As I write it is still the last day of January…Sunday afternoon and the snow is falling! Soft and pretty – when you are inside and cosy and warm! Not sunny summer warm, but its hypnotic effect beats the rain and the gloom that we’ve had for a large part of the week.
We move into February with great expectations. The pretty local television Points West news anchor, Alex Lovel, said on Friday that it was the 350th day of January. She also said the month felt like the 13th month of 2020. I know what she means! But if that’s the case, Happy New Year! It’s February!
There have been over nearly nine million vaccines delivered in the UK so far – including into my husband’s arm. Mine is due this month according to my vaccine watcher app. That should mean that within ten weeks we will both have had our second jab and the worst worries of lockdown will be behind us. By May the world might be a little bit more navigable. However, Labour are politicising the vaccinations and want all teachers to receive the jab this half term, before older folks like me. Could be enough to make me vote Tory…..
Our Bristol University specialist, Dr. Adam Finn sets out the reasoning behind prioritising vaccines as they are. He says, “We worked out that if you give 20 people in a care home a dose of vaccine, you’ll save a life. If you give 160 people in their 80s a dose of vaccine, you’ll save a life. But once you get down to people in their 60s, you’re up to more than 1,000. If you go down to teachers or policemen, you’re approaching one in 50,000. It’s an extraordinarily inefficient way in the crisis to use vaccines – to start going out to these other lobbying groups who are perceiving themselves to be at enhanced risk of exposure, but who are not actually and demonstrably at enhanced risk of getting sick and dying. If in the next month you immunised 200,000 teachers, there will be 200,000 people in their 70s who won’t get that vaccine. You’ll save a few teachers’ lives, and you’ll waste the lives of a lot of people in their 70s. It is politically, socially and ethically unacceptable that we turn our back on older people and say, ‘It’s too bad, just stay home and die.’”
Follow the science people! Every report and statistic agrees with this assessment. Let’s hope the government hold firm. As it’s the Labour party suggestion it seems we might indeed be safe. As for my voting intentions? We’ll see, four and a half years is a long time until the next election. I’ve never voted Tory in my life, I suspect I won’t now either.
Vaccinations are now the hot topic in the papers. The EU shot themselves in the foot over their handling of the Astra Zeneca vaccine and on that the debate goes on. The EU Commission had to back track on ridiculous statements and trying to invoke an article in the Brexit plan that would hurt Northern Ireland. What were they thinking?
As a Remainer, even I was pleased the UK weren’t part of the EU vaccine plans. Oh dear!
Well as we aren’t out of this yet by a very long way…I’ll have plenty of time to think about the politics of it all. For now, I am just watching the snow and enjoying a quiet and contemplative Sunday. Isn’t that what New Years Eve’s are for?
This is my Edward Jenner day, I shall raise a toast to the man tonight, today I am to have my first Covid vaccination!
Edward Jenner was a local doctor who probably saved more lives than any other human being.
Jenner was born in May 1749 in Berkeley, Glos, the eighth of nine children of the local vicar, Stephen Jenner. From age 14 he was apprenticed to a local surgeon and then trained formally at St George’s Hospital with the great John Hunter. He returned to Berkeley in 1773 as a local doctor and surgeon.
At that time smallpox, or variola, was a scourge which puts Covid in perspective – it was always circulating around, caused severe fever, and pustules on the skin – the “pox” -and around ten percent of the population died of it. Of those infected 1 in 3 died, and over half the survivors had lifelong pockmarks. If one person caught it, 6 in 10 of their family would catch it. It is a virus which spreads somewhat similarly to Covid in droplets, but also from skin flakes from the scabs. Infection was often from contamination of surfaces, bedding clothing etc: smallpox stays viable on surfaces longer than Covid.
It had been recognised for centuries that those who had experienced the smallpox were then protected from it, and some forms of inoculation with skin scrapings from sufferers from a mild form was practised in some parts of the world, known as “variolation”, and introduced io Britain around 1721. The idea was to give mild disease and thence protection. It was a dangerous practice, there was a risk those inoculated could become ill, and even spread the disease. Jenner was “variolated” when young, became ill and apparently suffered lifelong illness from it.
There was folklore suggesting that those who had the cowpox, Latin name “Variola Vaccinia” (meaning “pox of the cow”), did not get smallpox or react to variolation. There were people other than Jenner interested in this. A Dorset framer, Benjamin Jesty, is said to have inoculated and protected his wife and children with cowpox and protected them in the smallpox epidemic of 1774. Another physician around Berkley, John Fewster, may have inoculated some people with cowpox a little before Jenner, but this was never written up and he apparently decided that cowpox inoculation was of no value[1]. The popular story is that Jenner noticed the milkmaids, who all caught cowpox, did not get smallpox, although he may well have been alerted by Fewster. Whatever the background, it was Jenner who realised the potential importance of this, experimented with it, and eventually published it. It was classic science, a great example of clear thought.
Jenner inoculated 24 people with cowpox material from a milkmaid with the disease, including his own 10-month-old son, and demonstrated that variolation then had no effect on them. Health and safety would never allow this today! Despite initial resistance from the medical establishment, and anti-vaxxers, who are certainly not a new phenomenon, his findings were published in 1798.
As he inoculated with Variola Vaccinia, Jenner called the process “Vaccination”.
From these beginnings, vaccination was developed. By 1840 the British Government had banned variolation, and today smallpox has been eradicated from the world. With this and all the other lives saved by other vaccines, Jenner’s work has led to the saving of millions of lives.
Jenner had many other interests. When young he experimented with ballooning, and is thought to have met his wife, Catherine Kingscote, when his balloon landed in Kingscote Park, not far from Berkeley. He is credited with advancing the understanding of ischaemic heart disease. Jenner was also a keen zoologist and was the first to observe and describe how baby cuckoos push the other fledglings out of their adopted nest!
There is a delightful museum about all of this in Jenner’s old house in Berkeley.
Anti-vaxxers started in Jenner’s time and have been around ever since – the first cartoon below is from 1930.
There is still a lot of muddled thinking around…
Meanwhile, back to today, I am off for my jab, the first step in developing freedom from the restrictions of Covid. What we need now is for Kathy to get hers, she is younger and lower down the priority list, but hopefully it will be within 3 or 4 weeks.
The UK has now had 100,000 deaths from Covid 19. It’s hard to take that in. It makes all the temporary moments of ennui disappear. We are the fortunate people.
Despite the best efforts of all in our amazing NHS, the death toll is one of the highest in the world. It is hard not to wonder why. Did this government take too long to put measures in place? The stark reality, according to some modelling, seems to suggest that if we locked down sooner, closed the borders more quickly, the numbers of deaths would be much less. Test and trace was a shambles at the beginning of the pandemic as was the procurement of PPE. Hindsight however is a wonderful thing. None of us expected to be where we are now when this all kicked off last March. The new government, still heady from its huge majority barely had their collective feet under the table when the virus was about to take the world by storm.
They clearly didn’t get it all right. Nevertheless, we are now ahead of most countries with the vaccines that will get us out of the pandemic. Boris seems to have stepped up to the plate. He had the disease and was not well for ages after. For many weeks when he gave his press conferences you could hear him struggling to breathe. Recently, he has stopped being the buffoon and no longer tells us to whack a mole… It would appear from recent days that he is taking responsibility in a way that perhaps he did not earlier.
Having said all that, there are still 100,000 people who have lost their lives to Covid. It is for us all to take a moment and reflect on what that means. They were not with their loved ones when they died or prior to their death. The NHS staff were with them at their deaths. To those working heroically in the NHS – thank you for all that you do.
To all of those who have died of Covid 19 – rest in peace.
Those selfish people who continue to break the rules are causing harm and death. Dr. Vin Diwaker, the Regional Director for NHS London, at a recent press conference likened not following the rules to turning on lights during the black out in World War Two and putting neighbours at risk. It is a good analogy.
The day dawned grey and sombre. World War Two was not far from our minds. Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day. The day of remembrance was established by the UN in 2005 to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps. The Nazi regime murdered 6 MILLION Jews and 11 MILLION others during their time. The theme of the Holocaust day this year, which was chosen eighteen months ago, is “Be the Light in the Darkness.” We were encouraged to light candles and place them in our windows last night.
To those who have lost loved ones, may Peace come to you.
ZOOM! Have you been zooming? As I have three different and unrelated Zoom activities today, I thought I’d find out a little more about where this came from. Prior to lockdown, I had never heard of Zoom, like most of us I suspect! Unless we were working, there didn’t seem to be any reason to try and see people on a computer screen. And when I was working, I remember trying some of those meetings with others dialling in, and they never went terribly well. The technology has clearly moved on!
We have this young man to thank for Zoom. He is one Eric Yuan, born in China (Tai’An City, Shandong Province) forty nine years ago. His parents were mining engineers, and he has a Masters degree in engineering. He got the idea for starting Zoom when he was 19 and at college, a ten hour train ride away from his girlfriend, now wife. He only managed to see her a few times a year and thought the idea of clicking a button and connecting would have been so much better than the train he needed to take to get to her. When he was in his late twenties he applied for he and his wife to settle in the US. His visa was turned down eight times before he was successful. He didn’t speak much English when he arrived but clearly was excellent at writing computer code. He never took formal English classes, instead he “learned it from my teammates”. His company is now worth a fortune and so is he. Not bad for a chap who arrived not speaking the language!
Eric doesn’t travel for work as all of his meetings are now on Zoom. He has three kids and they clearly had a hand in the naming of the company! The name comes from a book written for toddlers by Thatcher Herd called Zoom City. Herd’s book is filled with energy and noisy sounds that young kids love to imitate. Honk Honk! Beep Beep! Cars and dogs everywhere. We now seem to live in not just a Zoom City but a Zoom world!
There were originally some issues about safety on Zoom, but these seem to have been rectified. The National Cyber Security Centre guidance shows there is no security reason for Zoom not to be used for conversations below a certain classification. Professor Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at Surrey University, agrees and says, “There is no evidence that Zoom has any problems in its latest versions but in these crazy times it seems sensible only to use systems that are tried and tested. It does reinforce the message that whatever you use you should use the latest version.”
So there you have it…Zoom indeed!
And here’s a chuckle from a child that probably still reads Zoom City….Enjoy!
There isn’t a lot of news in those Sunday papers! I managed to finish reading them earlier than normal this week. The big news from America is that there is a decent human being in the White House! Joe Biden is the President. All that ink dedicated exclusively to the most recent inhabitant is no longer. The main issue here at the moment seems to be a lot of conjecture about the splitting up of the United Kingdom. It remains to be seen over the next months whether that is going to happen, but Scotland are pushing and shoving to leave. Good luck to them! It will be interesting to see what happens there post Pandemic. How the funding goes will surely be an issue.
Here in England, we are playing the what would the UK be called game, if it does split. The United Kingdom of England and Wales? The Disunitied Kingdom? Or how about just The Kingdom? What do you think? And what happens to the Royals when and if it fractures? Poor Charles will have waited a lifetime, possibly not to reign as he would have hoped. All interesting topics in Lockdown!
We are delighted to say that Terry has now got an even earlier vaccination! Our local GP surgery has texted and he will be going to the local vaccine centre on Friday. He has been told it will be the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine. He needs to cancel the jab for the 2 February at the huge Sports ground where Bristol is doing jabs. I’m much happier with this plan…fewer people around is always a good thing.
It was a glorious day and we headed out for a walk in the country. We met mud and frozen ground in equal measure. Meantime, before we went, I had to get the sun hat out to sit on the swing for morning drinks. Lovely!
We parked up on a lane outside the home of two horses. I had to look twice to make sure they were horses! I’ve never seen horses in such gear.
Well it was three degrees when we got there and it was about minus three in the night. But doesn’t he look a picture? The other guy got shy and retreated into his stall as soon as I started snapping away!
We were only four and a bit miles from home, but it felt like another world. We started on a small road that was covered in black ice and then got to a trail that was sqrunchy mud. Snow on the ground and not too slippery…yet. Great views!
Terry clambered over a stile, not bad for a seventy something nearly seven year old!
The final bit of the walk was steep and so muddy it took about half an hour to get onto the track and it was challenging. All I can say is all that Pilates does seem to work. My quads got me out of the quagmire…eventually. I did tell Terry to stop talking to me and let me figure it out by myself. I needed to feel my feet in the slippery mud and find my own way. Sometimes you need to do these things for yourself. We spent another half an hour walking back. I did accept a proffered arm on the descent! Without the mud this bit of the walk would have taken less than half the time. It was worth it though! The sun shone and when we were out of the woods, we found a well placed ornamental bench overlooking a pond where we had our thermos of coffee and well earned digestive biscuits.
There was hardly anyone around and between the three degree temperature and the mud, I think I know why that might have been. Still we did it and the rain is promised to set in from tomorrow so back to the indoor bike. Adventures in Lockdown! Yes, they ARE possible!
Glorious! The weather is giving us all a lift. On Saturday we sat on the swing in the fantastic sunshine and watched the prisms that the sun created on the dripping frost. It was magical! Like fairy lights on a Christmas Tree. As the swing moved us gently back and forth the colours went from bright gold to red to blue to green. It occupied and delighted us for ages! It was impossible to photograph so you’ll just have to imagine. Dots of brightness sparkling on bushes and branches.
Sunday morning, the weather was once again making us smile. What is it about snow? We woke to a white garden and an overcast day that didn’t seem dark because of the brightness of the ground and all around.
Once more we headed to our swing with our “take away” drinks in hand. Kitchen take away’s are SO our style these days!
The sun came out and the snow melted from the lawn, but the beds were still covered in white in the late afternoon.
My Sunday paper collection became a walk as the car was filled with snow and the streets were a bit icy. In fact, they weren’t too bad! Nevertheless, I walked. Dressed for a walk in the winter!
My Paper shop owner and I finally introduced ourselves to each other. Shak expects me now every Sunday as I’ve been going there for ages. This Sunday he gave me a present of a packet of biscuits as a late New Year gift. Very kind and most welcome. My three minutes inside his shop each Sunday have been a highlight of my weekend for months now and I suspect that won’t change for a time yet.
When I got back into our front garden I noticed something I hadn’t seen on the way out! They were definitely not there earlier in the week. Very sweet!
Apparently, sleep and sleeping well have been words that hit the top of the twitter word list since Wednesday. It would seem that the many people in the world are sleeping better since the new President and his team moved into the White House. They’ve got lots to do but have made a good start!
Go on start the week as you mean to go on! Enjoy yourself and stay safe. Covid is not finished yet. Keep up the good work!
The jab letters are going out and my husband’s arrived yesterday! He has booked for his vaccination on the 2nd February. Not long to wait. The second jab will be given in April, with a date already confirmed. This has to be good news! I will be in the second tier of jabs and look forward to getting my letter from the NHS. There are those who would prefer to wait for the Oxford jab, but I will take whatever is in the syringe the day I get there. Apparently, not being able to have a jab because of an allergy is no longer an issue. More work has been done and the scare is no longer an issue. Thankfully!
The weather today is remarkable. It really is changing every ten minutes or so! The colours are broody and intense with blacks and purples and then they change to pale blue, and golden sun arrives to light up the houses and the trees and the gardens, only to change back again in the next few minutes. It’s like watching a light show!
I’ve also been enjoying our tulips that Reg the Veg sent last Friday. They are splendid and make me smile.
I keep smiling today. This sums up what I’m smiling about….
….But in the end, America chose the boy that stuttered over the bully.
It isn’t going to be easy…as anyone who ever had to deal with a bully knows, it takes awhile to get them out of your system, but with hard work and good people working together in support, eventually the bully fades away. It would seem that even right wing groups are falling away from the former President. The Proud Boys think he’s weak and led them up the garden path. Moving on is happening all over the place. It will take a long time for many, but for others, they will have heard the words spoken this week and take them to heart.
A light-hearted touch is sometimes the best way to begin and to end so I leave you with one of my favourites, Randy Rainbow wrapping up the Trump era for us. I wonder what he will do now? No not him, Randy! Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!
Wear your masks, distance and stay safe. Covid is still raging….
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were inaugurated into their posts yesterday. Two weeks ago we watched as insurrectionists were in the Capitol Building in Washington DC. On these very steps that the mob breached, democracy was very much in action today.
If you didn’t hear what Joe Biden said, his speech in full can be read here.
It is the evening of the inauguration and I have more to watch and to celebrate. So for now, let us all be thankful that the President who is in charge is not only an experienced leader, but a kind, wise and committed man.
The first woman Vice President. I like saying that…
Woman Vice President.
The Inauguration was filled with moments that brought tears to my eyes.
It is not going to be easy to unite Americans, but today’s first steps were important ones.
Christophe has arrived! No, not a welcome guest who will use the spare bedroom…this is after all COVID times! A storm. The winds have been blowing through the night and the rain is following. When did the weather people start calling storms by name? As though they were friends and not nature whipping up a frenzy?
Well, it would seem storms have been named for Centuries! In the 1500’s they were named based on Saints. In October of 1526 a hurricane struck Puerto Rico on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi so it was named San Francisco.
Clement Wragge is the first meteorologist to name storms. Born in Staffordshire in 1852, Wragge moved to Australia where he became a meteorologist for the government. He originally used mythological figures of Greek and Rome for his storm naming. When the Australian government didn’t give him the job as director of a new weather bureau, he started naming storms in the southern hemisphere after Australian politicians.
In the States, storms were named after women until 1978 when men got a look in as well. In the UK, the first named storm was Abigail in 2014. The Met office asked people for lists of names for storms and since then, they have been named with both female and male names. Each year naming starts anew with A and carries on until they are no more. The UK has never got beyond the letter K in storms and that was Katie which hit on Easter Monday 2016.
A hurricane, a cyclone and a typhoon are all the same beast. The name implies where it was formed. Atlantic = Hurricane and North East Pacific, Typhoons = North-west Pacific, Cyclone = Everywhere else. In the UK Amber and Red warnings accompany names. It the storm is meant to hit 80 mph, with 70mm of rain in 24 hours, it’s a red warning. Apparently, we all take more notice of a storm if it has a name. Beware then UK, Christophe has arrived! However, he’s quite fickle. The sun is shining at the moment and the wind is calm. Christophe, you’re a tease!
Having listened to the weather people, I went for a walk yesterday as I thought the rest of the week was going to be a wet windy mess. I headed toward the University of Bristol and it was the perfect place to go. It was like a ghost town. The buildings are all shut and there is no one on the usually busy streets around the main campus. The daffodils however, outside Royal Fort were a sight to see! They are always some of the first of the year and a friend sends me a picture of them each year when we are in NZ. This year, it was my turn to send them to her, as she is locked down at home ….in Wales! These daffs are early and remind us that spring is coming!
While I was on my walk, my resident gardener was busy planting the last of the lilies in the garden. It was squelchy underfoot, but with Christophe’s promised rain, it is going to get even squelchier so he decided to plant. Our garden is full of plants beginning to show and the first snow drop is out!
Spring is really on the way. It will take its time getting here, but the promise that it is heading our way is encouraging.
Bit like the vaccine. It is indeed heading our way and is being jabbed into arms at an impressive rate. The government’s test and trace seems to be working well too. Hurrah! The NHS is still near breaking point and the staff are on their knees so like spring, we aren’t quite there yet. Keep up the good work. Lockdown is having an effect on the stats…they are dropping. Stay home and stay safe!
There were SO many people out and about yesterday! I drove down the road to pick up my Sunday newspapers, and had to slow almost to a halt as there were so many joggers and walkers taking up the street. The speed limit is only twenty miles an hour but I wasn’t doing more than about five as I crawled down waiting for people to eventually notice that there was actually a car on the road. It didn’t seem right to honk my horn. I could just wait. They were trying! It’s tough to distance when there are so many people walking. I totally understand. My exercise was taken indoors on my bike. My walk was to the end of the garden and back. We are SO close to the vaccine! Terry will get his most likely this or next week as all over 70s are now in the front of the queue. We wait for the letter to drop onto the mat telling him where to go to get his jab…or maybe the information will come on a text or by email? We wait patiently. I’ll be later as he married a much younger woman! Hopefully, mine won’t be too much longer as I’m at the top of the next tier. We shall see. Meantime, we are being extra careful, if that’s possible! And people are staying home…the numbers of infections are dropping. We all must continue to play our part.
I had some sad news from America last week. My sixty six year old cousin David died of Covid. He had learning disabilities and lived in a group home. His sister is convinced that the home wasn’t doing everything they should have been in terms of mask wearing and social distancing. It’s tough with people who don’t fully understand what is going on. David was a sweet man. He was a gentle soul and truly a sweetheart. His sister was with him when he died, along with a priest. It seemed a fitting way for him to leave. His sister has been an amazing carer for the family for many years. It hasn’t been easy as there were two siblings with learning disabilities in her family. Growing up with people who have profound problems does colour the way you live your life, of that I have no doubt. The closer you are, the more it affects you. I always thought of David as a boy, even when he was a man. He was gentle and kind. Rest in peace sweet David. Damn you Covid!
I spent the weekend talking to several of my relations and friends in the States. They are all doing the same things we are, staying in, wearing masks when they go anywhere outside and reeling from the shock of the events in the Capitol. Some days are best spent in quiet reflection and thanksgiving. Today is one of them.
The weekend began with our deliveries! We are so fortunate to have Reg the Veg deliver our fresh food for the week, along with the meat and eggs that come from Peter our butcher.
A great deal of time is spent thinking about and then making food. The raw ingredients bring a smile to my face. Who could resist the joy of receiving this assortment of fresh and interesting fruit and veg?
I’d already removed the flowers that they delivered along with the fruit and veg box. They reminded me of one of our many trips to Holland.
Of course I promised a picture of our Eggs Benny…..Here’s head Chef in the kitchen in his new apron that arrived from our dear friend Ann Marie from New Zealand. The print is pohutakawa ….so NZ!
And nothing could be more kiwi than Eggs Benny on a Sunday brunch. We ate in the dining room and Chef decorated with a balsamic reduction in the shape of a koru! Nice!
The koru is a Maori symbol of creation…the unfolding fern…
It was a Kiwi email that got us started on our Eggs Benny. This Air New Zealand short is how we got there in the first place.
We have a little bit of Kiwi in us now after all of our time there, and we miss it! Fortunately, the Maori symbol of creation remains with us. And, like the koru, we continue to unfurl as we all do.
Because we have spent a lot of time in our much loved New Zealand, I get a lot of emails and information from there. This morning, I got an email called “I Love Takapuna” – Takapuna is a town over the North Shore bridge from Auckland. It has a great beach and is also home to many fine shops, the Bruce Mason Centre which is a wonderful concert and theatre venue, and, of course, there are many great restaurants in Takapuna.
Many of our international visitors who have stayed with us during our time in New Zealand will have joined us at the Takapuna Beach Café. As I write this, I’m thinking that yes, I do love Takapuna! We can’t get there at the moment, but it reminded us of one of the best dishes we order when we visit the beach café. In fact, all over New Zealand one of the main treats for breakfast or brunch is an Eggs Benny. Eggs Benedict is something we haven’t consumed since last February, so we intend to have a culinary treat this weekend and try our hand at making it here at Chez Feest in Bristol (which I also love). The main ingredients of a Benny are poached eggs, ham, a muffin type bread underneath, and the all important hollandaise sauce. Looking up how to make hollandaise sauce started us on a new culinary learning journey! The sauce is one of five “mother” sauces that are used in French cuisine. The other mother sauces are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, and tomato. They were developed by French chef Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century. These sauces are a starting point for all sorts of dishes and from them other sauces – the daughter sauces – are derived. Think Bechamel. While Escoffier is a name that you may have heard, it is the Frenchman that he followed who founded the notion of cuisine as both an art and a science. Antonin Careme. Careme was born in Paris in 1784, and died there in 1832. He served the royalty of Europe and wrote several texts that have become classics of French cuisine. He was a pioneer of grande cuisine. He made elaborate dishes and introduced restaurants to the sort of food once only found in palaces. Cooks who had once worked in the kitchens of aristocracy were no longer able to do so after the French revolution. Careme helped to create a new culinary ethic which many cooks took up and into the restaurants where they now worked. Just make sure your French is up to it when you order in French….
All this new knowledge because I got an “I Love Takapuna” email! You never know where life is going to take you really do you?
Would anyone have thought a President of the United States of America could be impeached twice? Revenge, as the democrats might understand, is a dish best served cold. The trial for impeachment will be set before the Senate much later this year. That will enable time to develop the case and put the facts before those who will come to judge the impeachment proceedings.
Meantime, I’m off to work with the Chez Feest head chef to see what we can do about recreating our version of an Eggs Benny. One taste and I shall be whisked straight back to Takapuna I have no doubt!
Some days there are stories and people that tug on your heart strings and make you feel all warm and wonderful. Yesterday we watched a ten year old, Max Woolsey from Braunton in Devon, talk about his amazing Lockdown experience. He decided to raise fifty pounds for his local Hospice after his neighbour Rick, 74, died at home which was his wish, with the help of Hospice Care. Max and Rick had been great friends. Before he died, Rick gave him the tent that he is sleeping in and told his young neighbour friend to have an adventure. As Max says, “that’s just what I’m doing.”
You can listen to Max speaking about the latest addition to his tent here. I promise it will make you feel good. Max is ten.
We went for a walk yesterday when the rain moved down into just mizzy mode. There were too many people about! Places that were not open in the other lockdowns were open now. Who needs to buy local artists’ hand made goods at the moment? Click and collect? You have to go into the shop and pick things up. Essential items? Businesses with no ventilation had people sitting inside working on computers without masks or social distancing. They could surely be working from home! We passed repair garages that were open and walked across the road from someone who worked in one, not a native Brit, who spit in the street. No mask in sight, coughing away. I could feel my hackles rise.
Fortunately, there were a few little kids on scooters that made me feel delighted with people once again. There were three of them with happy abandon scooting down a hill in the park as we walked some distance from them. The first lad made it down with no problem, the second crashed half-way down and landed on the ground. “Don’t worry I’m fine, keep going” he yelled to his friend. A little girl then serenely managed to smash into the boy on the ground. He didn’t make a fuss at all, but instead helped her up. They were kids being kind, sweet and adorable kids. None of them could have been older than five and the little girl was maybe three.
These moments do make up for so many others! Hope you find something to cheer you today. Keep looking. You’ll find it!
The temperature has finally reached double digits! It makes such a difference. We are expecting three days of this weather and then the cold blasts will return. The garden is all tucked up and yet there is still something that blooms and reminds us that not everything is asleep. The hellebores are lovely! They are also known as the Christmas rose and bloom at this wintry time of the year. We don’t see the splendour of their flowers normally because we are usually in New Zealand when they are flowering.
Hellebores might seem like they might make some good nosh for animals in the winter as they are attractive, but fortunately, they are inedible! All parts of the plants produce a toxic alkaloid so are not munched.
The pussy willows are also beginning to shoot on the willow in the front garden. They are soft and delicate and sweet.
The birds didn’t seem to like the cold freezing weather anymore than we did. This morning they are chirping away as though they belonged to a choir. It really is a very different sound than we’ve heard for ages. They better not be complacent though as winter isn’t over yet. The days are beginning to get a tiny bit longer. It gets dark at 4:30ish instead of by 4:00. Before we know it we will have light until five in the evening!
We are all spending much more time on our screens and devices and have been warned by the ophthalmologists that we are doing our eyes no favours. Apparently we all need to follow the 20-20-20 rule. The ophthalmologists say so! No, I never heard of it before either! They suggest that for every 20 minutes you stare at a screen, you should look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. I’m not sure I do that every twenty minutes, but I do look out over the garden often when I’m at my desk. For now I can stare at the hellebores. How about you? What can you stare at? Perhaps we had all better do this. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s usage on my iPad is up. I get an update ever Sunday to tell me how much screen time I’ve done on it in the past seven days. Last week was 45 percent up on the previous week! I was scouring the net looking for Trump information and watching a great deal more than I usually do. I also played more words with friends games. That doesn’t even take into account all the time on my phone or main computer! Good to know that 20-20-20 will help my eye stop twitching! Now that I have got through the shock of the goings on in America, I can tell already my screen time and my pulse rate is back to where it should be. Good to identify what it is that causes us to go into overdrive.
Here in the UK we are thrilled with the government roll out of the vaccine. It would appear that they have got it sorted. Boris was in Bristol yesterday at one of the seven new mega centres that have been set up around the country to vaccinate. There are already people moaning and complaining about aspects of the campaign but in my book they have a lot to be congratulated for. The UK has vaccinated more people so far than most of the rest of Europe combined. In France only 38% of the population intend to take up the vaccine! They have much work to do in convincing people that science is the answer. We won’t be stepping into France any time soon. When did science become so distrusted? Jenner would be turning in his grave.
Some of the population may be relying too heavily on the roll out of the vaccine as people continue to flout the rules. It isn’t time to let up! The hospitals are swamped with patients and the new variant is rampant. There are no ITU beds East of Bristol. It’s the time to stay firm and follow the rules. If they aren’t followed they will be tightened and the enforcement is about to become much more pronounced. People continue to be much more cavalier than they ought to be. Hang on! Not long now. Spring is coming, the vaccines are being rolled out and we will get there. But we aren’t there yet.
Stay safe. Keep up the good work and look away from your screens a bit more! Get in those gardens while the “warm” weather is with us!
That this is the worst time for the pandemic since it began is no longer in doubt. There are 30,000 patients in hospital beds in the NHS and that is up from just over 20,000 at the peak of the pandemic last year. Yet the measures to keep people home are much more lax, and there are those who are clearly flouting the rules, flexing them so that they can do what they wish. Professor Chris Whitty was on BBC Radio Four this morning, speaking on his own for the first time since all this began. The right man is in the top job. He told us all in no uncertain terms, there doesn’t need to be a tightening of rules, they just need to be followed. People need to stay home. His calm and reassuring voice delivering this message is ideal. We all have come to admire him. Several companies have created a mug with his mug so he can sit with us on our desks all day long.
His “next slide please” sums it all up so well. No “Stay at Home”, no “Safe Distance” or “Masks”. Instead, this most respected of men is lauded by the simple and clear phrase, “next slide please”. That’s what we hear him say at Briefings and his clear and honest delivery of information is appreciated. I plan to order a mug! Wonderful that the Chief Medical Officer is our new national treasure. Both Whitty here and Fauci in America are the people we trust the most in these times. Let us also remember that the women of Science are also trusted, respected and greatly admired…the leader of the vaccine team in Oxford, Sarah Gilbert springs to mind.
The vaccine is here, the end will be in months, not years, as Chris Whitty tells us but we have to all do our bit now to save lives. It’s simple. Don’t make unnecessary contact with others.
In America, the fallout from the riots and seditious acts of the Trump mob continue to be felt. All eyes will be on the Congress to see if they can truly make the man in charge accountable for his actions. In the meantime, there is a man who deserves to be lauded and applauded for his quick thinking actions on the day. Eugene Goodman, a black Capitol Police Officer, helped Senators escape from the mob. Carrying only his nightstick, and totally on his own, he directed the rioters away from the doors of the Senate, sending the mobsters away from those inside. They believed him when he told them where they needed to go to get into the Senate. Sending them exactly in the wrong direction no doubt saved lives.
Remember Chris Whitty says we only have months more of this, not years! Stay safe. And enjoy!
Finally! After days of heavy cloud or even dense Sherlock Holmes type fog all day, Sunday dawned bright and golden. We have a draft stopper across the bottom of the kitchen door and one day last week a white line of frost clung to the wool. That I’ve never seen before. The grass was white and the freezing fog was perishing. Thank heavens the heat is working and the house is warm and toasty. We did venture onto the swing all wrapped up later in the week but it was so cold we didn’t stay out long.
I needed to scrape my car in order to go and pick up the Sunday Papers yesterday. The Observer and the Sunday Times have been the two papers I read each week and between them they offer a range of opinions. There are some columnists in each that I find too left or two right, but a read of both gives me a great deal of information and makes me feel like I am staying in touch with the world. My newspaper man keeps the door of his small shop open and we converse as I am outside the door and he is inside. I sprint in and pick up my papers and pay with a cashless machine touching nothing but my papers which I select from the middle of the pile so are unlikely to be touched by others. What a palaver! I then get home and the next big outing is a trip to the garden swing for a cuppa. By the time we watched Andrew Marr and had brunch the sun was gone. Oh well. At least we saw it today!
After a week like the last one we needed a bit of an uplift from the weather. The repercussions of the seditious acts in America are still being felt around the globe, and here in the UK Covid deaths passed 80,000. The Health Secretary stayed at home and Zoomed his interview with Andrew Marr. He made his point effectively. Stay home. Go out only if you absolutely must. The virus is virulent.
Exercise is one of the musts. We went for a walk yesterday for the first time since the latest lockdown. Walking around the city was strange. There were lots of people around and we didn’t want to be among them. We kept turning toward empty streets and were happy to get home. As a people person I find this tough. My inclination is to walk towards people not away from them. The exercise bike and Pilates are keeping us fit. A walk later in the week in our local area, but not in town is in our plans. There are few who venture even a few miles away to the places we walk even in non Covid times, so we feel safe doing that.
Tech companies in the States are finally shutting up the worst offenders on their platforms. Trump is banned from Twitter and Parlor has been kicked off Amazon and Apple. It’s about time too! Where does freedom of speech allow for incitement of riots and sedition? With freedom comes responsibility. Speaking of sedition here’s a beauty from my favourite Randy Rainbow. I think it’s one of his best yet.
I’ve been reading Heather Cox Richardson for a while now. She’s an American Professor of history and posts very sensible pieces on the goings on in America. I’ve learned a lot from her work. The pieces aren’t too long and filled with facts. You can find her work here.
While the death toll mounts and 46,000 NHS staff are off with Covid, the vaccine rollout continues apace. Bristol has one of seven countrywide mega centres where the vaccine will be given starting today. If all goes well, Terry and I should both have our jabs by the end of February. That doesn’t mean we will do much at first, but we will hold our breath less often as we pass others in the street! Who would have thought that was something we would do regularly on our walks!
As I type those words I find it difficult to believe! Three hundred days! Who would have believed it? When I started writing this, it never occurred to me that I would still be here at my desk writing away three hundred days after I began. To mark 300 days, today you get two blogs, one from me and one from the editor.
I’ve felt very sad the past few days as I hear the news about the virus. Apparently since last week, one in thirty people in London has the virus. The hospitals are filled with over 30,000 people with Covid, and the Lockdown means kids are not in schools, young folks are not at University, and the world as we know it has changed more than we ever believed it could.
All this, and yet given another few months and the vaccines will kick in and change the trajectory of this beastly virus that has taken away so much. We stay locked down in our palaces and remain the fortunates. We have enough of everything. Let’s hope that included in our list of enough’s is stamina. We are nearing the end. Yet so many of my friends are sagging and finding this time especially difficult. The ennui has set in for many and the guilt too. Guilty at feeling annoyed and pissed off as of course we have plenty and no kids and yet…and yet…
We must all dig deep! Another three months and we will be in a different place. We will hang on in there – needs to be our cry! Projects! Zoom! Keep in touch with people! Stay active! All of these things will help as we limp to what we hope is the finishing line.
Speaking of finishing lines, it is really hard not to comment on the end of the Trump Presidency. Let us hope that it is the end of the Trump era. The man has caused so much havoc and pain and death in the country of my birth. I’m just about coming to terms with the storming of the Capitol. Twitter finally silenced the orange menace as did Facebook. Let’s hope they shut him up for the next twelve days as we move toward Joseph Biden’s inauguration. Kamala Harris is not just breaking through glass ceilings, she’s also breaking ties! A good result in Georgia means a good result for the country and the world. Joe is old but wise and experienced. Let’s hope he’s still got what it takes to turn the ship around. I was struck by so many people who were able to offer us hope. Joe Biden spoke while the insurrection was taking place. It’s worth a listen. As he said, words matter.
Barrack Obama also released a statement that is worth reading.
The shocking images from America at least helped us to forget all our woes and Covid for a bit. It hasn’t gone away, but it will be wrestled to the ground. Trump will be as well as Trumpism. Both houses of Congress met late last night when order was restored inside the Capitol building and did their job. The Electoral College votes were ratified and Joe Biden will be inaugurated on the 20 of January. It isn’t going to be easy, but there will be change. If nothing else is certain in our life, it is that change will occur. Let’s hope that we can all derive a bit of inspiration from the fact that Congress carried on. The congressional session ended with a prayer from the Chaplain. He too reminded us that words matter. He also said, “The power of life and death is in the tongue.”
Keep your words enlightened and your spirits up. And don’t forgot to laugh sometimes. It helps!
I’ll stay here until I have received my vaccination or another 65 days whichever comes first. I too believe that words matter. From my heart to yours. Thinking of you all with deep gratitude for listening.
With love,
Kathy x
So, what did I learn from 2020?
At the beginning of the year I was preoccupied with walks, trips, and fishing in New Zealand, and planning where to stay for our next trip there – which would have been happening right now – and a walking holiday with friends in Spain in the spring! The planned future trips never happened as Covid hit almost as soon as we returned home at the end of February. 2020 turned out to be the year at home – literally, not just in England but at home! So we adjusted. it was not what we had planned or anticipated. We missed seeing the family, and suppers with our friends, and foreign travels, theatre and concerts, but we had a lot of fun together, learned to appreciate each other and our house and garden even more than we did already, and discovered many new places to walk near to home. In the more relaxed period, we learned the joys of a local cottage holiday on Exmoor which has led us to plan more as soon as it is possible.
Then there was the political scene. At the beginning of the year we were preoccupied with the details of Brexit and a deal or no deal; and the antics of Boris and Dominic, and of what was still the mildly amusing clown in the White House. Then we had to deal with Covid which despite the inadequacies of the government response we seemed to get on top of. Now Brexit has passed with a deal and barely noticed amongst the resurgence of the new Covid, Dominic is gone, Boris’s actions are no longer antics but bumbling indecision and U turns too little too late, and Trump is no longer a clown but a dangerous psychopath who has caused death on a massive scale with Covid and a small scale with incitement to insurrection, and he severely threatens American democracy.
Despite all this I don’t feel depressed. There was a Brexit deal – as we had left anyway this is a good thing. ~We are locked down again, but that gives hope of controlling Covid in the short term and the vaccines are here giving massive hope for the longer term. Boris stumbles along but eventually seems to do many of the right things when pushed hard enough by those scientists around him, and despite his protestations Trump is about to be replaced by a wise conciliatory human being.
My top ten points from 2020 are:
The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley
Buying a year planner is pointless
British politics may not be great, but thank the Lord I don’t live in America.
Scientists are heroes.
The world has turned upside down – the elderly are sneaking out of the house and their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors.
Zooming all over the place is fun
If you are going to communicate on the net it pays to be able to type properly – so I took an online course, learning a simple skill properly about 50 years later than I should have.
It is OK to go into a bank with a mask on and ask for money – although come to think of it, I don’t even use money any more.
I love my new hairdresser.
Finally, I realise just how privileged and lucky I am: I am in a happy marriage in a lovely house with a delightful garden, have a secure income which cannot be taken away by redundancy or business failure and am part of a loving network of family and good friends.
So, we will make of 2021 what we can. Let’s get at it, get vaccinated and get moving. Bring it on!
I wrote this entry before the Insurrection in Washington. It’s now way past my bedtime, but I needed to say something about what’s going on there. I have cried, and screamed obscenities at the telly. We knew Trump was a monster but to condone and incite the rioters to take over the Capitol of the United States of America is worse, much worse, than anything I’d imagined.
Seeking the positives of the day… the Senate is now controlled by the Democrats. Both Senators up for election in Georgia won on the Democratic ticket. There will be much work to be done.
I’m sure everyone will have seen the scenes from America. It was hard to watch. If these rioters had different skin tones they would have not been able to do what they did. Let us hope that Congress reconvenes and does their job later tonight. They intend to.
Watching these people screaming and yelling without face masks on means more will succumb to Covid. It’s as though it doesn’t exist! Sadly, it does. Let’s see where tomorrow takes America.
I return you to what I wrote before the Capitol building in America was traitorously breeched. Lockdown and England suddenly seem a good place to be….
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Lockdown Three! As we are here again, I thought I might as well revisit some of the things that helped me through Lockdowns one and two. As ever, speaking to the kids helps to ground me and makes me feel reassured that life goes on. Despite the best efforts of this damn virus, all of our kids are fine. They are moving forward, the grandkids are back to school on line, or University on line, and parents are homeschooling again. This time the BBC has made available five hours of teaching a day that will help. From next Monday, two hours for Primary school kids, and three for Secondary Schools will be placed on CBeebies and BBC Two. A fantastic resource. Someone has to figure out how to help kids using mobiles that are on Pay as You go. School online for those kids is sometimes costing more than their parents income! One of the footballers perhaps could tackle this one? Pun intended….
Here is a reminder of a useful resource. Meditation.com. It’s free and can take you off to somewhere else…and make you feel a whole lot better when you return twenty minutes later! Stories that take you places and make you feel good. Can’t hurt! No virus on these journeys, you are safe.
After doing one of these stories this morning I missed my favourite beach in New Zealand, Karekare (next to Piha!) and thought I’d see if I can find something online that helped me to visit that special place. Sure enough. A couple made a video of their walk in the Waitekeries and filmed themselves above Piha. Okay it wasn’t Karekare but it was close enough. It took me back to a place I love and I could hear the sea and feel the ocean mist. Special. All from my study! Where do you want to go? I’m sure if you look on You Tube you’ll find that special place you can visit for a moment or two. Fancy going sailing? There’s one for you! Some hunky chaps sailing around Florida.
How about a short trip down the Dordogne in a canoe? Castles on the hills, sun in your eyes! Here you go…
Lockdown means a journey. It may not be a long journey outside but who says you can’t use the power of your imagination to go away? Works for me. I even came back refreshed…just like a holiday!
Enjoy. Find your special places and enjoy them. They are still there. And soon, very soon, you might even get to visit them again for real! At the moment, everything is changed or on hold…do your best!
Here it is, the first full day of National Lockdown! At least the sun is shining and it is a pretty, though bitterly cold day. As we all recalibrate and get ready to spend another six plus weeks at home, it’s time to make a plan. Those six weeks will fly by for certain!
I’ve booked a week long writing course, all on line or by Zoom, for a few weeks time. Whatever it is that you fancy, now’s the time to turn your hand to it. It might be a good time to check in to see what you managed to do last lockdown and if you might tweak your schedule to include more or less of something or other. It’s all up to you! It always is of course, but these lockdowns have reminded us of that like nothing else. It’s sort of like being at school with an assignment that you choose. You can do anything you want to do and nobody sets the plans. Such freedom! The only thing you can’t do is to do nothing. Even if you think you aren’t doing much, you are! What have you done so far today? What didn’t you do yesterday that you thought you might? Go for it! Today’s the day. In another eight weeks or so, we hope that we will have been vaccinated and the world will once again beckon in a different way. It’s all a state of mind. How many times have we heard that in how many ways? Must be true!
My lack of humour yesterday is now over. What a difference a day makes eh? Somebody said that too. Must be true! A day at a time. Embrace your day. All those top tips are top because they are meaningful. Drag them out and use the ones that work for you.
We had booked to go to Cornwall in two weeks time. Sitting inside a cosy warm holiday home with fireplaces looking out at the sea. Oh well. Instead we will stay home. At least it is a very nice place to be. Take away your heat for a day or so and you realise just how wonderful it is when it returns! Everything else will be a bit like that soon too. In the meantime, keep smiling. When those crappy moments hit, ride them out. They soon will go away.
Stay safe. Stay home and enjoy Lockdown as much as you can!
The Christmas Tree is down. The festive decorations have been put away for another year. The golden boughs in the amaryllis are now tucked away until the end of 2021. The wreath is off the door and the house is sparkly and clean and no longer festive. I thought I’d offer a tip for those of you who haven’t taken down your trees yet. I’ve been storing the lights for many years now on empty wrapping paper rolls. You wind them round and round and next time you want them unwind and voila! The lights are not a mess and the tree trimming is easy peasy.
While I’m on top tips, here’s another one for cleaning days. We have invested in a new broom that is rubber and is magic on carpets. I suspect if you have a dog, you probably already know about these sort of brooms, but as we are poochless, it’s not something I knew about. They are totally effective. Sweep your carpet and then hoover and you won’t believe the gunk that they remove. The house is sparkling. Shame nobody can come and visit us.
We are back in full lockdown. Boris Johnson spoke to the nation last night and told us what we already knew. The R rate is escalating at such a pace that the NHS will soon be overwhelmed. Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers are struggling to keep up with the number of patients that the new variant has created. While the festivities are now over, the result of many people mixing into households is beginning to be felt across the country.
Idiots who seem to think that partying and mixing together is fine for them, have not helped. We are getting closer to the end but we are not there yet. The next few months are going to be tough for the NHS and tough for those with this disease.
Lockdown is required and Scotland beat England to it…again. Wales is on Lockdown and now, from midnight last night, so is England. Schools will not be back again until at least after the February half term. Home schooling, remote distance learning once more.
In New Zealand, six cases of the new variant have been diagnosed at the border but no community transmission. Please be careful friends! You are unlocked and we want you to stay that way!
I’m not feeling particularly humorous today so you’ll have to excuse my lack of jokes. Tomorrow is bound to be better!
Roll on vaccinators! Another three months of this will make it a year… Enough!
