Coronavirus streets in Manchester - XLIX

Booked to rights

The first sign of recovery, I was already thinking of where to have brunch and I booked a table with Trove at Ancoats. Their booking principle reminds me of the principle that governs the computer networking facility to prevent Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

You are free to book a table, but you have to submit your credit card details from which a fee is deducted for a no-show. There is also a time limit on your use of the table for an hour. That way, anyone who decides to book all tables may deprive the restaurant of custom, but not of revenue.

The Denial-of-Service attack principle takes up all resources to contact a website but is not committed, a commitment is demanded in mitigation which if not fulfilled is denied, freeing up the website from being overwhelmed.

A pandemic forgotten

I arrived masked up, not that I noticed any of the customers masking up at, the ones that came to buy bread or the some sat at tables. Though it was a bit disconcerting to see someone who until who opened her mouth ajar in a big yawn without bothering to shield or cover the cavernous depths of that cavity departing the epithet of lady to suddenly and shockingly too. The cough that came after was not disguised, expelling to the air everything and anything.

We seem to have forgotten there is still a pandemic out here and out there, even more importantly is the need for the consideration of others if one should expect some manners of a sort. I comforted myself with appreciating the distance between us and settled into my breakfast of eggs benedict with cavolo nero, better known as Italian kale.

From mobile to paper

Walking back through Arndale Shopping Centre, expectations were low for any pandemic precautions, I did what I needed to do and was on my way home. Then I passed two elderly men appearing lost and trying to find their bearings to some place.

We have long been using Google Maps they had a book I probably last used twenty-something years ago, an A-to-Z Street Atlas for Manchester. I did not know they were still in print, the latest version on Amazon was printed in 1999. Current, it won’t be, by a long stretch, except in old Manchester city and its environs.