'... which was he: a refugee or a misfit?'

'he was a misfit. he was also a cautious soul. he liked the security of a monthly salary cheque.' 

so goes the debate on the writer john coetzee's teaching career (for which he had no great aptitude being too secretive about his interests and enthusiasms to actually engage the students). horsemouth has finished j.m.coetzee's summertime.

so as you are aware (if you are adept at reading between the lines or as horsemouth may have blabbed already) horsemouth's department  is closing and he is being made redundant after 25 years at his employer. he can finally stop referring to it pseudonymously as 'beachside donkey rides'. there's a video of a colleague explaining  the situation in sign language and what services will be continuing after horsemouth's department closes.

horsemouth's colleague blames covid and the reduction of student numbers and thus money coming in  but to horsemouth that's just the immediate cause, as part of the redundancy process your employer has to make the case to you for redundancy and all horsemouth saw was headline figures but from these it can only safely be inferred that the department had problems predating the epidemic not the actual nature of the problems.

the work will now be taken on by a number of the larger employment agencies that pay lower hourly rates, do not pay into pensions etc. etc. 

horsemouth has enjoyed his time working there (not always - ask him on a rainy monday morning when he can't find the student - but overall) and specifically he has enjoyed his time working with the deaf. he may do a little more of it in the future (who knows). the best of luck to his co-workers - you'll be fine (here we see horsemouth in optimistic reassuring temporising mode).

he thanks denise (25 years ago) for persuading him to give up daytime drinking in favour of a dayjob. it's not just the money (though that has helped him survive and kept him out of the clutches of the benefit system) it's the access to educational institutions and their libraries. 

anyway they showed him a redundancy cheque and at that point he was convinced. 

there's a meet up in a park. but in a way he'd prefer a zoom call. 

the post-covid economic environment looks worse than the pre-covid one to horsemouth. he's certainly got no plans to engage with the full horror of it until after august. meanwhile...

the pandemic is not over. 

we must learn to live with the virus (say our rulers) but this  is not the same as pretending it's all over already in the name of profit. so how well have our rulers done so far  in protecting us? deaths per million of population is about the best measure. 

and on that measure they have failed badly. 

yesterday (7/7 - when the two sevens clash) was international staying in day. today is a bright beautiful sunshine-y morning. horsemouth's dad is already out in the sunshine having his morning cup of tea and undertaking a few back breaking tasks. 

it's 20 years since the death of fred neil and in other bad news datblygu has died. 

today breakfast a few walks. check if the last or last but one furlough payments has been sent out.