Daily Post – March 5th | I do it my way

Living through a pandemic

in the south of France

352 days in Carcassonne since

1st lockdown in March 2020

▫️ DAILY AND WEEKLY STATISTICS HERE .

▫️ Optimism appears to be cautiously in order during the past few days. Most of us now have a timing for their 1st injections. Can we expect some relaxed rules by the summer?

▫️ PRIME MINISTER – Press Conference

Faced with an increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 contamination in certain regions of France, the government had no choice but to take a hard line. This Thursday, March 4, 2021, Prime Minister Jean Castex indeed made new announcements, among which the territorial confinement on weekends in the Pas-de-Calais.

So far on probation, three other departments have been added to the list of those placed under reinforced surveillance in the last week: Aisne, Aube and Hautes Alpes.

“The circulation of the virus has accelerated over the last fortnight,” the Prime Minister said at the opening, adding that the British variant now accounts for “more than 60%” of contaminations.

▸ 23 departments now under reinforced surveillance

▸ Confinement extended to the Pas-de-Calais at weekends

▸ Closure of shopping centres. In the 23 departments concerned by the increased surveillance, non-food shopping centres of more than 10,000 m² will also be closed, starting this Friday evening at midnight.

▸ The French invited to limit their movements. The Prime Minister advised French citizens living in the departments most heavily affected by the epidemic to limit their outings.

▸ 60% of Ehpad residents have been vaccinated

▸ Vaccination for 50-74 year olds opens in April. Deliveries of doses are also expected to increase “in the coming weeks”. “Between January and February, we received 7 million doses of all vaccines. In March, we should receive 22 million, three times as many,” the head of government added. By April, “at least 10 million people” will have received the first dose. Among them, people aged 50-74 years, without pathology. By the summer, we will have received enough doses to offer vaccination to more than 30 million people, or two-thirds of the adult population.

▸ Vaccination in pharmacies starts on 15 March. No medical prescription will be required and the patients concerned, i.e. people over 50 years of age suffering from one or more co-morbidities, will be able to go “directly to the pharmacy” to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.

▸ Vaccinate as many caregivers as possible. During his speech, Health Minister Olivier Véran encouraged health workers to be vaccinated en masse, explaining that (only) around 40% of Ehpad staff and 30% of health workers in the city and in hospital had been vaccinated.

▫️ SPUTNIK V

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced this Thursday that it has begun examining the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19. The Russian authorities say they are ready to supply doses to 50 million Europeans.

▫️ FRANCE’S FAVOURITE VILLAGE

Who will come to dethrone the charming village of Hunspach in Alsace? For the moment, the question remains open but things are becoming clearer. France Télévisions has indeed just unveiled the list of the 14 villages selected to receive the title of favourite village of the French.

Voting is open

To be separated, the charming villages of France, each representing their own region, are submitted to a public vote. To vote, all you have to do is go to the dedicated page on the France Télévisions website or call 3245

The list of the 14 contenders

Hérisson pour la région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Châteauneuf pour la Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
L’île d’Houat pour la Bretagne
Sancerre pour le Centre-Val de Loire
Saint-Florent pour la Corse
Rocroi pour le Grand Est
Long pour les Hauts-de-France
Samois-sur-Seine pour l’Ile-de-France
Villerville pour la Normandie
Domme pour la Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Auvillar pour l’Occitanie
La Désirade pour l’Outre-mer
Fresnay-sur-Sarthe pour les Pays de la Loire
Saint-Véran pour la Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

The list of winners will be unveiled by France Télévisions’ Heritage Manager, Stéphane Bern, in the programme “Le Village préféré des Français”, the date of which has not yet been announced.

▫️ FROM OUR EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

Hubble captures the “Black Eye” galaxy in glorious detail (March 3rd 2021 Astronomy Now)

The “Black Eye” galaxy, also known as M64 and more officially as NGC 4826, stands out because of a dark band of dusty debris that spreads out across one side of a brilliant nucleus. The gas in the non-stellar outer reaches rotates in the opposite direction from gas in the inner regions, possibly suggesting a merger with a gas-rich galaxy in the distant past. New stars are forming where the counter-rotating gas collides. Discovered by English astronomer Edward Pigott in 1779, NGC 4826 is located some 17 million light years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices and is a familiar target for amateur astronomers. This spectacular view was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

▫️ MUSIC OF 1969

🎶 / 🎶 / 🎶

▫️ PICS OF THE DAY

Place Carnot yesterday afternoon. Making progress but still plenty to do.

▫️ SATIRE

▫️ NEWS FROM ACROSS THE POND 🇺🇸

▫️ FUN PICS

▫️ WEATHER

Very pleasant out there today by the looks of it. I might start spring cleaning the yard.

▫️ FUN The Friday funnies from Paul

Greetings one and all – time for some fun(nies).

● Let’s start with some “groaner” puns …….

1. Dad, are we pyromaniacs?    Yes, we arson.

2. What do you call a pig with laryngitis?   Disgruntled.

3. Why do bees stay in their hives during winter?   Swarm.

4. Just so everyone’s clear, I’m going to put my glasses on.

5. A commander walks into a bar and orders everyone around.

6. I lost my job as a stage designer.   I left without making a scene.

7. How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced?   A buccaneer.

8. I once worked at a cheap pizza shop to get by.   I kneaded the dough.

9. My friends and I have named our band ‘Duvet’.   It’s a cover band.

10. I lost my girlfriend’s audiobook, and now I’ll never hear the end of it.

● A couple living near a busy road were fed up because every time a bus rumbled by, the wardrobe door swung open. The wife decided to get a joiner in to fix the wardrobe.

The joiner checked it over and couldn’t find a fault so got inside the wardrobe. Just then, the husband came home and went into the
bedroom. “What’s going on?” he asks, as he opens the wardrobe
doors.

The joiner replied, “You won’t believe me, but I’m waiting for a bus!”

● At a boatrental concession, the manager went to the lake’s edge and yelled through his megaphone, “Number 99, come in, please. Your time is up.” Several minutes passed, but the boatdidn’t return. “Boat number 99,” he again hollered,”return to the dock immediately or I’ll have to charge you overtime.”

“Something is wrong here, boss,” his assistant said. “We only have 75 boats. There is no number 99.”

The manager thought for a moment and then raised his megaphone: “Boat number 66,” he yelled. “Are you having trouble out there?”

● One-liners

▸My fantasy is that I’m a pizza delivery guy, and I deliver pizza to a university girl’s dormitory and the girls can’t pay for it, so I get to take all that pizza home for free!

▸ Do you struggle keeping your eyes open when using your IPad. There’s a nap for that

▸ I’m really good friends with 25 letters of the alphabet… but I don’t know Y!

▸ My kids are giving all the people on this plane a hard lesson in birth control right now.

▸ On our first date I bought my wife a big bottle of tonic water. I Schwepped her off her feet

▸ A penguin walked into a bar,asks the barman if his brother had been in.“ I’ve no idea mate, what does he look like” ?

▸ Yesterday I saw a book titled “How to solve 50% of your problems”. So I bought two.

● An old lady handed her bank card to the cashier and said “I would like to withdraw £10 please”. The cashier told her “For withdrawals less than £100, please use the ATM.” The old lady wanted to know why…

The cashier returned her bank card and irritably told her “These are the rules, please leave if there is no further matter. There is a line of customers behind you”.The old lady remained silent for a few seconds and handed her card back to the teller and said “Please help me withdraw all the money I have.”

The cashier was astonished when she checked the account balance. He nodded his head, leaned over and respectfully said, “You have £300,000 in your account but the bank doesn’t havethat much cash currently

Could you make an appointment and come back again tomorrow?”

The old lady then asked how much she could withdraw immediately.The cashier told her any amount up to £,3000. “Well please let me have £3,000 now.” The cashier kindly handed £3,000 very friendly with a smile. The old lady put £10 in her purse and asked the teller to deposit £2,990 back into her account.!

The moral of this story is…. Don’t be difficult with old folk, they spent a lifetime learning skills.

▫️ VENDEE GLOBE

They are all in. Ari Huusela on Stark crossed the line a few minutes ago. What a race that was. I am going to miss following the progress of the boats many times a day.