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Monday 15th, Gales and overcast. 30F outside, 52F in the living space, 41F in the kitchen, 39F in the bathroom. Yesterday's "milder" temperatures and sunshine have helped to lift the numbers. Ice no longer obscures the kitchen and bathroom windows. Though snow and drifting is forecast for later.
A walk to the lanes in an eye-watering, south easterly, under heavy, grey skies. The horizon was literally leaden in colour. I wore my waterproof trousers just for a change. To have some useful protection against the wind. Only a few crows and jackdaws to be seen foraging on the fields.
We hang over the precipice. Staring blindly into the void of uninhabitable zones on our only planet. Meanwhile, Tzar Pootin's private, gas pipeline to Germany is passing through Danish waters. Germany will face the stark choice of total hypocrisy on containing its "filthy" energy front. i.e. Planet killing CO2 and methane.
Or, openly accepting that Pootin can now play god with their energy sector at a mere whim. One cold snap and Pootin can dictate the price and terms for Germany's future discomfort, diplomacy and politics. What price sanctions for Pootin's deliberate brutality and blatant election fraud now? Better ask Pootin. Germany has abandoned its principles.
Denmark's independent shops and services are getting uppity about the endless, Jinping Plague restrictions. Superstores remain wide open to sell the goods on which the specialists normally survive and prosper. Except that the independents are still locked down and face serious fines for opening after a full year of total inactivity.
Hairdressers, too, face bankruptcy without enjoying the taxpayer's pandemic support. Which seems to be freely enjoyed by big business. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The superstores sell food. So have an open license to profit mightily from everything else they sell. They even enjoy much reduced competition!
While the small fry are suffering deep, economic and competitive wounds. The independent retail and service industries have no vast funds with which to support themselves. As they are forced to sit idly on their hands.
I am fully in agreement with the government's very careful strategy. On slowly and selectively loosening the present restrictions. Though I do think that publicly handing the nation's tax wealth to Big [offshore?] Money is grossly unfair on the little guy and the heavily, tax burdened public. We can all live without the superstores, international chains and global takeaways.
Remove the small private businesses and we all lose out. Small businesses pay taxes and employ lots of people. When they are allowed to. And if they are not permitted to open for business then they should receive fair shares of the national pot. Just to keep themselves and their families afloat. Their skills, knowledge and services need to be there. When we all wake up from this hideous nightmare.
It must be 15 months since my last haircut. I look like a tramp, despite my amateur hacking in the bathroom mirror. My quarterly visit to the same, solo hairdresser was ample proof. That skill, experience and service has far greater social and welfare value than a visit to any 25 mile distant superstore to buy Jinping's tat. He is still holding out on the real numbers of infected in Wuhan. Still trying to save face for his merciless, genocidal, slave-driven, forced labour, patent stealing, regime? Seriously?
It is almost impossible to imagine the lockdown without the internet and online sales. The Jinping Plague has greatly accelerated the massive move to the online economy. We will just have to wait a little longer for the AI robot hairdressers. All full of local gossip and vital cheerfulness. As they simultaneously pull off minor, cosmetic miracles. I speak from very long experience.
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