Page 15 - Through a glass brightly

From Jenny at 11.10
THE CONTRIBUTIONS Thursday, 19th March
Hi All
It will not surprise you to learn in the present Corona virus shutdown that the Old Girls Lunch in May has been cancelled.
To those of you who had said you could not come, you have a year to think of another excuse, or to make your travel plans - we will reconvene on Saturday 15 May 2021 - barring Armageddon!
To those of you who were keen enough to send me a cheque, I will shred it so don't panic - and hope that you will be able to come next year.
It is a real shame, as I had received a very positive response and it would have been a great gathering - but we will just hope to replicate it next year. In the meantime, keep well.
Happy self-isolating!
Friday, 20th March
From Sandy at 5.40
Hi All,
Hope to see as many as possible next year. Old Girls lunch Saturday 15 May 2021 is my first entry in next year’s diary! Very best wishes to you all.
Thursday, 26th March
From Val M. at 11.57
Good morning, friends!
In this stressful time, it occurred to me to wonder how my far flung friends were getting on and how nice it would be to have contact with as many people as possible. There’s nothing quite like the ping of an email from a friend, given that they can’t be knocking on the door, to cheer one up! And unlike the other groups in my life, the great advantage of this group is that we all know each other, unlike my other much loved but scattered friends, none of whom I am going to be able to see this summer. (Boy, if I survive this one, when restrictions are lifted, my feet won’t touch the ground!) New and inventive ways of staying in touch are springing up: both my choirs are conducting online rehearsals and singalongs (though mercifully we are individually muted, though that’s because of the time lag, but you can see everyone’s faces and it’s great fun) and Pilates and fitness classes are meeting on Zoom. I’m not up to organising that and it would be like herding cats anyway, but I’d love to hear from any of you and I’m sure we all would.
So how are you doing? Are you in isolation? Were you as shocked as me to get a text from UK gov telling me to stay at home - how did they know my number? Was it my age that triggered that? Or something else I don’t know about?!
Here in rural Devon I thought we’d be relatively safe. Well, not a bit of it - Torbay turned out to be a hot spot. My daughter and family next door and I are treating ourselves as one family but we’re hardly in isolation as they’re living next to the building site of their new house. Fortunately, it’s at the stage of one or two workmen in there laying floors etc, but Hannah’s husband is working there too, paint spraying. And this morning he’s not feeling great. So we’re waiting and seeing. It’s interesting how different attitudes are to loss of earnings. Some of the workmen on salaries on site have the attitude of - give me 80% of my earnings and I’ll stay home with the family. But most people around here are self-employed - tree surgeons, bush- craft teachers, dowsers.... and the self-employed feel rather differently. My son, who got one
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