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I Am Back... In A Very Different World

 I've been 'away'... although not very far.  And I've decided to return... even though it's a very very different world now from the world in my last post.

Don't ask me about 2018... but Life started to skew sideways at the end of 2019 when news started to trickle out regarding a strange new virus.  Then clips of people walking down streets and suddenly collapsing started appearing in chat groups.  At first I thought it was one of those fake clips.  Or maybe cut from a film about  zombie pandemics or insidious alien attacks.  Alas, I was wrong.  Then by March 2020, for the first time ever, I experienced a pandemic lockdown.  Schools were shut, shops closed.  Roadblocks sprouted up like mushrooms to deal with those who still didn't believe the reality of what was happening.  The government floated an app that looked like some sort of controlling mechanism.  Well, fast forward to October 2021... that app is now required for entry to most public spaces.  It holds information about vaccination status.  It is no longer an affront for a security guard to ask to see my phone screen so that he can verify my vaccination status.  I held out for as long as I could ... delaying the injection of an untested cocktail of drugs and weird things.  Well, I consider as 'untested' any vaccine that hasn't gone through at least two decades of trials.

My new world also includes double masks, antibacterial hand sanitisers, bottles of essential oils and avoidance of people.  Weddings are restricted to small numbers.. visits to elderly parents require health checks (as far as I'm concerned).  I haven't had a good coffee chat with buddies since 2020 and I haven't met many (MOST!) since 2020.  I actually lived 2020 in a sort-of fugue state... asking myself at intervals 'Is this real?'.  2021 is slightly better but not by much because the virus kept coming back in increasingly-virulent waves.

Well, one step at a time, onward I go.


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