I’ve just spent the last days compiling the final volume of my Corona Diaries extracted from my blog. During the pandemic I put out a daily rant. The early ones are out in three volumes. This one will be out shortly. It takes me from December 2021 to April 2022 and the end of the pandemic and covers my own illness.
Makes for interesting reading – a reminder of the corruption and incompetence as well as the daily life in lockdown.
Foreword
Posted on November 4, 2024 by Opher
I have finally found the time and energy to compile the final section of my catalogue of Corona posts. During the pandemic I put out a daily broadcast. We lived in isolation during the strangest, most surreal time, yet already, just two years on, that all seems like a fading unreality. These posts remind me of the reality of those days. Overnight we were thrown from a life packed full of commitments, activities, friends and packed calendars into a blank canvas. For once in our lives we had time! What a strange experience!
Some of us spent that time profitably. I wrote, listened to music, read, went for long walks, basked in nature and we decorated the entire house! Some of us became incredibly bored, ate, drank, smoked and watched day-time telly. There wasn’t even any sport. I guess I was lucky. We lived on the edge of the countryside. We had a big house. I had lots of interests. Writing and reading take time. Walking in nature (without traffic) revitalizes the spirit.
Time well spent.
Those daily rants captured a little of that strange time. They were full of rants at the spectacular ineptitude and corruption of the Johnson and Trump governments. I watched with horror at the vacillation between panic and arrogance, the lack of preparedness and ignorance. We were incredibly lucky. We dodged a bullet. As it turned out the virus had a relatively low kill rate – 1 in 1200 – next time we may not be so lucky. A virus will come along with a 90% kill rate, then we will be in trouble. Hopefully, when that happens we will have a competent administration in charge and an intelligent, scientific policy. Hopefully (but I wouldn’t count on it – they seem to currently be re-electing the biggest idiot who has ever gained office – we never learn).
My reports gave an insight into my daily activities as well as my diatribes aimed against the politics of the pandemic. They usually contained a weather report (weren’t we lucky with the weather?) and what I was reading and listening to. There is the complete range between the personal and wider issues. I usually put in the deaths and a record of the current initiatives on a national and global scale (along with my personal views).
They also give a report on what it was like to finally catch the dreaded disease (fortunately when fully vaccinated) and the long-term effects.
I am compiling them with an eye on the historic importance of those two years. They are really no more than a personal record for me to look back on. The first three volumes met with shattering indifference. I think I actually sold 1 copy. So I know there are no commercial gains to be had and no interest from outside to my own experience. That’s fine. I am writing this for me.
In order to compile this book I am trawling through the archives of WordPress and copying the reports that I put out. This is not as easy as it seems. I have put out some 20,549 posts over the years (sometimes up to 20 a day) and WordPress annoyingly seems to jumble them up so that finding a sequence is made much harder than it should have been.
In the course of this I have found that there were ten days not accounted for, and, despite diligent searching, I have not managed to plug these holes. The posts are missing in action. However, my assumption is that there were some days (as around Christmas time 2021) when things were going on and I did not manage to put out a post. So those posts were not actually lost as much as never existed. Not to worry. The reports are extremely repetitive anyway. They were not intended to be read as a book; they were put out as stand-alone daily reports in a blog. You haven’t missed much. When put together like this they can be boring. Fine with me. I dip into them and it jogs my memory. They are my personal diary. Nothing more.
By the time of this fourth volume the fear factor had all-but disappeared. The vaccines were out. Exasperation had replaced concern. We knew more about the virus – how it was spread, the success of the vaccines and its deadliness (or lack of it). I was immensely furious at the corrupt squandering of money on VIP lanes, ludicrous salaries, PPE, undocumented loans and useless schemes – apps, T&T and Nightingales. They were frantically throwing money at any Tory donor who asked instead of using tried and tested firms. They were also hiding things up and putting out misinformation. The way they had panicked and chucked out the elderly (often infected) from the hospitals to Care Homes in order to make space. Instead of putting together a sane, scientifically designed program to avoid infection they continued with more of the same. Science was besmirched with politics and greed. A tale of political opportunism, unbridled avarice and complete stupidity.
Eat Out to Kill Again! Why not Eat Outside to Help Out – they knew how the virus was spread. The weather was fine. Stupid schemes badly thought through that killed people!
I despair!
Anyway, you can see that this is dredging up those same old frustrations and angers. I’ll stop. I’m only talking to myself anyway.
This then is the final section. It takes us from December 2021 to April 2022 and our re-emergence into a different world.
I churned these reports out on my blog in a torrent without any editing or rewriting. Consequently they are probably riddled with poor grammar, spellos and repetitive nonsense. I did toy with carefully reading through and working on them but rejected that. I think they stand as they are – spontaneous outbursts. They are what they are – warts and all. They are of their time – raw and rough.
The pandemic was over but the War in Ukraine was just starting. We humans are surely the most stupid species that have ever lived. We have intelligence but, as you can see from these reports, we allow our hormones and self-interests to supersede all else. We elect fools, psychopaths, narcissists, self-serving conmen and arrogant imbeciles and then wonder why their insane black and white solutions don’t work. We never learn.
We never learn.
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