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Booster shot and back to school
I had my booster shot on Saturday and that completely wiped me out for the rest of the weekend. I’m only just feeling better today. I got a half dose of Moderna after having had two jabs of Pfizer. I had a similarly bad reaction after my second Pfizer dose with fever, aches, headache, and […]
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Omicron land
We’re living in Omicron land here with the new variant taking over as the most dominant in Scotland as of today. Things change so rapidly. Last month the UK was in the best position in Europe to manage the virus over the winter. Then Omicron arrived. I’m not so worried about getting sick although I’d […]
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Ripping the bandaid off
I had my second Pfizer jab last night. Aside from a sore arm and feeling slightly tired I haven’t had any other side-effects. I felt a bit tired after the first jab too and several days later developed a swollen lymph node under my arm on the side I was vaccinated. This went away after […]
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Cat pics, Delta variant, and fast fashion
After my post about Victoria scratching my face last week I was worried people might think we have a psychotic cat and although she’s prone to occasional acts of violence, she’s mostly a very lovable cat. She just likes affection on her terms. Here’s proof. She’s not very fond of being held unless she’s in […]
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A new crochet jumper
I made myself a jumper. The diagonal lines are deliberate; it wasn’t me stuffing up 🙂 I got the pattern on Etsy and it’s quite an easy one to follow and a relatively quick project. The daffodils are starting to flower here. Apparently Aberdeen has 11 million daffodils and I can believe it. They’re everywhere. […]
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Vaccinate me, please!
Nearly a quarter of the population of the UK has now received at least one dose of the vaccine. This is great news and something we can all feel pleased about. Uptake of the vaccine has been very high at over 90% so far. This compares with a typical vaccination program in the UK which […]
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The Oxford vaccine, lockdown in Aberdeen, and online games
We woke to some good news today: the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK. I had been hoping and expecting this news for a couple of weeks now and was wondering why they were taking so long given the trial results were released at the end of November. They took much […]
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The Nightingale Hospitals and snow at Drum Castle
We are in tier 4 covid restrictions here as is most of the UK as the sick in hospital reach record numbers. At the start of the pandemic the government was following its pandemic playbook which had been written in the years/decades leading up to 2020 but specifically for a flu pandemic. The plan included […]
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Lorry queues, supermarket queues, food production, and Christmas dinner
Victoria helped me wrap some presents today. Actually, she was a right nuisance and ended up tearing the paper. I went to the shops early this morning to beat the rush but still there was a long queue outside the food court at Marks & Spencer. I decided not to go in. I’m not a […]
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Still not testing enough and vintage clothes
They’ve back-tracked on the Christmas relaxation of restrictions and instead of allowing three households to mix from the 23rd to the 27th December they can meet on the 25th December only. Not only that but from the 26th December all of Scotland will be in Tier 4 lockdown which is back to what we had […]
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Two countries and their Christmas strategies, the 5-mile boundary, and Manifesto
One of my coworkers lives in Italy and he told me they’re going into lockdown from December 24th – 27th and then again from December 31st – January 3rd. This is the opposite of what’s happening in the UK where everyone is in lockdown now but we’re free to meet other households from the 23rd […]
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Abedeen in tier 3 for Christmas
For the second time this year we’ve had to cancel a holiday due to covid. We were due to go to the highlands on Monday for 6 days to self-catering holiday accommodation but they’re moving Aberdeen into tier 3 on Friday at 6pm which effectively puts a fence around the city for everyone living here. […]
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Privacy versus lockdown
There is a new outbreak at a chicken processing plant in Perthshire. It’s disappointing that we use the euphamism “chicken processing plant” rather than slaughterhouse which is what it is. Outbreaks in slaughterhouses have been quite common and it’s not yet clear why. It could be the cold temperatures or the conditions people have to […]
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Test and trace needs to be better
Aberdeen is going into its third week of lockdown now. Nicola Sturgeon announced today that although cases have fallen here there are still too many to lift the restrictions. According to local papers the city council does not support the continued lockdown. I feel some sympathy for the city council and my view is the […]
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Lake Polmuir
There’s lots of news today. We got woken by a massive thunderstorm this morning with torrential rain. The rain was so heavy that many streets in Aberdeen and Stonehaven flooded. This is Polmuir Road in Aberdeen at around 8:30am this morning. The water has subsided now. A train derailed in Aberdeenshire this morning killing three […]
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Aberdeen back in lockdown
Another lockdown has been imposed on Aberdeen today after a local outbreak starting at The Hawthorn Bar on Holburn Street. This is actually very close to us but none of us have been there or indeed gone to any pubs for quite some time. There’s a rumour circulating, and I’m unsure of the veracity of […]
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Be cautious, COVID app, wild swimming, and distance education
The lockdown has mostly ended here insofar as much as it can end. Things won’t return to normal until there’s a vaccine but shops are allowed to open and people can go for holidays. Nevertheless our life hasn’t really changed. I’m still working from home. Ben is still working from home. The kids just finished […]
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Did the virus come from a lab?
There’s a conspiracy theory that the new coronovirus which has brought the world to a halt was engineered by Chinese scientists in a lab in China. This has received heightened media attention in recent weeks after the former head of MI6 publicly supported the idea. While it seems unlikely someone deliberately created and unleashed the […]
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Face masks
I got myself a face mask. They’re not required here but it is recommended by the Scottish government and also now the WHO. I have been secretly wanting a face mask for years to filter out pollution from motor vehicles when I’m walking and cycling because I know how unhealthy it is to breathe. Now […]
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Adventures of a virus in a hospital in South Africa
A hospital in South Africa recently published a remarkable account of how a single patient in the emergency department (ED) introduced Covid-19 to the hospital which then managed to spread to 119 confirmed cases by 30th April. The first patient, P1, appeared at the ED for a Covid-19 test on March 9 after recently returning […]
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