Two Point Oh

I have always been a restless blogger, moving my stuff from one platform to another. WordPress is my blog’s natural home. And probably will be for the foreseeable future. I can’t use my domain name on this blog, which is a shame. Not for free anyway. I’d pay a little, but WordPress want a lot. So my domain has been homeless.

I’ve moved it to a Tumblr blog. Again. Meh. It serves a purpose. It’s a place where I can share stuff. Small photo albums. My blog posts. Other stuff that I’ve found interesting and might want to refer back to.

There’s a lot of coronavirus stuff that I share. It’s easy to get tired of this stuff, but I think it’s fascinating. Tragic, too. Of course. Some people have an unfortunate tendency to start doom-scrolling this sort of stuff and getting themselves depressed. That’s a shame. At least with a pandemic, things will eventually get better. There will come a point when you start joy-scrolling.

Infection rates have been plummeting for a week in the UK. No one knows exactly why. The Euros probably spurred on a lot of infection, but they finished a couple of weeks ago. Areas that had been seeing high infection rates over the last few weeks/months have had intensive, targeted vaccination campaigns. Has the virus run out of puff, having hit something of a vaccine wall across the country? Schools have finished so there’s less mixing and probably a lot less testing too. W

We’ve had a few weeks of really good weather and everyone has gone outdoors. My hunch? A mix of all of those. But the big question, of course is this….will the rates continue to plummet? My hunch? There’s plenty of waves to come. Just gentler, less damaging waves. Time will tell. Time and some more scrolling…

The image today is a virus/Olympic themed bit of art from Morton Morland of the Times. Which also ran an article looking at the Russian Flu pandemic of 1889/90. There is speculation that this may have been a coronavirus outbreak, not a flu. Fascinating stuff, no?

Frontline of Freedom

Yesterday was Freedom Day in the UK. Or Freedumb Day. Depends which side of the divide you sit. For a select few of us, who still sit on the fence, yesterday was neither of these. It was Monday, July 19. The day that the final restrictions were cast aside. Yes, infections are raging, but if you’re from somewhere they aren’t, don’t gloat. Chances are your infection rates are raging or are at least on a sharp upward spike. You just hadn’t checked for a couple of days. Or else the raging is yet to come your way. Be patient it will. And soon.

I sit on the fence for good reason. Will the UK’s brave attempt to emerge from the pandemic and its restrictions be successful? I write from the frontline of freedom, the trenches of liberty – I feel it’s my duty to let you know how this goes. There’s no denying that there is some pain ahead, but there’s good reason to believe that this is the best course of action. There’s also good reason to believe we are headed toward a human catastrophe. We will find out soon enough and we Brits will pass on what will be a valuable learning experience to the rest of the world. I happen to believe we’ll be ok but I’d only wager a limited amount of cash on it.

We’re seeing well over 50,000 cases per day. In a couple of weeks, the government believe we’ll be hitting 100,000 cases a day. I personally suspect we will hit a million a week and continue to do so for quite some time. I’ve mentioned many times, over many weeks, that we’ve all got a dose of immunity coming our way, either through a needle or a sneeze. For many people, it’ll be both. Case rates like these will see that happen sooner rather than later. The unvaccinated are now the majority of those who find themselves being taken to hospitals in an ambulance, and given that all adults have now had the opportunity of at least one jab…well.

So how was Freedom/Freedumb Day? It was very much like the day before. Those who hadn’t been wearing facemarks still weren’t. Those who had been still were. What I found completely inexplicable is that those who were wearing them on their chins, are still wearing them on their chins. Jesus wept. Over the coming weeks and months, the UK is essentially going to be one giant measles-party style nation of disease. Even us jabberoos have a significant chance of getting ill, albeit mildly. I’d rather not get it. But given my core belief that we’re all going to be exposed to it sooner or later, I’m not going to hide away either. I’ll just continue to be sensible. It’s all about the Three Cs for me now.

Mexican Blue

I first landed in Mexico in 2003, and was immediately enchanted by the sounds, smells and colours of the country. When I returned home, I decided to redecorate with a Mexican theme. I painted the walls terracotta and the radiators and woodwork a deep blue. Those colours best represented Mexico in my mind. Frida Kahlo and her house in Coyoacan probably provided the most inspiration for my new decor.

Years later, I redecorated again. Terracotta and that deep blue. It wasn’t entirely necessary to imitate a Mexican theme. I was living in Mexico. In Coyoacan, in fact. But I’d really taken a liking to terracotta and that deep blue. Mrs P grew to like it. I noticed from photographs, after we’d come back to the UK, that her folks in Mexico copied my theme in their own home.

The radiators at work are all painted a similar blue. Maybe it’s the same blue. I call it Mexican Blue. But it doesn’t feel very Mexican in here. I feel a long way from Mexico.