Just an ordinary day

It’s barely after 9am on a very warm day in South Wales. The Met office yesterday issued for the very first time a severe heat warning covering much of the UK including this neck of the woods. Frankly, they’re a bit late - it’s been rostio here for a few days, knocking 30°.

Why is it that us British bemoan the cold and wet of our climate, only to moan like buggery as soon as it gets a bit Mediterranean like?

Anyway, no golf today (normally play on a Tuesday). Nevertheless, up with the lark, or at least when my wife got up to go to work at 7am. Breakfast on the patio (porridge - on a day like this 😂). Then watered the garden, fed the cat (again), emptied the dishwasher, changed a couple of plug sockets (been decorating you see), and brought the green waste bags in from the road. The other 5 recycling bags/bins won’t be emptied until about  2pm. Also sent a couple of emails in my role as cricket club Secretary. Just caught up on my social media feeds as well, although why I bother I don’t know. It’s either covidiots or sensible (ish) people retweeting or moaning about covidiots. 

Oh, and I’ve had a grump about next doors dogs, which bark incessantly driving me nutty. 

Just an ordinary day, and it’s only 9.20am. 

Covid update - my take

Blimey - missing in action again. I haven't posted since April.

Well let's ignore all the other crap going on (Brexit I'm looking at you), and concentrate on the Covid pandemic.

Last night, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson (yes, the clown really is still PM) announced that pretty much all restrictions will be lifted on 19 July, which many are referring to as "Freedom Day". Of course, this only applies to England. The Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford, was at pains to point this out, and say that he'd be looking at an announcement at the end of next week based on the latest scientific data. Read into that what you will.

It seems that people are now broadly divided into two groups. Those who think that we're fast heading towards (or are already in) a 3rd wave as cases are rising, rapidly in some areas, and that lifting restrictions is lunacy, and those who say that we just have to learn to live with Covid come what may (we do), and that although cases are rising, deaths and hospitalisations aren't, because of the massively successful vaccine rollout. There are of course the usual bunch of "others" - continuing Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers, but sadly and inevitably there will always be idiots.

Personally, I fall into the let's just get on with it  group. Yes it's a thing. No it's not going away. But deaths and hospitalisations are down. Continuing to base any decisions about management on cases rather than the latter seems illogical. We need to be cautious, but not to the point of being so risk averse we wrap ourselves in cotton wool when there's no need to do so. Continue wearing masks in crowded places and for example on public transport. Get everyone jabbed (or as many as will have it - and we're doing very well on this).

I frequently see people saying "it's not the same as flu", you can't treat/.manage it the same way. No it's not the same, but we've had years of vaccinating vulnerable people against flu - we're only just starting down this path with Covid. But the vaccine efficacy is also much higher for Covid. In the autumn we'll probably be into booster jabs for Covid, and the data already shows that vaccination is working. Lets run with it, and get ourselves back to as near normal as possible. Please.