I need to make more of it …

My brother died a year ago today: covid-19, having had the full suite of symptoms, two trips to hospital and 10 days on a ventilator. He was 62, with no underlying health conditions other than being overweight and a bit of a drinker – but he was fit. He was a site manager on a building site, and he ran and swam. In the summer last year he finished one of those two day, ultra marathons … and that didn’t kill him. Other than to reremember him, the other reason I write is to reinforce my view that the number of deaths to this disease predominantly falls to this very poor government (three late lockdowns, a porous border and two quick releases … this third one is much more ordered and, with the vaccine roll out, it seems very possible that we may be on top of the disease for now; credit where credit is due).

So, as opposed to much of Europe, India and most of South America, we might now be a nation which is to be admired with its dealing with the disease. We seem to be a people who have little problem with taking vaccines. And, generally, when we’re told to lock down and behave, most of us do. So what’s the danger, and why am I still nervous for my family? Well, it just takes one vaccine-dodging variant and we will be back to square one. It seems unlikely (now) that that variant will be home grown. Science seems to state that vaccines mutate when there’s a lot of it about … hence the Kent variant over Christmas when we were not behaving. Therefore – all we need to do is control our borders and have a decent T&T system (goodness knows we’ve paid for it) and we should be fine.

That’s why I’m nervous.

I read a figure and immediately forgot it – but there are currently tens of thousands of ‘tourists’ arriving here every week. What? Why? And, come on. 51% of those who voted yes for Brexit wanted to take control of our borders … so, please, do just that! This is your chance. And why is anyone visiting the UK at the moment – let alone tourists? And, as for T&T … well, where do you start? I have no confidence in the system and until we start paying people to isolate when they have symptoms, that’s not going to happen. The Tories view is that by offering £500 a week, lots of people will cheat the system and pretend to be ill. That may be the case – although I have more respect for my fellow Brit to think that ‘lots’ might be just a few. But, whatever. It must be cheaper than another lockdown and continuing furlough?

That’s why I’m nervous. And, it seems to me, that this is absolutely within our control. Our government can do this. They can tighten control of the borders … and they can sort out T&T. If they don’t, and if, after all we’ve been through (deaths, long-covid, lockdowns, delays to NHS waiting lists, mental health issues, issues for school kids, the cost of it all …) if they get this wrong and we have to lockdown again, they should never be forgiven. And, frankly, someone should be put behind bars.

Enough.

Can I see a smile on C’s face?

I had a chat to myself this morning. Poor old Kevin. He had a number of plans, none of which he or his family have been able to see through. Me? Well, I hope to have another 25 years of active life and, looking back on it, I’m not sure I’ve got the most out of the last year. The good news is, I am starting to feel slightly better. It may be Mrs Sun; it may be that I’ve gone back off dairy … whatever. Or it could be the harder training. But, I have found some more energy and I hope to put it to good use from here on in. That’s what Kevin would have done. Above everything, he had a thirst for life.

We had a good day with Jen and James yesterday (socially distance) clearing out their garage. One good thing from that was discovering three old laptops which I have boxed up and taken to the schools’ collection point today (local fire station). I know the system works because I got a nice email from them about a month after I took ours in last year.

garage clear out

And we’re OK. My calf is neither here nor there … sometimes it’s happy, other times, less so. I’ve finished the final edit of book 7 in the Sam Green Thriller Series. It’s now gone to my beta readers. They have until the end of May, before it gets proofed in June for publication in July (as per …). And we’re currently packing up Doris. We’re off to Mary’s tomorrow for the day (in the car) and then we disappear on Saturday. The good news is that Bex and Henry are back later in May for a month and whilst that means we’ve had to cut short our trip by a week, we are so looking forward to seeing them both. They’re due to fly back in time for the school term to finish, so they (Bex, Henry and Steven) can all have the summer together in Korea.

We did our first non-essential shop on Tuesday: Go Outdoors. C wanted some new walking shoes and, whilst we were there, we found some stuff we needed for our Shetland and Orkney trip (planned for September). Everyone thinks we’re mad that we’re taking a tent, but it’s just a back up. Although, knowing me, I will plump for a tent over a B&B unless the weather is really rubbish. It’s about being outdoors, isn’t it That’s part of the fun, no?

Anyhow, next time I write hopefully we’ll be away in Doris. Three weeks … it’s a long time and we should be so grateful for it. Which we are. In the meantime, stay safe everyone.