Last year I wrote a book which I called The Roaring Twenties. It was about the present and the near future. I even thought of calling it The Greatest Decade because of all the discoveries that were being made, and I assumed that the year 2030 would be completely different from the year 2020.

The other day, I found myself muttering a version of Yossarian's line from Catch-22: "That's some Covid, that Covid-19."  It has certainly managed to lead the world a completely unmerry dance, the nasty little shape-shifter.  

Thanks to coronavirus  - and I mean no thanks to coronavirus - we look like finding ourselves succeeded by a new lost generation.  Succeeded was perhaps a poor choice of word under the circumstances.

Variety has hardly been the spice of life lately, has it? Courtesy of the pandemic, many of us have almost regressed to acting like teenagers.  Sleeping late, eating junk food, spending hours on our phones and tablets, clipping our hair into topiary shapes, abstaining from exercise but not from alcohol, and - it goes without saying - we neglect our homework. 

The universe is apparently growing larger by millions of miles each day, which certainly puts my High Interest Bank Account into a bleak perspective.  By tracing this expansion backwards, we eventually arrive at a starting point that has been called "the day without yesterday."  Why not just call it 'Monday'?  It's not as if anyone is likely to contradict you.  

Some thespians in long-running medical dramas probably end up knowing as much about medicine as many junior doctors.  If a customer collapsed in a restaurant these days and you were to ask, "Does anyone have medical training?" three members of the actors' union Equity might rush to jostle each other for centre stage.

I seldom write here about other than Algarve/Alentejo issues. This time it is about an excellent book, YOU´RE NOT A COMPUTER, by Carlos Lopes, by Amazon. Lopes is an IT-engineer and pianist, married to Nela Vicente, who had exhibitions in many countries and designed this book-cover.

In 2018, the fire in Monchique was hampered by strong and changing winds, predicted by the IPMA (Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere). The fire resulted in 41 injuries and consumed 26,885 ha of forests in Silves, Odemira, Portimão and Monchique. It burned 62 permanent homes, 49 second homes, and killed 5,600 animals.