insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Would you agree to quarantine in a “facility”?
There was a good article in The Times last weekend – Coronavirus: The new rhythms of life will jolt and jar as we try to live with this horrible teenager. In particular, I thought it would be good to get people’s thoughts on this quote: “In Asia we are doing mandatory quarantining,” says Ben Cowling,…
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City mobility index and the adaptability of kids
Citymapper has a mobility index which gives a graphical illustration of how locked down cities are over time. The data comes from public transport trips planned in the Citymapper app. According to this index, the two cities moving more than any other are Seoul and Hong Kong but both are still way down than is…
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Testing capacity in the UK and cruciferous vegetables
The UK seems to be finally catching up to Germany in terms of testing capacity, albeit a couple of months late. I’m not 100% sure why it has taken so long but the government here says it’s because we don’t or didn’t have much of a diagnostics industry in the UK. I think there’s some…
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I can do the baby shark abs workout
I started doing the baby shark abs workout last October. I found it very difficult at first but after about a week it started to get easier. I continue to do it most days and Ben took this video of me doing it today as a sort-of proof for future Rachel that past Rachel could…
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Contact tracing apps, escape room games, and two interviews
Ben uses a very old smartphone of mine, an iPhone 4S. He’s never been able to download any apps to it or to his Mac due to a problem with his Apple ID. It’s not something that has particularly bothered him because he’s a bit of a Luddite and only uses the phone as a…
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When will it start and when will it end?
Before the lockdown started it seemed like everyone was desperate for it to begin – “When are schools closing?”, “Why haven’t schools closed yet?” Now that we’re in lockdown is seems like everyone is asking, “When will it end?” I can’t see how it can end any time soon because the virus will just rebound…
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Two vaccine trials in the UK
There are two vaccine trials soon to start in the UK. One is the Oxford University trial which will see actual vaccine injected into volunteers starting this Thursday. Last Sunday Sarah Gilbert, the vaccinologist leading this development, was interviewed on the Andrew Marr show. Here it is below: Imperial College London is also developing a…
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May you live through interesting times
There’s a Chinese curse, may you live through interesting times. On a personal level, the Christchurch earthquakes make this pandemic seem like a walk in the park because that was a much tougher period of time for us. Nevertheless, both events brought strange changes and have made me think of the Chinese curse. But there…
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Online school
The kids started online school today and so far so good. You can choose which subjects they study and they each have seven. Classes are live via video link and they’ve all been reasonably small. I think the biggest class they’ve had so far had only 12 pupils in it. One of Daniel’s subjects today…
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Kim Hill interview with virologist Chris Smith
Kim Hill is a New Zealand journalist, famous for presenting Saturday Morning on Radio New Zealand National. Last Saturday she interviewed Cambridge virologist Chris Smith about coronavirus. You can listen to the podcast here – Chris Smith: Virologist on latest Covid-19 science. Chris talks about lots of interesting things including whether it’s realistic for places…
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Perennial vegetables
I harvested lots of green leafy veg at the allotment today. I’ve remembered what the cauliflower-looking plant is. It’s a perennial broccoli that I planted last summer called Brassica Oleracea Botrytis Asparagoides. It should continue producing these cauliflower-type heads for five years as long as I continue to harvest them. It’s only just starting fruiting…
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The River Dee and Brig o’ Dee
Often on weekends, when there’s no pandemic, we venture out into the countryside for walks and picnics. Today I found myself missing that peace, quiet, and feeling of remoteness since we haven’t left the city for more than a month now. I do love living in the inner city with its convenience but I also…
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Daffodils, jumping shot, and a roundup of the news
I ventured out for some exercise today. Mostly I stay in and just do The Body Coach live streaming in the morning followed by a trampoline bounce in the afternoon. It’s a lovely spring day today and the daffodils are in full bloom so it must be time for a jumping shot. Here’s a round-up…
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What happens next?
I’m sorry if everyone is getting sick of reading about the pandemic but a paper was published in Science yesterday which is worth sharing. It’s called Projecting the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 through the postpandemic period. This is important because there’s been a lot of short-term thinking with sudden closures of schools and businesses but…
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Coronavirus: your questions answered
I thought this was an interesting Q&A with Dr Chris Smith, virologist at Cambridge University and “The Naked Scientist“. He answers questions about face masks, the tuberculosis vaccine, and the British mortality rate, among other things.
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Humour in adversity
One thing I will forever remember from this pandemic is our capacity for humour at a time of adversity. Every day brings new laugh-out-loud moments. The tweet below from the Scottish sports broadcaster, Andrew Cotter, commentating on the final suspenseful moments of his dogs struggling over a toy is superb. https://twitter.com/MrAndrewCotter/status/1248313303270596610 Boris Johnson is home…
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Local Hero
Lots of heroes emerge in times of disaster. From neighbours delivering groceries to the vulnerable, to police topping up the electricity meter of an elderly man who was without power, to people donating meals to frontline workers. One of the heroes in my local community in Aberdeen is Artur Banach who has been printing face…
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Happy Easter!
Thankfully the Easter Bunny is a key worker in Scotland and he really outdid himself at our house with an Easter Egg trail, complete with clues! These were my clues and I found the surprise at the end which is a Booja-Booja chocolate egg. The Vego bar was in my cargo bike which has 3…
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There’s no escaping the trade-off
It was kind of surreal to see headlines this week like, “Prime Minister is breathing on his own” and “Prime Minster able to take short walks“. No one could ever have imagined this a couple of months ago. The latest news is that the Prime Minister appears to be recovering and has left intensive care.…
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Rachel’s allotment and hot cross buns
I’ve got the day off work today so I cycled to the allotment to put up my new sign. I met a couple of other people there and one fellow told me he received a phone call from the city council because his plot was also missing a number. Of all the things going on…
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