Written 10 November, 2020.
In the US, which we’re still spell-bound by, Biden is reported to be assembling his anti-covid fighting team- top doctors and scientists, experts whom Trump despised. Trump has done nothing yet, and still hasn’t produced evidence of massive vote-rigging. He’d have to show rigging of hundreds of thousands of votes.
Now, a vaccine! Pfeiffer, the German drug manufacture, has said its new vaccine is “over 90% effective” in killing the virus. The executive said that they “leapt out of their seats for joy”. But it’s only a press release, it hasn’t been peer-reviewed, and drug companies are notoriously self-serving at selecting their candidate testees, Norma Swann says, deliberately not testing them on old people, who account for 40% of the hospitalisations, and 80% of the deaths. And I’m old, GG is old, and so are most of my friends, all busy living big lives, often artistic lives. None of us are ready to die a needless death. Not yet. We’ve too much to do, too much to give.
And in my little life, last night we had drinks for G and S who’ve returned for a couple of days begin to build a new room up the hill for his daughters when they come to stay. He was finding material to build steps, and I told him I’d found a couple of cement steps strewn in the bush up our back. S said they were perfect, and carried them off! While I was watering just before our drinks, my new neighbour J was on her porch. We’ve previously just exchanged a few shy words. Being shy, I can always spot a fellow spirit. She said yes. I laughingly said she’d need to bring a chair, so she did, and a half bottle of rose wine, and apologies for being “an introvert”.
You’re amongst introverts, i said.
We all squashed into the pergola, which GG had built for me when he still had two shoulders. I was taking a writer’s retreat at the time, in Figline, near Florence, for Sydney University, and didn’t want to come home- so he lured me back. It’s sunk over the years, but in the lockdown, the laughing builder with grey-streaked golden hair propped it up.
In the pergola, I just drank tonic water,and J just had a cup of tea, but we laughed and chatted. S showed me a picture of our old steps, now cemented in place. As we all left for our dinners, S said we needed a hanging sign: Sue’s Bar. I’d love that. Tomorrow, we go back to the lonely city, because GG has to be filmed at the Griffin Theatre for an interview to be shown on The Mix.
