Strange days

I have had an interesting but disturbing day today, with a little bit of unintentional black humour thrown in. I will try to mention a pub at some point!

My intention was to take a moderately long distance bus journey to Gloucester, I was waiting for the bus but it didn't arrive, so I walked to another bus stop. I suddenly heard a commotion coming from a short distance away, a man was shouting for someone to call the police. When I turned the corner, I saw three police officers restraining a man on the ground. This came as a bit of a shock to me, because I live in a sleepy village in Gloucestershire – not London or New York! With the death of George Floyd still fresh in my memory, I approached the scene and asked what was going on. Why did I do this? Because I saw someone being restrained against their will. The officers looked at me as if to say why was it any of my business. Then one of them asked if I knew the man, I said I didn't. The man being restrained, suddenly piped up with “I'm God” or something like that. It suddenly dawned on me, that maybe this man was being restrained for his own protection. He thanked me for intervening, then said one of the officers didn't believe he was God! I quickly left the scene after that!

I caught the bus, and arrived at my destination some time later. I decided to buy some sandwiches, so went into the local supermarket. On my was to the checkout, I saw some hand wash and face masks in a packet, I put them in my basket and paid for them. It wasn't until much later, that I discovered that the masks were made in China!! Oh the irony! I got some of life's trivia out of the way (i.e. paying bills), then I caught another bus to another destination. It was whilst on this bus, that I overheard a conversation which has made me think about the pandemic. The person in question, managed to get on the bus, without a face mask – they said they were exempt for some reason.

This of course, caught my attention. They were discussing the legality of the wearing of face masks, and other issues concerning the pandemic. I found myself inwardly agreeing with much of what they were saying. It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but I have always believed there is more to this pandemic then we have been told. I often wondered what the Government and other authorities would be doing, whilst the majority of us were imprisoned at home for several weeks. I think part of it is to do with preparing Britain to become a cashless society. Also to ensure that everything has to be done over the internet, from banking to filling in an application form to work in a charity shop – I kid you not, it happened to me today! What a bleak prospect.

During my travels by bus today, I noticed a new development at Gloucester Quays, there is a new Beefeater in town (whoop-de-do). It is not the fact that it is a Beefeater that surprised me, but where it is – it is on the former Baker's Quay site. This fine old building was partially destroyed in a fire a few years ago. They have renovated it to incorporate some aspects of the old building, I have a photo of it before It was fire damaged, I will post it when I have photographed it in it's present incarnation.

Baker's Quay, Gloucester 2015

Beefeater August 2020