Meeting baby Arwen

Grandad John gets a cuddle

We are fortunate that quarantine has been lifted from Santorini, allowing us freedom to roam immediately on our return (except for Wales, and most of England, since so many have been forced into Tier 3 lockdowns). We were thus able to legitimately travel to King's Lynn to finally see our new granddaughter, Arwen, now two and a half weeks old, and back up to 4lbs weight. She is a model baby at this stage, only waking to cry for a feed every 3 to 4 hours, and taking her milk so easily even I could feed her. She is perfectly formed yet still so weak her head feels far too heavy for her tiny neck. She sat on my knee while we were eating, but I went rigid, frightened to stir in case I woke her or she wriggled her unsupported head free to flop. Matthew and Rosie are taking to parenthood brilliantly and have successfully adjusted their lives round her already, as one always has to with a new baby. 

On the home front, Edwin is scheduled to return to Cambridge today, ready to pick up his partner Andre from Heathrow in the early morning. Edwin too is fortunate not to have to quarantine from Greece - he has had to do so twice this year already, and will have to again from tomorrow as Brazil is in the midst of the raging epidemic. According to Wikipedia, "Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Brazil are among the most advanced in Latin America and the world, with LGBT people having marriage rights available nationwide since May 2013", and it seems the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade is the world's largest LGBT Pride celebration. Despite this protection in law, gay rights are socially not acceptable in Brazil with huge prejudice against them fuelled by Bolsonaro's declared opposition, and in – contrast to the law – Brazil is reported to have the highest LGBT murder rate in the world (380 in 2017), leaving Andre rightly reluctant to come out. However, Brazil also has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with 68,880 murders in the same period. The percentage of gay murders is therefore only 0.5%, yet they account for 14% of the population in Rio de Janeiro, which suggests that it might actually be safer to be gay than straight! These figures seem contradictory, so I must ask Andre about it once they're out of quarantine. Nevertheless, Brazil must be a strange contrast to Cambridge, where all their colleagues and friends are so accepting of them.