Keeping on keeping on
Oct. 7th, 2020 06:59 pmAutumn is here; the evenings are dark, and often so are the days, overcast and rainy. The mornings are still light, thank goodness, we still wake up to daylight, just about. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The new university year has started, a little later in Durham than elsewhere, and we have not (yet, thankfully) seen the sort of outbreaks of infection among the students that our neighbours in Newcastle have had. But![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
durham_rambler has been digging into the local figures, and thinks that infections in the city are many times higher than those in the rest of the county. A friend who lives in Barnard Castle asks, subtly "Are you being very good about observing the regulations?" and I would love to respond Would you like to meet up? Instead I replied "It's not that we are being good, but we are being cautious..."
New term or no, the Botanic Gardens are still closed, and the head gardener continues to mail out a daily picture. Last week we passed Day 200 (ouch!). Day 203's picture is a view of the car park.
With the new series of Only Connect, Monday is once again quiz night on television - and yes, life is quiet enough that this is a real pleasure. University Challenge sails blithely on with a series which must have been recorded in its entirety before March's lockdown, which I suppose allows the competition to be completed before the contestants are distracted by exaams - but meant that on Mondays Jeremy Paxman told potential entrants for the next series that their Students' Union has details of how to enter. Only Connect was delayed until they had worked out how to slide perspex screens between the three members of each team. Countdown has simply increased the space between Susie Dent and the Dictionary Corner guest. Is either of these precautions sufficient? I don't know, but I hope so, because I am really pleased to see them back.
I have posted before - because life is very repetitive around here - about the pros and cons of lockdown television, with specific reference to Staged, and what I said about that is what I am saying now about the return of the quizzes: "What I am disproportionately grateful for is the recognition that we don't have to wait for the promised new dawn, the 'on the other side' to be creative, that we can still make entertainment, drama or comedy with what resources lockdown allows us. Hey kids, why don't we so the show right here in the barn?"
Not just television: GirlBear sent me this slideshow from the weekend school she andboybear had attended. Look! Live music! Irritatingly short snatches of live music, but all the same, music (including wind instruments):
The new university year has started, a little later in Durham than elsewhere, and we have not (yet, thankfully) seen the sort of outbreaks of infection among the students that our neighbours in Newcastle have had. But
durham_rambler has been digging into the local figures, and thinks that infections in the city are many times higher than those in the rest of the county. A friend who lives in Barnard Castle asks, subtly "Are you being very good about observing the regulations?" and I would love to respond Would you like to meet up? Instead I replied "It's not that we are being good, but we are being cautious..."New term or no, the Botanic Gardens are still closed, and the head gardener continues to mail out a daily picture. Last week we passed Day 200 (ouch!). Day 203's picture is a view of the car park.
With the new series of Only Connect, Monday is once again quiz night on television - and yes, life is quiet enough that this is a real pleasure. University Challenge sails blithely on with a series which must have been recorded in its entirety before March's lockdown, which I suppose allows the competition to be completed before the contestants are distracted by exaams - but meant that on Mondays Jeremy Paxman told potential entrants for the next series that their Students' Union has details of how to enter. Only Connect was delayed until they had worked out how to slide perspex screens between the three members of each team. Countdown has simply increased the space between Susie Dent and the Dictionary Corner guest. Is either of these precautions sufficient? I don't know, but I hope so, because I am really pleased to see them back.
I have posted before - because life is very repetitive around here - about the pros and cons of lockdown television, with specific reference to Staged, and what I said about that is what I am saying now about the return of the quizzes: "What I am disproportionately grateful for is the recognition that we don't have to wait for the promised new dawn, the 'on the other side' to be creative, that we can still make entertainment, drama or comedy with what resources lockdown allows us. Hey kids, why don't we so the show right here in the barn?"
Not just television: GirlBear sent me this slideshow from the weekend school she and
boybear had attended. Look! Live music! Irritatingly short snatches of live music, but all the same, music (including wind instruments):
