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I know the general area where you live arunadasi, the population of the whole of Monaghan is only about 60,000, so it's not exactly a hive of activity.  I just thought your comment about people in the Republic being worried about people from Northern Ireland coming over the boarder was a bit unfair, they both have reasons to worry.

arunadasi, I'm sure there are people in Northern Ireland feeling the same way about people from the Republic coming over the boarder.  From all accounts, a lot of peope in the Republic have not been following the rules, especially on a nice sunny afternoon

It's a gift, accept it as such.  If I were the couple, I would have done the same

Because I'm doing some work online, I get up in the morning, shower, get ready for work, and walk into my living room.  I look quite professional from the waist up, the rest of me, not so much!

But that's the very reason to keep going. Set up an online platform and offer it to your clients, show them you're a professional and that you can keep them going with their English.  Trust me, a week or two at home and many people will be more than happy to do something else, like English training, for a hour or so.   Take tor up on his offer and at least learn how these platforms work. Who knows, it could lead to even more work because there are no limits online.   Just don't give up, push back and you'll be surprised who's happy to take you up on your offer.

  This has been one hell of a learning curve, and I'm still learning, but I'm getting there. I've decided to go with Zoom for groups. You can use a "white board" facility and upload a document onto the site to share with the participants.  For one-to-one lessons, I'm still using Skype, it's been enough so far.   We need to hold onto our clients through this, and using these platforms seems to be the only way to do it.

A friend of mine went for a run this morning and took a picture of Frankfurt from the Taunus mountains. When I saw it, this song came to mind.   Bette Midler, From a Distance   https://youtu.be/lN4AcFzxtdE

I have one of those prints, it's really lovely and I treasure it, but it's also a sad reminder of that time, which is often the way with art.

Oh, I'm so, so sorry to hear that!  I've been following this since yesterday, hoping for a positive outcome.   You did your very best for him.

  I've been wondering the same, he hasn't logged on since 4 May 2019

I had to drive into Frankfurt yesterday morning at 07.30. Normally, at that time, the A3 is a disaster, but yesterday, the traffic was much lighter. I also noticed that the bigger, more expensive cars were missing, most of them were small, older cars and I realised then that the people who drive those bigger cars are most likely managers and bosses, and they are working from home at the moment. The people on the road are the ones keeping things running in places like hospitals, care homes, supermarkets, etc.  I also noticed the lack of aggression; other drivers were more polite to each other. There are also a lot less planes in the sky and the air is clearer, and then it struck me, nature (or God, if you believe in him) is really, really pissed with us just now and has taken the control back, for a while at least, and that thought made me smile!

I read this the other day:   "If you want to know how serious this virus is, Ireland has closed its pubs.  To put that in perspective, only God has ever managed to do that before - and he struggled!"    

It's Saint Patrick's Day, a national holiday in Ireland, so just like a Sunday!

Working on it

One by one, the companies I work with wrote to me to say that English lessons have been cancelled for at least a month. It's a scary time to be a freelancer.