It is purely by chance that the above image I created a few days ago, appears on this day. The very day that my Taiko drumming teacher and I launched the start of a 5 week Taiko drumming course. We are delighted that many of the Taiko West students have signed up to this course and this evening we had our first online session, which was attended by 19 Taiko drummers. Seeing as we had already done 3 weeks of free online classes, my teacher was very well prepared for the start of this course and it went really smoothly.

Furthermore some of the students have sent us very kind comments on the professionalism of the delivery, communication and resources that we are providing. This was really the highlight of my time in Lockdown!

In other news, the UK government came under heavy criticism for their incredible mis-communication of the new guidance, moving gradually out of lockdown.

If you would like to read the full text of what has come out, you can do so below. I’m recording them here anyway, so when I look back on this in 10 years time I can reminisce on past events. 🥴

[embed]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing[/embed][embed]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing[/embed]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/884171/FINAL_6.6637_CO_HMG_C19_Recovery_FINAL_110520_v2_WEB__1_.pdf[embed]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing[/embed][embed]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing[/embed]

It looks like the UK goverment have ceased their daily briefings, I guess in view of the changed circumstances, but to be honest I think this is a big mistake, it pushes people into a false sense of security, we already know that reinfections are happening in South Korea and Germany, two countries held up as great examples of how they dealt with the outbreak. Basically the UK who have failed to live up to their standards, will fail even bigger. Remember the trend is your friend!

This is a great image someone sent me after their online attendance failed.

I’ve been providing some support for other onliners to get their equipment and WiFi working to the best of it’s ability. Broadband speed in the UK is quite poor still and this means that many people do struggle with their equipment and their enjoyment for attending online activities. This is one of the main barriers in taking part for people, plus their equipment is old and out of date too, mainly because they’re of an age that they really do not need to push their hardware to deal with the resources required for live online activities.

Michael out…

Michael de Groot