Tag: covid-19

Your Coronavirus Pandemic 1 Year on

On 11th March 2020 the world health organisation announced that COVID-19 could be characterized as a pandemic and that a pandemic was not a word to be used lightly.

The early stages of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns were hard on many people, in different ways, unemployment, families trying to live, work and study under one roof or individuals having to rely on themselves and draw on their own resilience resources to adapt and absorb the enormity of the situation. There were also many other challenges severely affected the mental well-being of many people around the world and yet here we are, a year on.

It’s a tough subject to write about and one which we are all effected by on daily basis in our own uniquely uncomfortable way. It’s possible to feel both guilt for the good things that have happened as well as joy or remorse for the bad things that have happened and yet relief for the bad things that have not happened too, all in one blink of an eye on a reflection of range emotions and issues.

I do also wonder what would have happened politically, socially and environmentally to our streets, towns, cities, countries and planet had no pandemic occurred and life had continued to race on at its break neck speed into potential oblivion.

It feels like the brakes have been put on a runaway train of consumer capitalism that was our everyday race for life and although consumer capitalism is still very much our way of life and affords us to live, can we now appreciate what we have a little more and aspire to protect and value the sanctity of life in a new found appreciation of what we have and what we hold dear to us. Essential workers can finally feel that well for want of a better word they are essential to the fabric of human life and society.

Who would have thought 12 months ago that to stack a shelf in grocers store was a means to help feed a nation. If I had my way I would give all essential workers and minimum waged workers a huge pay increase not as a thank you but as an acknowledgment to the role they play in a society and economy. This would enable workers to be able to afford to keep an adequate roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. The money that the low paid earn is ploughed straight back into the economy because unlike the wealthy they don’t have the luxury of saving wealth you simply spend to live.

You could tax pollutants such as fossil fuels like they were industries equivalents to humans smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. You could also create a new digital economy type of VAT where everything bought online had a Digital value deducted tax. It would cause prices to increase but if people are earning more this would still balance out.

Well look at that not been in a pub or had a drink of alcohol for what must be over 3 months and still getting drunk on ideas and trying to put the world to rights. Roll on the open of those bars again so I can go in and start to have a conversation about ideas like this and pretend it is because I am drunk again!   

Massive Attack – Teardrop

Today is a good day

Today is a good day to have a Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine injection.

Today is a good day to finally let myself out of my home after having been told to shield since  Tuesday.

Today is a good day to walk to the doctor’s surgery in town and meet and que with other residents of Exeter waiting to have their injection.

Today is a good day to wait patiently inline and be directed and assisted  by the volunteers, nurses and GP’s working tirelessly to save lives.

Today is a good day for the sun to shine on my brief foray around Exeter.

Today is a good day to have a National Health Service and be grateful for it.

I hope you have a good day today too.

James – All the Colours of You

I have been asked to Shield at Home

Along with an Extra 1.7 million people in England I have been asked to shield at home starting from today. So no more trips to work, the shops or the pharmacy or meeting up with people outside or inside of my home or theirs home.

I have been working full time with 2 days at home and 3 days in the office each week. But yesterday I received a letter from the NHS that said that due to putting new evidence into a risk model with information the NHS already holds, I have now been identified as being someone who might be at high risk of catching and becoming seriously unwell with Coronoavirus.

So I am now classed as being in a high risk category and am now formerly known as clinically extremely vulnerable. People in my category are now currently advised by the government to shield and stay at home as much as possible until 31st March or Be Free Day as I might get use to calling it.

This is so surreal, The whole covid-19 pandemic has been so surreal and I have done my best to aim to obey the rules and do the right thing and follow advice throughout the pandemic but I kind of did it hoping to prevent an infection for a vulnerable person or people not realising I was that ‘clinically extremely vulnerable person myself’!

I do not know for sure because the letter did not make me feel worse by telling me what my risk factors were but I can mainly assume it is a combination of my newly diagnosed diabetes, age, weight and blood sugar levels along with my past mental health difficulties for which I still take medication for.

With regards to my physical health and diabetes diagnosis I had already put measures in place to try to do my best to reduce my diabetes risks as I have been following a new food regime which has resulted in me losing at least 0.5 stone or 3.5kg over the space of a few weeks and I was already very motivated to continue with this new food plan.

Sunday lunch with less roast and more veg!

It is a very simple plan. No snacking, having a sweet or desert only with a meal and weighing my portions or rice, pasta and potatoes instead of just bunging them on a plate like I used to. This plan does seem to be working for me and when I want to have a snack I just have a drink instead.

I am due to have my first phone assessment with a diabetes dietician next week where she can look over what I am doing and hopefully provide me with any hints or tips too.

The diagnosis of diabetes is something that has been hanging over me for years and now finally having it has been a call to arms for my mind and body to really try and focus on losing weight and getting my blood sugars back under control.

Managing diabetes, my weight and blood sugars is going to be an ongoing fight for me now and knowing that I am now described as clinically extremely vulnerable at the age of 45 possibly due to physical and mental health issues is a wakeup call and call to arms to hopefully sort my shit out!

I am also due to get my Covid-19 vaccine jab this Saturday which is one of the reasons I am still allowed to leave the house so that can but only be good news too.

Birdy – Keeping Your Head Up

If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well

Or Money for nothing and contracts millions given to friends and party donors for free.

I normally don’t get my news from Facebook but today a meme was doing the rounds about the lack of news on an important story.

Matt Hancock the UK Health Minister has been found guilty of not disclosing NHS contracts to the UK public. Now at first you might think well he had a lot of other stuff to do, with say saving the population and all that. But the more you dig into the news (or lack of news item the worse it gets).

The Government unlawfully failed to publish details of billions of pounds’ worth of coronavirus-related contracts, the High Court has ruled.

There looks to be a battle at the heart of government to not give money to local councils and health services for fear of waste and not trusting them to do the jobs they are they are there to do. Or for fear of them doing such a good job they might end up asking for even more money or powedr and control.

Prior to the pandemic we have been force fed for many years the lie that spending money on public health, local government and public service should be cut back, year on year for it is never affordable or practical to spend money on others and not really needed and civilisation itself might even collapse and our capitalist way of life grind to a halt if we try in any way what so ever to fairly fund government services with tax payers money.

Then a real crisis comes along in the shape of the pandemic, which results in a very real scenario of civilisations being put to the test and grinding to a halt and suddenly were all bloody socialist regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, spending money as a left-winger, centralists or even right-winger on life saving society enhancing services and treatments is now seen as a normal way to do  business..

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?