Week 10

What do you say when you've just had your first haircut and shave for 6 weeks and your wife hasn't even noticed? Answer - nothing - just wait until she reads this!

The good news is I got an email yesterday from our golf club telling us of the arrangements for re-starting golf this Friday, assuming the First Minister confirms what she's already strongly hinted at, at her daily press/public briefing on Thursday.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8 am, our online booking system opens and I imagine there'll be a mad scramble for times. Hope the web site is robust enough to stand up to it.

Apart from that, it's been business as usual - regular Zoom meetings, occasional walks and cycles. Jo and I did a 10-miler last week and an 8-miler yesterday. Most of the photos have already been on social media but here's one of Jo that I don't think has been published yet:

and here's one of me (pre haircut and shave):

Jo does the regular once a week trip to Tesco at 7 am every Saturday morning and she's very careful about social distancing and wearing her mask in store, but not everyone seems to be treating the situation as seriously, as I found out on Sunday morning when I took my usual stroll along to the Co-op for my Sunday paper and some rolls for our bacon butty lunch.

Four youngish lads - in their twenties, I'd say - were straddling the pavement outside the store munching on some goodies they'd obviously just bought in the shop. They all had bikes with them, although they obviously weren't regular cyclists (no helmets nor safety wear). They made no attempt to separate and create space for me to socially distance and get to the shop's front door and I had to cross the road and approach the shop from the opposite direction - and the same again in reverse when I left the shop.

Should I have confronted them? I don't think so - there's already too many "vigilantes" out there trying to impose their own interpretations of the laws and guidelines, and so many either ignorant or misguided people who flout them - and not many seem willing to see the other's point of view. I initially thought there might be some good come out of this crisis - the "we're all in this together" attitude - but as time has gone on and we head towards relaxation of the regulations, it seems some of our worst traits are beginning to re-appear.

Amen.