A very good morning to all of you, it is now actually afternoon for me because today was my seniors’ club AGM so I have been writing two sets of minutes for each meeting hence my tardiness.
I wanted to do my laundry today because it has been a lovely winter’s day so far but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Looking at my Agave plant in the front garden today, it does look like it is on its last legs. They only flower once a decade or so and promptly die. I thought the flower would have to flower all the way to the end before it died but the body of the plant is looking very sad already.
You do keep yourself busy Bruce, great to read about what you are doing and your photos are a great insight into life elsewhere.
Dawn has broken here, grey skies, a torrid 14C and not a leaf moving.
I had a very enjoyable hour out yesterday, so good to get out of the house, but still paying the price for it, stuck on my hospital bed and dosed up on opioids.
Yesterday was the day to go however.
Supermarkets do not all reduce prices on date ending stuff at the same time every day at each store in the UK, that would not be cost effective, they spread the deliveries each day to different stores to minimise their huge transport costs.
Their computer systems are very complex, and the weather forecasts play a huge part, hot and sunny, more salads and barbeque stuff, a sudden drop in temperature, more roasts and root vegetables.
Facts well known to your Food Inspectors, a subset of your EHOs who work to protect your health.
Yesterday was a good day to buy, minimum 50% discount on stuff from a very good supermarket, after 9am, filled the freezer for £42
I have a meeting in town this afternoon, plan is to meet Chilli jnr afterwards and pop into our real ale pub and see what’s on tap and who’s knocking around
I’ve popped the battery into the new/vintage camera and had a little bit of a tinker with the little inbuilt light meter, simplicity itself!
Morning all – some sunshine today and no rain forecast – looks like I will have to get the watering can out tonight!
My neighbour called in yesterday with her weekly delivery of homemade cake! She also told me her husband (a motor mechanic) has booked my car in for its yearly service and MOT – they really are a lovely couple. I am so lucky to have them as neighbours
The pain in my non-arthritic knee seems to be easing. Someone recommended bee venom cream which I have been using for a couple of days – not sure if that is helping or whether it is just a coincidence!
Today is the Thursday meet up with the usual bunch of miscreants for coffee and gossip (I plan on giving the cake a miss this week!)
Good Morning Everyone…
Very cloudy and dark as I set off on my walk/jog so after feeling a few spots of rain I returned for my jacket…Big mistake. The rain never happened and I felt good and did lots of reps, but the consequences were sweaty armpits and…Well, you get the picture…
It turned out to be a cracking run and I almost caught myself up as I joined the outward part of the walk…
The rest of the day will be spent catching up with the tour, and avoiding Mrs Fox who’s got her cleaning head on today…
Good afternoon everyone, I couldn’t believe it was 8am when I got up this morning! Two hours earlier than usual or even three, but the reason is that I’d woken up in the middle of the night and stayed awake hours before falling asleep again. I was out of the house by 8.30 to get some shopping done before temperatures rise to high 30s again, like they are now. I manage to stay quite cool inside, keeping all blinds down. It’s really funny how we’re stuck inside for most of the day because it’s too hot and in winter we tend to spend a lot of time indoors because it’s too cold or rainy! You just don’t win, and now we also have the West Nile virus to worry about, transmitted to humans through mosquito bites, but luckily not humans to humans.This morning, driving into town, listening to the radio, I heard a famous virologist being interviewed, talking about prevention (as if we don’t know ). The news keeps talking about this too, but why now? It’s not that there are more cases this Summer. This disease has been around for years, in many countries all over the world. I don’t know why they’re highlighting it more now, probably because of our increased awareness due to the Covid experience. We’re all used to being careful anyway, using all the necessary methods, hateful creatures!
Anyway, on a more positive note, wishing everybody a great rest of the day.
And they can make some money out of a new vaccine that they’ve cobbled together Rose.
There will soon be a vaccine for ‘Forumitus’…Where people start thinking for themselves…
It raises more questions than answers Bruce…What was the illness? What was the child’s medical history? What was the parents medical history? How many children who have not been vaccinated against this illness end up in ICU? Is the vaccination one of the main vaccinations that children are supposed to have? My heart goes out to the parents but is this a rare case?
In an emotional state i.e. caring for a child with a rare virus, it’s easy to look for someone to blame. I wouldn’t trust anyone on the internet with my, or my loved ones medical treatment, that’s what doctors are for, but there’s no harm in doing your own research.
I can rest easy that my daughter had all the necessary vaccinations until she was old enough to make up her own mind.
Incidentally, I’ve just returned from the vet where Rosie the pussy cat has just had her primary vaccination.
PS…I see that it was the flu jab, but I don’t think the flu jab is on the list of vaccinations that children have in the UK.unless they have weakened immune system.
I agree that the flu vaccine is a good thing for vulnerable people - young children, over 65s and whoever has serious health problems, but for others I don’t think it’s necessary. I started having the flu jab done last Autumn (I’d only had it once before in my life) and will continue to do so, as for a few years now, I’ve been having health issues with hypertension, needing regular cardiological checkups, I’ve been prescribed cardio aspirin, and so on. I made this decision also because I’m nearly 60 and I don’t want to be a burden for my children, they had to rush me to hospital when I caught the Covid virus two years ago , I had fainted, came to my senses quickly but was too weak to even stand up. I had to be “wheeled” into Casualty on a stretcher!
However, there are so many other viruses going around
during the Autumn/Winter time which we get, no vaccine for those. So I suppose it’s a good idea to avoid getting at least one of them - the seasonal influenza - which should be the worst of them.
The problem is you can see the results of falling vaccination rates. Recently a crop of children had measles in an area where anti vaxers had been at work among what you might call hippie tree huggers who did not have their children vaccinated.
Flu vaccine rates are down and the hospitals are struggling with the number of serious cases of Influenza B whatever that is.
The stupid thing is that we know vaccines work, small pox has been eradicated, polio is virtually non existent in western countries, measles and other once common diseases are rare. The proof is in the pudding.
As I’ve mentioned many times, I’m only concerned with the covid and flu vaccines of which I will never have. My reasons are well documented if anyone took the time to read them. I have no issues with conventional vaccinations so I don’t know why you lump them all together, they are totally different to these new strains of vaccines…But I think you know that already Bruce.
Vaccines or not, the hospitals here in the UK are pushed to capacity with victims of flu (influenza) and I suspect that your hospitals will be just the same now.
And no! the proof of the pudding has not been established with the covid vaccines, they were marginally successful to prevent the serious effects for some people, but the long term damage is by no means in the pudding, as proof is beginning to emerge.
Just ask yourself why defibrillators have suddenly appeared on every street corner since the covid outbreak?
). The news keeps talking about this too, but why now? It’s not that there are more cases this Summer. This disease has been around for years, in many countries all over the world. I don’t know why they’re highlighting it more now, probably because of our increased awareness due to the Covid experience. We’re all used to being careful anyway, using all the necessary methods, hateful creatures! 
