Tuesday, September 15th, 2020
The mason has almost finished work on the patio. I am amazed on how long it takes to pave 10m2. He has been at it for two days now and will lay the last what I suspect 8 stones tomorrow. It does look very nice! Now I shall need to buy lawn seed so the grass can quickly grow in the intentional gaps. With that my new outside entertainment area is all set up!
Saturday will be the first time when it comes to use. I already prepared pickled fish; sort of as a starter and Saturday I still need to make the pojkiekos and of course desert. I do hope it all turns out well. I think the sauce for the pickled fish has turned out very tasty. I fear though I should not have cut up the fish into bite size pieces before frying it. It was pretty well done and with the hot pickling sauce I now fear it will become just one chunky broth. It has been moved to the fridge and I shall check on it on Friday. Maybe I can salvage pieces and serve as a starter as I had planned.
At work today I had to eat humble pie. Apparently, we now have a publication review committee which feels the need to clear the book I wrote. My bad for not circeling back to them and seeking clearance to go public. It is so deflating, given there is a launch event tomorrow. I guess we will be having the event and announce "coming soon" on our website. This is two years of work and many people have contributed, opined, reviewed and so on. Now it is all edited, the layout is done, and it is ready to go online; social media campaign included.What exactly I wonder are these people goign to review? Especially since most of them have been involved throughout the process! I cannot help but feel that the delays are intentional because certain people have not been involved, but who of course would want credit. I’ll suck it up and move on, but it does take the fun out of work. And maybe this is a sign to focus on things which may be more important, like staying sane and healthy, especially with all that is going on.
There are certainly enough sick people out there, with global virus infections at 29.4 million. Sadly, India has become the new hot spot of the world, overtaking the US (6.78 million today) as the leader of daily new infections. And while everyone here is banking on a vaccine, Bill Gates, who via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is funding vaccine research seems confident that two to three vaccines maybe available by early 2021, the administration continues to pretend one will be rolled out in the USA November 1st, 2020. I trust Gates more than those idiots running the country. If a viable, safe and effective vaccine were available in early 221 it would be great news.
The year 2020 though is a complete write off as these sadly beautiful pictures of place full of life before COVID and deserted now illustrate.
On a more pragmatic note, someone has taken the time to develop a comprehensive guide to COVID - 19 etiquette. This features the do’s and don’ts with guidance for instance on when to wear a mask, virtual communication or dining behaviors. The guide also includes recommendations on tipping, suggesting a 22%-25% tip on take out food, nail spas, hairdressers and so on. I have gone down the tipping rabbit hole before; in that I much prefer people would be paid a living wage, with benefits such as annual leave, sick leave, parental leave and so on. In many countries that is the norm; not here though. But then again this is the only democracy I know which is actively suppressing its people form voting. I wonder if it would be any different had this country at least three significant parties rather than the two.