Coronavirus – Come Together, Right Now - Virtually | Page 21 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Macron has announced that France will remain in lockdown until (at least) 11th May, when schools, creches and universities will begin to open, along with some other closed businesses. Restaurants, cinemas and other entertainment/social venues will remain closed.

Spain has eased some lockdown restrictions, allowing some manufacturing, construction, and some businesses where people can’t work at home to start reopening; while Italy has introduced similar easing of its lockdown as Spain, allowing a small amount of businesses to reopen from tomorrow.

I think there is some sense to watching how it goes in places like Spain and Italy. You don’t want to rush into an early lifting of the restrictions only to find the figures are going up again, bouncing the country back into another lockdown. The UK is viewed as a couple of weeks behind France, meaning if we follow a similar timeline, it might be that we start to relax our lockdown in the last week of May.

In these circumstances I think it’s the only thing we can do, watch what happens elsewhere and try to learn more from their exits from their strict lockdowns than we seemed to learn from their early handling of the virus.

It should be noted that China, which has relaxed many of the restrictions it had in place, saw a jump of 108 new infections on Sunday, the highest daily rise in over five weeks. Now all but ten seem to be been imported by people returning from overseas, but it does still show there is still some community spread.

I’m meant to be in France at the end of May, I obviously don’t want to go now so I’m kinda hoping the language schools stay closed until the end of May. If not, I’ll have to ask them to reschedule me to either later in the year or if they’re very nice to May next year.

@William Shears Campbell said
Well, as of Saturday we have to wear masks at work.  I hate it because I can’t breathe under those things.

Pain that it is, it’s also understandable. It’s one thing me taking a 10-minute walk up the road, popping in the shop for usually no more than five minutes, and walking back without a mask, but I appreciate why the guys who work in the shop are wearing masks when they’re coming into contact with so many people (though it is socially distanced, no more than three customers at a time – though there have been times there’s also been five staff in the small shop!!!), and I appreciate the masks.

Nasty’s Coronavirus Thread Album of Today…

This is a bit of an obscure one, Tanita Tikaram’s third album, 1991’s Everybody’s Angel...

Her first album, 1988’s Ancient Heart, had been huge. Her second, 1990’s The Sweet Keeper, was a bit overblown, and suffered for it. Both were produced by Rod Argent and Peter Van Hooke. This would be her last album with them, and she co-produced.

The horns are brought to the fore, soulful flows between Stax, Muscle Shoals and Van Morrison, with a touch of gospel, largely leaving behind the overlush string arrangements of her second album (apart from one, but it’s perfectly judged). It’s full of playful arrangements and playful vocals.

Captain Tom Moore, a 99-year-old WWII army veteran, recent recipient of a hip replacement, appeared on BBC Breakfast last Friday when they picked up on his efforts to raise £1000 for NHS charities by walking a hundred laps (roughly 25 metres) of his garden by his 100th birthday at the end of the month, doing ten laps a day.

He had to raise his target to £5000 because his £1000 target was soon passed. He stopped raising his target at £500,000. His JustGiving page currently stands at (and it’ll be more when you read this) £5,301,485.08.

You are an inspiration, Sir!!!