Up at five to talk to men in dark suits. Early rising and somewhat serious Frankfurt folk. Sophie settles under the desk with her chin on my foot. She sleeps undisturbed amid talk of Italian politics and Greek debt but wakes when we move onto discussing Tommy Tuberville. Time to get the day started. We finish our talk on an upbeat note. The UK, which has got so much wrong about Covid, seems to be learning its lessons. A total of 2.6 million doses given so far. Nearly 170,000 people vaccinated yesterday and the health service on track for two million a week. Medical centres are being set up which will be open 24/7. Everyone will have an appointment and no one will have to travel more than five miles from their front door to get a jab. At last the response is becoming serious. France seems to be having trouble with storing and distributing the vaccine. Those super low temperature fridges in short supply . 138,000 doses administered in total here since the start of the year. At this rate we'll be lucky to get an appointment this side of the autumn.
In our little corner of paradise everything is quiet. The Christmas decorations scattered across the village green are still up. The new mayor adopts a somewhat relaxed attitude to such 'housekeeping' matters. Sophie's first outing of the day illuminated by the flashing purple and green fairy lights strung across the Salle de Fetes windows. Yesterday, the German billionaires moved off in convoy to their house by the Swiss lake. We know this because three large black Maybachs with Swiss registration plates passed us as we were returning from out afternoon promenade. They didn't wave . Perhaps they didn't recognize me in my rather tatty orange bobble hat bought in Stockholm many years ago .
Worth scrolling down to the Mount Rushmore clip - towards the bottom - :https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/unum/playlist/elections-times-crisis#fdr-mount-rushmore
5 comments:
Thank you for that lovely link. It has been such a difficult week, with the facts around the January 6 assault getting worse by the day, and it is good to be reminded that things have been bad in the past as well. Today, I was reading a chat on 538 and someone mentioned a theory that suggests there is a 60-year cycle in democracy reform movements in the US, as problems rise to the surface and new reform movements emerge to address them. The last cycle would have been around the 60's, so we are right on schedule for another if this theory is correct.
Part of the reason that the UK is (thankfully) doing relatively well on vaccinations is that we're also using of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine, which can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, greatly easing distribution. The fact that it's apparently somewhat less effective does not often get mentioned.
Tommy Tuberville sounds like a vaudeville act.
Absolutely love the Mt Rushmore clip.
Hari OM
Aw Sophie, you look like someone burst your balloon... hugs and wags, YAM-aunty xxx
Thank you for sharing the Mt. Rushmore clip. That reminder is needed during these dark days in the US.
We really wish Canada would up their vaccine game . . .
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