Category: Covid-19

  • 2 years of Covid-19

    Today marks a year and a day since the United Kingdom imposed a lockdown due to the spread of Covid-19, a virus that was seen to be causing devastating numbers of deaths and hospitalisations across the world, in Europe and was taking effect in the UK.

  • First vaccine dose

    I cycled this morning to get my first dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine for Covid-19. I’m really impressed by the number of available centres and the way it has been organised, and I’m really happy to have done my bit.

  • History teaches us everything about pandemics

    We are living through a major pandemic. Yesterday the UK ‘reflected’ on its 1 year anniversary of lockdown. This is fact, it’s not fiction. Wishing that it weren’t so changes nothing. I was thinking back to last spring when I would stare at people wearing masks on public transport, thinking “Oh that’s a bit much!”.…

  • 1 year on

    It is hard to believe that a year has passed since the start of our first lockdown in the United Kingdom, and we’re now in our third which had required the schools to close for about 2 months from the beginning of January.

  • 3 Vaccines in under a year

    We cautiously prepared not to expect any vaccines for at least a year, and that getting them would take even longer. We now have at least 3 seemingly viable vaccines, with jaw droppping efficacy rates of up to 90%. One type is based on introducing mRNA into the host, inside a lipid container, where it…

  • 7 months later

    I write this on the day that the USA goes to the polls, after 4 years of having an openly, unapologetically terrible man as the President. I don’t think that the country had been perfect before he took office, but I think removing a leader who gives validation to the very things that hold back…

  • School’s in!

    So the summer holidays are over, things have calmed down a little, and the kids went back to school this past week. It’s almost like everything is ok now. Or is it?

  • 156 days later

    Summer is almost over, the weather is turning towards autumn a little bit. I’m sitting at home in my garage, looking at the back garden recovering now from the unusually sustained heatwave we had a few weeks ago. Where there were bare patches and scorched grass and moss, new blades are sprouting up from the…

  • 3 weeks away

    I just returned from holiday, seeing family in Finland. Initially I was really nervous and unsure if going away was a good idea, but it turned out to be a lifesaver.

  • First pandemic flight

    I haven’t left my hometown in 4 months. So it was really strange to find myself getting ready to get in a cab, go to the airport and fly abroad to Finland.

  • Week 15 – Monday

    Restrictions are relaxing, and from the 4th of July this weekend more shops and bars are going to be allowed to open. Whether this will be a good thing will depend on how diligent people are in acting sensibly.

  • Week 12 – Wednesday

    A strange week. George Floyd was killed on 25th May by a policeman in Minneapolis. He’s not the first, but it was caught on a smartphone by a brave girl. Since then we’ve had riots in the US and internationally, calling for racial justice. Statues of oppression, of slave owners, are being toppled in cities…

  • Week 11 – Tuesday

    The gradual easing continues, but things aren’t much easier for a lot of folks.

  • Week 10 – Wednesday

    Same same but different. I cannot quite believe that the country has been on lockdown, at home as much as possible, for a full 9 weeks. Incredible.

  • Week 7 – Wednesday

    This week feels hard. Going for runs and doing body weight exercises keeps me sane. At the weekend I weeded and cleaned the back patio: arduous work that feels good because you don’t think too much.