Shopping continues to be a bit strange.
I normally go shopping with a list of 20-30 items; for the last
few trips, 2-3 of them have been missing. It seems to be quite random;
free-range chickens gone, but battery and expensive free-range
corn-fed still present. All frozen and fresh fish missing, and other
things rearranged to cover the gaps. (Though this rearrangement is
Lidl's usual policy, so that doesn't indicate much.) Naturally this
phenomenon that began to happen at the start of 2021 must be entirely
the fault of COVID rather than of anything else that affects the
movement of goods into this country.
Most people are still wearing masks, most of them even over the nose
too, though they're also still entirely incapable of keeping any sort
of sensible distance. That is entirely my job, apparently, and I'm
not allowed to use my half-spear to explain this to people.
(Which is one reason why I wear a mask when walking along the road
rather than only putting it on when I go into a shop: if I come to a
narrow bit of pavement and there's someone coming the other way, they
certainly aren't going to step back and wait for me to get clear, and
if I step back and wait for them then everyone else will push past.
The other reason is that every time you apply or remove a mask is
another opportunity for contamination.)
One person I know directly has had a first vaccine jab (as have
several friends of friends), though of course with no promise about
what or when the second will be. I assume I'm well down the list, and
that's fair enough, though I do look forward to being able to meet
people again in person.
The organisers of UK Games Expo are still talking about the
possibility of a "socially distanced show" at the start of August
(three weeks before Tabletop Scotland's planned date); neither show
will say anything definite before April, which is fair enough. I can't
really see publishers being willing to pay even more than the usual
Expo eye-watering rates to exhibit at a smaller show with fewer people
allowed in. Essen might still happen, but I'm not optimistic.
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