Beardie

and very softly spoken

I must admit that I have known quite a few Americans in the past who have never travelled outwith the USA and have no idea of what the rest of the world does or thinks and nor do many of them care. To be fair to them, it is such a huge country that they have to look really hard to see past it's borders. I would imagine Russia is somewhat similar if not even more insular with your average man in the street not really having a clue what is even going on in the rest of their own country let alone in relatively tiny little or sparsely populated countries hundreds/thousands of miles away. Obviously all the other English speaking countries suffer from the fact that America has the largest English (sort of) speaking population and so their broadcasting is the go-to solution when other English Speaking countries want to fill their airwaves up. In a way there is something to be said for being insular in that it preserves the differences between people and keeps it interesting to travel. If the world ever becomes one nation it will be very dull and there will be little reason to go beyond your own door as everything will become a homogenized dull non-entity.

I have to agree that it puzzles me why people here feel the need to shout and scream about things happening in a country some distance away who, in all honesty, besides providing us with mind-numbing, inane television and music have nothing much other than a similarity of language in common with us. I have to say though that a lot of it is simply 'right time and right place' and an excuse to start some 'fun' for a lot of those involved. Over the years I have noticed that rioting and protesting (whatever the supposed reason) tends to take place in hot weather and when people have time on their hands. With Covid19 many, many people have the time on their hands, good weather and a need to let off steam so any excuse would get them out there.

Don't forget Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley and many many more. I'm not a great fan of the British attempts at Rock'n'Roll although I do have a soft spot for Billy Fury and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. Here is an interesting fact -Billy Fury auditioned 'The Silver Beatles' to be his backing band and he said he would hire them if they sacked Stuart Sutcliffe but John Lennon refused and they didn't get the job.

takes a real fan

I must admit that I feel a little 'odd man out here' - Loves - Blues, Jazz (Not the weird stuff but rather the traditional style stuff of Dizzie Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Sid Phillips, Sidney Bechet etc.), Country, Bluegrass, Western Swing, Rockabilly, Rock'n'Roll, Classical (particular soft spot for a good Strauss waltz or march!), Celtic, Gaelic song, Bagpipe (particularly Piobaireachd), Metal (Black Sabbath, Motorhead and ACDC etc. to Children of Bodom, Rage and most good 'thrash' excluding Slayer, Muddle of Pudd, System of a Down, Slipknot etc.), Mediaeval music, Punk from The Ramones to the Sex Pistols to GBH and The Exploited, Ska, Psychobilly, Skiffle and also partial to a bit of Mongolian Metal, Dislikes/things that just don't float my boat - Sixties Brit pop, Rap, Hip-hop, Soul, Funk, Grime, Most 'pop' music from the last fifty years, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen and the whole 'guitar god' as centre of attention section of Rock/Metal, experimental jazz, rave, trance, techno stuff and Goth. Surprisingly, when I think about it, I guess I have a lot more that I don't listen to/like than I imagined.

I must say I am a little miffed with our fandabbydozy leader north of the wall as Car and Motorcycle showrooms here will not be allowed to open yet although those south of the wall can open up as of today. Seems that we will be trailing the rest of the UK by at least a week at a time so it will be at least another week and probably longer before I can actually get to examine the candidates for my next motorsickle in the flesh. Meanwhile the rare sunny weather and all too brief Scottish summer is trickling away. I can well imagine that employees in the motor, motorcycle, tourist and other 'non-essential' trades here will soon become very disenchanted with the lie of the land. I know that my brother is concerned that he will be lucky to get back to his work this year and that, indeed, he will still have a job at all as, while his company, a bricks and mortar plumbing supplies company, is closed and all it's workers are furloughed, the online traders, mostly based South of the wall are stealing a march on them. They are actually allowed to stay open being 'essential' but the custom tailed off to nothing within the first week of Lockdown and the owners took the decision to just close up shop for the duration.

like a nasty virus (I kind of thought so although I do remember, in the not too distant past, a variation on the theme appearing electronically on things like Facebook where they start with something like 'I bet you won't share this' )

you pass it on (Do you still get Chain letters? Haven't heard of any in some time)

I can't digest cloth

right in the particulars

naked into the street

I noted in the photos that the people on the beaches, rather than leaving the area, had compressed themselves into tight groups in order to allow the copters to land. Packed as densely as sardines and clearly Social Distancing had been instantly forgotten.

Very true. I have to travel around 35 miles in order to get supplies from the nearest supermarkets. To be fair, in the handful of re-supply runs I have made since the start of the Lockdown, I haven't even seen a police car let alone been stopped to check on the purpose of my journey. Visitors also know of the lack of law enforcement and so, although the car parks at local beauty spots have had traffic cones and police tape placed across their entrances visitors simply get out and move them out of the way and drive in safe in the knowledge that they are unlikely to get into trouble with the police. Last week the local mountain rescue had to go out and rescue three idiots who had gotten lost on one of the local mountains, Ben Arthur, which is also known as The Cobbler. A number of locals expressed surprise that someone could even get lost on that particular mountain as it's not exactly a remote mountain and, with even an impaired, very poor, sense of direction you should be able to find your way back down.

before suddenly falling down