Category: Coronavirus

Dyslexic diabetic

So since last Thursday that is what I can be boxed off and defined simply as a dyslexic diabetic and to be honest I have been called worse.

I really wanted to put something down on here but at the same time I wanted to absorb the new diagnosis of being a diabetic first and begin to try to understand more on what that definitional and diagnosis now means to me. I have been being tested for it for years and kept on coming back as negative and not having it but blood suger levels slowly increasing year after year and I knew my time would come. My brother had it and so did my Grandfather. My mum has it and so does my Grandmother.

The mental health medication I take also increases my chance of putting on weight and developing diabetes and it seems lockdown and my desire and ability to increase the amount of cakes I have been eating also increased hugely my chance of being diagnoses with diabetes this year, plus the sedentary lifestyle with working at home more and just not having many places to go or reasons to go to them, my chances of getting diabetes this year along with my blood sugar levels just sky rocketed up, up and away.  

It was like I was playing Russian roulette with a gun that had as many bullets in it as it had chambers to fire them out from.

Prior to the diagnosis I really was kidding myself that my health was ok, my diet was ok and my lack of exercise would change. I still don’t know if I am kidding myself but I am trying to get my head around this and make changes that will enhance my health. I have been for so long focused and dedicated to looking after my mental health, holding down a job and keeping a roof over my head that I really did feel there was not much time left to look after my physical health or pretty much do anything else and I am still not sure if this is true now.

So now I have had a wakeup call and if I want to have a good quality of life, I do have to make some lifelong changes to my diet and improve my physical health. I’m pissed off this has happened I see life like a big beautiful, messy and  complicated picture that paints a thousand words or life like a potential journey to a thousand places in a thousand worlds.

world keeps on a spinning

When some new negative words or views are added to my already complicated llfe bubble, one of those words being diabetes and the second being diagnosis it just feels like what was already a struggle to live as a life just got a little harder and it sucks right now.   

First Aid Kit – Silver Lining

Although I am already feeling much better now than when I had first heard the what felt like inevitable news and am beginning to get my head around it now somewhat more and implement some positive changes for myself.

I have signed up to get advice, be educated by and taught more about diabetes by a diabetes mentor of sorts, through our lovely National Health Service and I have stated keeping a photo diary of everything I eat and drink now for the diabetes dietician to mull over and tell me what I am doing right or wrong.

Huwspace.com Website Birthday

It’s exactly one year to the day since the first article was born on this website.

I was reminiscing last night about different types of communication platforms or social media sites that I have followed or used in the past and also wondered why I used them and if or how they used me.

The reason I mention whether they have used me or whether I am using them is that on social media platforms such as Facebook and MySpace you sometimes feel more like you are the product or thing that is being promoted or sold. Where as on a website blog because I control and editing and content of it it feels like I have more ownership over it.

The first website I really enjoyed using was MySpace. It was an amazing platform for sharing music, finding like minded people and also having as a platform for political and ethical activism. The way people shared ideas and raised awareness concerning different issues and ideas really was inspirational and at its peak I do believe it was purchased by Rupert Murdock because of its ability to empower individuals to educate one another to inform and share ideas. To someone like Rupert Murdock such a platform of sharing ideas and ethics was a dangerous thing that was to be bought, sold and suppressed. Someone like him feared and would try to buy and stop a form of communication that might threatened the consensus or shattered what was seen as the norm of political and ethical thinking by the so called rich, great and good defined by corporate media. A platform where people can educate themselves and no longer need to be told what their opinions are because they are too busy thinking for themselves could be feared by some people within power.

We should always aim to speak truth to power – for one day we might be the difference between the worst happening and preventing it from happening.

Man versus Tank – Tiananmen square 5th June 1989

That is what I really like about having a blog, I am my own editor and hopefully those that are reading the published pages are doing so because they want to see what I have been upto or heaven forbid what I might even have to say.  

I really never thought I would have enough to say to be able to do a blog. But once those fingers start tapping away on a keyboard, it can sometimes be that I have too much to say and must try to keep it relevant and to the point.

Being dyslexic also means I am not a fan or find large pages of words difficult to read sometimes and my grammar and spelling are also not great. When I was a child I loved visual mediums such as Cinema, TV and cartoons. But I was not a fan of books and really struggled to try and read books from page to page let alone cover to cover. If I struggled to connect with a book I would find that I could not remember what I was reading at the top of a page once I had gotten to the bottom. Where as with films, TV episodes or cartoons I found them much more memorable and felt more emotionally connected to them than word on a page.

Eddie The Gun – Don’t Be Afraid

Saying that though one thing I do and did love was creative writing trying to build emotional images and stories though words. I am quite an emotional human and so feelings and emotions are part of this human journey and so trying to connect with people and share my morals perceptions of right and wrong with others and also learning what other people’s views of right and wrong are is a fascinating journey that WordPress helps me to continue to travel along. So happy 1 year birthday to this website I hope you have many more birthdays and I look forward to sharing ideas and reading articles and blogs from other fellow WordPress writers too.  

My Coronavirus antibody test results

A grim reaper of a covid milestone

Today the UK marked a grim reaper of a covid-19 milestone. We recoded over 100,000 people that had tested positive with Covid-19 prior to their deaths that then went on to die. One hundred thousand people are such a large amount of people that it is almost unimaginable. As a teenager in high school  we had a large sports hall that could fit around 1000 pupils in it for an assembly, so that is a way I could try and visualise the amount of people being 100 high school sports halls of people having died because of this terrible virus.

So far I think on a personal level I have not been as severely affected as many, many people have. I hope that that continues to be the case. I am not a huge social butterfly and so I don’t miss going out that much although it does feel like life is on hold sometimes.

With work I still get out to the office 3 days a week and so that is still taking place although I prefer working from home to going into the office.

I live on my own and covid-19 has not changed that I enjoy my own company and through new digital platforms such as this have continued to express myself and feel like I am doing something constructive or real. But it often just feels like I am typing a diary to myself for my memories and forget or don’t worry too much that others might read this too.  

I received a letter from the National Health Service a couple of weeks ago asking if I wanted to sign up to take a coronavirus blood test which will try and determine if I have had covid-19 in the past and whether I have any antibodies to Covid-19. This sounded really interesting and important research to help with so I signed up and got my testing kit today.

So I did the test not 100% sure if I made a mistake when doing it (which I told them about when feeding my results back). It looks like it might have come back as positive for having had it in the past, but I would prefer to take a second test to be sure.

I volunteered to have my test results shared with the NHS and also for them to be able to access and monitor my health results for the next 20 years should they need to, I am in no way paranoid about giving them access to my records and not that I need to but I am sure I could withdraw my consent at any time should I change my mind.

I thought I might have had a serious case of flue last January which I always thought could have been covid-19 and this test result simply backs up that case. I hope to not have again what I had then. It was the mental side effects that unrolled last year more than the physical that concern me the most.

Having been a person who has experienced severe mental health difficulties in the past and who now takes two tablets a day (possibly for the rest of my life) to prevent things like that happening again or at least to reduce the risks or chances of things like that reacuring. I cannot over state to you the joy of experiencing non negative or even positive mental health days and moments in time.

Amy Macdonald – The Human Demands

What a refreshing change

Woodpecker Cider – Advert Ducks UK

I have just watch a new US press briefing at the White House with Dr Anthony Fauci now working for President Joe Biden and although the Covid-19 crisis is severe and will likely get worse before it gets better. One refreshing ray of sunshine in this briefing is that the US administration and Dr Falci have a plan and are very much up for this battle.

Dr Anthony Fauci

With day after day and bleak report after bleak report it can sometimes feel that nothing is changing and you just don’t know when something is going to change, but back in the beating heart of western democracy and the free world, there are people with plans who will hopefully greatly assist in the battle against covid-19, against the damage to the global economy and against the competing crisis of also battling climate change and saving or reestablishing our wilderness areas.

Heather Smal – Proud

Mr President it really does feel like the USA has once again rejoined the battle to try and save this world from itself.

A time like no other

It was the worst of times but we have seen the best of many people. A time like we have never known or wish to know again – but how can we ever learn any lessons from times like this and if we do learn what will those lessons be?

I wonder what will be written about how 2020 unfolded when people look back. Although there are lots of ways and reasons to see the bleak black clouds of heartfelt hurt and disappointments I wonder what will be the silver lining of goodness or positivity that might come through this. A little like a blanket of snow drop flowering across a woodland floor bringing in with them the signs of a new season and rejuvination of life after a bitter and harsh winter.

Sometimes how we view and react to a life event shapes how or even if we can move forward from the event. Although at other times it might be the very events themselves  that force us to be re-shaped and review our view of the world or how we see ourselves within it. Coronavirus is very much an event that people have had to react to and or been reshaped by.

Another nice mess

So do we thank or blame god?

Curse or give credit to a politician in power?

Tears for the poltical stage

Or will we be grateful for what we have or curse for what we do not have?

Well in time we will hopefully have an opportunity to find out, reflect and move forward.

Happy Holidays 2020!

Today was my last day in work until Christmas. I now have one week off until I log into my work computer again to do some work and even better than that I managed to get all the work that I hoped to do today done. Presents bought and wrapped, Christmas songs playing on Spotify. Though this Christmas is in no way normal for pretty much everyone.

Merry Christmas 2020 one and all

In a normal year in the week building up to Christmas day I would be out on a Wednesday night like tonight listening to music in a bar exchanging cards, gifts and stories with friends whilst getting merry with a Christmas Guinness or two.

I’m afraid I am not a household drinker of alcohol so lockdown drinking does not really happen for me. I still have four cans of Guinness being kept cool in my fridge that I was given from my workplace for leaving my old job back in July. There is something lovely about a social pint in a bar with friends, family or strangers just does not do when drinking at home on my own. Therefore I just don’t drink alcohol at home alone.

They say people forget what they do when they drink (too much). But for me some of my most cherished memories are from times when I was having a drink with strangers, family or friends.

Back to Christmas!

Gabrielle Aplin – Happy Xmas (War is Over)

In a normal year my bags would be packed now and I would be on the first train out of Exeter to visit my mum to stay with her for Christmas. I even booked the day off work Christmas eve to travel to Cornwall. But we all took the decision not to meet up for Christmas this year and have a catcup around Easter 2021 instead or after Mum has had a vaccination against Covid-19 first and is in a better position to be protected against the virus. After such a difficult time the one thing I did not want to give to either of my parents for Christmas is the risk of bringing Covid-19 to either of my parents, so better to be safe than sorry.

Instead I will be spending Christmas with a friend who also would have been spending it alone in Exeter this year due to his circumstances too, so our social bubble is legal and legit for a Christmas day meal together. He is vegetarian so nearly all of the food I am cooking is vegetarian, all bought and ready to cook. I am really looking forward to it. I even have some Guinness flavoured coffee to get me going on Christmas morning.

Slade – Merry Christmas Everybody

So here it is Merry Christmas from Exeter in the UK its just gone 12 midnight and it is now officially Christmas Eve 2020 here. I look to the future now, its only just begun. I hope you do to.

My year in review or a Huw View!

Well I tried to do a survey on my last post and so far only three people have responded so this time I would be answering the questions myself a sort of summary of 2020 and see how this goes.

One of my favourite songs I have listened to this year Song for Zula by Phosporescent

Question 1. Hardest thing I had to do this year.

Making sure I did not have a complete meltdown and go backwards in life after having a  severe mental health blip at the beginning of the year. Some time back in March I went to A&E with huge concerns for my mental health I think it was a few weeks before the first lock down started. The thing was I had a chest infection and bad cold/flue or covid-19 thing at the beginning of 2020 and it stole from me my ability to sleep properly at night and I kind of slipped into a non sleeping, spaced out and obsessed with Covid-19 taking hold around the world mess.

 I had enough insight to realise that I was unwell,  which is why I went to the hospital.  I managed to have a good talk to the on duty mental health team there and got a lot off my chest about how to move things forward. After four days off work gathering my thoughts and learning how to sleep again I was able to carry on working and kept ticking over until I had recovered from my mental mess more thoroughly.

Questions 2. Greatest achievement of 2020?

Also back in March I went for a job interview for the council working in environmental health and amazingly got offered and accepted the job. The job did not start until July 13th. This was because I needed to be trained up in office in order to learn how to do the job so  was only aloud to start after the first lockdown had finished.

Question 3. Best purchase of 2020?

I went and bought a tree, not just any tree mind you but a book published in 1770 that had a print of Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil (from Old Norse Yggdrasill) is an immense mythical tree that plays a central role in Norse cosmology, where it connects the Nine Worlds.

I did a little research on the print and found out I could by the origianl book with the print in it would cost me less than buying a copy of the print to hang up on my wall straight from a retailer. So I got the book, scanned the image into my computer, then uploaded the scan onto a website that turns scans and photos into pictures to go an walls on canvases and had the picture produced onto a canvas frame and posted to me to go on my wall in my lounge above where I now work for the council when I work at home.

Isn’t it lovely

At the time you could buy this image on eBay as a print for about £60 but the way that I produced it meant I had the original book that the print came from along with the framed print for half the price. A good deal in deed.

Speaking of Trees and life – The tallest tree in Wales had been damaged by a storm and was supposed to be cut down, but a better solution was found. Natural Resource Wales, which was in charge of the site, ordered artist O ‘ Rourke to cut down the tree. He cameup with the concept of carving what the tree stump and trunk into a giant hand – to symbolise the tree’s last attempt to reach the sky. Once completed, the sculpture was coated with tung oil, a natural vegetable oil safe for the closeness of the riverways.

Question 4. Silliest purchase(s) of 2020?

I bought a box load of DVD’s to sell on eBay to raise money for local Exeter charities. At the time their shops were all in lockdown so I thought I would raise some money for them by having online auctions for them on eBay. What could go wrong, well quite a lot actually? I still have boxes of stuff here ready to give away to charity shops as struggled to sell on eBay.

Question 5. Silliest/riskiest thing I did during a lockdown?

I am not a real risk taker most of the time but it’s those times when I do take risks I think later on “what the hell were you thinking” “just don’t bloody do it again”. Well one of those times after the first lockdown had taken place was joining in a drink game with a bunch of people I did not know in a pub that I very much know and enjoy. It only happened once but the next day I was cursing myself with thoughts of “what the hell were you thinking” “just don’t bloody do it again!!”

Question 6. What did I like about this year?

I love nature but I really managed to rediscover nature on my doorstep. When walking the street in spring and early summer at 6am to head to a shop to get a paper and some milk or other supplies, I found that such a magical time to be alive on a clear day the birds sing like they are giving you a personal performance and I even got a bird table to feed the many starlings, fat pigeons and little sparrows that would hop onto my bird table.

Food for thought

Van William – Revolution (Music Video) ft. First Aid Kit

This year has been and continues to be a revolutionary year and for good or ill the revolution continues to go on day by day. Some will win some have lost, some will survive some will not. A lot will live and many will die. Good things have happened and better may come still.  

The fact that I am still here and you the reader are still here is a huge plus for me to.

Happy Christmas to you and yours and best of luck for whatever 2021 throws in your direction.

The Gospel According to Trump

Can the USA be a free democratic nation or its President the leader of the free world if its commander in chief can’t even accept he lost an election? He still boasts on Twitter to his adoring fans and voters that he won and they cheated. He does this without producing a shred of evidence for his unstable view points.

It was the right that won it – that’s what Donald Trump would have you believe anyhow.  Sometimes there seems nothing worse in life or politics than a sore loser. Well it turns out there is something worse in a democratic state than a sore loser and that’s an American President that after defeat in an election is still convinced he has won. The amount of people that do not condemn his delusional bubble is just shameful and says a lot about American politics and where it is currently at or has come to.

You know something is broken in the world or in a country when good people vote for bad men and let’s be clear Trump is a very bad man, in deeds as well as words. The US President’s actions have exacerbated the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States, rolled back environmental and public-health regulations and undermined science and scientific institutions. Just because a President sees a quick buck in relaxing laws designed to protect you and your fellow citizens which then might result in more short term profits for big business you should in no way be fooled into thinking that those stock and shares profits are for your benefit.

Over the past eight months, the president of the United States has lied about the dangers posed by the coronavirus and undermined efforts to contain it; he even admitted in an interview to purposefully misrepresenting the viral threat early in the pandemic. Trump has belittled masks and social-distancing requirements while encouraging people to protest against lockdown rules aimed at stopping disease transmission. His administration has undermined, suppressed and censored government scientists working to study the virus and reduce its harm.

When Trump became ill with Covid-19 he had no problems with injecting himself with the most up to date cures known to man. He went on to inject himself with using cells derived from an abortion. There are many in the states that think he is some kind of saviour of the Christian right and king of conception laws, upholder of anti-abortion rights. Stopping people having medical care (of any type come life saving treatment for babies or restrictions on abortion rights for pregnant women).  All of his medical policies are not in any way enacting some kind of greater wisdom or strongly held principled view they are purely cost cutting exercises lapped up by republicans as moral decisions.

Song – Who would Jesus Bomb – By David Rovics

I really struggle to wonder what the right hand side of the American electorate really want out of a leader. Say for example all abortions were banned overnight or all immigrants no longer aloud to step one foot in your land. What would the medical, societal and legal consequences be. Would women be locked up for wanting abortions or would thousands of children be placed in orphanages or even sold to the highest bidder. What kind of future would these families or lack of family units have, how does that make it in any way morally the right thing to do?

A dystopian present

“Utopian” describes a society that’s conceived to be perfect. Dystopian is the exact opposite — it describes an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible.

Trailer film Logan’s Run

I got in my head this week the concept of us living in an age that is the prequel to a film called Logan’s Run made in the 1960’s about a utopian society for young adolescents where no one over the age of 21 exists and those left just have fun. It made me think about where society is at present and where we could be heading to without world beating cure for Covid-19.

It’s all well and good for Trump to be injecting himself with regeneron antibody drug that have been developed with cells derived from an aborted fetus but as for the rest of the world, we will just have to wait in line to see if the global pandemic can come up with a global cure and solution.

Exeter’s student population has rocketed with covid-19 since the new term started, the uni in exeter is in the top 10 places in England with diagnosed rates of covid-19, partly due to mixing, meeting and greating of students. Partly due to how little it impacts on the youth and partly because when people go to university they expect to have fun and mix and how uncool must those that are trying to follow the rules look to those that that don’t give a damn.

Covid-19 gone with the wind and onto the next victim

Also you kind of wonder with those that don’t care or give a damn about whether they do or don’t spread covid-19 are saying a huge F-You to the world that they are looking to inherit and the people they meet within it. Admittedly many students are trying to social distance themselves and play by whatever rules the government has announced this week.

But for those that choose to disobey the rules while intoxicated well it just goes to show, people loose there inhibitions when they get drunk and Covid-19 loves the loosing of them there inhibitions.

Song Saints & Sinners – Paddy Casey

Well as I write this I am still very grateful that I am still here and have not caught Covid-19, or any other major health issue from the hurt locker yet! And as you read this I hope you are well too.

A little holiday

Not left Devon since December 2019 and even when I do make it away I take the ever so little leap to the county next door to visit my mum for her birthday. We make it out to a Farm called Travaskis that serve amazing food which I have not been to before where we treat ourselves to a lovely meal.

There was going to be a new Covid-19 announcement made by Boris when I was in Cornwall and so was not 100% sure how long I would be allowed to stay and wanted to get back to Exeter to have a little break on my own and also catch up with some people and places in Exeter too.

I also had my annual GP appointment where the doctor tells me how much weight I have gained and also whether I have been diagnosed with Diabetes yet. They are doing no diabetes tests this year though and luckily I have only gained about 2 kg so considering all the cakes I have eaten during lock down it’s not too bad. I think the walk to the cake shops helped a little. I also went to Specsavers and picked up my first pair of reading glasses since I was about 5 years old. I had some glasses when I was a child to correct my sight and managed to avoid having another set up until now.

Song – I can see clearly now by Johnny Nash

So they have now announced that they are going to shut all pubs at 10pm each night. I must admit some of my favourite joys this year have been catching up with people in some of the local pubs in Exeter although I miss my friends that I used to drink with pre lockdown at the Angel Bar.

Back in the old days we used to have what were called nights out in British pubs where you could stay out after 10pm, stand up and talk to people and not have to wear masks while standing up, I will drink to that!