August

Proper holidays for germs in Northern Hemisphere as as Sun hangs longer in the sky and humans give their skin a treat. .. maybe a toasting, which is overdoing it after a pale winter, but that's the pattern in the wealthy North ... lazy Southern Europeans and Americans leap into action, to earn enough to relax when the slaves go home ... mostly.

This blogger returned on Tuesday, having passed a pleasant fortnight in old pastures ... great tests of equanimity, taking hotel stays with faded four star grandeur, then opulent opportunity to subvert masked waiters, sandwiched by camping as all the same ... and lots of walking in new and old landscapes keeping the old carcase toned and tanned, fighting fit, immune system ready for second spikes, much mooted to keep folks frightened.

Bastards.

Meanwhile, newspapers make hay while they may, a brief respite from their decline as news goes digital. .. full page colour ads not cheap ... paid for by us so the junta may lie to the right, left and centre ... sub-regional titles their favourite, the most read ... the devious Grauniad directly funded by Gates, playing a very dark role in a plot by the super-rich to thin the herd, not as strategy to deal with flu and other bugs, but radical depopulation of the earth ... necessary perhaps, but possible in three generations or less with poverty reduction programmes, a compassionate response ... compassion however sadly absent at this level of obscene excess.

Masks in shops a damp squib here in Stanhope ... so far at least ... optional it seems. Still provoking alarm in FB land, with otherwise smart people holding fear and pointing virtual fingers.
Some way to go in this strange drama, with draconian stage waning in UK, making way for gentler version of New Normal ... though pre-coup normal was crazy enough, with all the wars and inequalities ...

Broader perspective not easy to maintain, given the international scale ... though zooming out to universe(s) and gently back to village, observing imperial power struggles along the way, trumps the venal limitations of the self-proclaimed masters of the earth and space, if you musk ... and in the end, Love wins ... that's clear ... beyond Fear, the tool employed so brilliantly in the mass hallucination conjured up from a flu-like virus, naturally occurring or manufactured by declining decadent BSA and allies or rising vibrant Eastern power ...

Resistance grows on holiday and at home, handshakes become a symbol for sceptics to know each other ... hugs too, if that's your thing.

Hints of human weak spot dropped by honest security seekers ... notably a young Albanian cafe owner, fully embedded in DUK, married to a woman of Anglo-German parentage, two children fully British and content to give up freedom for a life more limited but tolerable ... and, surprising to this writer, not seeking justification for previous espousal of Enver Hoxha and crew, says elders back home see the good old days nostalgically ...

Stanhope safe enough for me, no shooting or fines though Fear still lingers ... humour and common-sense the tools, plus patience as the game plays out ...