Yesterday we took a walk under gloomy skies, seriously threatening rain.
During the night the rain moved in. And the river filled up again. It should perhaps be called the River Yoyo as it goes up and down so much.I debated running but it was still raining heavily when I got up. And so I just got dressed and donned my wellies and waterproof to do a brisk walk round the almost certainly soggy path round the back of the village. When I set off I thought that perhaps I had been mistaken as the rain seemed to have stopped. Fifteen minutes up the road, though, proved that I had taken the right decision as the rain was back. And the puddles on the bridle path definitely demanded wellies!
Debate continues on the rights and wrongs of imposing quarantine on people flying in from Spain. France might be added to Spain before we know it. Life gets complicated.
Another big question is how the quarantine will be policed. Will anyone check up that travellers from Spain, or elsewhere, actually put themselves in quarantine? It’s the same problem as the face masks in shops question. Shop assistants are not really the right people to make sure customers wear masks. It’s very much relying on the goodwill of the people.
One problem with mask wearing is the disguise factor. As I scuttled around the local coop store looking for spinach leave someone greeted me by name. I looked over. All I could see was a man with a mask and a flat cap pulled down almost over his eyes - it was pouring with rain outside as he came in. He pushed his cap up so that I could see his eyes and I recognised an old friend we have not seen since pre-lockdown. We have been in touch as he ended up in hospital with the dreaded virus and we have been checking up on his recovery.
Were we having visitors, he wanted to know. Well, not too many at one time and with a certain amount of social distancing, yes! So he might call round for coffee and ginger biscuits later today.
Maybe we should skip the ginger biscuits in light of this bit of news reporting:-
“No 10 launched the plan on Monday with a social media video of Johnson explaining how he had “wanted to lose weight for ages and ages”, and had been “way overweight” when he was in intensive care suffering from Covid-19. Johnson said he now began his day by running with the Downing Street dog, Dilyn, saying: “The great thing about going for a run at the beginning of the day is nothing could be worse for the rest of the day.”
The government proposals were, he said, “just trying to help people a little bit to bring their weight down – not in an excessively bossy or nannying way, I hope”. He added: “We want this one to be really sympathetic to people, to understand the difficulties that people face with their weight, the struggles that many, many people face to lose weight, and just to be helpful.””
He doesn't sound very enthusiastic about exercising though, does he?
There you go. Is it time to nationalise Weight Watchers?
We are seeing a certain amount of criticism of China for its handling of the virus. Here’s an extract from an article:
“Last December patients started turning up in Wuhan’s hospitals with pneumonia symptoms that didn’t respond to treatment. Doctors were quick to send samples for genetic sequencing which soon revealed a coronavirus closely resembling Sars. Chinese scientists warned the new virus was also contagious, spread by respiratory droplets and on surfaces.
But both in Wuhan and in Beijing, health authorities sought to minimise the story, first insisting there was no reason to suspect the virus was transmitted by humans and later that the risk was low.
Frontline doctors didn’t agree. They tried to warn each other on social media, but were swiftly silenced, some forced to sign police confessions that they had spread misinformation.”
Now it seems to me that it’s all very well to say that China did not act fast enough. In fact, they very quickly shared information with the rest of the world. But before we accuse China of delaying tactics and not listening to the scientists, we need to consider how countries of Europe, including very obviously the UK, delayed instituting measures to contain and control the virus until far too late because of economic matters. Thoughts about pots calling kettles black come to mind!
On last night’s news I heard that there have been wildfires in central Portugal. This is a part of the Iberian peninsula that is regularly affected by wildfires. Do we need anything else going on at the moment? The problem is made worse by high temperatures at present. I would happily send them some of our rain!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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