I’m reclaiming my identity after several hacks of my Facebook and e-mail address. Who I have been over the last year of social isolation is a fairly keen linguist and a cyclist. The picture is Laghamon, a 13th century monk who wrote a history of England in English on the Severn about 10 miles from Kinver. I chose the name for my domain because it’s nearly unique in a Google search!
I spent the first lockdown studying how English is developing, starting with Proto Indo European. This led to a U3A zoom group, which has been every Monday for 30 sessions. The graphic on the home page shows distance of European languages from each other. I’m also persisting with a long struggle to learn Mandarin. The next picture is the Chinese radicals. I now recognise most of them so can read a bit, though I only occasionally understand a sentence when someone speaks to me.
Cycling has got me out at least twice a week for the last year. With hardly any demands on my pension, I’ve decided to upgrade my vehicle fleet. The e-bike has a new battery. The picture below is the Giant Defy I’ve just bought. And I’m playing with the idea of an electric mountain bike to replace my Whyte hardtail.
So that’s shat I’ve been doing for a year -apart from eating Jacky’s wonderful food and trying to be a moderate wine drinker. I’m trying to think what to do next, with two lots of AZ vaccine inside me?