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Mrs PBT’s been sitting downstairs watching Eurovision, or the virtual, socially distanced version of what passes for the contest this year! This served to remind me that today is the anniversary of my trip, last year, to the People’s Republic of China.


The association with Eurovision arose because whilst waiting in the departure lounge at Doha airport in Qatar, for my connecting flight to Guangzhou, I remember the news-feed on my phone displaying the results of the song contest, as they came in, country by country.


I wasn’t overly bothered about the overall winner, but it did provide a connection with home from a location thousands of miles away, and thinking about that trip today, brought home the reality of what a difference a year makes.


Thinking forward, I was also reminded that, had things been normal, and this nasty little virus not raised its ugly head, son Matthew and I would be flying out to Prague tomorrow morning, to join up with a group of fellow beer enthusiasts from Maidstone, to spend a few days in the city of Pilsen, in western Bohemia.


The trip’s been postponed until next year, but whether things are back to normal by then, remains to be seen. In the meantime, it’s null points for Coronavirus, and for our lack of preparedness in dealing with a pandemic which history, and more recent events, told us was long overdue.
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