Those of you of a sensitive disposition might wish to avert your eyes now. This post will, unfortunately, include several references to the “C” word. And, I am not talking about our incompetently inept government, although the “C” word would certainly apply to most members of the cabinet and especially to the prime minister. No. This is the week that Covid arrived in our household!
We had both been feeling a bit rough at the end of last week following our visit with our visitors. We put it down to contracting the cold and sore throat which Sue Walton brought with her. We all tested negative and went to dinner and to the theatre in Stratford on Tuesday evening. I commented last time about the numbers of people who were not wearing masks but we still felt relatively safe given that the theatre was well-ventilated. On Sunday last week, however, we had a message from the Waltons to say that they had both tested positive. We immediately tested and, thankfully were both negative. Perhaps they picked it up at another outing?
On Monday I was due to have a skin lesion removed at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. So, I phoned them up, explained that friends with whom we had spent time last week had tested positive but that we were both testing negative. They asked me to do a second test before I set off for the hospital and, if it was still negative, to come along for my procedure. The second test on Monday was indeed negative so off I went to have a BCC removed.
On Tuesday, though, Penelope tested positive! We suspect it’s Omicron as her symptoms have been fairly mild. Even though, thanks to our government’s brilliant success at defeating Covid, we are no longer required to isolate, we did the “right” thing and have shunned contact with the outside world since then.
As requested, when we reported Penny’s positive result online, we entered her result in to the marvellous, world-beating Track and Trace app. You may remember that this is the farcical system the government spent more than £100 billion on and which has proved to be almost utterly ineffective. What is supposed to happen is that the system will send a message to anyone who has been in “close contact” with Penny (well, with her phone, actually) for 15 minutes or more during the preceeding few days. I am still waiting for my ping to arrive even though our phones often spend considerable time in close proximity to one another, especially whilst charging.
On the other hand, since we’ve obviously beaten the pandemic perhaps they’ve switched the whole thing off in which case why ask you, when you report your result, to enter it into the app?
So, what does Penny do when she has Covid? Paint the French doors in her study, of course!
Bizarrely, I am still testing negative even though I have a sore throat and somewhat itchy eyes. Perhaps mine is just a cold?
Now that Covid has been defeated (even though cases are still rising daily and the R number is well in excess of 1) the government has turned its world-beating expertise to the refugee crisis in Europe.
As always, the British government was slow to the game.
After the countries bordering Ukraine opened their borders to tens and hundreds of thousands of refugees, the UK government generously announced that any Ukrainians with “close” relatives in the UK would be granted a visa. Hooray!
Apparently, however, grandparents don’t count as “close” relatives nor do aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. When there was a howl of anger from the British public, the government announced that any Ukrainian could apply for a visa as a seasonal agricultural labourer, i.e., they could come and pick fruit.
You could not make it up.
I’ve had a few days enforced hiatus on the Route 66 virtual ride – my bike had a flat tyre and I had to stand by the side of the road for about a week waiting for the mechanics to arrive.
Clearly Penelope and I have been thrashing our exercise bike too strenuously. It developed a number of faults over the past few weeks. We’ve been waiting for some parts to arrive and, in the meantime, I have kept reporting the faults as they arose. After I reported the fourth fault, the service folks decided that they would send me a new bike rather than repairing the old one. How exciting!
So, Wednesday before last the bike was collected by a courier and we’ve been without a bike until Wednesday of this week. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed when I was told that I would need to assemble the bike myself but assemble it I did and we’re off again. This past week I reached Oatman, Arizona, an old mining town which is known for the Oatman burros. These are the descendants of the burros used by the miners which were abandoned when mining finished in the area. Now they roam the streets of Oatman scratching a living from the tourists who feed them.
For those of you who like word games, such as Wordle, have a go at Dave Walton’s new game – Swindle. (At the moment it’s under development and is only available via a browser). Go to https://swindle.fun
There are no instructions yet but the object is to find words of four letters or more in the 5 by 5 grid. You can only move horizontally or vertically (not diagonally). If the sequence of letters you click make up a word it appears below the grid with “Correct”. After you’ve found the five words you then have to make a five-letter word using the first letters of each of the words you found in the grid. Sometimes it’s relatively easy and the words just jump out at you. Other times it’s frustratingly difficult. Like Wordle, there’s a new puzzle each day. Have fun and let me know how you get on – I can pass any comments on to Dave.
Here’s one from a few days ago just to give you the idea:
The words you’re looking for in this one were: Fade, Yodel, Affair, Runner and Irony. (It can be a bit annoying when you’ve found, for example, Fair but it doesn’t pop up as correct. You need to look a bit more. Also, Iron doesn’t turn up until you add the Y). The final word was Fairy, of course.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg