It was pretty overcast when I chugged up my hill. The air was really still. The turbines weren’t moving. But it was a good walk. All the birds were flitting around – goldfinches, chaffinches, great tits and a range of others that I wasn’t sure about.
A chicken escapee from the egg farm had been run over and four buzzards were circling overhead. I think they were waiting for me to get out the way before descending on the carcass. I watched them for a while but they wouldn’t come down. I was also taken with the antics of a pair of swifts who were gadding about, skimming over the trees. It looked amazing. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.
That was my 420th consecutive walk of over 10,000 steps (I’m averaging 15,500 steps a day). I’m not sure if it’s making me fit or wearing my body out!!
Back home I’ve been doing a bit of editing on my Sci-fi novel – the Pornography Wars and playing some Joan Baez. Great version of Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’.
I heard from my publisher that the editing of the Roy Harper book was complete and they were selecting the photos. I should receive the proofs shortly. It sounds as if the release date has been put back a couple of weeks as the publishers have just changed distributors. So it is unlikely to be out until early July. Bummer.
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland the Indian variant is still a cause for concern. We are opening up and coming out of lockdown. We can hug. The postman wasn’t impressed! We can meet up inside, go to the pub and gigs can start up. Now that I’ve had my two shots and three weeks have passed I feel pretty confident. Though it is going to take a bit of time to get over the covid anxiety.
It seems that the ones going down with the new Indian variant are mainly people who are old enough to be vaccinated but declined. Fools. I bet they wish they’d taken up the offer now! Talk about dying for your principles.
If it spreads too much the antivaxxers could put us all back into lockdown! How annoying would that be?
People are going along in large numbers for jabs – it’s a bit late isn’t it? Once they’ve been jabbed it takes 3 weeks for it to become effective. They could be dead by then.
Why are people so suspicious of science??? Beyond me.
One thing I read today is that they are flying in fruit pickers from India. It appears that farmers can no longer get sufficient workers from the EU so are importing workers from farther afield. What sort of madness is that? Not only do you shunt them halfway around the world but you bring them in from a covid hotspot to bring the variant with them. Brexit madness!!
The good early news is that it appears that the vaccine still works against the Indian strain – but as people start going abroad on holiday how long before they bring back a more pernicious strain?
We’ll see.
Well I’m going back to my editing! So take care!
Stay safe!
I don’t know about flying labour in from India, how about asking our imprisoned asylum seekers if they would help service our agricultural requirements.
I’m sure they’d love the chance! Brexit – what a mess!
Opening things up while telling people to be cautious seems a clumsy way to proceed – the sort of fudge you might make to appease both economists and epidemiologists while deflecting any blame towards the general public. Or am I being a tad cynical?
I don’t think they know what they are doing Dave. They’d get my vote for the most incompetent government of all time!!
Yeah, X marks the splot!
My X goes there!
Opher, you might want to take a look at this. Two weeks old, too.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-04/world-s-most-vaccinated-nation-reintroduces-curbs-as-cases-surge
Not sure what’s happening “on the ground” yet, as the Seychellois stopped reporting daily figures at the beginning of May!
Interesting. I think the three telling things were:
16% foreigners
two thirds unvaccinated or just one jab
And the type of vaccine used
This is one to keep an eye on. Cheers Neil.
Opher, my graphs tell me that as of 20th April (two weeks before this all blew up) they had fully vaccinated pretty much half their population, and another 16% had had one jab. I’ll e-mail you the spreadsheet, so you can see for yourself.
It’s quite believable that a lot of the new cases are visitors. And the thought had also occurred to me that maybe the Chinese vaccine they have been using doesn’t work too well?
I’ll have a look Neil. It’ll be interesting to work all this out when we finally get through the propaganda.