Today being Sunday, we went off to do our weekly shopping in Sainsbury’s. I was curious to see what difference was made by London’s insertion into Tier 2 of Covid restrictions. As I rather expected, none at all. Many people have grown blasé and are no longer taking precautions. Even businesses, no doubt tired of trying to persuade their customers to behave, are also not applying the rules as rigorously as they should.

Art on a lamppost
Photo by Tigger

On the way to the shop, Tigger photographed this œuvre on a lamppost. It is a schematic drawing in black and red over a sheet of text in Latin. I have no idea of the name of the artist or of the intended meaning of the piece.

Chapel Market

As we usually do, we went through Chapel Market. There was quite a good showing today as there usually is on a Sunday.

Buskers and audience

A racket of electric guitars (surely one of the most obnoxious “musical” instruments ever invented), boosted by amplifiers, announced the presence of a pair of buskers. They seemed to have attracted a pair of fans but I was happy to move on out of noise range.

When we reached Sainsbury’s, we found there was a queue which we of course joined. I thought at first that this was because Sainsbury’s were regulating the flow of customers into the shop but when the queue as a whole started moving forward, I realised that the queue had formed because the shop wasn’t yet open. Now that it was, everyone hurried inside without much regard for social distancing.

Nice idea… if it actually worked
Photo by Tigger

Having completed the shopping run, we retired to Pret A Manger in the Angel Centre for coffee.

Like many cafes and restaurants, Pret displays a QR code to use with your smart phone to record your visit in line with the principals of “track and trace”. A good idea, don’t you think? Well, yes, a very good idea, except that the wretched thing doesn’t work. We tried with both phones and a barcode/QR code app on my phone and all gave the result “Not found”. Refer this to my remarks at the end of the first paragraph.

Update October 19th: We learned today that the reason why these QR codes no longer work on our phones may be because they have been altered to work only on phones that have the official “Track and Trace” app installed. This is presumably a move to coerce people into installing the app. I rather think that the result will be the opposite of that intended.

Dachshund

This rather plump Dachshund (who, if he becomes much plumper will have trouble reaching the ground) was accompanying a family in Pret.

Do you remember, as do I, how dogs used to be strictly forbidden in food shops and places where food was served? At most, guide dogs might be exempted from the ban but all others had to stay outside. These days, I see more and more dogs in cafes and restaurants and wondered how this has come about. The answer apparently, is that the present legislation on the matter was passed by the EU in 2012 (revised 2014) and specifies hygiene regulations for establishments selling food for consumption on the premises or for takeaway. It does not prohibit the presence of domestic animals on the premises, merely requiring the management to ensure that said animals cannot access the stocks of food.

And so to home. We were sitting quietly, minding our business, when I became aware of a clicking sound. Click! Click! Click!… Not being able to see any cause of such s noise, I went to investigate.

Water in an electric switch
Photo by Tigger

I found puddles on the floor of the hallway and bathroom. The clicking was caused by water dripping from the ceiling onto the flooring.

Our upstairs neighbour was flooding us again! Yes, AGAIN!

This is the fourth or fifth time he has done that. How he does it, I don’t know, but suspect he leaves the bath running and either forgets about or falls into a drunken stupeur.

Once again, I hurried upstairs and hammered on his door.

“You’re flooding us again!” I shouted through the gap in the door that he barely opened.

“I know,” came the muffled response, “I’m-sorry-and-will-pay-for-any-damage”, a litany I have heard too many times before to be impressed by.

Because the water is coming from above, it risks shorting out the electrics. The switch in Tigger’s photo is for the fan in the bathroom and an ominous buzzing noise was coming from it until I flipped the switch.

The ceiling and walls will eventually dry out but who knows what invisible damage might have been done? I am half expecting the lights to suddenly fail with a bang and a puff of smoke.

<

p align=”left”>One such incident can be forgiven (I myself once flooded our downstairs neighbour) but when it happens again and again, my capacity for forgiveness becomes exhausted. If today’s accident was not the straw to break the camel’s back, any repetition certainly will be.