Have nice holidays - I'll be back on the blog on Wednesday!

Here are some curious videos to entertain you! First of all: Headwear, inspired by kitchen stuff:

Slightly more modern, and owing to the current situation - while in Germany, police patrols the streets and tells people to move on (you're allowed to do sports outside, or take a walk, but not to sit on benches or on the lawn), there's a much more intimidating kind of patrol happening in Britain:


Like so many other museums, the Städel Museum is offering its collections in digital form, so you can visit and have a look at art via the 'Net. Their motto for this? #STAYDELATHOME. I have laughed my ass off about that. (Proof, again, that I am easily amused...) Do go check out their collections, they have a number of wonderful medieval artworks as well as a lot of more modern ones.

I've blogged about my wonky phone before - and now I've finally taken the plunge (thanks to some gentle prodding from the Most Patient Husband of Them All, who would probably have lost his own patience with a phone misbehaving like mine a good while ago) and got a new one. This time, it's a phone that is much more future-proof, as you can replace every single item that it's made of. (Yes, a Fairphone.)

There only remains that one little step... of migrating over to the new phone. Which, of course, is not as straightforward as one would wish it to be. Because while there is an app that allows you to do a backup, it has somehow managed to staunchly refuse to work for me up until now (even though it did work to move my stuff to my old phone from the previous one). Sigh. It's just so frustrating when things like that don't work.

Add to this the fact that of course everything looks different on the new phone, and nothing works like I'm used to, and the keyboard is weird (I found a new, nice, simple and free one, though, to replace the googlekeyboard that was pre-installed), and the ringtones are all wrong, and the contact data is missing for now, and the new phone doesn't have the "intelligent alarm" that Samsung includes with their phones, and it's all a little aaargh-inducing. So here goes my work day, in setting up the new one, and going "Aaaarrrgh!!!" again and again, and trawling the lists and settings and app stores and trying to find good solutions for all the pesky problems. (As it's my work phone, spending the work day is... not ideal, obviously, since that would be spending half an hour and have a perfectly working phone with everything in place, but also no illegal non-work activity eating up productive time.)

Soon, though, I'll have gotten used to the new things, found better alternatives to the things I don't like, and replacement apps for the functions the new phone is missing. Sometimes, as I well know, this means things are getting even better, as I actually took the time of looking for something that suits me better than the pre-installed whatnot.

And then I plan not to change phone for at least the next decade!

The cat is lying on the desk, purring quietly and looking outside, where it's cold, but sunny. I've been working on restocking some things (making new spinning packs, for instance); my mail backlog is the usual size, there's a paper to proofread and amend.

It's normal work, and life feels very normal at times, accordingly. And then some weird thing happens - like having to check whether postal service still runs to a specific place. Or the postie delivering something and asking me whether I want to sign or not (I didn't, for us both; he took a photo instead, documenting the delivery. Smart method.)

Sometimes it feels like this is all just a dream. All too unreal to be real - though, of course, it is. Still, the sun is shining, there's bees outside, the peach tree is starting to bloom... and there's a list of shops in town that are now offering delivery of goods, as the shops have to stay closed during the lockdown.

Now... to ensure that these businesses survive, it is of course good to shop with them, right? Basically, that is sort of a civic duty at this point in time. Probably you have a local shop in need in your town as well, struggling for business survival now. So this is the perfect excuse, actually, to buy hand-made chocolates from a fancy chocolate shop. Or some glorious yarn from a knitting store. Or from a small hand dyer. Get some new plants for the garden from a local nursery. Or splurge on something other nice... because you can, because it will make you happy in these times, and it will help the small business. (If you need something, consider not ordering online via one of the big players, especially the big A, which is still treating their workers very badly. Instead, try looking for a local shop in dire need of support and business right now. Who knows - you might discover a new favourite shop?)

I'm writing all this just in case you needed an excuse to get yourself something pretty, of course. And now I'll go call that local nursery. We need fertiliser... and a plant or two.

Here's a selection of stuff - I hope there's something among it for you!

Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine is an Instagram account with pictures from old masters, re-enacted by people. There's an amazing amount of reenactments on the account already, in varying degrees of accuracy, and of course you can add your own if you feel like it. In any case it's worth a look, some of the reenactments are hilarious!

TechSmith is offering video tools for free, to support those of us suddenly faced with new challenges in our home office or self-isolation. This includes a screencast tool (in case you need to show someone else how to use a programme, for example).

On Jools Wilson's site, you can find a lot of things to colour in or cut out and make, among them a Neolithic house, or a Hug in a Box - which is beyond cute, and might cheer someone up if you send it to them (assembled, of course).

If you can read German and like to go outside into the mountains, or climb, or boulder, here's some hints from German DAV (alpine sports association) on how to keep fit and active without going out.

And finally, XKCD has a comic about the virus - from a different perspective:

It's Friday, the sun is shining outside, there is a Kaiserschmarren baking in the pan on the oven, and the weekend is almost, almost there.

We'll brave a trip outside later on, as we have to drop off a postal vote letter, which, due to some mix-up, has arrived rather late here, and we'd rather know it safely at the town hall instead of trusting the rather overworked postal service with it. The plan is to then also buy some coffee beans at our favourite coffee place, and maybe even an ice cream cone, and (most importantly) a gift card so they have some of our money now to survive, and we'll have some of their coffee later, when things are going back to normal. We already bought stuff at our favourite bouldering places online yesterday.

It's an odd feeling to be at home and not able to go to the usual places, shop in the usual way, do the usual things. It also feels odd to not know if these places will still be there when we'll be able to go back.

Now, though, I'll go have some Kaiserschmarren, and some happy thoughts, and some time outside in the garden in the sunshine. And try to do things that will keep the places I love going through the crisis.

Have a good weekend! (At home!)

 
 

I'm just back from a trip to the post office (thank you to everyone ordering things - this is making things feel much, much better and normal-life-like), followed by a little bit of shopping. The latter was necessary because our milk consumption has gone up noticeably with the Most Patient of All Husbands working from home as well.

Going shopping feels very, very weird. There's marks on the floor everywhere where queues are expected - in front of the butcher's counter, at the bakery, at the cashier lanes. The cashiers are now protected by plexiglass shields, and there's a security guy standing close to the market entrance. There was no scarcity of things in the market, though (except for peanut butter, but that has been the case for a good while, and even that was available today).

Quite a few of the things that are now expected, or asked, carry their own subtle humour for me. For instance, Germany has always been a cash country, with very little card payments, and never for small sums. Usually and in most shops, it wasn't possible to pay per card for sums under 10 €. Now, signs are everywhere asking people to pay with card, even contactless card, if possible, to protect the cashiers. We're being dragged kicking and screaming into the century of the fruitbat; today was the first time in my life I paid with contactless card. Twice (for the groceries, and for the bread in the bakery), and the latter was 2.60 €. That would have been unthinkable both for me and the bakery a few weeks ago. (I'm very much a cash person too, and at the moment, I plan to go back once this is all calming down. But who knows how I'll think about this in a few weeks' time? We shall see.)

Another kicking and screaming thing, for many among us, is the video conferencing that has now suddenly become the way to meet. There is no more talk of quickly flying here or there for a day of meetings; there's much more working from home, and home office is suddenly possible in companies that have never wanted it to happen.

Also, it used to be considered quite impolite and unsocial to change to the other side of the street if you saw somebody coming towards you. Now it is suddenly a sign of respect and politeness, and I've had people smile and nod at me in appreciation.

It's a weird world right now, but some things are worth noting, and remembering for our future. Like how quickly things can change, and how quickly most humans can and will adapt their behaviour. And also how much is possible if those running the country decide that it is important, and has to be done...