far from how I am habitually. I spent many weeks on my own with next to no social contact and no physical contact with others or the environment outside the house and grounds, so I'm used to it.

Walking along the river path this afternoon, I saw a flock of crows grounded and a young heron walking about among them, without conflict or disruption. An older heron was keeping vigil on the island of stones in the river, a hundred metres away. It's rare for me to see two in the same vicinity like that.

This evening we watched two more episodes of 'The Shtisels', and decided that we'd keep the final one in the box set for tomorrow night, both of us being rather tired. Yesterday's 'flu jabs seem to have had more of an impact on us this year than previously. Is it just that we're getting old? 

Rainy day watching

Another day of rain, cheered with a pancake breakfast. When it slackened off for a while, we went for a walk around the park, and I checked the crab apple trees and picked a pocketful to take back for testing. The hundred grams or so I collected cooked into a puree with quite an interesting flavour, not quite ripe enough yet to harvest for optimum flavour. 

Later in the day we watched the first three episodes of a DVD box set of an Israeli family comedy TV series called 'The Shtisels'. It's about the lives and loves of a Haredi family living in modern Jerusalem, a delightful portrayal of members of a family with a strong commitment to living a devout religious life. It's funny, and not because it mocks its subjects. In fact it's a sensitive and sympathetic portrayal of people and relationships with all their quirks, strengths and weaknesses. I can't imagine how it would be received by a person with no knowledge of Jewish spirituality and culture. It's certainly an advantage that I had to study Jewish religion and practice when I trained to teach RE forty years ago. We had Orthodox Jewish friends in those days as well. Understanding the context, was a source of extra viewing pleasure.

Cousin Dianne accidentally bought the set with French subtitles, and had to re-order the English version as she was evaluating the series as a candidate for a TV award, and didn't trust her French reading ability sufficiently to do justice to the work, so rather than send the set back, she gave it to us. Having watched the first three episodes in one sitting, I can understand her difficulty, as the pace of the Yiddish and/or Israeli Hebrew dialogue renders in French sub-titles at a lively pace for on screen reading. I don't think I missed much. In fact, I was surprised at how easy I found it. 

The French text is clear, and I think my comprehension has benefited from having done a complete French revision course on Duo Lingo a couple of years ago. I keep up my daily Spanish practice on Duo Lingo, and that seems to have benefited my French comprehension, due to the similarity of some vocabulary and turns of phrase. When you learn more than one language in the same language group, knowledge of one benefits the other, it seems, despite the challenge of keeping them separate in use. Clare doesn't find it so easy to read subtitles with her eyesight deteriorating, but found herself listening to the Yiddish instead, as many of its words are derived from the German. 

As it's a domestic comedy, it's mostly set indoors, but the occasional simple street scene is very evocative of the city I remember from twenty years ago, when I had a two month sabbatical in Jerusalem before we moved to Monaco. It awakened in me a longing to return there if the pandemic passes, if my health doesn't deteriorate. I'd like to return again as an independent traveller, rather than as a packaged tourist. I never got around to visiting Nazareth, Galilee, Haifa and the coast, or Gaza, or Jericho. Will it be ever possible?