Well, the new walk with ‘Pip the Dog’ went well. We basically walked towards the 2nd half of the normal walk and were then able to walk on over some other fields, turn around and then walk back again. The only issue walking back was that the flex lead that we use broke. It meant the lead itself wasn’t retracting into the plastic device. A real pain. It looks like you can take it apart, so will try and fix it when I get back home, ready for tomorrow.

Pip was also eating what looks like very vert large clover plants. That definitely backfired on her and about half way back to home, she had to throw up what looked like some stomach acid, YUK!

In terms of work back to experimenting the Taiko drumming training via the web. Today we were inviting others to join us live via Skype. After having tested it in the morning, I noticed that my teacher James’ video connection was very bad, pixelated and slow, but we still went ahead.

Sure enough when we then went live in the afternoon, his video was not great, but we could do nothing to fix it. Other people who were joining us struggled with their video/audio, were not clear on how to operate the software and in a nutshell, the whole thing was a total ‘car crash’.

So we’re not sure what to do, go back to Zoom, which wasn’t even ideal either or abandon. James was quite down after this event. The lesson was a real struggle for him, with screen sharing, people using iPads and laptops and all having different experiences. So back to the drawing board.

On Monday I shared with a different group, who used Zoom that the security might be an issue. They felt that with the new Zoom password and waiting room option would be sufficient with the security alarms that are flooding the internet. He also shared with me that there was another app that people were using with better security called Jitsi. So I spent the rest of the day researching that and testing it out. What I experienced looked great, but more to do tomorrow.

Then in the evening, I did our weekly shop at Lidl at around 7pm. It was quiet and peaceful and apart from a few things, I was able to get most of our essentials. When leaving the store I noticed a group of 6 lads on bikes and walking make a huge racket and looking defiant, as if to say, dare you say something and we’re not scared because we are SO tough. I was loading my car with the shopping at the time and looked over to them. I really found myself getting quite angry and upset. I never said anything but I was definitely tempted. These young guys are putting all our lives at risk. Grrrrrr!

And that was my day today…

Michael de Groot

PS. We received in the post the letter from the UK Prime Minister, who is still in intensive care with the Corona Virus and a Corona Virus leaflet. See below