Here's a poor delivery rider trying to read his phone to find out where he's got to struggle to next through the snow.  Luckily for him the snow only lasted for a few days.

Winter sports resorts throughout Europe and in Scotland as well have had buckets of snow this winter but thanks to Covid have made no money from it.  Competitions have continued but without spectators.  I've been watching the World Alpine Skiing Championships from Cortina which happens to be the last place I went skiing so I've actually skiied on some of the same snow.  Not so fast nor on the steeper sections but still.

I've also tuned in to the Australian Open Tennis.  There they had spectators (a fraction of the usual number) until a case of Covid turned up and the state of Victoria closed down.  

It's carnival time but most places have cancelled their usual festivities including Venice where friends of mine tell me the city is much pleasanter without crowds of tourists.  (There are still a few and shops, bars etc are open during the day).  I can sympathise with that view but on the other hand as a tourist I like the liveliness of crowds.  

My chums have been having some instruction in Italian from a school where I spent a week in 2015 and have discovered that I feature on the school's website.  

On-line theatre going continues.  We visited the Globe to see Two Noble Kinsmen.  This is a silly tale part written by Shakespeare but it's a jolly romp with lots of sparkling performances.  Two one-acts from Mull theatre were very good if a little serious.  

A tale of murder by the name of Traces set in Dundee was well told on BBC iPlayer and I owe some TV channel(s) or other thanks for The Post and for Snowden.  The former stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks and tells the story of the publication by The New York Times and more particularly by The Washington Post of what became known as The Pentagon Papers.  These revealed systematic lying by the US government about the Vietnam war.  I'd seen the fim before but it was well worth a second viewing.  

Snowden I didn't know.  Apparently it didn't do too well at the box office but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It tells the story of Edward Snowden who leaked classified information about mass surveillance by the US government to the press, The Guardian in fact.  Naturally the US wanted to prosecute him and naturally he tried to flee their juristiction.  They revoked his passport and he got stuck in Moscow en route to warmer climes.  The poor chap is still there.

The most ambitious and most unusual show I saw online came from the Manipulate Festival.  Called The End of TV it tells a pretty straighforward story of industrial decline and its effect on an old lady and a younger one whose paths intersect.  In short it's the death of the American dream I suppose.  It's well described and reviewed here.  I felt it was much more medium than message, too much more.