Ce moys de May

Just before I left school I was finally allowed to stop shaving, the headmaster having bowed to my dislike of a painful process.  So I have not been without a beard since I was 18 - nearly 55 years. Last weekend a friend, one of our first lunch guests since lockdown, arrived without his - it is always a slight surprise when someone changes appearance, but of course we enjoyed his company no less.

He and I share another experience, as choir treasurers. I thankfully passed on mine many years ago, and would be lost in the new world of French accounting rules and practices, but he is hoping to pass on his function to someone else, being no younger than I am! I was always glad to do my bit for our choir in London, but I recall clearly the sinking feeling I had standing in a concert and realising that the size of audience I could see was not large enough to pay our musicians. Difficult to give your best musically with those thoughts in your mind.  Ideally, we'd have a small team of people beavering away on the admin while singers sang, but that is a rarely achieved aim.

                

Now distance restrictions are less severe we have been able to walk further along the canal and visit our favourite donkey in a nearby field

The concept of news is strange. First it depends on things happening, and not much new is happening just now. Second it needs people there to report it, and that’s always hit and miss. Third, once other stories crop up elsewhere journalists have to pack their bags and move on. Fewer journalists, fewer reports; conversely, if lots of journalists are gathered somewhere for a story, lots of other things happening there are suddenly reported. Just now many journalists are confined to home ‘barracks’ and in their absence exciting stuff is provided by Joe/Josephine public via their iPhones. Not always a reliable source, though some say journalists are biased too.

Confusion has been reigning in the U.K. about health and lockdown restrictions. People seem to want good guidance from the govt, but at the same time many would not trust the current PM as far as they could throw him in any case, so it seems a bit weird to complain that he is giving poor advice. Here, the French have been clearer from the outset about regulations backed by legal sanctions. Now, French beaches are mostly open but hedged around with restrictions. You can’t apparently put a towel down on most of them - not that le bronzage would be a nice thing to try in this grey, damp period. But wherever you are, common sense says that mingling with people risks spreading infections, whether colds or more deadly ones. Decisions on restricting movement are bound to be political even if informed by science; and they are also bound to be based on probability and risk.

Pain is still a preoccupation for me because of sciatica.  We hear that A&E visits are down, in case people may be staying away for fear of catching something else while attending. I am just hoping to get back in touch with the Montpellier Pain Clinic now lockdown is over, but meanwhile just keep up regular exercise.

Last time I started to list films we'd watched - that includes music and opera, and next time there will be more on the opera side.  for now, two more DVDs and one film recorded from the tv recently.

• Windermere children (which we watched after a documentary about them) describes the rescue of 300 child holocaust survivors after the war by  a group motivated by Leonard Montefiore and a team including some of the pioneers of child psychology.  The film was excellent and moving and rang lots of bells both with Mary because of her interest in psychotherapy and with me because of friends pas and present whose families were involved, as well as recalling some important work I was able to take part in with the Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire..
• The Monteverdi opera Incoronazione di Poppea was one we performed in Montpellier a few years ago, but the performance from Madrid conducted by William Christie and Les Arts Florrissants with Philippe Jazroussky and Danielle de Niese among many wonderful singers is on quite a different level, beautiful and chilling all at once.  We shall certainly watch that again.
• Brassed off is a really good watch - our third or fourth time seeing it this week - but also brings back another period of social turmoil, very near to our lives when we worked in Notts in the 80s.  The playing of the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band is the icing on the cake of this film, and we were glad to be reminded of the original cast of Tara Fitzgerald et al, having been slightly sidetracked meanwhile by the excellent spoof by Victoria Wood and co. one Christmas.

Our first visit since lockdown to the Parcours de Santé North of the town this afternoon