Tuesday with Frieda

Frieda will be away for a few days over Christmas, with Jack and Marianna. So it was lovely to have a quiet day with her today. Much of it was spent with an array of Lego Duplo characters and vehicles spread across the living room carpet, engaging in various adventures.
Here, Richard is being a mountain while Frieda's tractor and trailers embark on a steep uphill climb.
The big milestone for Frieda just now: she's out of daytime nappies.  Not always easy for her, but it's clearly the way she wants to go now, and I don't think it will take her long to finish settling into this new and more grown-up routine.
I think my Greek lessons, over the last year, have started to make a difference... I'm getting better at picking out what she means when she uses Greek phrases. Today she was remembering how her Greek grandpa calls her 'agapi mou' when they chat online: 'my love'.
All these lovely daily details; they are a counterbalance to the mix of farce and tragedy that is taking place in terms of Covid. I listened to Jeremy Farrar on the radio this morning, head of the Wellcome Foundation.  He underlined the point made by so many others, but often overshadowed by inward-looking debates here: no one is safe (from Covid) till everyone is safe. Promises of vaccine supplies and allied support, made to poorer countries, have not been fulfilled. So the high infection levels that promote further variant development are not being tackled.