【推荐3】Uncle Leo gives me a suspicious look when I call this place the ‘Scacchi Palace’. It is really a house, called Ca’ Scacchi in Venetian. Anywhere else in the world, this would surely be regarded as a palace, although it is one in need of a little care and attention.

Our house is by the side of the little San Cassian canal and a small square of the same name. We have a door which leads onto the street and two entrances from the water. One runs under a grand, rounded arch into the ground floor of the house, which, as is customary in the city, is used instead of a cellar (地下室) for storing things. The second is used for our commercial activities and it is situated in another building, which is three stories high, attached to the north side, towards the Grand Canal.

Finally, there is yet another exit: a wooden bridge, with handrails, runs from the first floor of the house between the two river entrances straight over the canal and into the square itself. Consequently, I can wander over it in the morning and find fresh water from the well in the centre of the square while still rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Or I may call a gondola (威尼斯小划船) from my bedroom window, find it waiting for me by the time I get downstairs and, just one minute later, be in the middle of the greatest waterway on Earth, the Grand Canal of Venice.

The house is almost 200 years old, I am told, and built of bricks of a rich dark brown colour. It has elegant arched windows and green-painted shutters (百叶窗) to keep out the cruel summer heat. I live on the third floor in the third room on the right with a view over the canal and square. When I lie in bed at night, I can hear the chatter and songs of the passing gondoliers and the conversations in the square nearby. I understand why Uncle runs his business here. The prices are not too steep. The location of the house is near the city centre and easy for our clients to find. Furthermore, the printing trade has many roots in this area of Venice, even if some of the old publishers from the area no longer exist.

【推荐2】Around the world, doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals are enlisting (入伍) to fight the new coronavirus. Where there is a need, these courageous individuals are stepping up to the plate and offering their expertise even though they have been retired.

In fact, on a single day in March, hundreds of retired doctors and nurses joined New York City’s Medical Reserve Corps, a program of the City’s Department of Health, after the city’s Mayor (市长) Bill De Blasio asked for help. According to ABC News, at least 82, 000 people have thus enlisted in New York State’s medical reserve force, bringing together a wide range of health care workers to fight COVID-19.

“Whatever it is that they need. I’m willing to do,” said Jerry Kops, a retired New York nurse and musician in the world-famous Blue Man Group, whose tour got cancelled due to the outbreak. She explained, “I knew that all of my old co-workers were on the front line, so I felt I should sign up too.”

Jane Bedell, a retired primary care doctor from the Bronx, also signed up after De Blasio’s request for help. Although she celebrated retirement a little over a month ago, she felt it was her duty and privilege to get involved. “I’ve always wanted to make sure that I’m part of the solution and not part of the problem.” She told the New York Times.

Chuck Wright, a physician refused to let anything stop him from volunteering. After he retired a year and a half ago, he immediately started volunteering with medical organizations, and was among the responders who took care of California’s firefighters during the 2019 wildfires. He’s been deployed (调遣) twice to assist COVID-19 efforts, and was in charge of turning a Holiday Inn into a medical center.

But New York is not alone, other states, such as California, Massachusetts, Washington, and New Jersey have also put out similar calls for help.

【推荐3】My son, Toby, 17 months old, has just tested positive for COVID-19. He is the first in our household to test positive, and all the information provided for people in this situation is designed for adults who are(or should be) concerned about protecting their families. Toby, obviously, cannot comprehend such advice. He cannot keep a distance from everybody else, or eat and wash in a separate room. We called 911, and the medic we spoke to agreed that the official guidance didn’t really apply to our situation.

Indeed. Not much we can do. So, here we are, trapped within our four walls with a little baby infected with COVID-19, who continues to climb on us, spit in our faces, love us and hug us. It seems inevitable that we, and our elder son, are going to get COVID now. Not much we can do.

My first reaction, after absorbing his diagnosis, was to cook sausages. I didn’t even know that was my comfort food of choice. Perhaps an afternoon crisis would have caused a different cooking desire? Anyway, a full stomach helped me take stock. Yes, it may now be inevitable that we’re going to contract the very virus we’ve spent a year avoiding, but as long as we don’t contract it at the same time, then, hopefully, one other of us will be available to look after our kids (thus answering my five-year-old’s most pressing concern: “…but who will make the pudding?”).

So, to minimise transmission, we’ve opened all the windows. And we’ve decided to wear face coverings whenever we are with Toby. This decision has been insignificant to him—I imagine he literally cannot remember life before masks—but for me, it’s distressing. I’ve become accustomed to wearing masks in supermarkets and coffee shops, of course, but to actually walk around with half my face covered in my own house is quite another matter—it is telling me that my home has been infected, That it’s no longer a safe space.

And so it was, when I sat down to write this column, that I ended up writing about COVID, which is probably the last thing you wanted to read. Sorry about that. COVID has coloured my thoughts today, even though I know that my wife and children will be fine, and that really we should just be grateful we haven’t passed it on to my grandmother.

I predict there will be more sausages in the morning.

【推荐1】Owning a home will make you £326,000 wealthier over a 30-year period than renting, before potential house price growth is even considered, a report has suggested.

The Equity (股本) Release Council, a trade body, found that nearly one in three homeowners saw their mortgage (按揭贷款) as an investment in their future. Nearly half of homeowners with a mortgage also agreed they were able to save more because their loan was cheaper than renting, thanks to unprecedented (没有先例的) low interest rates. About 40 per cent added that they believed having a mortgage in later life was becoming more acceptable and 57 percent said that they were looking at ways to release equity from their properties.

The report Home advantage: intergenerational perspectives on property wealth in later life examined trends that have changed the financial landscape for pensions and home ownership over the past three decades. The survey covered 5,000 UK adults questioned in May 2021. It compared the cost of renting privately with paying a mortgage on the average first-time buyer. It assumed that average rents rise by 2 per cent each year and that the homeowner takes a 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgage on a £220,000 home. It takes account of other costs of owning, such as maintenance. Owning a home is expected to become more critical to families’ financial security and wellbeing in later life, but the report also warned of lifelong inequality for those — generally younger people — unable to buy.

David Burrowes, the Equity Release Council chairman, said: “For those who manage to buy their own home during their working lives, the extra confidence and flexibility this provides will be even more critical to their financial wellbeing than it is today.”

【推荐3】We’ve been told since we were children that “It’s good to share”. Parents and teachers keep reminding us to share toys and books. When we grow up, we share photos, life stories and opinions with people around us and with those we don’t know via social media. Psychologists believe that the behavior of sharing is beneficial to setting up positive emotional connection.

Today, the action of sharing takes on extra meaning. It has spread to almost every aspect of our lives. We are using technology to reduce the money that we spend on goods and services, or to make money out of those that we don’t use ourselves at all. These differ from car shares to home shares, and even to pet shares. The sharing economy is creating new ways of thinking and is providing services to people when and where they want them.

This popular ways of sharing is a response to our increasing demand for quality goods and services at competitive prices, all delivered at the click of a button. Whether we’re a lender or a borrower, it’s a win-win situation. What’s more, sharing encourages us to reuse items, thereby cutting down on waste. And set-ups such as bike and car sharing do a further favor for the environment by reducing the number of polluting vehicles on the road.

But the sharing economy is not without its problems. The sharing economy is developing faster than existing regulations and related laws are still on the way. Some companies are taking unfair advantage of this situation to expand their share of the market, often at the expense of more traditional companies. In addition, the sharing economy is subject to abuse of trust. Some people have experienced damage to their properties while renting out their homes, and others have found themselves victims of theft or attack while sharing rides. Finally, personal data is not yet safe. Sharing platforms collect personal information about almost every part of our lives.

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the sharing economy is increasingly relevant to our daily lives as well as to the global economy. it is growing at such a rate that we can only imagine what it will be like in the future.