Independence day
Jul. 4th, 2020 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustHappy Indepencence Day; if it's a thing you celebrate, I hope it goes well for you. Personally, I regard national holidays as a thing to be worked around; I'll take my holidays while others are at work, if I can. I will not be going to the pub tonight, even though it's my first opportunity in three months; I can't remember when I last went to the pub on a Saturday night, but I'm guessing it's closer to three years than three months ago. I don't know whose bright idea it was to reopen the pubs on a Saturday. (Oh, wait, that'd be the government.)
In other ways, it feels like the New Year around here: July 1st was changeover day, when the students moved out of the houses where they had been living since last summer, and into the houses where they will be living until next summer. This seems to be a fairly general rule, in our street at least, and extends beyond the block of four houses owned by the same landlord. By breakfast time on Wednesday there were piles of belongings all along the pavement, and groups of students clustered around their cars, yelling to each other (yelling seems to be the normal pitch of their conversation).
Have I mentioned before that while the students were away (yes, during the lockdown), the landlord had taken the opportunity to smarten up those four houses, by laying Victorian-style tiling over the front path ('path' may not be the right word for a stretch of about a metre between the street and the doorstep)? He has now completed the job by placing a pair of little round trees in tubs on either side of each door. (Are they real? It seems unlikely, but I haven't gone close enough to find out.) We have been gentrified. Of course, what really improves the appearance of the street is that in order to do this he has removed the cluster of recycling bins from each doorstep. I don't know how the recycling collection for those houses will work next year, but I expect we'll find out.
durham_rambler does not share my reluctance to go out while other people are out and about. I'm almost ready to try going into town, but not on a Saturday morning: so he has gone on his own, to visit the watch stall at the market, and other errands. The man from the cheese stall, delivering my order earlier this week, tells me that they have not returned to the market, so that's not a reason to visit ... In semi-related news, the Scottish government has removed the five-mile limit on travel for leisure, which makes our holiday for D.'s birthday celebration that bit more likely to happen.
In other ways, it feels like the New Year around here: July 1st was changeover day, when the students moved out of the houses where they had been living since last summer, and into the houses where they will be living until next summer. This seems to be a fairly general rule, in our street at least, and extends beyond the block of four houses owned by the same landlord. By breakfast time on Wednesday there were piles of belongings all along the pavement, and groups of students clustered around their cars, yelling to each other (yelling seems to be the normal pitch of their conversation).
Have I mentioned before that while the students were away (yes, during the lockdown), the landlord had taken the opportunity to smarten up those four houses, by laying Victorian-style tiling over the front path ('path' may not be the right word for a stretch of about a metre between the street and the doorstep)? He has now completed the job by placing a pair of little round trees in tubs on either side of each door. (Are they real? It seems unlikely, but I haven't gone close enough to find out.) We have been gentrified. Of course, what really improves the appearance of the street is that in order to do this he has removed the cluster of recycling bins from each doorstep. I don't know how the recycling collection for those houses will work next year, but I expect we'll find out.
durham_rambler does not share my reluctance to go out while other people are out and about. I'm almost ready to try going into town, but not on a Saturday morning: so he has gone on his own, to visit the watch stall at the market, and other errands. The man from the cheese stall, delivering my order earlier this week, tells me that they have not returned to the market, so that's not a reason to visit ... In semi-related news, the Scottish government has removed the five-mile limit on travel for leisure, which makes our holiday for D.'s birthday celebration that bit more likely to happen.
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Date: 2020-07-04 12:28 pm (UTC)So there!
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Date: 2020-07-04 03:40 pm (UTC)