Friday 4th November 2022

I slept uninterrupted for nearly ten hours.

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful a sentence that was to write.

COVID is bad enough, but not being able to sleep as well is just horrible.

So, more fluid through Thursday, another walk, and things much better.

The only downside was that by the time I woke up and camestairs, Jools had tested herself and found she too was positive. Not that surprising, really.

She was due to have her 4th jab Friday afternoon. So close.

So, she can't go to work, but as she felt OK, better than on Wednesday and Thursday, she tried to log into her work account and work from home. It took some time, but she did it, and so managed to stay caught up, and our broadband handled two work accounts and my home PC too.

I did a whole day's work, well enough to catch up and send out meeting invites and all my details for travel next week all sorted out.

I bake a batch of Norfolk Short Cakes for lunch, so we have a couple each with a huge brew, and so once work finished, we went out for a walk.

Twas a glorious late autumnal afternoon, clear blue skies and golden foliage, but neither of us really wanted to be out, but both knowing we had to, really. We walk up and down three of the four streets on our small estate, back home for twenty past three, just in time to put the badger food out, make a fresh coffee and watch the sunset to the west and moon rise to the east.

Dinner was jambaaya, using the recipe from the course Jools went on. Came out well, even without the right sausages, but it seems venison and cranberry sausages go with almost everything.

I open a bottle of reserve red plonk, and we eat well.

There was football, but my heart wasn't in it, so go to bed at half eight hoping to get another nine hours kip.

On Twitter

Elton Must has bought Twitter for $44 billion. Some of it his own money, most borrowed, from the Middle East, it appears.

Elton thinks he is a genius.

He might be in the electic car business, but on mass transport and probably social media, less so.

His hyperloop, which was much trumpted by him and his techy mates, has been dismantled recently, and the site is now a car park. People who work in transport explained why hyperloop wouldn't work, the same way in which autopilots on cars won't work either, Elton thought he knew best.

Reality thought other wise.

And so to twitter.

Yesterday morning, approx 50% of its staff were laid off, including all of the adviary board and 75% of the moderation teams.

First question is: what is Twitter (the company). I think it is a content moderation company, whose actions stop the platform becoming more of a hellsite than it already is. Point here is, without moderation it very quickly becomes a very unpleasant place to spend time in, and companies won't advertise.

Which is what is happening. There is a mass migration to other platforms, mastadon for one, and advertising revenue is plummeting. But this is not Elton's fault, no its those darned Leftie pressure groups. Here is another free marketer blaming the free markets.

Twiiter may or may not survive.

Friends Reunited thrived, then failed and is forgotten.

MySpace also thrived and failed.

What is to stop Twitter going the same way?

Mostly the people he fired and lack of users.

On FB I follow a feed called Bored Panda, which produces diverting posts, mostly with pictures, but sometimes stories. One was of a guy who worked in an engineering company. He had been there since year dot, be was the factory's tool maker, all to his own design, he drew the blueprints and did maintenance. New guy comes in, things old dude does nothing, fires him. Toolmaker takes the blueprints, maintenance documents and everything else with him, and factory falls over within a month.

It takes a lot of people to keep Twitter from falling over, remove half of them then it probably will. Question then will be, who soon can Elton get it up and running?

And, of course, it'll never be his fault.

Thursday 3rd November 2022

It would seem that my body thought that having COVID wasn't enough, what with the sweating, headaches and so on, but I should suffer from night cramps whenever I tried to get some kip.

NO sooner had I gone to bed on Wednesday that my legs cramped up, and there was no respite for over half an hour. An hour's more sleep and it happened again.

And finally, going to bed Thursday afternoon brough more cramping pain.

Arse.

The usual tricks I do to get rid of cramps failed to work, either it was the final stages before I keeled over and died due to a thrombosis or something, or I was missing something simple.

I was hoping the latter.

Jools was feeling quite poorly when she got up, but took a test and it came back negative. Maybe it was just a cold or the flu?

(no)

So, I was left at home, and despite the lack of sleep, though I did lay in until quarter to seven, I did work, caught up on mails and the such though the morning, hd some fruit.

And certainly after a shower felt so much better.

Well, better than before the shower, at least.

After lunch, with five hours having been worked, I went for a snooze which is where yet another cramp attack happened. And I thought maybe it was lack of physical activity that was the cause, so although I felt like death warmed up, I went out for a walk.

This involved having to put on shoes whilst having cramp in both legs, bending down to tie them up, and once the pain eased, and the swaring, I put on my coat and set off.

My friend in Norwich, has averaged 11,000 steps a day through the year, I am on 5,500. But she walks every day. I don't.

So, no photographic walk this, just need to get some steps in, along to Station Road, up the down to Nelson Park, then up one side, back on the other, down to Hardy, and repeat and again on Collingwood.

The rain of earlier had eased, but dark clouds were rolling in, so I made a dash for home, getting back as the heavens opened once more.

6,500 steps done.

I then realised I must be dehydrated, as I was getting stitches everywhere, though the worst was in my legs, so I began to drink as much as I could.

I just hoped that when I went to bed that night I would be able to sleep, or my body would let me.

I did stay up until nine, though Jools felt so crappy she went to bed at seven. I have the radio on, then head to bed with Cleo joining me, snuggling up to my legs.

Lights out.

Wednesday 2nd November 2022

I remember when Jen though she caught COVID back in spring 2020, and it seemed that it might mean she might not make it, and her Mum would have to go in hospital, meaning she wouldn't make it either. In the end, she had just flu, but it was very stressful for a couple of days, espeically the day she fell ill.

Fast forward two and a half years, andalthough COVID is still a pandemic, thanks to multiple vaccines and boosters, although it wouldn't be nice, it wasn't the end of the world.

And this was day 3 of the infection, and by the end of the day I would feel slightly better, it started off with me with a throat so sore I could barely speak.

Jools called to ask if I was OK, and I could only answer with a croak.

Jools went swimming, leaving me at home with a coffee. I wrote an e mail on my phone, cancelling the audit I was due to conduct, then took to the sofa to lay down. Scully demanding I sat up so she could sit on my lap.

My throat eased with the coffee and juice I drank.

The morning crawled.

I realised, of course, that without work, going out of doing stuff online, there is little to do, and I was becoming bored, but when I did try to listen to a podcast or something, I soon lost interest.

So it goes, so it goes.

I did try to go back to bed in the afternoon to get some snoozing in, but my body decided I should suffer cramp in both calves.

Nice.

We had leftover chips for dinner, with chicken Kyiv and corn.

And although I didn't feel like much, Norwich were on the telly box, playing QPR, a top of the table clash, and a vastly improved performance from City, both sides hot the post, but the game ended in an entertaining 0-0 draw.

Travels in my head: Maine

The Pine Tree State. In fact, I have not been that far into Maine. I have been to Portland, where I seem to remember I stopped at a roadside diner and had the rudest server I ever encountered in the US. Apart from that, I like Maine. If you look at a map of the US, just a bove New Hampshire is a state line and north and east of that it reads "here be dragons". This is Maine. Just north of Rochester, NH, the road crosses the state line, and beyond there are good roads again. New Hampshire seemed to have poorly maintained roads, but Maine, fine. My favourite place in Maine is York Beach. And that is because at York Beach there is the Nubble Light at Cape Neddick, a fine old lighthouse on an island, very picturesque, and a place I visit each time I am in the area. A friend, Garro, rented a, well, not sure you'd call it a house, more of a cottage, on Nubble Road, overlooking the ocean. It was a fine old place, but using Google Street View it seems most of the original houses have been replaced by horrble modern mansions. Garro was a fine gentleman, a trucker and was in a relationship with my friend's Mother, who was also a trucker. A hard life in the US, especially in New England in the winter. Garro got kicked out by his landlord who had an offer on the lot so wanted to make cash. So, I guess the cottage got razed to be replaced with a typical US house with a garage for several SUVs. Garro was a great cook too. I still have many of his recipes and use them from time to time. He was also trying to work out the herbs and spices used in KFC wonder if he ever got that nailed down. After York Beach, I loed the fishing village of Ogunquit, where one fine autumn afternoon, with the fall colours as a backdrop, the fleet heading out to sea. I could live there, if it wasn't for the winters. Obviously. In the area, snow only counts if it falls on Boston. Obviously. That leaved Kennebunkport to describe. I believe this is where Barbara Bush came from, and they had a holiday home there. As in many US towns and cities, there is a "old" and pretty part, and the strip mall beside the main road. The Maine main road. I have visited the old and new. I prefer the old, clearly. I went there the first time it was dusk and refelections on the Kennebunk River. But it were cold.

Tuesday 1st November 2022

A new month, and a new experince.

Again, I slept poorly.

And when I woke up I ached all over.

And coughed.

Jools made me coffee, left forwork, and I got on with setting up the office again. But with less sleep than the night before, I wouldn't last the day.

At some point, the possibility of COVID entered my head.

It was three days since I came home, four since the beer festival, and that was very crowded indeed.

I found the box of test kits, and rad the instructions, which were not clear. But at least now there is no swabbin the throat, just the nose.

First test I messed up.

And the second I got right, so attended a meeting while the results showed.

Two lines.

Positive.

Which explained a lot as to how I felt. I also felt very cold indeed. So went upstairs to bed, collecting four blankets to pile on the duvet, and I put the heating on.

It helped. Just.

So I lay in the semi-darkness as the afternoon melted into evening.

Once up, I made a coffee and that warmed me up, so much so I had to turn the heating down, sharpish.

Jools picked up sausage and chips from the chippy. Battered sausage, of course, and once home I plated it up and the chips overflowed both of them. So, we shall have them warmed up for dinner on Wednesday too.

There was footy on the TV, but the light from the laptop too bright, another sign of COVD I believe, so went to bed to listen to Spurs on the radio, falling asleep several time until it ended at ten in which time I had fluctuated from hot to cold to hot again, so many time, I lost count.

Monday 31st October 2022

All Hallow's Eve.

And a Monday, so back to work.

I slept poorly, waking up at regular intervas, and maybe laying the the dark for an hour or more.

I guess I thought I had a cold or flu coming, with a poor night's sleep comes the risk of a migraine, so I knew I probably wouldn't last much beyond lunchtime working.

Jools went back swimming, as her cough is pretty much gone now, so I sat in the dark, listened to a podcast and fired up the leptop at seven, ready for work.

Concentration was had to come by, and by lunchtime I didn't feel that good at all.

And I was getting very cold. My feet certainly, so I logged off from work and went to bed.

Sleep would not come, neither would warmth.

I should have put the heating on, but told myself it was because I hadn't had any lunch.

I got up at four, made a coffee and soon warmed up as the over-sugared brew worked in making me feel better, as did the cold and flu capsules I took.

Whay I ddn't know, or guess, was that I had caught COVID, probably on that last session at the beer festival. I would only get confirmation on Tuesday morning when I took a test.

We shared a pizza, and warmed me up so much I took off my jumper.

But I felt like crap, so after writing a blog I went to bed at half seven, while putside the first autumnal storm raged and threw rain at the back of the house.

I fell into a fitful sleep, but did better, even if I did ache all over.