Drink out to help out

Today is a landmark in which restaurants and pubs are to re-open---for the moment; there are warnings of a possible trade-off later to allow the schools to open fully at the expense of hospitality. My regular barber's has a 10-man queue outside but I squeeze into a local shop to remove the 3-month thatch before they start taking telephone bookings. This "new normal" is complicated; the better pubs have someone at the door to escort people to a table and take orders there. And breweries are plainly struggling to restore supplies. But with pubs being less crowded than usual, this set-up has a good side.

Other non-essential but therapeutic businesses are opening up so I make a pilgrimage to my favourite shop of all time, Stanford's in Covent Garden and buy "The Immeasurable World". It's based on trips to deserts around the world, including a former nuclear testing site in South Australia. The Nullarbor looks a very different desert to the Sonora in Mexico which I visited in February. Also on my retail therapy list is a CD of Cuban music. The singer Dayme Arocena featured on BBC4 recently with her attractive jazzy flavour.

This picture of the Royal Festival Hall was taken in the depth of lockdown but by now, people are starting to return to "my" South Bank although the concert hall itself must remain closed. Not far away is the garden outside St. Thomas's Hospital and since many of those relaxing are staff members, it feels as safe a place as any. The Shard, featuring in the next two images, at 1,000 feet is the tallest building in the U.K. and casts its eye over almost everywhere in London. Street art is not as creative in Britain as in some other countries but here's a painting of the fine Greek Revival Trinity Church in the square of the same name. Finally, thanks to the NHS whose staff on the front line have been by all accounts exceptional (which is perhaps more can be said for how the crisis has been managed at the top).Leggi altro