"That is fully sick, man."

Buon anno a tutti. So here we go again. The year when everything was supposed to have already reopened, but the world has been turned upside down by yet another variant. (Never let it be said that my metaphors are subtle. Although with this shot the metaphor is just a side effect; I wanted to get the lens balls out again since I hadn't used them for a while.)

Cases numbers are hitting the stratosphere, though the UK Health Security Agency has just released details of two studies which show that Omicron is far less effective at causing severe illness. Consequently hospital cases aren't rising correspondingly. Yay. But I hardly think that we'll be seeing relaxed restrictions that could lead to pre-pandemic travel any time soon. Oh, and vaccination passports aren't internationally recognised, so even if we COULD travel, we'll all be limited with regard to what we can do and where we can go when we get there if "there" is outside our own country.

I think I shall not be seeing home this year, much less seeing an epic victory by AS Roma at Stadio Olimpico in person. (I would need to be in Roma for at least two matches to do that anyway, since we can beat one of the best teams in the competition 4-1 one week, and only manage a draw with one of the worst ones the following week. This is how life goes in Mourinho -town, and I believe that there is a move to replace our pre-match anthem of "Roma, Roma, Roma" with Katy Perry's song "You're hot and you're cold". But I digress.)

Oh, the title of today's shot? I had set up the #lensball on the platform overlooking the pool. One girl asked if she would spoil my shot if her group went for a swim. Not at all, I explained, they would just appear as stick figures in the ball and as blurs outside of it. It was really nice of her to ask, though. Another guy who was with the group looked at the ball and said cheerfully "That's fully sick, man!" I thanked him, assuming it to be a compliment.

I was admittedly a little concerned when I got to the car to head to the beach, and saw that accursed bloody band of clouds that seems to be perpetually on the horizon. However timing it just right, I did manage to get a small window into the new year's sun as we see here.

Let us hope that it is the start of something good.

(PS: It's also time for me to do a new signature macro given the sub-standard, archaic garbage that Adobe passes off as "Actions". Sigh, I REALLY need to make 2022 "The year I learn Affinity Photo".)