week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Watched lots of Stargate SG1. Had a migraine at varying intensities for almost the entire week. Not much productivity, work-wise. Started crocheting a jumper, completely changed every part of the entire pattern, and learnt some new stitches. Made bananapeel bacon and tofu from scratch and many other things. Curfew hours extended, from 5am to 5.30pm, with 1 and a half hours allowed outside. SMS permission system stands. I tried it once and got no response. Sent an email to some authorities and had a visa extension approved until after travel restrictions are lifted.
name: Week in review: 13 - 19 April
published: 2020-04-19T23:59:59+02:00
tag: coronavirus
tag: vegan
tag: covid19
tag: week+in+review
tag: crochet
tag: food

lockdown
type: Note
content: That thing of reading about other peoples' lockdown experiences and realising that it's not very different to my regular life, that many introverts are having lately.. but more specifically I'm discovering that meeting friends regularly in-person is a huge part of life for most people - and I guess was common for me too at one point - but that I completely went without since I started travelling and just got used to my friends and family being almost entirely online (aka in my pocket) for years now. I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just that it's interesting seeing people adjusting to it (or failing to) and I don't even remember having much of a period of adjustment, it was quite natural for me. Maybe I'm just an antisocial asshole. I love all my friends and family, really I do, even in pixel form. Maybe this is why I spent so much time in my teens and twenties, eventually seeping into my academic work, fighting the idea that online is 'not real life', etc.
published: 2020-05-04T14:43:00+02:00
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: life
tag: introvert
tag: lockdown

border
type: Note
content: Went from being offered a ride to Greece the day after tomorrow and having to come to terms with suddenly leaving Sarande, to finding out the Albania-Greece land border is staying closed until July 1st actually, within the space of an hour. Rollercoaster. I'm exhausted. And on top of that, nobody can give me a straight answer on whether I count as an EU citizen for the purposes of mid-pandemic border crossings.
published: 2020-06-15T17:55:00+02:00
tag: covid19
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: coronavirus

border-2
type: Note
content: On Friday the Greek Deputy Minister of Civil Defense said the Kakavia land border with Albania will not open. Today a "spokesperson for the Greek government" said the Kakavia land border with Albania is on list of border crossings that will open. I still feel like it's sort of a complete 50-50 chance if I'll be leaving Albania this week. Makes it hard to adequately buy groceries. And plan my work schedule. And.. maintain my sanity. I did waste like 3 hours this morning researching alternatives. Or maybe it won't be wasted! Who knows at this point.
published: 2020-06-29T19:35:00+02:00
tag: coronavirus
tag: albania
tag: travel
tag: covid19
tag: greece
tag: life

intermission
type: Article
content: Breaking news: I'm back in the UK. I flew back from Tirana, because travelling overland would have been next to impossible, not to mention rather foolish. The flight was early evening, and through a beautifully clear sky. We followed the Adriatic coast, which I know well from having spent literally weeks of my life bussing up and down it. Over the Alps, which were grandiose and snow-capped. France was quite flat and boring, but still very clear. The Channel had lots of boats on it. And then we approached a wall of grey, obscuring all beneath it. Aha, this must be England. We descended, and dark churning clouds on the horizon, backed by a red sunset, was a burning apocalyptic vision. Outside the airport the sky haphazardly threw handfuls of cold water at anyone unfortunate enough to be standing under it. I put on a jacket for the first time in months. And felt... welcomed. Lots of people have said they're happy I'm back (maybe they're just being nice), but I'm quite sad about it. I'm back for specific and worthwhile reasons, but as I posted the last of my Albania photos this afternoon, while looking out at a mostly grim, overcast sky, I wondered if I have made a terrible mistake. I haven't. I'm not back, it's just an intermission. I'm confident that the nomadic life across continental Europe I love will resume sometime next year, albeit limited by the pandemic and brexit. The next few months are uncertain in new ways. I don't really know where I'll be for the bulk of my time here yet. But in the meantime, I will be spending precisely the last two weeks of my twenties in government-mandated isolation in rural Lincolnshire. Gorging on vegan cheese.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Intermission
published: 2020-07-28T18:12:37+01:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: flight
tag: uk

overstaying
type: Article
content: I've been to Albania a couple of times in 2019 for short visits, or on my way to somewhere else. I was looking forward to spending time on the coast, so finally in March 2020 I managed to head out for a month-long stay. Or so I thought. Not long after I arrived, the coronavirus lockdown began. As 3 months approached, I emailed local authorities and quickly obtained a visa extension 'until travel restrictions are lifted'. After a while commercial flights from the capital to some other countries started to run, and I wasn't sure how long I could push my overstay (usually, the fine for overstaying is €500 per day!). But lots of expats kept telling me it would be fine. Around the 4 month mark I was stopped by police in town and asked for ID, and fortunately had my printed visa extension email on me, which was enough for them, so then I was less worried. In the end I needed to head back to the UK for other reasons, and stayed in Sarandë for five months in total. For the first few months of lockdown, everything was closed and there was no public transport, so I wasn't able to see much of the country. Later when inter-city travel restrictions lifted I took a couple of cautious road trips. In any case, there were definitely worse places I could have been stuck. Where? I spent most time this year in Sarandë. It is a smallish seaside town, quiet in the off season, and a little smelly and loud in the town center from an excess of construction and road traffic. After a week in the center I snapped from this, and managed to move south to the outskirts. It's also smelly in the more rural outskirts from locals burning trash. But at least it wasn't so loud. My new place was right in front of the sea, close enough to hear the crash of the waves from the balcony, and a short scrabble from a little rocky beach that was mostly empty until July. There was no disadvantage in my opinion to being a 30-40 minute walk from the town center. When running, the local buses stop nearby. There's a…
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Overstaying in Albania
published: 2020-07-31T15:01:48+01:00
tag: travel
tag: albania
tag: sarande
tag: lockdown
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: tourism
tag: castle
tag: beach

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/08/5f4778ba3e7fb
type: Announce
content: Everyone's worried about covid but I'm concerned about what happens when we encounter covego and covsuper-ego... (I'll show myself out now)
object: everyone-s-worried-about-covid-but-i-m-concerned-about-what-happens
published: 2020-08-27T09:40:00+01:00
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus

lockdown-balcony
type: Article
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: All the photos I took from my balcony during lockdown
published: 2020-08-03T21:54:01+01:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: lockdown
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: albania

love-wearing
type: Note
content: I love wearing a facemask. Keeps my nose cosy and warm (important in Scotland), and nobody can recognise me! Bonus: went running by the canal the other day and didn't swallow a single midge.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
published: 2020-08-20T18:15:40+01:00
tag: life
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: uk
tag: scotland
tag: running

week-review-27
type: Article
content: Drove to Tirana, then flew back to the UK :( Commenced the last two weeks of my twenties, in government-mandated isolation. Wrote up a post about the 5 months I spent in Albania. Worked on OpenActive Co-op stuff. Enjoyed Friday off as a the whole co-op was closed for a self-care day. Tried to re-engage with DID stuff I've been dropping the ball on lately. Made a nice list of articles by title on my site. Cooked for and hung out with my Mum. Enjoyed the one day of summer. Did some crochet.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Week in review: 27 July - 2 August
published: 2020-08-02T22:24:54+01:00
tag: sloph
tag: albania
tag: uk
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: crochet
tag: ods
tag: cooplife
tag: week+in+review
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: life
tag: travel

missed-first
type: Note
content: I missed the first shitscape of a UK lockdown this year. My brother just told me how he traded rice for toilet paper at one point. Exciting!
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
published: 2020-10-31T10:09:10+00:00
tag: life
tag: lockdown
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: uk

2020-review
type: Article
content: In 2019 I zigzagged around Europe and even further afield. I thought this year would either be much the same, or completely different. It was completely different - but in an entirely different way than I what I expected. But that was the case for everyone, right? I posted to my site 4,394 times. I posted 6,017 individual photos into 11 different albums. tl;dr Downsized to 35L. Travel stalled. Upsized in order to occupy a part-furnished flat. I was the Best Man at my friend's wedding. Did one Vipassana retreat, in Switzerland. Got trapped by the pandemic for 5 months in Sarandë, Albania. Returned to the UK for multiple reasons, then stayed. Started the process for donating a kidney, but then wasn't needed any more. Decided on something to invest my savings into, but still pending. Read a lot and watched a lot of TV. Stood for election to the W3C TAG. Goals for 2021: Make the most of Fife. Spend time with my IRL friends again, IRL. Try to make myself useful in the local community, and online communities. Words I wrote 345 things. On my site I posted 282 short notes or commentary with photos, and 63 longer articles. I also logged non-blogpost writing 29 times. These all comprise approximately 59,593 words in total (9,010 off-site). That's a mean of 162.82 words and 0.94 posts per day. I wrote about 156 different topics, with the most common being life (122), travel (74), week in review (49), food (40), albania (34), hacking (31), vegan (29), ods (27), coronavirus (27), crochet (24), covid19 (21), and uk (16). My NaNoWriMo project was Dumping Sky. I didn't write anything else, or finish any previous projects. Again. Travel I stopped in an all-time nomadding low of 6 different countries, none of which I had never been to before. A long stay in Albania was a goal I overachieved on, with 149 nights in total. Pre-lockdown I spent 13 nights in Turkey, 2 in Greece, 3 in Bulgaria and 16 in Switzerland (11 of these on a Vipassana meditation retreat). And 177 in the UK by the e…
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: 2020 in review
published: 2021-01-04T16:48:28+00:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: hacking
tag: week+in+review
tag: cooplife
tag: w3c
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/2020
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: albania
tag: uk
tag: sloph
tag: nanowrimo
tag: zero+waste
tag: quantified+self
tag: digital+nomad
tag: ods
tag: year+in+review

honestly
type: Note
content: It is honestly hilarious how many of the voucher options for taking part in the UK gov's covid test survey thing are for travel! Hotels.com! Eurostar! Lastminute! The list goes on.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
published: 2021-01-05T11:12:03+00:00
tag: life
tag: uk
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus

rhiaro-2020
type: Note
content: rhiaro 2020: I have exactly one 35L backpack of stuff, am attached to none of it, and the idea of more is horrifying. [ [ pandemic ] ] rhiaro 2021: would you like to come and look at my collection of oil paintings in the flat that I am renovating? (I don't actually have a collection of oil paintings.. yet.. I'm thinking about buying a couple though.)
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
published: 2021-06-10T10:35:44+01:00
tag: life
tag: digital+nomad
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: pandemic

week-review-28th
type: Article
content: Finished The Lefthanded Booksellers of London. Resumed and finished The Overstory; it's a hard read. Started Five Ideas to Fight For but so far that's just making me as mad as twitter does. Purple sprouting broccoli was ready to harvest when I got back. Two new inside tomatoes have appeared on the scraggly monstrosity I should have kicked out ages ago but didn't. Covid finally arrived in my life. Presumably from London. Sealed myself in my flat and ordered groceries for delivery like it's 2020. Worked on planning application document scrapers for Woodland Trust and i18n stuff for BODS. Crochet slippers are not going well, so sidetracked on a tea cosy and a scarf. Very sensible episode of the DID Rubric podcast aired. Cooked and baked some things. Watched Raya and the Last Dragon, both disney Atlantis movies, and Treasure Planet. Share offer extended for the co-operatively owned wind farm being built on the West Coast of Scotland. If you're in the UK you should really check it out.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Week in review: 28th March - 3rd April
published: 2022-04-03T23:59:59+01:00
tag: life
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: week+in+review
tag: ods
tag: crochet
tag: covid
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: health
tag: ripple
tag: environment
tag: wind+farm
tag: lockdown

week-review-4th--
type: Article
content: Still in covid isolation most of the week; mornings okay, but fatigue hitting like a ton of bricks in the afternoons. Tested negative on Saturday. Crocheted a tea cosy. Worked on BODS and Woodland Trust and logistics for May CoGM though. Seem to be more productive with covid than not. Made ugali, or some approximation thereof, from maize flour. Had Max for a day. Then Lowenna for the weekend. Max came to play as well and they are too cute together. Did loads of work in the gardens, including giving my footpath garden an overhaul with mushroom compost. Almost caught up with season 2 of Picard and watched a couple more Uncanny Counters. Read a lot of Ender's Shadow.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Week in review: 4th - 10th April
published: 2022-04-10T23:59:59+01:00
tag: life
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: week+in+review
tag: ods
tag: crochet
tag: covid
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: health
tag: garden
tag: lowenna
tag: max
tag: bods

covid19
type: Collection
total items: 27

https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/covid19
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name: covid19
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