For the art of coffee

Brian has been mastering coffee art. It surprises me as to everything that needs to be considered to achieve the desired effect. He has to think what type of milk, how fresh is the milk, what size of the jug for frothing the milk, level of froth, shape of the spout, what type of pattern is he aiming for.

Once he’s pulled the coffee and frothed the milk, he then pours it onto the coffee to create a brown base layer, which he then carefully tips the froth onto to make the design. Et voila!

On another note, Macron spoke to journalists last night to announce his plan for coming out of confinement. It is a four stage plan, with three week intervals between each stage, which will provide a period of review before moving to the next stage.

The first stage starts on Monday where we will have freedom of movement. We had been restricted to 10km from home for the last four weeks. The 7pm curfew will also remain.

Then on 19th May non-essential shops can re-open. Cafés and restaurants can also open their terraces. We have started to see some local cafés and restaurants extending their terraces into the road to gain more space. I understand this has been happening all across France, and Paris has embraced this by pedestrianising some of its roads. Cinemas, museums and theatres will also re-open with restrictions on numbers of entrants. The curfew will be extended to start at 9pm.

Then from 9th June, pretty much everything is due to open, except nightclubs, and people are still encouraged to work remotely. The curfew will start at 11pm.

From 30th June the curfew will be withdrawn. Larger events such as sporting events, concerts, festivals etc will be allowed, but with various protocols and a ‘pass sanitaire’. The details on this are yet to be released, but the expectation is it will be app based.

The pass sanitaire will also enable travel within the EU and USA from 9th June. The requirement is to have had both jabs for your vaccination. I am having my first jab next week, with the 2nd one scheduled for 12 weeks later.

It is great to understand the plan, but obviously the review periods would need to see a continued strong roll-out of the vaccination programme, and the number of cases reducing, but there does seem to be some light. It would be good now to understand how travel to and from the UK can be incorporated into the plan