It is another fine spring day with sunshine and warmth – according to the weather forecast, the temperature was 21°C (70°F) but Tigger reckoned it was warmer than that. Perhaps because of this, there were a lot of people about, some of them congregating in all defiance of the distancing rules.

Traffic on Pentonville Road

As you can see from this view of Pentonville Road, there was plenty of traffic about too.

Round the corner (well, round two corner, actually) in Chadwell Street, this sight met our eyes.

Queueing for the butcher’s

People were queueing for the butcher’s shop on the corner and they at least were observing the two-metre rule in well behaved fashion.

Rainbow and clouds in the window

In Rainbows and Easter greetings, I mentioned that on many windows, children living within have pasted examples of their art, often with a rainbow or two. We saw this example as we walked this afternoon. I like to see these creations by young artists not too shy to display their works. Who knows how many will later go on to be artists of renown? It’s just a pity that circumstances don’t permit us to ring the doorbell and compliment the young artists.

Our path of course led inevitably to Myddelton’s where we bought our usual coffees. We have promised ourselves that, having made their acquaintance and become “regulars”, if only for coffee, we will continue to call in from time to time when the crisis is over. In normal times, they have chairs and tables outside and it will be pleasant to take our coffee that way, instead of grabbing it in takeaway cups and rushing home before it cools.

Cat sunbathing on the windowsill
Photo by Tigger

By convention, Tigger buys the coffee and I carry it home. This means that my hands are not free to take photos on the way back. Any photos from the return journey, then, are likely to be by Tigger, as indeed is this one of a cat sunning itself on a first-floor windowsill.

I wonder what domestic animals make of the strange new behaviour of their human companions? Like us, no doubt, each reacts according to its own character but probably also reflects something of the emotional state of its people. They cannnot explain to us how they feel just as we cannot explain to them why we are behaving in this anomalous way.

QR (short for “Quick Response”) codes were invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara of the Japanese firm Denso Wave. Designed for a specific purpose, the QR code quickly “escaped” from the company where it was born and is now found in many different situations worldwide.

A QR code is essentially a machine-readable label that contains information. Once the reader has accepted and decoded it, the information can be used for a variety of purposes from displaying bus or train times to making payments in shops and restaurants.

The QR code has enjoyed an upsurge in popularity now that most smartphones can read the code and then perform the action they prescribe. For a fuller account of the history and use of QR codes, see this Wikipedia article.

Useful as they are, QR codes can also pose a threat. As they are not readable by humans, the human observer has no way of knowing what the code does. This opens the possibility of criminals posting malicious QR codes, for example to damage or infect your phone, to steal personal data or make illicit payments. One should always exercise caution about which QR codes one allows one’s device to read.

Just for fun, here is a QR code that is safe to use.

All it does is convey the URL of this blog. That might be useful if you wish to read the blog on your mobile phone or tablet!

If you have an iPhone, all you need do is point the camera at the code and then touch on the notice that appears at the top of the screen bearing the phrase ‘Open “home.blog” in Safari’. You can then view the blog or add the URL to your Bookmark file or the Reading List.

If you have an Android phone, then things are unfortunately not so simple. The usual advice is to download an app capable of reading QR codes but this article suggests a way to read them without a special app. As I have never owned an Android phone, I cannot comment further on that.

What strange uses have you found QR codes being made to serve or have you perhaps used them yourself to perform unusual purposes?