Saturday, Saturday, ever-lovin’ Saturday… An old Radio 1 jingle, lifted from a Carpenters record is floating around my head. Odd.
Anyway, the weather has been mixed: quite hot in the direct sun, but that was infrequent. Mostly, the sun was behind clouds. I was in the shed this afternoon, listening to a 1970 album that was (a) completely new to me and (b) a joy. I wrote about it. I was working on fiction too, which was a pleasure.
I was taking a break, sitting out on the shed porch, sheltering from the vertical rain out of the grey sky, when a male bullfinch made a rare appearance at the birdfeeder. It was a joyful thing, tempered by what, I realise, is becoming a familiar complaint. Where, a couple of weeks ago, there was only the sound of birdsong, now there is the drone of distant traffic, and the white hiss of tyre tread across tarmac.
***
In 1996, talking about investor behaviour, Allan Greenspan coined the term irrational exuberance. Looking at the headlines today about opening up of tourist routes across Europe again, I can’t help but use the same phrase.
There’s been a lot of fuss made in the past few days about crowded beaches and the behaviour of some people on them. In the big picture, socially distanced, outdoors on the beach, while risky, carries considerably less risk than parading through airports and travelling in aircraft, especially crammed like pilchards in budget airlines. Not to mention the role of mass transit as a transmission vector for the current (and other) viruses.
Maybe I’m just being a miserabilist, but you won’t be catching me flying or using mass transport for long-distance travel for some time to come .
Also, ignored by almost all of the press, the Arctic is burning.
***
Music: written in 1969, released in 1970. Joni Mitchell.
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