6 months and counting

Well, this is turning into a rum old year.

If I had made any, my New Year's Resolutions would have largely been shot to hell by now, as they would have included exercising more, losing more weight (and boy, do I need to!), publishing my book and progressing the other two projects in hand (that's the memoir and the travel book), and re-jigging the ten year old and fading Around The World In 80 Expense Claims blog (this last on the basis that retirees aren't known for submitting the things).

I managed to do that, at least, and you're reading the results.  I'm pleased with the way This World, This Life looks, but it's struggling to be honest.  I don't think the writing is particularly bad and the increase in pictorial content make it look fresher, and in any case I'm not after a Pullitzer (or whatever the blogging equivalent is).  It's basically a hobby for me that I hope(d) would entertain other people too. The problem is, while the old one was pretty much exclusively travel pieces, with some political stuff and the odd music or political article thrown in, so you knew what you were going to get from the title, this one is deliberately more varied and again the hope was the new title would convey that shift.  There is more variety in what I've written about, intentionally so, because it's tricky writing consistently about travel when you're no longer working, or travelling much further than the local supermarket.  But after a decent enough start, with viewer numbers matching or exceeding what I was getting on Around the World... much of the time, and a smattering of comment and feedback (all positive), it's slipped.

Much brain banging has gone into what, if anything, is going on - and I think it's largely to do with our old friend Coronavirus COVID-19.

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I launched This World, This Life on 9 March with a splash of half a dozen pieces in a couple of days.  Those of you who are still awake have no doubt realised this coincided closely with the virus outbreak that has essentially paralysed the world ever since.  I've written about it in various ways half a dozen times here, and they've been the most read posts - unsurprising, given the topicality I guess.  But as I'm only lightly (and not directly) affected by the thing - thanks be to God! - and I'm not a medical practitioner, virologist or anything similar, I know no more about it than the Average Joe Public (and even that seems to be more than the Presidents of Brazil, Russia and especially the U.S. of A. seem to).  So it's not something I could write about all of the time, even if I wanted to.

But COVID and its effects have hit me just as much as anyone else.  I've been locked down the same as everyone else in Poland and beyond for weeks.  I no longer feel a muppet walking around shops wearing a mask and disposable gloves (and indeed feel a little nervous about the numbers of people who have stopped doing that just because measures are being - perhaps prematurely -  eased).  The New Normal means people are more likely to be noticed for NOT masking up than for doing so.  My kids have been at home since the middle of March, having their lessons via MS Teams, as have most kids over here (but hardly any seem to have in say Britain - and do correct me if I'm wrong!).  My wife also had a couple of months at home too, but has now gone back to her child-minding job.  I've spent hours sitting at my bedroom window, laptop humming away, gazing out at the changeable weather (spring was a washout and right now summer seems to be going the same way) and trying to focus on one or other of my literary struggles and WRITE something.

That's of course when I haven't been playing house-husband - hoovering, ironing, cooking, making sure the kids are working and not gaming, making the bed, feeding the cat.....all the tons of stuff my beloved has been doing for years with not so much as a second thought but I struggle to cope with all the time (I can do 'em all adequately now and again but struggle when they are the sum total of my days' activity).  I take my hat off to women the world over who manage to do it all AND keep a job (or two) AND hobbies and gym work going at the same time.  It's frankly beyond me.  Well played, ladies - I salute you!

Not that I'm complaining, although it may look that way.  It's been great spending so much time with my family after so many years jumping on aeroplanes and trains and buggering off for a couple of all expenses paid weeks in a hotel somewhere.  It's been terrific sleeping in my own bed, sprawling out on my own sofa to watch telly, and eating good home cooked food (even when it's my own cooking).  We've laughed a lot, talked a lot and yes, argued and shouted at each other a lot.  It's what proper families do, so I figure that until now (or at least until I quit work) we weren't really a proper family.

We've weathered the storms swirling around, thankfully unscathed.  In the first couple of weeks I admit to feeling a little less than 100%, had a slight cough and felt tired.....I wasn't tested so I have no idea whether it was the virus.  Maybe it was psychosomatic, I really don't know.  It only lasted a couple of days and copious rounds of toast with garlic butter and cheese washed down with warm milk and honey plus my daily multivitamin tablet cleared whatever it was quickly with no ill effects.  My family didn't even have that much.  So as of today, touching wood and crossing fingers, eyes and every other extremity that's crossable, we've got through at least the first round unscathed.

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All good then.  But with all the home stuff, and watching with disbelief the news reports on CNN, the BBC and local tv as the pandemic developed, has taken its toll on my other stuff.  It's difficult to concentrate on creativity, finding The Muse and committing something to LibreOffice Writer or This World... when you're gobsmacked at the truck loads of coffins being carted away from Italian hospitals.  Even more so as you see the British Government floundering around, doing its best to cope with a burgeoning crisis but lacking the leadership and ability to do it well.  And simply beyond belief to see and hear the Fantasy Island proclamations that both Trump and Bolsonaro have been spouting throughout the crisis, both of them showing not even the barest shred of empathy with the electorate or common sense.  They are both masters of the blame game and concerned only with themselves to the exclusion of everyone but their personal voter base (most of whom must be even more stupid to continue supporting the fuckers).

Meanwhile Brazilians and Americans by the thousands (make that the tens of thousands) are dying.  Scientific and medical advice is ignored in favour of the latest on-line conspirancy theory linking the virus to 5G, Bill Gates, the non-existant Deep State and Illuminati and Christ know's whatever other whackjob creation the real Fake News (not Trump's ignorantly misnamed and slandered MSM) is spouting via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube today.  The man loves a good (or even a bad) cons[piracy theoru, espeically if he can twist it to his own ends. Never mind that the WHO, the UN and their own medical advisors are advising them otherwise, "it's just the flu, no big deal " (Bolsonaro), "I hear disinfectant or bleach can kill this thing in minutes, can we inject it or something?" (Trump - dear God, the man is certifiably insane but the Republican party lack the balls or humanity to dump him).  And I thought British and Polish politicians could be stupid!  It's simply tragic that a global pandemic hits at a time when worldwide there is an absolute dearth of capable political leaders and not a stateman in sight.

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As the days and weeks and now months have passed by, I've found I'm less and less interested.  I was always a bit of news junkie, spending hours (between working and writing) trawling what I consider to be reliable news providers like the BBC, CNN, The Guardian and Independent newspapers to keep track of what is going on in the world.  Now I simply can't be bothered, now that coverage is quite rightly weighted overwhelmingly towards the pandemic.

My social media activity is similarly curtailed (not necessarily a bad thing at all) with the time spent on Facebook and LinkedIn now measurable by the minute rather than the hour.  With football and other sport pretty much dormant or uninterestingly being played out in empty stadia (with tv stations resorting to recorded crowd noise to try and instill some atmosphere and failing miserably) I can't be bothered to watch that.  My own team plays in non-league and looks to be relegated by 0.0002 of a point by an average points per game calculation that takes no notice of current form when the season was abandoned (unbeaten in 8: the team staying up instead of us 1 win in 8).  Fair?  Of course not.  But what can we do about it? Nothing.

Essentially, I've lost interest.  At least until there is a change in circumstance that means I can get out and about a bit more to find the inspiration that staring out of the window or at a laptop screen fails to provide.   The big writing, the books, will have to wait at least until the kids go back to school in (at the moment anyway) September - I love 'em dearly but they are a beautiful distraction.  I don't have a dedicated creative space I can work at, and in any case they deserve my attention and I'm happy to give it to them.  To my wife too, when she's home from work in the evenings and weekends.  I LOVE those times!

I'll do bits and pieces on This World, This Life as and when the mood or The Muse takes me, like it has now with these scribblings.  I need to increase traffic, get more views, more comments, but I can't figure out how to do that.  Word of mouth is always the most valuable way to gain traction, so it's up to my audience to help with that - so to follow up the appeal I made early on, (I think post number five or six) if you read this, or any other essay I write (or have written) please LIKE and SHARE.  Please sign up as a FOLLOWER.  Please comment - space provided and it only takes a minute.  And if you have any other bright ideas about how to gain traction, please reach out to me - all suggestions gratefully received!

In the meantime. stay safe.  Lockdown easing is too early and too disorganised, in my view, and we're not out of the woods yet.

Home comforts

It's a Tuesday in June.  So far, summer has been nothing to write about: the typical Warsaw late spring, early summer heat and clear blue skies have been few and far between.  Instead of the odd cloudburst at the end of a muggy day, we have suffered fairly persistent rainy days throughout May and into this month.  For once, England has seen better weather than here.

But today, it's been better.  Yesterday was better still, with a temperature close to 30C, but today's 27C has been fine, mostly blue skies but with cloud bubbling up now and then.  Right now, it's close to 11 in the evening, and the temperature is cooling steadily (but still a comfortable 21C).  The clouds have mostly cleared away, and there is not a breath of wind.  It's a quiet, still evening.

I'm sitting in my rocker on my 5th floor balcony, surrounded by potted plants and scented candles, blazing away.   The shared courtyard garden is deserted but in full bloom, and looking lovely in the sunshine.  Most days it's busy with kids playing in the sand area with the slide and swings and see-saws, but lockdown has put paid to that so far this spring.  Surprisingly, given how warm and pleasant the evening is, I'm the only person outside - all the other balconies are empty, their doors open to the flats and cooking smells are coming from some (mine included).  My wife is preparing waffles and whipped cream and fresh strawberries for supper.

My kids are on the floor of the lounge, with a friend who is a guest for the night, playing a board game.  School term, disrupted by lockdown during which lessons have continued via Microsoft Teams, finishes at the end of next week, so a late night won't hurt them.  The cat is strolling around, from balcony to lounge, to bedroom and back to balcony, as if she owns the place (she's a cat, so of course, she does).  My son brings me a Tyskie, a fine beer and nicely chilled, for a nightcap.  He's a good kid.

The beer tastes good as I labour at this piece, the first I've written for nearly a month.  My Muse has been away, but she's back now I think.  I hear the kids laughing at some remark, so know they are happy and content, and this is good: it makes me happy too.  Apart from that, there is a very faint traffic noise, thanks to my balcony facing into the courtyard and not out on the main road.  That view, and noise, is from my bedroom, and the bane of my life: in 15+ years living in this apartment I still can't get used to it, and it's still my 5 a.m. alarm call (despite being happily retired).  Ah, well - you can't have it all ways I guess.

Yesterday I cycled over to a small plot I have, out near the airport, to do some garden work.   It's on a big development containing at least a couple of hundred similar plots (there are many similar developments scattered around the city), and we have it laid mostly to grass with some flower beds, a couple of fruit trees and a very productive walnut tree, and there is a small but cosy cottage to shelter and even sleep in. There and back is just under 20km, so it's good exercise.  After school today, we all went over in the car, and tomorrow I'll bike again.  There is work to be done, and the exercise will hopefully help me shift the 8 kilos I lost last summer but have piled back on this lockdown.  Mind you, the barbecue we had there, and the waffles my wife has just given me - and as usual they are delicious! - is not helping that little quest.  But as my dear and long-departed mum always used to tell me, it's better to be fat and happy than thin and miserable.  She was very wise.

This is my life.  Quieter, more frugal in retirement, but I now appreciate more the important things.  I don't miss the flying and hotels and constant work pressure in the least.  I have time to enjoy each day in my own way, whether reading or writing or doing some ironing while my wife is at work.  Riding my bike.  Going for a walk. Popping into the city on the Metro (20 minutes each way) and wandering round the shops and second hand book stores and along the riverbank.

And at the end of the day, relax in front of the tv, or on the bed with some fine music and a good book.

Home.  Comfortable.

In Praise of John Wyndham - An Underrated Master

I've just spent a pleasant couple of weeks re-acquainting myself with the writings of John Wyndham.  A once celebrated practitioner of science fiction, back in my 1950s childhood, his books (apart from the classic The Day of the Triffids) are now rarely seen outside of second-hand bookshops, and even there infrequently.  For me, he rates alongside his American contemporaries like Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury, and his fellow Englishman Arthur C. Clarke in defining a once niche form of writing and bringing it to acceptablilty as a respected genre.

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Brian Aldiss, another English contemporary, once damned Wyndham's books with faint praise: "He wrties about cosy catastrophe", he wrote somewhat disparagingly about Triffids.  Many other critics and sci-fi authors have contested this and cited Wyndham as an influence in their own writing.  Without trying to criticise Aldiss, a revered name himself, I can only speak of what I've found in my own reading of both his and Wyndham's work - give me John Wyndham any day.  I read Aldiss' Hothouse many years ago, and while finding the story set in the steamy jungles of a dying planet an interesting idea (and some of his biological mutations quite clever and scary) I found much of the prose turgid and dull.  Then a few years ago, I bought his award winning Helliconia trilogy - it had been recommended to me some years before, and I felt it worth having a read when I finally spotted it in Waterstone's at Kings Cross station.  I started it on my journey, and found it impossible to absorb, so I left it for a few months and had another go - the same result.  I shelved it again and tried one more time a year or so later.  Nope.  If Hothouse was dull and turgid, it seemed bright and breezy in comparison.  I could not get beyond about page 50 and gave it up as a bad job: I left it in my hotel room when I checked out from wherever it was - perhaps someone else found it and enjoyed it, but it simply wasn't for me.

It seemed to me then - as it still does - that inventing and writing a believable story set in a totally alien culture, biosystem, time or whatever takes a very special writer indeed to make it work.  Tolkien, of course, managed it exceptionally well - I've read The Lord of the Rings a dozen times and find new stuff every time.  The same goes for Frank Herbert's original Dune trilogy (and probably in the raft of follow-up novels that I never read).  Asimov's Foundation series pulled off a similar trick successfully in creating a whole new Galactic civilization thousands of years in the future, and many of Heinlein's books, with their alternative timelines delineated by who was the first man on the Moon, and the many and varied adventures of Lazarus Long, enthralled me too.  This is to ignore the entire Culture series from the brilliant Iain M. Banks, and the Star Wars and Star Trek and Marvel Comic Universe cannons.  Somehow, despite his undoubted popularity Aldiss (a multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner and a Grand Master of Science Fiction) never quite managed it - at least for this reader.

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But back to John Wyndham.

He was a prolific writer from the late 1920s through to his death in 1969, and published hundreds of short stories in a variety of magazines and under a variety of pen names (his full name was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, and all were incorporated at various times).  Most were science fiction stories, but with a light mix of detective tales, and proved popular in many countries.  His collection The Seeds of Time (1956) acknowledges a debt of gratitude to magazine editors in Australia, France, Britain, Holland, Italy, South Africa, Sweden and the U.S.A.  But despite the geographical spread of his publication, the stories remain quintessentially English - and 1950s English at that.

Perhaps this is what Aldiss was referring to with his "cosy" reference, because the language and writing style, characterisation and dialogue are all clearly from that specific place (England, and Middle Class England at that) and time (post-War1950s), and hence a comfortable read for his audience then - and indeed anyone coming to the books later but with memories of the era.  In this decade, he found his mojo, and published half a dozen books that I would suggest are classics of the British sci-fi genre.

There are similarities than run through all of them, to the extent that if you had only read, say, Triffids as a Wyndham book, and then many years later read The Midwich Cuckoos without knowing who the author was, I would suggest you would recognise it as another Wyndham book with little difficulty.  The same could be said interchangeably for the other books in this peak era: The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, and Trouble with Lichen.  The Seeds of Time was also published in this decade, but as a collection of his short fiction the stories are culled from slightly earlier and on a wider variety of plot arcs (some are clearly written for American sales, for instance, and feature an American slang that at times comes close to parody) and hence - for me at least - is a less enjoyable volume.

But across the other books, with Trouble with Lichen the exception, all the Wyndham tropes that Aldiss seems to have disliked are there.  The stories are all what would now be labelled apocolyptic (or post-apocolyptic) fiction: the world and civilization as known at that time is ending or is in the distant past, and the story follows groups of characters through their survival struggles.  Apart from The Chrysalids (set in a distant post nuclear holocaust age) the main individual characters and groups are invariably English Middle Class: that is, comfortably well off, well spoken and well educated, in good jobs that often involve writing in one form or another.   Where "lower class" characters appear, especially in Triffids, they are virtually caricatures: they speak in a kind of mangled Cockney Gor' blimey, guv'nor voice, tend to be dockers, manual workers or simply thugs, and generally meet a sticky end that, even in the worst of circumstances, arouses little sympathy.  There is generally a heroic game changing scientist-cum-writer, usually with ideas at odds to everyone else (but invariably correct in the final analysis) with whom the tale's hero can indulge in often long philosophical musings.  There is a mild love interest that is always very chaste but ends happily ever after (yes, I know: that's cosy too).

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The "catastrophies" themselves, for all those comfortable familiarities, could never be considered cosy, however.  The end of civilization, however imagined and described, could surely never be that!  The ways they are plotted and described show that Wyndham's ideas were often ahead of their time.

In The Day of the Triffids, the catastrophe comes in the fom of bio-weapons maintained in orbitting sattelites malfunctioning to cause blindness in the vast majority of the population.  Simultaneously huge plants, the result of apparent Russian bio-technology, bred and used profitably for some years because of their cheap and efficient high quality oil products, break loose and wreak further havoc - as does an appalling "plague" that causes a death similar to typhoid or ebola.  The first half of the book details the carnage, with suicides, murder, and sickness killing off blind survivors as society collapses, while the second half details the struggle for survival by the few remaining sighted survivors.  Published in 1951, long before any rocket had attained Earth orbit (never mind being able to place orbitting weapons) and bio-technology was a science still in its infancy, it's a thrilling story - with precious little cosiness in it.

By contrast, The Kraken Wakes (published in 1953) kills off mankind not with the devastating suddenness described in Triffids but slowly and inexorably over a period of years.  In this case Wyndham postulates an invasion of extra-Terrestrials, never seen or described in the book, who take over the deepest parts of the world's oceans and set about patiently taking over the planet for themselves. The final section of the book postulates the final demise of most of humanity by the device of melting both polar icecaps and drowning us under rising sea levels.  Again, there is much violence particulalry in that final section, and again little that could be described as cosy.  There is also a degree of prescience in using meling polar ice as the final and unstoppable weapon, but in this case the melting is the result of alien science rather than mankind's own stupidity - as we are seeing now - and happens much quicker.  But then 67 years ago, climate science too was a new discipline and no-one knew exactly how much ice was involved, nor how much water would be produced, nor how much the seas would rise.  Again, Wyndham's descriptions of a collapsing society are both moving and scary.

The global catastrophe has already taken place in The Chrysalids (from 1955) - a nuclear war an unspecified time before the narrative takes place (but reckon a few hundred years).  The remnants of humanity live in Canada, in Labrador and Newfoundland, and venerate the True Image of everything, from themselves, through farm animals and crops, down to the trees and wlld animals in the surrounding woodland.  Anyone or anything that differs in the slightest is slaughtered or burned in an effort to maintain "purity".  The book follows a group of children who discover they too are mutants - they are powerful telepaths, and thus there is nothing to distinguish them physically as mutants. But suspicion eventually falls on them and they are faced to run for their lives.  Cosy?  Nope.  But it's a gripping story for all that.

The Midwich Cuckoos (published in 1957) again takes us into the realms of alien invasion by stealth, in this case a mysterious event where an entire English village is "put to sleep" for a night and every woman of child bearing age left pregnant.  There is little suggestion how this may have happened, but there is ample scope for discussion on some of 1950s England's sexual mores and proclivities.  The resultant group of 50-odd kids, both boys and girls, not only share identical physical characteristics (slight build, blond hair, golden eyes) but "share" brains - what we would now term a hive mind.  As they grow, they exert an ability to control everyone else in the village mentally, and their plan to link up with similar groups elsewhere in the world to take it over and destroy humanity becomes evident.  Again, there is little cosiness in this yarn either - but it's a clever tale nonetheless.

All of the above are first person narratives, but Trouble with Lichen (from 1960, the last book in this cycle) takes on a more common third person story, and equally effectively.  It also differs in that this time there is no collapsing civilzation, no global catastrophe, and no suicides, murders or widespread civil disobedience as personified in Triffids or Kraken.  There is no common enemy, extra-terrestrial or religious fanatic (Chrysalids) to threaten our heroes or the global population either.  But the philosophical meanderings and moral dilemas as in the rest of the books are there, as is the science.  In this case, we go back into the area of bio-technology, and the accidental discovery of something that looks initially like an anti-biotic, distilled from an exceptionally rare lichen, but turns out to provide a safe means of extending life expectancy for three hundred years or so.  Here the catatrophe is merely implied: with availability restricted to only a few thousand doses by the slow growth and rarity of the lichen, how can the anticipated global demand for the drug, once made public, be met?  How can society cope with the changes this lengthened life expectancy would bring about?  Again, Wyndham shows some prescience: similar conversations are happening now, not because of a drug that extends iife but due to the increased use of AI, bots and other technology potentially reducing the job marketplace, coupled with longer life expectancy caused simply by advances in health care and normal medical science.

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So there we are.  My collection of Wyndham's works comes in a single volume I bought from a book club a good 30 years or more ago, and it's getting very tatty now, but still for me remains a good read.  The thing is, or so it seems to me, to get the best out of each one you have to consider on each page just when they were written - Lichen is the most recent and it's now 60 years old - and accept the society as it existed in England is being quite faithfully described.  Everyone smokes, for a start.  Few people swear, and when they do it's a mild "bloody" or "bugger".  Little mention is made of television or the movies but radio features strongly.  Long distance travel involves ocean voyages, and there are no motorways spoiling the English countryside.  There is little traffic at all on the roads, even in London, and there are still horse and carts plying their trade there.

I see visions from my childhood when I read these books, a time that despite the global fear of nuclear war and a very real class war in England that I was only dimly aware of (my family was proudly working class and apart from my doctor I never came across the kind of Middle Class characters so beloved by Wyndham at all) everything seemed so much simpler and safer somehow.  Wyndham has taken that whole society and woven it into some clever sociological and scientific speculations in a way that I haven't come across elsewhere.  As a story teller, he was inventive and erudite, and very readable.  His popularity in my youth was well deserved and it seems a shame that he has faded from the public eye.  But I guess that's what happens in a changing world.

Lockdown Living

LOCKDOWN

NOUN:

A security measure in which those inside a building or area are required to remain confined in it for a time.

- English definition, Courtesy: Collins English Dictionary, Online Edition


Like most of us, probably, I had only come across the word in shoddy American tv shows and movies, typically accompanied by much gunfire and explosions, usually with Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger in the thick of it.  Then along came COVID-19.  Suddenly, most of the world found itself in lockdown – and without a shot being fired.  The world started to change before our eyes, in ways most of us had never believed possible.

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People and governments reacted in different ways.  In Europe, Italy and Spain were a bit caught out and hence have suffered the worst attrition.  Britain, as usual, reacted late and arguably this cost unnecessary lives, as much as anything because the government seems to have failed in providing an already hard pressed NHS with sufficient ventilators, masks and other personal protection stuff to both staff and patients, and has also been somewhat tardy in testing.  It hasn’t been helpful that the PM has spent time in Intensive Care after catching COVID himself, and his enforced absence has shown for all who care to open their eyes the paucity of ability in his Government.  The phrase about headless chickens springs to mind.  I’m sure people – especially within the NHS - have done their best, but it hasn’t been enough to prevent a hundred thousand confirmed cases and getting on for twenty thousand deaths in a few short weeks.  Tragic.

Elsewhere, Trump has predictably gone his own sweet way, initially blaming it all on a Chinese conspiracy, then mystifyingly the EU, then saying it would all be over in a couple of weeks, then back at work by Easter…...and all the time marking himself 10 out of 10 for his handling of the crisis.  And the number of cases has mounted and the number of deaths multiplied, and his scientific and medical advisors have struggled to contradict the man and convince people to follow their professional advice rather Trump’s “hunches”.  His supporters, inevitably and again mystifyingly, have lapped it up, and are as I write demonstrating in a number of states – all of which have Democrat Governers – against the lockdown measures imposed, citing loss of freedom and jobs as the economy tanks, and demanding an immediate return to normality.  The man himself, of course, supports and encourages them through a daily barrage of tweets. Tragic? Yes, and insanity.

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And what of Poland?

The government actually acted very quickly.  Borders were closed, with all motorway crossings manned by police turning back non-Poles (unless driving trucks of goods destined for the Polish market) and testing everyone else.  Any hint of a temperature resulted in 14 days quarantine.  Airports across the country were closed, and all flights grounded except for repatriation flights. International train services were also stopped. It’s been eerie: I live quite close to the main airport so there is always aircraft noise.  I also have a little cottage on a development bordering the airport, and I visited a couple of days later.  Typically there is a take off or landing every four or five minutes – during my two hours there I counted two take offs and no landings.  It’s been like that, or quieter, ever since.

The lockdown terms have been quite strict, with only vital trips outside allowed.  Public transport is still running, but bus drivers are only allowed to take on half the people – so a 40 seat bus is now “full” with 20 passengers.  Working from home, if at all, is widespread. Small shops remain open, and supermarkets, but the malls are closed.  The shops themselves, from day 2, have been restricted to allowing only customers in a multiple of 4 per till – so if there are 4 tills and only 2 are open then only 8 customers are allowed in.  Staff man the doors and only allow customers in when someone else leaves, strictly one to one.  There is hand sanitizer and disposal gloves provided just inside the entrance – use of both is mandatory.  All staff wear masks, as do most customers, and there are tapes on the floor by each till to guide social distancing.

It works.  The vast majority of people happily follow the rules, so the numbers here are really very good – currently there have been 10,034 confirmed cases and only 404 dead  and that’s out of a population of just under 38million (Source: Google). Most of them have been in the area around Warsaw, the most populous part of the country.  There is a caveat: many people believe the government is under-reporting and the actual numbers may be several times higher: but even if that is the case they compare very favourably with the rest of Europe (indeed, the World….).  No doubt “true” figures will surface one day, when this is all over.

Certainly, there is excellent communication.  Whenever there is a change in regulations an SMS message is sent to every Polish mobile a day or so in advance, in both Polish and English, explaining everything.  There is also a tentative exit strategy, announced over the weekend, that will gradually open stores, places of worship, bars and restaurants and allow limited gatherings and sporting events, but there are no dates set apart from Phase 1, effective this Monday, that re-opened parks and forest trails (there are many around the city), and allow us to go outside for more reasons – exercise and cycling are now possible, so I’m off for a bike ride through Kabaty Forest tomorrow. 

But social distancing remains in force, and masks must still be worn outside until a vaccine is readily available – and this, said the notice, may not be until next year.  “Masks are the new normal” it said.

Of course, there have been the odd instance of people stretching matters.  I heard a radio news report recently about a guy who went out to buy essential supplies one evening – a bottle of vodka.  He drank it all on the way home and fell asleep on a bench outside his apartment block, where he was woken up some time later by the police.  They issued a ticket for the appropriate fine for going outside on a non-essential trip – PLN30,000 (at today’s rates, close tp GBP6,000).  Expensive drink – and if the fine isn’t paid he’s looking at a 6 month prison sentence.  No idea how that one ended up – there has been no follow up so I guess he paid it.  Either that, or the story was an excellent wind-up.

The worst abuse happened over Easter, an important time where all Poles visit the local cemeteries to pay their respects to parents and other departed family members, lay flowers and light candles – it’s a lovely tradition that this year was forbidden by the lockdown.  But there are always people who believe they are above the law, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the governing Law and Justice Party (you see the irony there?) proved it by heading off to Warsaw’s main cemetery to visit his parents’ grave – in a black limousine and accompanied by a full security detail of perhaps a dozen armed guards.  No masks.  No social distancing.  And in full view of a media scrum including tv cameras from all the main networks, who I assume had all received a tip-off from someone. There is a presidential election in May: he is not standing but his party’s nomine is – or at least, was – clear favourite to win.  To judge by the outrage in the press and on social media this crass error of judgement is quite likely to come back and bite his arse very hard.  And quite right too.

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So – living in lockdown.  How has it been?

Well, by what I’ve seen and heard from my kids and relatives back home, not too bad provided you find ways of avoiding boredom.  Thank God for Netflix, Disney TV, YouTube, Zoom and so on….windows on the world and a release.  My sister has been happily working in her garden, in the better weather, pruning the roses, trimming hedges and feeding the birds.  My eldest son has spent much time in his garden playing with the kids, building useful things like wooden sun loungers, and gardening himself.  Another son has likewise enjoyed garden and Disney time with his kids.  They’re both getting by and looking forward to a return to work at some point.

A garden would be great, if for nothing else than extra space.  I live in a relatively small fifth floor flat, two bedrooms, bathroom and combined lounge/kitchen/diner with a small balcony – so space is at a bit of a premium.  The place is full of love and laughter, and we want for nothing in terms of food and stuff to amuse ourselves – it’s great, and I’m very happy with my life here.  But lockdown has shown that we really do need a bit more elbow room.  We’re working on it.

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Peace and quiet and a bit of personal space can be hard to find.  When the kids are doing their schoolwork it can get a bit tricky.  Like all schools, lessons are being conducted online using Microsoft Teams and by-and-large it works well.  My two are more fortunate than some of their classmates in having their own kit – one has a desktop computer with all the gaming gear (microphone and head set, big monitor) while the other her own laptop.  Sharing a room means where lessons overlap, milady has to decamp to the big room and set up on the dining room table – which is fine, my wife and I are happy to eat from the settee where my wife is also doing her own online stuff.  Meanwhile, as now, I tend to sprawl on the bed balancing my old Lenovo on my knees.  Sometimes, for a change, I use the window ledge (it’s broad enough and stone, so very solid) but less than ideal and gives me backache.  But we manage ok.

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Distractions abound.  My kids are both avid YouTubers and gamers, so getting them away from those apps and focused on their schoolwork is challenging.  Yelling competitions are not unheard of.  By and large the tv stays off until their work is done – around lunchtime – after which it goes on for the afternoon programming that tends to be old soap reruns or DIY/home search stuff – some of those are ok, and show some nice décor ideas we could use when we eventually move.

At this point, too, the online gaming starts and things can get even louder: can anyone explain why people, kids especially, tend to communicate at full volume when they’re playing an online game with friends, or making a mobile phone call?  I know I’m as guilty as the next person! 

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Then food.

My missus is a fantastic cook, and it shows on my waistline. Last year I worked hard at exercise, much walking and cycling, and managed to drop nearly 8 kilos between May and October – and felt much fitter and healthier for it.  I managed to remain stable through the winter, and aim to drop more this summer – ideally my target is to get below 90 kilos, something I haven’t managed to do for at least 10 years.  At my age, with dodgy knees and hips, I figure that would be good for me.

I weighed myself last week, for the first time since lockdown started.  Unless the scales have seized up from a lack of use over the past 6 months (unlikely….) I have, in the space of four weeks, put back on all the weight I lost last summer, plus a bit more. Bugger.

At least, as from this week, I can get out and about again, but it means I have to go back and do it all over again and my sub-90 target is further away than ever.

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I read reports every day of the crisis in Britain and elsewhere caused by the lack of surgical masks and PPE kit, and we are also suffering. But at least in the area of masks – not so much.  People increasingly make their own.

It’s not so difficult, and all the women’s magazines, breakfast tv shows and Facebook are awash with tutorials. Patterns are readily available and shared between friends, and since most homes seem to contain a sewing machine people the length and breadth of Poland are using them to churn out facemasks for family and friends.  My wife has made a whole stock of them for us to use, in a variety of designs – stars & stripes, camouflage pattern, blue and red paisley, spotted….. So far she’s used old bandanas and scarves hidden away in drawers for the basic mask, heavy duty elastic bands for the ears, and vacuum cleaner filters or j-cloths for the filters, and they are adequate.  Now most haberdashers here are selling special filter material in rolls and of course they also sell normal elastic (as you would use in repairing your kid’s PE shorts for instance).  She and my daughter have made them for friends and family as well, and we have plenty of materials left to do more as and when needed.  And very fetching they look too.

It’s also interesting the way people have accepted the need to wear masks, I think.  I had seen pictures – as I’m sure we all have – of people in places like Tokyo and Hong Kong and other Asian cities wearing them as a matter of course for years.  Walk down any street in Rome or Paris, London or New York, and you were guaranteed to see coach loads of middle aged Chinese and Japanese tourists wearing the things.  I always found it quite amusing, and felt I would never wear one no matter how smoggy the atmosphere – I would look an idiot.  Now?  I step out to take the trash out and put on a mask (and disposable plastic gloves) as a matter of course.  The streets are full of people wearing them and you tend to look more at people who aren’t.  The masks are part of normality now, and as I wrote earlier will remain so in Poland for the foreseeable future.  It no longer looks like something out of an apocolyptic movie, it’s simply life.

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There have been unexpected gains.

Most notably, the traffic is so much lighter.  My block is on one of the main roads from the
southern edge of Warsaw into the centre, so traffic is always heavy.  My bedroom overlooks the road, and despite double glazing there is a constant roar and hum of cars and buses from about 5 a.m. until midnight-ish.  I’ve lived here for 15 years so I should be used to it, but no: I’ve always been a light sleeper (at least since fatherhood forty years ago) and it seems to get worse as I get older.  Insomnia really is a bitch.

Anyway, lockdown has pushed the day’s traffic start back half an hour or so,but it makes no difference to me: I still wake about 5.  And there is certainly less traffic on the road.  Before lockdown, there would be a traffic jam outside more or less all day in one direction or the other, and during the rush hours both ways.  Not so now: the picture above was taken from my bedroom during the second week of lockdown, at the height of the afternoon rush hour, when normally traffic would be bumper to bumper and stationary outside and all the parking places occupied.  See the difference!

The affect of this is that Warsaw, one of the most polluted cities in Poland – if not THE worst – now has cleaner air.  Every evening, after the weather forecast, the TVN bulletin adds a smog forecast, and the city invariably has a higher rating than anywhere except perhaps Katowice, down in the coal country to the south. Step out onto the balcony some nights and you can smell and taste the stuff. 

Now it’s better.  The air quality is better, the haze that so often hangs over the neighbourhood is gone. Whether it will last beyond lockdown is open to debate, but if more people adopt the “new norm” and work from home, or leave the car at home in favour of public transport, then it could be a lasting difference and a bit of a COVID Bonus.  I’m usually an optimist, so I have to say I hope that is exactly what will happen – but the realist (or cynic) in me somehow doubts it.  Of course, the longer this situation goes on, the more deep seated such changes are likely to become, so there is some hope. 

It’s not only here in Warsaw, either.  Cities and indeed countries the world over are showing similar decreases in pollution levels, and there have been a number of interesting images published by NASA showing before and after COVID hit major polluters and the difference is striking.  Given the widely accepted need to reduce CO2 levels drastically and soon to avoid calamitous climate change, COVID is actually giving a new hope to activists.  But the changes need to become permanent, and the appetite for change post lockdown remains a big imponderable.

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Shopping, despite the queueing outside the door, the hand sanitising and gloves, is easier because the stores are emptier.  The aisles are no longer awash with shopping trolleys going every which way, no traffic jams approaching checkout.  Because it’s easier for staff to monitor the stock and refill as soon a product runs a bit low, there are few empty shelves – and as far as I know no shortages or panic buying after the initial couple of days (and as I saw myself in LeClerc down the road that was nowhere near as bad here as reported elsewhere).  Plenty of toilet rolls.  Lots of bottled water.  Stacks of tinned foods.  Shelves full of freshly baked bread.  It’s almost a pleasure to go to my local Biedronka now.

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So lockdown is ok.  It’s not been easy, but certainly not boring – but I do feel the need to get out more and more.  Now the weather is improving, my balcony beckons, as does my bike, and with this week’s rule relaxation I can do something about that.  It’s given me the chance to do a lot of reading and writing (though not as much as I had planned – but that’s a whole other story….).  And it’s brilliant to spend this time together with my family.  That said, I can’t wait to be able to hop on a Wizzair to Luton and see my English family again.  It’s been too long already….

As far as Poland is concerned, it seems to have made a big difference, and I think that is mainly because the population seems to have embraced the need in the way others haven’t.  I can see it lasting for a good bit longer yet – calls to get back to normal quickly seem to me way too premature.  How long?  Who knows, really, but I would be surprised and a tad concerned if the measures were all removed much before Christmas.  I can’t see much prospect of vaccine availability until this time next year, for a start….

But we shall see…...in the meantime, have fun in your own lockdown, and whatever you’re doing and wherever you are…..

………..Stay safe.

The NHS and football - can Coronavirus make a difference?

There's been a lot written in the press and various chatrooms relating to footballers - particulary the highly paid "superstars" of the Premiership - and their response (or lack of) to the Coronavirus epidemic.  It's part of a wider narrative about how the sport has acted so far, when play has been forced to a standstill so close to season's end.

Let's take the second bit first.  It seems to me with the virus still raging across the world, talking of being able to re-start the season in May and finishing it by mid-summer, using the windows offered by UEFA's pragmatic decision to suspend the Champions League and Europa League competitions indefinitely and move the scheduled international Euro 2020 finals into 2021 to do so, is a little over-optimistic.  There is still so much medical scientists and the WHO still do not know about the virus - for instance whether there could be a second outbreak in Asia (which is at present pretty stable) or elsewhere that could again spread globally if travel restrictions are relaxed too soon.  There is still no sign of a vaccine yet (despite what certain peole seem to think, the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is not currently approved against COVID), and probably won't be for several months.  There is even argument going on in some places as to whether social distancing, self-isolation and working from home are making an appreciable difference to the spread of the virus.  Masks?  Depending where you get your news from, they're either very good prevention or practically useless.  The same goes for basic hygiene, despite the advice of every health advice bulletin, whether by governments or the WHO. 

It seems ridiculous to risk more lives simply out of a desperation to finish a few games of football, probably behind closed doors, to maximise prize money perhaps as part compensation for lost gate revenue.  It puts the Prem at odds with the FA, that has suspended all competitions below National League level, effectively ending the season now and voiding results, and the Football League, that has taken a similar stance as the FA but remains hopeful of continuing at some point.  National League clubs are broadly in favour of stopping now and voiding the season, but are taking further legal advice.

Clearly, there is no simple answer that will satisfy everybody.  Taking non-league as an example, a letter has been presented to the FA by a delegation of grass roots clubs asking to continue - noticably the clubs that are against an early end are the ones who may miss out on promotion and the most vocal in favour of scrapping the season are those in danger of relegation.  I can understand where they're coming from, but these are not ordinary circumstances - not by a long chalk. 

My own view is that the season should be scrapped now.  From the Prem right the way down.  No prizes awarded - no league champions, no promotion, no relegation.  Prize money to be distributed based on league position as of the date of suspension.  That's straightforward enough, and sorry Barrow (a country mile ahead of everyone else in the National League and nailed-on certainties for promotion to the EFL before this happened), and lucky you Stevenage, 10 points adrift at the bottom of League 2 and bound to replace Barrow in non-League.  C'est la vie.

But to take it further: next season should kick off as normal (health restrictions permitting), but with all teams starting with the SAME playing squad as this season - no player movements in or out for any club, and no summer transfer window.  A level playing field - to prevent, say, Man City spending another billion quid on players to close the gap on unlucky Liverpool.  The problem with this idea seems to me the issue of players whose contracts expire at the end of this season - what of them?  Should replacements be allowed or contracts extended?  The lower down the leagues you go, the bigger that issue becomes - in non-league most players are on yearly contracts, and that "year" is only 44 weeks.  They are not rolling contracts, and certainly not the multi-year deals prevalent in the game's upper echelons.  Most clubs from National League down lose the majority of their squads at the end of May and have to re-build every season.  How practical it is to consider offering new contracts to an entire playing staff at every club, or even if the players would agree to signing, is a fiendiishly difficult one, especially for the poorer part-time clubs. 

But back to my original question, about Prem players and their contribution: I think a good many of them are doing something already, as far as their clubs allow them too.  I'm sure all of them would happily contribute financially in some way at the very least.  It seems to me that clubs, perhaps understandably, want to protect their major assets, agents (who increasingly seem to run the lives of their client players) are even more reluctant since they have a vested in the players' market valuations (they would lose their 10% cut on any transfers that are no doubt being set up this very second), and the PFA, the union that is supposed to act on the players' behalf seem reluctant or unable to provide guidance to its members.  The result is a complete mess, with mega rich clubs like Spurs and Liverpool laying off part time match day staff and refusing to consider pay deferrals for high earners - in contrast to say Barcelona where management and players, Messi included, have accepted temporary pay cuts of 70% of salary to protect their part-time match day staff and provide additional funding to hard pressed Spanish health services.    I see no good reason why say Chelsea or Manchester United should not do something similar.

Government demands that players should be forced to do something are at best unhelpful.  Jordan Henderson, the Liverpool captain, has reportedly been working hard with the other club captains to put a scheme of some kind together that will provide additional funding to the NHS but is apparently having problems with clubs and the PFA providing only lukewarm support.  The PFA even stated that to apply a pay cut would "decrease the amount of tax paid that goes indirectly to the NHS so reduce their funding".  Gordon Taylor, the PFA's leader, is picking up a quarter of million a year (despite announcing he was retiring a couple of years ago), and his solution is to get "all stakeholders - players, clubs, the tv companies, agents....around a table to discuss it....and find a mutually agreeable solution". 

What nonsense!  The money is needed now, to provide additional safety equipment, oxygen supplies, ventilators and a hundred and one other things that are deperately needed for the NHS to cope with the crisis COVID is placing on the organisation.  If the idiot Taylor gets his way the discussions will STILL be going on this time next year - and I dread to think how many NHS staff, never mind their patients, will have died in that time.

I can't see why Henderson and his felow captains can't simply do a weekly whip-round of their players, collect the money that way and pass it on their local hospitals without needing  the club, agents and PFA to sanction it.  All the players know how critical the NHS is, all support it and all use it, the same as everyone else - I have no doubt the vast majority would be happy to dip into their bulging bank accounts and pay over ten grand a week each (the average salary is apparently something like seventy grand a week) in this way.  It's their money, surely, to spend as they see fit.  I would be suprised if many of them were not doing something similar privately in any case, simply not publiciising it.

Finally: it seems to me that football itself in England needs shaking up.  It seems desperately unfair that the 20 clubs in the Prem, with all their billions in tv and prize money, their billionaire owners (whether individuals or consortia), their players on contracts bringing in millions a year - not counting endorsements and bonuses - do nothing to help maintain and grow the grass roots game.  The smaller clubs all have a hand-to-mouth existence, surviving on gates in the hundreds, woth players on 44 week contracts (if any at all) and are extremely lucky to break even at the end of the season, never mind turn a profit.  The staff are frequently unpaid volunteers, making the club the lifeblood of their local community in a way that ALL clubs should be but often at the top table aren't - or at least these top clubs are more focused on their global following rather than the kid who lives two streets away and dreams of playing for them one day.

In my view there should be a contingency fund of some kind set up specifically to provide support to non-league clubs - that is from the National League down.  Contributions should be made by all clubs in the Prem, the Championship and Leagues 1 and 2, on a sliding scale based on league position (hence linked to prize money), with those clubs in European competition paying an additonal sum based on their UEFA prize money (paid per round and known in advance).  Additional funds could be taken as a percentage of gate receipts (since admission prices are known before games, often before the season starts, and the number of people admitted is known before the end of a game, this is a simple calculation to make).  The fund could be managed either by FA (that is responsible for the non-league pyramid that would benefit), probably in conjunction with some kind of fund administration company, or by a separate body set up specifically for the purpose. 

Let's go the whole hog: impose a limit on the value of a player's contract (no more £100,000 a week deals for a reserve or bench warmer, thank you very much!) and hence on agent's fees - in fact, peg those fees at no more than 2% of the player's agreed base salary (none of these 10% plus add on's crap), payable only on completion of the player's contract term.

The game, at least at the very top level, in England is broken.  Now is a good opportunity to start fixing it.

Two Historians, Two Books

Norman Davies – “Beneath Another Sky: A Global Journey Into History.”

Professor Davies is a Bolton-born historian of Welsh ancestry – and proud of it. A specialist in Eastern European history, in particular that of Poland (where he spends much time, having taken citizenship in 2014, and has a home in Krakow), he is without a doubt my favourite historian. His books are always entertaining, packed with detail that really gets under the skin of his subject matter. Davies doesn’t merely record a dull succession of historical facts, characters, events and dates, although they are all there. They are supported by a wealth of anecdotes, fragments of poetry and song from the period and country in question, documents, detailed maps and illustrations that bring his subject to life. His writing is clear and, considering that his topic can be complex and a bit dry, hugely entertaining.

I’ve read several of his books, and never failed to enjoy them immensely and learn from them. “At the Centre of Europe: A Brief History of Poland” and his classic two-volume “God’s Playground: A History of Poland” both taught me about my adopted country and its people, and have proved invaluable. His superb “Risng 44: The Battle for Warsaw” relates a day-by-day journal of the tragic Warsaw Uprising in 1944, when the city was largely destroyed in street to street, house to house fighting between the Polish Home Army resistance movement, with its boy soldiers (some as young as 9 and 10 years old) and the Nazi occupiers, while Stalin’s Red Army watched from across the river and refused to intervene. “The Isles: A History” and “Europe: A History” are huge, 1000+ page epics that tell the history of the British Isles from pre-history to Tony Blair, and pre-history to the EU respectively, whilst “Vanished Kingdoms” focuses on once mighty kingdoms that flourished in Europe (Burgundy, Castille and the Austro-Hungarian Empire for instance), ran their course and died. In an Epilogue, Davies suggests that the next vanished kingdom may turn out to be the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, torn apart by arguments about EU membership and an increased desire for independence in Scotland and Wales. The book was published in 2011, long before Cameron announced the Referendum that makes Davies’ prediction seem even more prescient.

“Beneath Another Sky” is something altogether different, however. Part history and part travelogue, it recounts a round the world trip taken by Davies and his wife to fulfil a number of speaking engagements. Starting from Cornwall, the journey takes in visits to, amongst other places, Azerbaijan, India, the UAE, Australia/New Zealand, French Polynesia and Texas – the kind of trip I would love to make but never will. Written in his usual style, Davies delves into what each destination is like now, and its history. This time, as well as the snippets from local legend, music, and the arts, he uses his family stamp album (passed down to him by his Uncle Norman, a pilot killed in World War 1) to illustrate points of historical relevance. He jokes and complains in equal measure, and finds time to discuss and present his own theory for the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in 2014 – and it’s as plausibe as any other suggestion out there.

For someone who, as I do, has interests in travel and history writing, this book is an absolute joy, and one to be read and enjoyed during these difficult times.

Yuval Noah Harari – “21 Lessons for the 21^st Century”.

Israeli historian Harari could hardly be more different from Norman Davies, but his books have captured my imagination just as much. I stumbled across him about 5 years ago, en-route to Chennai. Browsing the Waterstones outlet in Heathrow T5 before my Sunday departure, I saw his first book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” and bought it to read on the long flight. A superb book, it entranced me from page1 and I read it through the week, finishing it on my return flight the following Friday. A mixture of history and philosophy, fact and speculation (can we really say with any certainty how and where we as a species came up with the idea of agriculture, or invented religion?), I found it a fascinating world history unlke any I had read previously.

 The cover advertised a sequel, “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow” and I resolved to get it as soon as possible. In the event it took me another three years before I tracked it down in a bookshop in Luxembourg, but it was worth the wait. This time, Harari turns his attention to how our species may develop in the coming years. He speculates on how AI and biotechnology may help us to live longer and richer lives, end famine, eradicate many common diseases and end the need for warfare. But there are warnings too, in particular about the danger of such advances leading to what he terms a “useless” class: the millions, possibly billions, of us who at present do manual work like cleaning, assembly line working, and so on that could in the future be done by machines, and who are unable (or unwilling) to learn other skills.

Taken together the books make a coherent and thought provoking picture of how we as a species got to where we are now and what may lie in store. “21 Lessons” essentially completes the trilogy, and Harari turns his attention to the challenges that face us now, how we can tackle them and take our lives and our children’s and grandchildren’s lives safely through towards the future speculated in “Homo Deus”. All the usual suspects are covered: terrorism, religious intolerence, the rise of nationalist movements, global warming, pandemics and armed conflict. While no clear solutions are described – as is to be expected – there are many insights and suggestions as to what we could do to mitigate some of them. Harari has used many of the themes covered in “Homo Deus” and this has given rise to some complaints of cut-and-paste, lazy writing but in my view it’s a device he has used well to start a topic that has then been skillfully and thoughtfully expanded.

“21 Lessons” for me is as entertaining and thought provoking as its two forerunners, and it’s another book to entertain during our self-isolating days. Whether you could class it as a history book, or indeed class Harari as a historian is open to debate, but he is certainly an entertaining writer with some interesting views. Well worth a look.

Gettin' a bit Edge-y.....

A while back (November last, to be precise) I posted a piece on my old Blog (The World According to Travellin' Bob - http://travellin-bob.blogspot.com) in which I compared experiences on the main browsers out there.  I came down in favour of Chrome, closely followed by Edge with Firefox a close third.  In the time since then, I've continued to shuttle back and forth between them, but for me there has been very little in it.  But in the last week my views have crystallised.  Here is why.

Truth be told, as I wrote previously, all three of them are decent browsers for the average Joe Public, non-techie user.  They are all easy enough to set up, they all can run quite happily with multipe tabs open, they all offer security and privacy tools, password management and ad-blockers.  Pages load fast enough, they're all stable......basically if you just want to use them to browse the internet, manage e-mails, watch the odd YouTube video and listen to internet radio stations they're all fine.  I could get to my Google Photos and Music Libraries from all of them with no issues, ditto my Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts.  So how to favour one over the other?

In terms of set up, there wasn't a lot in it.  Edge comes baked into Windows 10 as the default, so you actually don't have to do a thing if you accept the default security settings, unless you want to change the Home page and add a bunch of Favourites (which, let's face it, everyone does).  But doing that was easy.  Chrome?  Downloaded it in a couple of minutes, copied over all the Favourites and passwords from Edge in another 30 seconds or so, and voila -  good to go.   Firefox was a bit more fiddly - the download and install plus copying over Favourites was simple and took the same sort of time.  But then there was a bit more fiddly stuff, around Security and Privacy.  This was done via a couple of Extensions that needed to be downloaded and defined - simple enough, but added time, and according to all the articles and comments I'd read in a number of sources doing it gives you a much more private and secure browser than either of the other two, without compromising on performance.  Which is what Mozilla has always insisted is its raison d'etre.

I used them all, depending on how I felt on any given day.  After a while, it seemed to me that Edge was dead settled and I knew how it would behave on any day.  Firefox was fine and fast, but Chrome tended to slow up if I had more than three or four tabs open - something I had noticed previously.  So I Uninstalled it and made Firefox my default, thus taking advantage of the "increased security and privacy tools".  It worked fine, and if I fancied a change, I just launched Edge.  Happy days.

But then Firefox, too, started slowing down.  I started using Edge more, and found that it didn't have the same problems.  Loading was definitely slower on Firefox.....and in addition, on certain frequently used (and extremely popular) sites Firefox never seemed to save my Cookie settings - I had to renew every time.  This becamse incredibly irritating, as I didn't have the same problem with Edge.  Still not convinced by it, though, I had another trawl through the web and read up on some more recent comparisons.  Edge still seemed to be suffering and less secure than Chrome or Firefox.....

I took a deep breath, Uninstalled Firefox (again) and replaced it with Chrome (again....).  And carried on doing my stuff......and there was, indeed, little to choose between Chrome and Firefox.  Then I read an article about the new release of Firefox, saying it was blindingly fast, added new privacy functionality and was, essentially, a Chrome killer.  I ummed and ahhed - then when it took five attempts to load a page I got fed up, dumped Chrome (again!) and installed the brand spanking new Firefox......and groaned.  It was no faster to me than the previous release had been (no surprise - when these things are benchmarked by the tech press the differences tend to be in tenths of second or even less - so not noticable) but annoyingly no faster than bloody Chrome.

That's when I started to think the hell with privacy - I've been using Chrome and Gmail for the best part of ten years, ditto Facebook, Microsoft tools a bit longer.......there is precious little "new" private information in my life, so they almost certainly have everything already.  I can't think, off the top of my head, of anything that wasn't part of Cambridge Analytica's haul back in 2016 - that's if they even bothered with me.  Final straw - I saw an article that said the new Chromium based Edge was released, I could simply update my old Edge and get all the (alleged) benefits of Chrome with most of the security and privacy of Firefox - in one place.

The conversion from legacy Edge to Chromium Edge was indeed simple (it took less than 30 seconds with no import of passwords and Favourites needed since they were all there).  I started using it.  And I have to say, as a completely untechnical user - the only code I know to any extent is the Morse Code and I've forgotten most of that - and hence as unbiased as you could possibly get, Edge, the new Chromium Edge, is bloody good.  It looks good, very clean, very Chome-esque as you would expect.  It is VERY fast - or at least seems that way: pages definitely are loading faster for me.  The Security and Privacy settings are very simple to set - there are three levels of each, the key features of each displayed in very simple terms in the choice box, and the default (which in my view anyway) seems to cover everything the average Joe Public user would need.  No changes required so I wenr Default.

There is also a tool that shows you how many Trackers have been blocked by the approrpriate tool - in the two days since I set it up and started using it exclusively, as my default, it has blocked over 7,500 trackers, of which a full one-third are from Google.  Even Facebook is way down the list with only around 200.   So it seems to me that A) as far as I know there is no report in Firefox that gives that breakdown and B) I can't see Google blocking its own trackers in Chrome, then Edge is doing everything it's supposed to, and all I need.

For me, the battle is won.  I haven't (yet) seen or experienced any of the "issues" with Edge that have been highlighted in various articles by the tech press, and I don't think I will.  I suspect they are using specific test scripts that are designed to break any browser and covering actions that Joe Public is highly unlikely to use (or even know about).  I don't think Firefox is doing much better on the Tracker blocking either: I can't see how (or why) Edge would block one Google tracker, for instance, and allow others.  But I'm open to any explanations....as long as they are in layman's terms not techie mumbo-jumbo!

Edge is fine.  I've Uninstalled Firefox, the (slow) blindingly fast Chrome killer.  I've set it as my default browser - it's the only one I have on my machine in any case.  And unless something truly cataclysmic happens I won't be buggering about with browser wars any more.

This Joe Public is very satisfied, thanks very much.