After a very hot day yesterday we had a very hot night. I would have slept well had "er indoors TM" and the dogs not come to bed quite so noisily in the small hours, and then all had one big fight.
I eventually nodded off and slept through until eight o’clock when it was getting too warm to be laying in bed. I made toast and had a look-see at the Internet. In years gone past this second weekend in August would have been a weekend at Teston Kite Festival, but that died some time ago. The plan for this weekend had been to drive down to Sussex for the annual Mego-geo-meet, but coronageddon did for that. This morning I saw there was some virtual mega-geo-thing going on; I seem to have missed all talk of that.
My piss then boiled. Someone I’ve known for forty years (or more) was ranting about a news item. There has been a serious upsurge in asylum seekers crossing the channel and loads of complaints that the French authorities aren’t stopping them. Seriously – did no one see this coming? I certainly did.
The UK was part of a group of countries (the European Union) whose policy was that asylum seekers stayed in the first country they reached regardless of where they were trying to get to in the EU. But things have changed. Now the European Union finds itself with a load of asylum seekers who don’t want to get to one of its member states; the asylum seekers are just passing through. The European Union has no incentive to stop them, and every incentive to just let them carry on. And all the Brits who voted for this are acting surprised…
And there was a lot of consternation being expressed about how so many people are making the most of the hot weather and going to the beaches when they should (arguably) all be hiding from the virus.
It’s a difficult one, isn’t it? I realise that my view is very much that of a minority…
From what I can see (having something of a first-hand perspective on the matter) the virus is nasty *if* you catch it. But not everyone does. And the disease is a virus – it is already pretty much everywhere.
I know of several couples one of whom tests positive (both antibody and antigen) and one of whom tests negative. For all that opinion is changing all the time as more research goes on, there is lot of evidence to support the theory that most people (80+%) will just not catch it (in the same way that not everyone catches a cold when a cold is going about).
The expert opinion is that an effective vaccine is at best a year away, and bearing in mind the virus’s similarity to the common cold, I have to ask how long a vaccine to the common cold has been awaited.
Realistically I feel I have two choices. I can either cower away at home in fear waiting for a vaccine that may never come, or I can get on with the precious few years that I have left (albeit in a sensible socially-distanced way). I worked all through lock-down in conditions that weren’t socially distanced and with no face coverings and no one had an issue with that – they all stood on the doorstep and clapped for me.
We took the dogs down to Orlestone. Even though it was hot, they were fractious and wanted a walk. With the woods being mostly in the shade we thought we might get away with a quick walk there. In retrospect I think we might have been pushing it. Fifty minutes was about as much as any of them could take; it was over thirty degrees by the time we got back to the car and we were all panting.
"er indoors TM" came up with some iced coffee, I wrote up a little CPD, had some toast, and went to bed where (despite the heat) I slept for four hours.
I’m off to the night shift now… the days before the night shift are always oh-so-dull…
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