More good news comes our way

Welcome snowdrops 

The threat of Corona 19 comes closer, as the daughter and granddaughter of Ann's friend Sylvia have both had the disease, and her daughter's ex brother-in-law has died from the virus. In our immediate family, Lucy's ex developed the disease, and one of Edwin's ex tutors in a village close to Hundon has the disease. 

Floods and gales are threatening the country, yet in the fields and woods the snowdrops have pushed through to welcome our walk. Though only mid-January, we feel that spring must be lying in wait behind the gales, ready to burst upon us with welcome warmth and longer days. With the remarkable speed of the vaccination programme, we really can look forward to a better year ahead and the chance to visit a long-missed family and old haunts. I already have my appointment at a local surgery tonight. Our friend Robin (in his 70's) missed his call, but Malcolm (in his 80's) in Haverhill has already had the vaccine and my brother Richard and Chris (both in their 70's) get it at the weekend. I have had a letter asking if I can be available to help with the injection programme, so I guess they're looking for anyone who can wave a needle in the right direction.

Further good news comes on the headlines from USA as a new president is ushered in. We were unable to watch the inauguration which coincided with the time I was waiting in a carpark in Lavenham for my jab. But catching it later on the news, it looks like a promising new start for the USA following a disastrous four years of inept leadership. Biden is just my age, so if he can run a major country for four years (with hope for a further four), I can hope to continue to be active with the very minimal work I do and my untaxing hobby of painting. More power to the oldies!

Some time ago, I wrote about a vicious hair straightener from ghd (Good Hair Day) purchased from Amazon, but made in China (see kind comments and Chinese trash). It was dangerous, for it got too hot and singed Ann's hair. She wrote a stinging review about it on the Amazon site, and bought a better quality product. Today she received an email from ghd offering her £30 to remove her review! Apart from the blatant bribery inherent in this message, it is worrying for another reason. Consumer comments to Amazon are meant to be anonymous; clearly they are not if Amazon passes email addresses on to its advertisers. Do they also pass on phone numbers and addresses? There is clear danger in this practice at the hands of aggrieved companies.

Sonic boom over Hundon

 My lunchtime telecon today was disturbed by a loud bang. I thought it was a door slamming, or possibly someone shooting on the hill, but it turned out to be a sonic boom. A private plane en route from Germany to Birmingham lost radio contact with air control, so two RAF Typhoons were launched with orders to intercept and bring it down if it threatened harm. They were given clearance to fly at Mach 1.6, and as their route took them over Cambridge to intercept, the sonic boom was heard across the whole area of Cambridgeshire, West Suffolk and Essex. The plane was forced to divert and land at Stansted - the routine place for highjacked aircraft, but it this case I believe it was just a radio failure. 

Work is getting more busy with more and more telecons and writing assignments as we prepare for our next clinical trial. I sometimes think it's as well I still have a job, for I'd be walking round the carpet in circles if I had nothing to do. But at a personal level, my pruritus remains as intense as ever, if not more so. I am sleeping poorly, unless I take some knockout pills, and in the day I have to keep gripping my hands to control myself from scratching. Someone has suggested that it's worse in the cold weather, and it is certainly cold enough at the moment. We have no heating in the bedrooms and the window is kept open, so I'm glad to dive under the covers. Unfortunately I still get up every hour or two from discomfort and the need to wee, so I end up shivering every couple of hours anyway just to keep everything ticking over. 

The cold is nothing to what we had as children though. I had a bed by the window, it was north facing and I remember the clouds of our steamy breath hanging in the air. The panes regularly freezing over on the inside where the condensation froze in wonderful patterns of hard crystals. If the condensation had puddled on the window-sill, it too froze to hard glass pools. I generally had a hot water bottle, but I woke in the morning cuddling a cold clammy mass of rubber. I huddled with knees to my chin, reluctant to stretch out to the icy sheets at the foot of the bed. I would pull my clothes in beside me to warm and wriggle into them under the sheets, trying all the while not to expose more than the top of my head.  I guess I'm lucky I didn't suffer from such severe pruritus in those days.

Into the new year

 What a New Year. We celebrate with our extraction from the tenticles of the EU to launch a time of independence. Boris Johnson is getting remarkably little flack for his Brexit withdrawal agreement; does this mean he's got it right or is it just to complicated to understand? Probably the later, though the problems will only emerge with time as people try to live by the new rules. So far, lorry drivers seem to be passing through Dover with no holdups, perhaps because the traffic density is still low; but the EU has already agreed to waive much of the paper work for the first year, to give it a chance to work smoothly.

On a positive side, the UK is pushing ahead with a green and considerate agenda. They have banned the cruel and wasteful practice of pulse fishing, or "electic shock stunning," to knock out all fish just to catch a few flat fish. Though even here, reading past the headline, we note that the EU are banning it in 6 months anyway, and the UK could have banned it before the 31st December, but timed it to look good. As usual nowadays it's hard to differentiate truth from whatever message the powers that be wish to push.

In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has restated her intention to leave the UK (surprise surprise!). She is determined to gain independence so she can be free to rejoin the EU, just as other countries seem to be building pressure to leave the EU and gain independence. It's hard to understand her logic in all this.; experts suggest it could take her 10 years to leave the UK and be accepted as a member of the EU. At that stage, I'm sure she'll be welcomed in, for by then it could be that the EU only has three members: Germany, France and Scotland. 

I am trying a new method to control my pruritus and scratching. I have given up on the many potions and lotions, and instead am using a new technique of conditional learning. It consists of a rubber band round the wrist, which I twang every time I feel the urge to scratch. The only down side so far is I sometimes forget to twang it, but am reminded by Ann saying, "what happened to the wrist flick?". I guess I may need another band on the contra wrist to remind me to twang the first wrist. But I must say, over the past two days, I subjectively think I am itching and scratching less.

Autumn in Lockdown

On the art front, I continue painting and have completed an autumn view of the river Stour in Clare from the old railway bridge. There is something magical in painting in oils. They are very expresive, yet at the same time forgiving. I could paint the bland autumnal scene, then add the dark railings of the bridge, to show my frustration at the current restrictions.