They are now talking about over 70s self isolating for months, that isn’t yet but coming soon, forgetting that many in that age group are working and are probably fitter and healthier than the obese and smokers. Apparently you cannot even go out for a walk. TBH a better option if you are healthy would be to catch it and then you only need to self isolate for seven days.

Well I am avoiding all non essential meetings and at motorway services just using the toilet facilities, and after using cash points I wash hands as soon as possible. Given the U.K. strategy of developing herd resistance I would rather not take the Darwinian option of letting the elderly and those with underlying conditions take their chances thank you, I have two children who would fall into that category and a wife who was hospitalized with pneumonia when younger and as a result has weakened lungs.

Grandson studying in Bulgaria has flown to the Caribbean as the university has closed, so revising on the beach. As you do. I am Just looking forward to a week in Cornwall.

I opened the door to a Jehovah's Witness today, wouldn't it be ironic if this peddler of hope and salvation turns out to be an agent of death and disease!

Jak I am corrected thank you. I never pre-book, just get the senior concession on the day.

The TPS website is showing that it has been postponed until September following government guidance on the coronavirus outbreak. If you have already bought tickets you won't get a refund but they will be valid the next time (!). I am somewhat relieved as being fairly local I attend every year but this time I was having serious doubts so the decision has been made for me.

Yes you can, Alamy for instance pays a different commission if you tick the exclusive to Alamy box, but that isn’t always the case. Some more professional stock photographers use special software which, once you have put in all the search terms, post automatically to multiple agencies. If you are organised, which I am not, you can add search terms to you photos in Lightroom so they automatically load onto each site. If you are interested it’s worth looking up Nicole Glass on YouTube for useful info.

If you really have time to kill try submitting photos to stock agencies; TBH the small financial reward doesn’t reflect the effort required but every little helps. First to try is Shutterstock, a typical sale will be 25 US cents, I have around 700 photos and get several sales a week and occasionally a higher fee is received. But for me the most interesting bit is they show where they have been downloaded, a clematis from my garden has shown up in several Northern European countries, Russia and New Zealand, and a snap of my sundial ended up in Mexico. They accept photos for commercial and editorial use and you need to check how those apply.

Next up is Adobe Stock although they only accept photos for commercial use so I have a much smaller portfolio there, they pay a similar rate to SS. The bonus for me was last year if you get 300 accepted with a better than 50% rejection rate then you get free Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for a year; I don’t know if that will be repeated this year but it’s worth doing.

There are other agencies, I also submit to Alamy, a smaller outfit which pays out much more per download but there are far less of them, I have only managed three in the last year but others do much better.

The photos do have to be of a certain technical standard and the sites give guidelines on what is required, but for subject matter anything goes: my biggest selling photo on SS is of a 1980s reel to reel tape recorder. Well it’s better than watching daytime tv anyway.

Well Gwyn it sounds like your offspring are healthy and doing ok so you have a lot to be thankful for.

It’s a double whammy, you would think travel companies could benefit from cheap fuel but their prices are falling faster than s**t off a shovel because no one wants to travel. Saga, the insurance and cruise company having been hit in both fields, is now only worth pennies; only last month the pundits were advising to buy so it just shows how much they know. Just as long as whisky doesn’t go up!