My Coronavirus Crisis Experience – August 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events 6 Comments

Another month has passed, so it’s time for another Coronavirus Crisis Update. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my July 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, the value of my main portfolio remained pretty steady in July. It is currently valued at £21,015. Last month it stood at £21,045, so that is a slight drop of £30.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second pot using Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This pot is now worth £2,625, compared with £2,635 last month, so a small decrease again. Here is a screen capture showing performance in July 2021.

Although it’s a little disappointing both portfolios are down slightly, over the last six months (and longer) both are still well up overall, so I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over this. This is a long-term investment and some ups and downs are to be expected. In 2021 the overall trend has been mainly upwards, so I hope and expect this to be resumed soon.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are still looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

• If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

.As regular readers will know, this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Touch wood, everything has been going well, so in June I added another £500, bringing my total investment on the platform up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £11.57 in revenue from rental and £52.29 in capital growth, for a total return of £63.86. Here is my current statement:

As I said last time, to a degree Assetz Exchange has been a victim of its own success. They have had a big influx of new members, meaning all available investments were quickly snapped up. At the same time, some of the new projects that were due to launch were delayed. As a result I still haven’t invested all the money in my holding account. One new project did come on stream last week, so I put £100 into that.

My colleagues at Assetz Exchange assure me that more new projects are coming very soon. They are also limiting how much members can invest in the first few weeks of any new launch, so that everyone has a fair chance to purchase shares. And as time goes on more members may opt to offer their shares for sale on the exchange, opening up additional buying opportunities.

I am investing relatively modest amounts in new projects as they come onto the platform, so I don’t therefore put more than around £100 into any one project. As you can see, I already have a well-diversified portfolio comprising 20 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As mentioned above, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

I haven’t mentioned my trial investment on European loan crowdfunding platform Nibble for a while, so thought I should remedy that this month. This has been proceeding without any issues and my initial test investment of 20 euros has accrued income of 0.65 euros, corresponding to an annual interest rate of 9.7 percent (see screen capture below).

I get weekly updates from Nibble confirming how much interest has been added to my portfolio. Based on my experiences to date I am considering investing a more substantial sum with them soon. My full review of Nibble can be found here.

Finally, in July 2021 two more PAS readers signed up with the low-key sideline-earning opportunity mentioned in previous updates. They will have received their initial £100 reward payments about now. I still have a few more invitations available if anyone else would like to take advantage.

This opportunity is based on matched betting, a sideline I have been pursuing for several years myself. I was asked not to divulge too many details about it publicly, for good reasons I will explain privately to anyone who may be interested (and no, it’s not illegal!). It doesn’t require any financial outlay and is risk-free and entirely hands-off (once you have set up your account). No knowledge of betting is required and you don’t have to place any bets yourself (this is all done by the company’s clever software). You just have to set up a separate bank account for bets to go through, but running the account is entirely financed by the company.

The company has changed its terms somewhat for new members. You now get a larger £!00 initial reward payment once your account is up and running, and then £25 every month you remain a member. I think this is a good move personally, as setting up the account does involve a little work on your part (though it’s certainly not rocket science). So the £100 in effect compensates you for your time, and once it’s done you continue to get £25 a month for no effort at all. The company is constantly developing its offering, partly in response to feedback from PAS readers. They recently launched a new mobile-friendly website to make it even easier for new members to sign up (once you’re up and running you shouldn’t need to use the website at all). They also recently incorporated an Open Banking app so that members don’t have to provide their online banking info to the company, as some people were concerned about this.

Please note that this opportunity is only open to honest, trustworthy people who haven’t done matched betting before and have no more than two accounts already with online bookmakers. For more information (and to receive a no-obligation invitation) drop me a line including your email address via my Contact Me page. And yes, I will receive a reward for introducing you, but this will not affect the service or the rewards you receive.

• Finally, in the interests of full transparency, I should say that if you do matched betting yourself, you may be able to make more money than what is being offered by the company. However, you will have to research the techniques in detail, place all bets yourself, and probably subscribe to a matched betting advisory service such as Profit Accumulator [affiliate link]. This opportunity is really for those who want an easy way to make some extra money without the hassle (or expense) of learning/applying matched-betting methods themselves.

Personal

The big news in July – in England at any rate – was that so-called Freedom Day took place as promised on 19th July 2021. Most of the legal restrictions on our lives, including mandatory masks and social distancing, were lifted from that date.

Since then – to the surprise of many experts and pundits (though not me) – new case numbers have been falling steadily week on week. Hospitalizations and deaths were slower to fall, but are now starting to follow the same path.

It is of course far too soon to say that the pandemic is over – and Covid is, in any event, likely to remain with us in some form for the foreseeable future. But it is all very encouraging, especially in the face of predictions from doom-mongers such as Professor Neil Ferguson that daily case numbers could reach 100,000 or even 200,000 as a result of restrictions easing.

In my view it is now high time we got back to something close to normal life and learned to live with the virus. But while out and about I notice that people generally are still being ultra-cautious. That is particularly the case in shops and supermarkets, where I should say that four out of five people are still wearing masks (though the numbers without are slowly increasing). On trains I would say it is about two in three, though on a couple of occasions when I travelled in the evening recently (after 7 pm) mask-wearers were in a minority.

I don’t use buses so can’t comment about them. At my local gym and swimming pool, however, almost nobody is wearing a mask now. Assuming that the numbers keep going in the right direction, I hope that more people will find the confidence to ditch the masks. It is wonderful to be able to see smiles and happy faces again after all this time!

In July I took a rail trip to Swindon to visit my old friend Jeff, who at the start of this year moved to Wiltshire. Unfortunately we chose what was probably the hottest day of the year. The whole round trip involved seven trains from three different train companies. So I can report that by far the best company for aircon, wifi, drinks/snacks service, and general all-round comfort, was Great Western Trains. Second were Cross Country, and last were West Midlands Railway. I travelled on three WMR trains in total and I don’t believe any of them had working aircon (one seemed to have the heating turned on despite the fact that the temperature outside was over 30). WMR had also by far the worst wifi, something I’ve experienced on many occasions before. I think West Midlands Mayor Andy Street should be turning his attention to improving this service rather than indulging in virtue-signalling gestures like offering passengers free masks. That aside, I did of course enjoy seeing Jeff again and also visiting Swindon for the first time. I would happily go back there, but hopefully on a cooler day!

As I said last time, I recently subscribed to Britbox and have been making good use of this. I really enjoyed watching all three series of the original House of Cards trilogy featuring Ian Richardson. I remembered the original series the best, but thought the second series (To Play the King) was equally good. I didn’t like the last series (The Final Cut) quite as much. It was never going to be quite the same without Michael Kitchen or Colin Jeavons, and I thought the ending was a bit of a let-down. But if you haven’t seen them before, I highly recommend watching all three.

Last week Britbox added Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on Your Collar (see image below) to their platform. I am very much enjoying watching this again almost 30 years since it first aired. I am a huge fan of Dennis Potter’s work and think he is probably our greatest-ever TV writer. His masterpiece was undoubtedly The Singing Detective, but Lipstick on Your Collar runs it pretty close. As with The Singing Detective, the series intersperses the action with lip-synched musical numbers, in this case classic 1950s rock ‘n’ roll. It has drama, comedy, great characters and some amazing music. What more could you possibly want?!

As I mentioned last time, now that Freedom Day has happened, this will be my last Coronavirus Crisis Update. I plan to continue with my monthly investment updates, and will also do more personal/general ones as and when the occasion arises.

I do hope you have enjoyed these monthly updates and found them of value. I have enjoyed writing them, and find it interesting looking back over them now as a sort of diary of the pandemic. I have listed them all below for convenience.

April 2020

June 2020

July 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

April 2021

May 2021

June 2021

July 2021

August 2021

If you have any comments or questions about this post, as always, please do leave them below.

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience – July 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events 4 Comments

Another month has passed, so it’s time for another Coronavirus Crisis Update. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my June 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio performed pretty well in June. It is currently valued at £21,045. Last month it stood at £20,435, so overall it has gone up by £610. I am happy with that, obviously.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second pot using Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. I added another £500 to this in June, bringing the total invested to £2,500. This pot is now worth £2,635, compared with £2,060 last month. Disregarding the extra £500 investment, this pot is therefore now £135 in profit compared with £60 a month ago, an increase of £75. So again I am quite happy with that. Here is a screen capture showing performance in June 2021. As you will see, my £500 investment was credited to the account on 20 June 2021.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

• If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was actually amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

Regular readers will know that this year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Touch wood, everything has been going well, so in June I added another £500, bringing my total investment on the platform up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my portfolio has generated £8.38 in revenue from rental and £58.61 in capital growth, for a total return of £66.99. Here’s my current statement in case you’re interested:

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that although I have now put £1,000 into Assetz Exchange, only just over £800 of investments are listed above. The balance is still in my account waiting to be invested. The truth is that Assetz Exchange has been, to a degree, a victim of its own success. Over the last few weeks (my contacts at AE tell me) they have had a big influx of new members and all available investments are being quickly snapped up. New projects are coming on stream all the time, however, and AE are limiting how much members can invest in the first few weeks so that everyone has a fair chance to purchase a share. And as time goes on more members may opt to offer their shares for sale on the exchange, opening up additional opportunities for would-be buyers.

I am investing relatively modest amounts in new projects as they come onto the platform and expect to be fully invested by the end of this month. Indeed, I could be already if I chose, but I am following my strategy of diversifying as widely as possible, so don’t invest more than around £100 in any one project. As you can see, I already have a well-diversified portfolio with 19 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As mentioned above, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Lastly in this section, I wanted to say that the low-key sideline-earning opportunity I have mentioned in previous updates has reopened for new members, with slightly different terms (see below). About a dozen PAS readers (including my sister Annie) have already signed up to this and are enjoying a hassle-free monthly sideline income.

The opportunity is based on matched betting, a sideline I have been pursuing for several years myself. I was asked not to divulge too many details about it publicly, for good reasons I will explain privately to anyone who may be interested (and no, it’s not illegal!). It doesn’t require any financial outlay and is risk-free and entirely hands-off (once you have set up your account). No knowledge of betting is required and you don’t have to place any bets yourself (this is all done by the company’s clever software). You just have to set up a separate bank account for bets to go through, but running the account is entirely financed by the company.

As I said above, the company has changed its terms somewhat for new members. You now get a larger £!00 initial payment once your account is up and running, and then £25 every month you remain a member. I think this is a good move personally, as setting up the account does involve a little work on your part (though it’s certainly not rocket science). So the £100 in effect compensates you for that, and once it’s done you continue to get £25 a month for no effort at all. As a matter of interest, the company is constantly developing its offering and just about to launch a new mobile-friendly site to make it even easier for new members to sign up (once you’re up and running you shouldn’t need to use the website at all),

Please note that this opportunity is only open to honest, trustworthy people who haven’t done matched betting before and have no more than two accounts already with online bookmakers. For more information (and to receive a no-obligation invitation) drop me a line including your email address via my Contact Me page. And yes, I will receive a reward for introducing you, but this will not affect the service or the rewards you receive.

• Finally, in the interests of full transparency, I should say that if you do matched betting yourself, you may be able to make more money than what is being offered by the company. However, you will have to research this in detail, place all bets yourself, and probably subscribe to a matched betting advisory service such as Profit Accumulator [affiliate link]. This opportunity is really for those who want an easy way to make some extra money without the hassle (or expense) of learning/applying matched-betting methods themselves.

Personal

Of course, the big news this week is that so-called Freedom Day is set to happen on 19th July 2021. Most of the legal restrictions on our lives, including mandatory masks and social distancing, are set to be lifted then.

Regular readers of this blog (and my social media) may not be surprised to hear that I’m in favour of this. Indeed, I think it should already have happened. In particular, I am glad that the mask mandate is being scrapped and the decision to wear one (or not) will be left to individuals. Unsurprisingly this decision has caused some controversy, but personally I have always felt that the harms of masks to people’s physical and mental health greatly outweigh any potential benefits. And despite much hot air being expended on the subject, the evidence they do anything to reduce transmission of the virus in real world settings is – as England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer has admitted – weak at best.

I also regularly see misuse of masks and other face coverings, which in my view makes them a hazard to both the wearer and those around them. That includes masks being endlessly re-used and kept in pockets and handbags when not required. I have lost count of the number of people I see in shops fiddling with their masks and then touching products on the shelves, potentially passing the virus on. It doesn’t surprise me at all that those US states which stopped mandating masks months ago have all seen dramatic drops in case numbers. There is every chance the same thing will happen here.

• And then of course there is the small matter of the billions of tons of plastic pollution from masks (including particles of potentially carcinogenic microplastics) clogging up our oceans and littering our pavements, roads and countryside.

So, as you may imagine, I do not intend to continue wearing a mask or any other form of face covering after the 19th. Even if they worked, which I highly doubt, the benefits are extremely marginal (one study estimated that if infection levels are relatively low, 200,000 people would need to wear a mask to prevent ONE case of the virus being transmitted – and that figure optimistically assumes that masks reduce the risk of transmission by 40%). I have no objection at all to other people continuing to wear masks if it gives them reassurance (or a sense of moral superiority). But even though I am 65 and suffer from a long-term lung condition, I absolutely don’t want or expect anybody to wear one for my supposed benefit.

Moving on, I have just returned from a short break in Llanbedrog in North Wales. I won’t say too much about this now, as I plan to write a separate blog post about it soon. But it was a relaxing and restorative break and I felt much better for it. I stayed in this Airbnb apartment (you can read my post about booking a holday with Airbnb here if you like). I had never been to Llanbedrog before but would definitely like to return before too long. There is a picture of the beach and headland (which I climbed) in the cover image.

Also in June I met up with various friends I hadn’t seen for some time for pub lunches and other social events. I am doing more driving now, and noticing increasing amounts of traffic on the roads. Also, sad to say, I am seeing some very poor driving, including one collision (which thankfully didn’t involve me). I suspect many people have got out of practice at driving during lockdown, so please do be extra careful out there 😮

On the entertainment front, I finally got around to subscribing to Britbox in June. They had a special offer of one month free followed by three months at half price and I decided that was too good to ignore (I think that offer is closed now – sorry).

I haven’t really used it much yet, but have enjoyed watching (or re-watching) some old episodes of The Avengers with Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee (pictured above). Last night I watched The House That Jack Built, one of the all-time classic episodes (even though it’s in black and white).

I am also planning to watch some of the original Doctor Who stories, and the three series of the political drama House of Cards featuring the inimitable Ian Richardson (“You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment”). I understand that Britbox also have Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on My Collar coming up shortly and am looking forward to watching that too.

Whether I will stick with Britbox once my trial offer is over I am not sure. The big attraction for me is the classic series. While they do have some new material on offer as well, there isn’t much that has really piqued my interest. Still, I have four months before I need to decide about that 🙂

I plan to do one further Coronavirus Crisis Update next month. Assuming Freedom Day does go ahead on 19th July as planned, I think that will be a suitable point to stop. I will probably continue with monthly investment updates, and may also do more personal/general ones as and when the occasion arises.

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane during these challenging times. If you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience: June 2021 Update

Nick Investing, Everything Else events 4 Comments

Another month has gone by, so it’s time for another of my Coronavirus Crisis Updates. Regular readers will know I’ve been posting these since the first lockdown started in March 2020 (you can read my May 2021 update here if you like).

As ever, I will begin by discussing financial matters and then life more generally over the last few weeks.

Financial

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA, as I know many of you like to hear what is happening with this.

As the screenshot below shows, my main portfolio has been on a roller-coaster ride in May. It is currently valued at £20,435. Last month it stood at £20,430, so overall it has gone up by the princely sum of five pounds! Since 20th May it has been on an upward trajectory, so clearly I hope that trend continues 🙂

.

Apart from my main portfolio, six months ago I put £1,000 into a second pot to try out Nutmeg’s new Smart Alpha option. This did pretty well, so in April I added another £1,000 from some money returned to me from another investment. This pot is now worth £2,060 (£7 down on last month’s figure). Here is a screen capture showing performance in May 2021.

I updated my full Nutmeg review recently and you can read the latest version here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your new 2021/22 ISA allowance, based on my experience they are certainly worth considering.

• If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my recent blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (my main port is level 9). I was truly amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes.

This year I am using Assetz Exchange for my IFISA. This is a P2P property investment platform that focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing on long leases). I put £100 into this in mid-February and another £400 in April. Since then my portfolio has generated £5.59 in revenue received from rental and £2.54 in capital growth for a total return of £8.13. Here’s my current statement in case you’re interested:

As you can see, even though I have only invested £500, I already have a well-diversified portfolio with 17 different projects. This is a particular attraction of Assetz Exchange in my view. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously!

As mentioned above, my investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here if you like. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

In May several of the loans I invested in with the P2P property investment platform Kuflink were repaid (with interest) and I duly reinvested the money in other loans.

I have a well-diversified portfolio of loans with Kuflink paying annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I invest no more than £200 per loan (and often £100 or less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms (such as this one). My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are definitely behind me now!

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They recently passed the milestone of £100 million loaned, and say that since their launch no investor has lost money with them. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year, with built-in automatic diversification. And I’d particularly draw your attention to their revised and more generous cashback offer for new investors. They are now paying cashback on new investments from as little as £500 (it used to be £1,000). And if you are looking to invest larger amounts, you can earn up to a maximum of £4,000 in cashback. That is one of the best cashback offers I have seen anywhere (though admittedly you will need to invest £100,000 or more to receive that!).

Moving on, if you haven’t seen it yet, you might like to check out this eye-opening post about ‘how much is enough to retire on’ published on the PensionBee blog – I am quoted representing people in their 60s in this article!

You may also like to read my article on the Mouthy Money site in which I reveal why I am not a fan of premium bonds. I was recently hired as a regular contributor for Mouthy Money, so watch out for more articles from me there in the coming months. I also highly recommend reading the articles on the site by other contributors.

And finally, you can read my Q&A on the Lifeline24 blog, in which I talk about Pounds and Sense and share a few financial tips. Lifeline24 is a personal alarm service for older people and people with disabilities. If you’re interested, there is a code to get £10 off their already reasonably priced service at the end of the article. And no, I’m not getting any commission from them!

Personal

In May, as I’m sure you know, more of the government’s lockdown restrictions were eased. In particular, pubs and restaurants were allowed to open inside as well as out. Considering the monsoon-conditions that ensued after the outdoor reopening in April, that was a relief all round!

Last week I enjoyed my first pub lunch since the autumn at the Spread Eagle in Gailey, near Cannock. I met up with my old friend Liz, a former colleague from my days working at Wolverhampton University (the last ‘proper’ job I ever had). It was wonderful to see Liz again and in retrospect I hope I didn’t come across as too demob-happy! The food and service were both excellent. The pub was pretty quiet when we arrived at 12.30 but got busier later. There was still plenty of room inside and out, though.

Also in May I had my second Covid jab. For some reason I wasn’t able to book a slot at Whitemoor Lakes where I had my first jab, so this time I made my way to Great Wyrley Community Centre, another voyage of discovery for me. Everything went well, though bizarrely when I arrived a man at the door offered to ‘fast-track’ me if I took a lateral flow test (I declined). I had no side effects at all from this jab (the Oxford again), not even a sore arm. It is strange how people react so differently. I have friends who have had quite nasty reactions, though generally these lasted no more than a day or two. As for me, I have had (much) worse reactions from my annual flu jab.

With the better weather over the last week or two, I have resumed my habit of going for a breakfast walk. This is by far my favourite time of the day for walks, and I now have a good variety of routes to choose from around the local lanes. The photo in my cover image shows the beautiful Wisteria on Hope Cottage. This is about half a mile from where I live and features on many of my routes 🙂

Also in the last month I got back into the habit of reading again. I know many people say they read more during lockdown. However, I found that my concentration and attention-span were badly affected by the pandemic, so I more or less stopped reading for pleasure.

But in the last few weeks I’ve been feeling a bit more relaxed and that has helped me get back to reading, starting with some short books. Initially I picked up The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Having enjoyed that I moved on to the follow-up novel, Tears of the Giraffe. which is also very good. I remember that these light-hearted books were made into a TV series a few years ago, so I am thinking of buying the DVD set now.

After that, I moved on to another short novel, The Mountains of Majipoor by US science-fiction/fantasy writer Robert Silverberg.

Silverberg wrote a series of novels set on the giant world of Majipoor. I read most of them around 30 years ago, but for some reason this is the one novel in the series I never got around to.

I did enjoy it, but if you have never read any of the Majipoor novels, I wouldn’t start with this one. The place to begin is undoubtedly Lord Valentine’s Castle, a tour de force of the imagination with a compelling storyline. As a matter of interest, Lord Valentine’s Castle inspired me with the desire to learn to juggle (if you read the book you’ll understand why). But sadly despite many hours of trying I proved to have zero aptitude for it! Here’s an image link (affiliate) to the Amazon UK sales page.

The novel I’m reading at the moment is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. This is a longer science-fiction novel, which was recommended to me by Amazon as something I might enjoy.

Amazon recommendations can be hit or miss, of course, but I was very glad I acted on this one. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a novel of great wit and charm, and I have been engrossed by it. It is mainly set on a small, commercial spaceship called The Wayfarer, whose job is to ‘tunnel’ wormholes in space. Becky does a brilliant job of bringing the ship and its (mostly) lovable multi-species crew to life.

The story is episodic – you could almost say picaresque – and told from the viewpoints of different crew members – from the reptilian pilot Sissix to the amiable alien chef/doctor called (quite reasonably) Dr Chef. There are some humans too, including the captain, Ashby, and the ship’s clerk and newest crew member, Rosemary Harper, who has a secret that is tearing her apart. There is plenty of humour and emotion alongside the science, so you definitely don’t need to be an SF aficionado to enjoy it. Anyway, I won’t rave on about it any more. If you want to find out more, here’s an image link (affiliate) to the Amazon sales page.

Finally on the subject of books, my nephew Steve (a semi-professional guitarist) has just published his first on Amazon. It’s called Crucial Guitar Basics and was written as a lockdown project. I had a very small input into it and my sister Annie rather more (she edited/proofread it). I’m no guitarist myself but thought it was a well-written and accessible introductory guide. Here’s an image link (affiliate) in case this might interest you. It’s available in both print and Kindle ebook form.

As I write this, the whole UK has just enjoyed its first day since March 2020 without a single Covid death. There is still some concern over the rise in cases of ‘The Indian Variant’, but so far these don’t appear to be causing a significant increase in hospitalizations or deaths. There is some speculation about whether the final stage of the PM’s ‘Roadmap to Recovery’ will take place on June 21st as promised. Personally I think it should, but in my view it’s more likely we will see a partial lifting of restrictions, with others retained for longer. I would particularly like to see an end to mandatory masks, as the evidence in favour of their use is weak (and many US states have done away with them for months now with no calamity ensuing). But we will see, I guess!

I hope that at some point soon I will be able to stop producing ‘Coronavirus Crisis Updates’ as normal life resumes. At that point, I may switch to creating monthly updates about my investments and maybe separate, more personal updates if anyone would be interested to read them. But I will definitely do at least one more full Coronavirus Crisis update next month.

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane during these challenging times. If you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.