These are strange times and are getter stranger by the minute. Yet, at the same time they also getting less strange as we reach yet another new normal. I think I may have mentioned somewhere the euphoria we have experienced when doing something that used to be normal and everyday. The first time we went out for dinner, after maybe 5 months, we felt this sense of euphoria and looking round you could tell other people were feeling it too. At the moment we’ll take anything that gives us a boost and one certainly learns to appreciate small triumphs.

Nell, like many dogs, has a chase instinct. She wants to chase basically anything that runs. When we lived in London she would periodically hurl herself at the back corner of our garden where the shed meets the wall chasing cats or foxes that were passing through. She did this so often that it was basically impossible to grow any grass there. I re-turfed that patch many times but with only limited success.

I will be very interested to see what the percentage of people voting is in this election. This will be our fourth US election as a married couple. To my recollection none of the other elections have come with so much discussion over the actual process of voting. The hoops that Americans who live in Myanmar are jumping through to actually vote are both insane and varied.

We are three weeks away from the first holiday of the year which is a week in October. In our first year we had a wonderful time in Angkor Wat in Cambodia and last year we went on another great trip to Laos where we saw gibbons and had a relaxing cruise down the Mekong. This year, because of Covid, we could only plan a local beach holiday which, even though we’re not really beach people, I was still really looking forward to as we haven’t been to the beach yet and they are supposed to be lovely.