Friday 29th May 2020

It am Friday.

It is a normal weekend here in Kent, but a three day weekend in Denmark, so my colleagues are planning trips to their summer houses or the beach. They can even get haircuts.

Back here in Kent, we do the usual stuff before work: being a Friday, Jools doesn't have work, but has a yoga class at half six. At the same time I do some phys, have a shower and am ready for work.

As I have the morning meeting, Jools finished her class and goes to Tesco for supplies.

I suppose the last three months have been surreal. Normal but not normal. Some colleagues have been busier than normal, others not so. I fall into the second group. But gives me time to think and plan activities in the new year.

Which all sounds exciting, especially when you factor in the fun travel and things we have planned. Let's hope things are back to normal by then.

Jools returns at quarter to ten, so I can help her unload the car, but at then have to have a one:one meeting with my boss.

After lunch I have done all my weekly admin, so we decide to go out. Orchiding.

For years, our best Bee Orchid site has been in Pegwell Bay, so we will drive there, and maybe check the nature reserve nearby too, for SMO?

Perfect.

We dive to Sandwich, then out the other side to Cliffsend, parking on a side street as the area around the Viking Ship is closed to cars. But such things is legal now.

I take my cameras and we walk to the entrance, then down past the ship to the steps, which used to lead to the hoverport, but now lead to the area that nature is reclaiming. Only a new sewer is being laid, so in the middle of the wildlife are port-a-cabins, plant and cars. I hope they won't expand their job and do anything for to the site, as it feels very special.

Where there used to be dozens of spikes, I don't see any. Not a rosette. Its what happens sometimes, I guess. Three dry years have killed the rhizomes, and they won't return, or they might just be dormant. But no Bees.

I find the yellow Man orchids, they are less numerous, and I may be wrong, but there seemed to be less spikes than before, but they could have just dried out.

And no Southern Marsh to be found either. There was a large group that was increasing in the shade of a bush, no sign this year.

With gangs of youths shouting whilst they cycled, we walk back to the steps and the car, hopeful that the reserve would provide happier hunting.

A two minute drive, and we nip over the road and into the reserve. Where the paths would be dotted with spikes, there were none.

Even in the cleared area, where there used to ba a hybrid spike 27 inches tall, just a couple of sorry spikes almost crowded out by the field horsetails. No more than a dozen spikes on the whole site.

We turn round and leave or we would have been mown don by a family of six and their three dogs. We escape to the car and drive home.

Not the best afternoon orchiding, with most of my targets missing.

Sigh.

But it is Friday afternoon, it is the start of the weekend.

Back home, I review what shots I had taken, then get dinner ready. Shop-bought BBQ ribs (very poor) home made chips (better) and wine. Wine is always good.

For the evening, we listen to the wireless, then it is Gardener's World to round things off.

Almost felt quite normal.

Experts

Three members of the Government's SAGE advisory panel have publicly said that it is too early to lift restrictions.

Further relaxing will happen on Monday with some schools opening further.

8,000 new infections are being discovered every day, nationally, and that is too high a number to track and trace. There is no working test, track and isolate system in place, but those who point this out are just being "negative".

Of course.

Maybe we don't believe in Boris enough?

Meanwhile, one million people have lost their job since March 1st, but Dominic Cummings is not one of them.

I'm sure this all normal and the country will be fine.

Be positive.

If Johnson can't or won't sack Cummings, is it because he can't be PM without Cummings? In which case Johnson isn't good enough to be pM. Or is it that Cummings has so much shit on Johnson? In which case Johnson should not be PM.

Simple.

Enjoy your weekend.

Thursday 28th May 2020

Work.

But, you know it pays for everything else.

So, we have to do it, until we can afford not to, too ill to or dead.

I plan to enjoy at least some of my life in retirement.

But for now, there is work.

With the bank holiday and 5 day weekend, my phys program was out of whack, I should have done some phys, but decide to have a rest day, which means, in theory, I have an hour to procrastinate in the morning and still be prepared for starting work at half seven. But, as always, I listen to something on the radio, or a podcast, and I scramble to set the computer up and be ready for the meeting.

We are all still well. And in Denmark they have a three day weekend to look after.

I don't.

So, we have the meeting and I spend the morning updating the audit database, creating cases and so cross-referencing them with activities.

I am a busy boy.

I have lunch; cheese toasties, as they are da bomb. A brew.

And I ponder how to fill the afternoon.

I make calls and arrange meetings for next week, and that takes another couple of hours.

And at three, I go for a walk. I decide Windy Ridge should be the destination. You know the way by now, over the fields to Fleet House and the pigs. I take no shots, instead wait until I look out from in front of the copse over the Kingsdown and the sea.

From there, down past the farm and the long drag up the the wood.

I see nothing new or of interest, really, just glorious to be out, the wind in my hair and the sky full of larks singing.

I reach the top of the climb and take the lane beside it. I realise I have never been down this lane, or this part of it. It is green and overgrown, like the half I had already walked down.

But I take shots anyway.

I walk on, to the lane leading down the down, down to Collingwood.

I did spot a couple of Speckled Wood butterflies, and i got a fairly decent shot of the woodland butterfly basking on a leaf in sunlight.

And down to home, where there is a glass of iced squash to be made and drunk.

Phew.

No chance of the session on the cross trainer my mind had toyed with. Instead I go for a shower and feel human again.

Dinner is aubergine again, coast with panko, and is wonderful, and I have it all cooked as Jools walks in the door, so all she has to do is pour the wine.

She is finished for the weekend, and I have just six hours or so on Friday.

As usual, the evening is quiet; radio and writing. Too chilly to sit outside, so we nurse the last brews of the days as the evening slips by.

I hope I am wrong

There is no plan.

Not one based on science anyway. Either here in the UK or the US, just a release of the lockdown and a return to normal without social distancing, protecting the weak and the old.

There will be thousands, hundreds of thousands more deaths.

Its not that there isn't a plan, really, just one that involves the economic sacrifice of low value life being thrown on the pyre for the sake of the economy.

Which here in the UK the Government will then thrown on the pyre too in the name of Brexit and independence.

An economy which is trying to recover, has to then cope with a country putting economic sanctions on itself. It is madness.

And is going to happen.

The UK Government is pushing now for no deal in trade negotiations and say it will not ask for an extension even if one were offered.

We will start our Brexit stockpile in September, now we know what people will panic buy.

Those in high risk groups have their extended lockdown ended at the end of June. The virus is still there, racing through the population, it will still kill and send thousands into the ICU of yet more isolation isn't self-imposed.

The Government is now openly hiding information on numbers of testing. It failed to show those numbers for three days, this was pointed out on Wednesday, but same result on Thursday. Data unavailable. Without testing, tracing and isolations of those who have had contact, the virus will spread until it has swept through the whole population.

An infection rate of 1% could leave over 600,000 dead. Increase that infection rate, increase the dead.

All avoidable, even now, but the speed of unlocking is increasing, there is no science or data to back this up.

Also, the Government is shutting down scrutiny. The press conference now doesn't allow follow up questions, mutes difficult questions and Johnson stops questions being asked of the scientists. The virtual parliament is being scrapped, but still only 50 MPs are allowed on the Commons at any time, the voting lobby cannot be used and the Government has failed to come up with an alternative, probably on purpose.

Good luck, you're gonna need it.

@ChrisGiles_.

Update: following today's data from hospitals, a cautious estimate of the number of UK excess deaths linked to coronavirus up to 28 May is 64,000

Of these 59,537 have happened and the rest are estimates over the past 2 weeks

64,000 would be a rate of 960 per million

ENDS

Yesterday, ITN news disclosed they have documents that show discharging infected patients from hospital into care homes was their policy, and there is strong evidence that it is still happening. So much for that protective ring, Matt?

We are being played, and are going to lose.

Finally, Durham police did not clear Cummings.

Had they had stopped the family on the "eye tst" drive to Barnard Castle, they would have advised the drive to return to their house in Durham.

If the driver had refused, then the police could have imposed a FPN.

Had Cummings refused to pay or challenged that, it might have gone to court.

But he was not cleared.

Big announcements

Well, what with the lockdown and stuff, I thought you might like to hear about some stuff.

First of all, I have appointed a real estate agent to sell Mum's house. It took some time for the paperwork to go back and forth, but one was legally appointed on Tuesday, listed that day, and within 24 hours to firm bids received.

Yesterday a third, larger bid was received.

I spoke to my solicitor this morning, where we discussed things, she suggested seeing if there was more on offer. Two grand was offered.

We took it. I took it.

Now paperwork will be drawn up and the wheels of the conveyancing process will be started, and may take 12 weeks or more, if there are no hold ups or snags.

So, I need to spell out what this will mean for us and our finances.

Eeeek.

We have two new sites starting up in the UK next year, and it will be part of my job to conduct audits to make sure things are on track.

One site is on the Tees coast at Seaton, and the other is north of Inverness in Invergordon. Just north of Invergordon is Tain, where the Glenmorangie distillery is.

Just saying. I will be going to each at least twice, if not more often.

As well as my other duties round the UK.

Now the big stuff.

Holibobs.

Depending on how the unlocking goes, but we are hoping to go on a road trip to France in the autumn. That may not happen, but that is what is keeping us going for now. We would drive to Burgundy, Region Auvergne and Region Aquitaine.

Next May I am going on an orchid tour of Rhodes. Where I will meet the author whose book I in a small way helped to finish, and see up to 50 species of orchids in 7 days. This is booked! Jools will not be joining me, as the logistics and thought of seven days orchiding just too much.

And then, in December 2021, or late November, we plan to fly to the other side of the world to visit New Zealand. Go to Wellington and then tour the south island. Its all too exciting to think too hard about.

But this is all pretty much mindblowing.

News as we get it.

Wednesday 27th May 2020

Mum's 76th birthday. Or would have been.

Pay Day.

In fact, that's not correct, as it was double pay day. As in my contract I was entitled to an extra month's pay after ten year's service, and although due to an administrative cock up, it was paid a month late. But paid.

The tax man took his share.

But. Double pay.

Wow.

The sun now rises so far in the east that we don't see any light from it direct until it has been up for half an hour, so I lay in bed wondering if its cloudy or just early.

I came down the stairs and Jools was checking mails and our bank account and she said, do you know how much is in our ban account?

I didn't, but was at least expecting it.

Yay.

And through the day all I bought was 16 more bottles of tripel. But I did have a shock as their website was almost sold out. But my favourite was still in stock.

Yay, beer. Or bier.

But Wednesday, the new Tuesday.

I drink my coffee, go and do a session on the cross trainer. Get ready for work, make breakfast and another coffee.

All set for work.

I am in a good mood all day. Outside it was sunny, but a cool wind did blow. I looked and thought it not butterfly stalking weather. So don't go for a walk. I should have, obviously.

Lunch is warmed through aubergine and some toast, which hits the spot.

I am still in a good mood.

The day fades out into atrophy, I do a session on the cross trainer. In the warm weather, it is hard.

Then a shower and clean clothes, and time to mix up a batch of courgette fritters, adding extra chilli flakes to add "zip".

Which works.

They have zip.

I have just about cooked them all when Jools comes back from work, she pours the wine, and we sit down to eat.

Lovely.

We munch our way through the pile o fritters, mostly vegetables and all good things. Apart from the two packs of lardons I added, which add "bacon".

And that was your day, we were all done by nine, so go to bed.

Phew.

Regulations broken

This afternoon Durham Constabulary issued a statement which said: "might have been a minor breach of the Regulations that would have warranted police intervention" in relation to Cummingsgate. This would have been a verbal warning and instruction to return home, which they could have issued a FPN if Cummings had refused.

David Allan Green says this amounts to: "means there was a breach, but not one sufficiently seriousness for more than advice."

And this was all it was ever going to be, as the lockdown was issued under Public Health regulations not Public Order. But clearly, goes against the Government message he literally helped write to stay home.

The Attorney General is now under pressure as she issued a supportive statement on Monday saying no regulations had been broken. He postion, a political appointment, but her first loyalty is to the law and party second, and it seems she may have got that wrong.

All this to protect a Special Advisor.

In the end, I hope it was worth it. Meanwhile, 60,000 plus people have died, the Government's public health message will now be ignored risking a second wave, and trust in Johnson has crashed.

All this to protect a Special Advisor.

On Tuesday there were no deaths in Ireland from COVID, in the UK there were 412. Coutries next to each other, and yes, Ireland is smaller. But no deaths. They did a lockdown on about March 10th, a week before St Patrick's Day, it took the UK another two weeks to do that, two weeks in which over three quarters of those who have died were infected. An earlier lockdown in the UK and many, many less people would be dead.