Sunday, 21st February, 2021
A mild but grey morning with temperatures at 13C/55F. The earlier light and warmer temperatures is encouraging and so is the news of our vaccine this morning. We had our first jab on Thursday which should take its full effect by March 11th and expect our second jab by May 12th which should give us the all-clear before June.
I wrote last week of accounts of the Pfizer vaccine showing worrying laboratory test signs of low efficacy against mutant strains of the virus. This morning this has been completely reversed by real life studies. Latest efficacy data from Israeli analysis – real, human data – suggests the following:

I think I’m prepared to live with a 1.1% of dying so we can start to think about travelling again. The Europeans, apparently, are balking at the thought of being given the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine because of its rumoured lack of data of its effectiveness against the South African and UK variants. If we are to travel, we will need Europeans to be vaccinated and to be comfortable opening up their borders. We are all in this together …. apart from the Brextremists, of course, who also tend to be Covid-sceptics and certainly can’t see the value in the whole world’s vaccination for the UK people and economy.
We’ve got our 9th Rapid Lateral Flow Antigen Test tomorrow. Another £50.00/€58.00 in our bank account. Something that should really be helping to boost our immune systems to fight infection is exercise. In the past two months since Boxing Day, (effectively 8 weeks) I have missed my exercise target just 4 times. I have walked/run 310 miles/499 km. Quite pleased with that. I’m going to maintain this standard for another month and then, as the weather improves, hope to increase it.
Monday, 22nd February, 2021
This was supposed to be a Spring day. The birds were expecting it. The flowers were assuming it and we were looking forward to it. The gap between aspiration and reality is great. We have, dark, gloomy skies with a maximum temperature of 9C/48F. It doesn’t feel inviting. Consequently, we are stuck inside once again.
I am reading and doing some Ancestry work in the Office. Pauline has gone back to her painting. She will finish the ground floor today. The whole house is pervaded by a faint whiff of paint. Therein lies the problem. I am static, seated. Pauline is active standing and stretching. She is thin. I am fat.
Even so, we had Artichoke & Minted Peas Stew for our Lunch. instead of soup today. This is one of our long standing Greek favourites which we ate on a cold, March day in a warm corner of Simos’ Taverna in Kamares Port. After Lunch, we had a visit from a Covid Tester – A Brexit supporter (spit) – which took about 20 mins.
This was our 9th test and we will have now been paid £450.00/€520.00 between us for the privilege. It really is not inconvenient for us and provides us with reassurance of our current health while paying us into the bargain. What is there to complain about?
Of course, we are thinking more and more about going abroad either on a medium term basis – renting for 2-3 months at a time or buying a small, apartment on a sunny coast in France/Spain. The outlay for renting, particularly in Spain, is incredibly cheap. A villa with private pool, parking, 3 beds, washing & cooking facilities plus internet and satellite television for, say, June & July is only around £6,000.00/€7,000.00. A studio apartment on the Murcian coast can be had for about £75,000.00/ so an equation has to be done. Whatever, this is the way forward for holiday makers who want to avoid too much social contact.
As I suggested long ago, the Greeks are suddenly staring this conundrum in the face. Full of hope and bravado, they wrote off last year’s season and the debts they incurred while talking up the new one this Summer. Suddenly, they are beginning to realise that this season may be even worse. From the website, Sifnaika-Fos, this:
This is the very real danger of putting all your eggs in one basket. I have been warning of this, with relation to Greece’s reliance on the Tourist Industry, for years never even contemplating a pandemic. Now it has arrived and the warnings become reality. Greeks may have to start considering ‘real’ jobs.
Tuesday, 23rd February, 2021
Spring is here. The morning has broken with wonderful light and moved in to strong, warm sunshine. I feel different and more alive.
The past is always with me as a present continuous. It forms the backdrop to the experiences of my days and informs my decision making. I am constantly reviewing past mistakes and regretting. I don’t just do this in my head. I can be heard going, Oh, Oh. out loud or even shed a tear as these incidents replay across my conscientiousness. I have to admit that I thought all people did this but I know I am weird and it may be exclusive to me.
One of the principles of my adult life has been to avoid causing hurt to others but being a rather gauche, insensitive man, I am prone to doing exactly that. Often it is in an attempt to understand myself or exorcise a pain of my own rather than anything else. I suspect that, as I approach 70, I will not now change. However, I do continue to work on my inner self.
I am constantly having to work on my outer self. Since leaving school and playing non-stop sport, I have had a perpetual fight with my weight. Unfortunately, my interests are largely cerebral and have been for the last 50 years of my adult life. This is not conducive to physical fitness or weight control. Although I have been fighting back in retirement, it is a long, almost unwinnable battle particularly as my passions include good food and fine wine. I am a hopeless case, I know.
I’m thinking of employing an editor for the Blog. Re-reading it is embarrassing – for an ex-English teacher. I’ve had a major software update which resulted in the resetting of all my graphics. They have been grossly stretched and I’m having to reset them after review. It takes such a long time. I had the offer of help by a disgruntled reader but it looks like I’m not to get that support after all. I understand. My life is just too boring for them.
Wednesday, 24th February, 2021
To my readers: Nil Desperandum! Things are going to get better. The sun is not out this morning although it is warm and Spring is on its way. It better be. My morning is crammed with desperately important events. So important that I hesitate to list them:
- Strip the bed (me)
- Remake bed (Pauline)
- Freshly squeezed orange juice and tea (Pauline)
- Meet Fish Delivery man – 3Kgs white fish – (me)
- Portion up and freeze fish (Pauline)
- Daily update of Accounts (Pauline)
- Monthly Descale the coffee maker (me)
- Vacuum the house (me)
- Continue ‘touch-up’ painting (Pauline)
- Blog & Watch Cricket – England v India (me)
- Do some searches on Electoral Rolls (me)
- No Lunch (me) / Undecided (Pauline)
- 90 mins workout in the gym (me)
- Long, (3 mins shower) (me)
- One meal of the day (me) (Pauline)
So, as you can see, Dear Readers, our life is packed with the mundanities of everyday living and yet I feel optimistic. The days are getting longer and lighter and I have a lightness in my heart. Things will get better but not, unfortunately, in the cricket because we are 3 wickets down already.
Bit fed up this afternoon. England are all out already. We went for a walk around our local woods. A couple of years ago I took this photo of two rabbits in a field.
This afternoon, after a couple of years of planning applications, this is what’s happening. No sign of the rabbits!
Things appear and disappear in to the mist so quickly and leave only sadness. Soon it will be too late. However, I remain optimistic. England have two wickets already.
Thursday, 25th February, 2021
It was 11C/52F last night when I went to bed before midnight for a change. Haven’t slept well for two nights. Had dreams about being a bad person. Think I’m having a crisis of confidence. Got up this morning rather diffidently but a switch was suddenly turned on and the world looked brighter. It must be the cricket. India have lost 8 wickets.
I have written before that Pauline & I are completing the Kings College London COVID Symptom Study. Ironically, today it included a long strand about mental health. Have they been watching me remotely? I only did the survey as an anxiety displacement activity. Some do surveys. I was amused to read that a classic technique is planning redecorating and, particularly, wallpapering. It represents papering over the cracks which is really only a temporary answer.
We had a 19th Century Coaching House over 40 years ago and went big on wallpaper in keeping with its age. William Morris design from Osborne & Little featured highly. After that, we had a large house which looked more like an art gallery because I went mad for hanging huge, Pre-Raphaelite pictures on the walls. It was in keeping with my Masters degree study of the resurgence of Medievalism in the 19th Century
As we grew older and more widely travelled, we have turned to a much more minimalist approach. The white walls of the Cycladic style are really very restful. Maybe stark in some eyes.
Of course, papering over the cracks is not a possibility. You can turn to whitewash, though. We re-painted this huge building almost every summer. Instead of a cheap, Greek solution, we went upmarket with a plastic coating. It shone out against the blue Mediterranean sky and almost blinded the locals.
Well, England lost the cricket in just two of the five allocated days but we need to search for positives and I can see some. We did a long walk and I followed that with time in the gym so I’m feeling tired but much more optimistic since last night. Beautiful evening down at the beach this evening. Who couldn’t be optimistic in this scene? Going to bed early. I’m shattered.
Friday, 26th February, 2021
Up at 6.00 am with renewed optimism. Well, Sainsbury‘s are delivering at 7.00 am. The sun is already up. The sky is crystal clear. Today is going to be a good day. Might go back down to the beach this morning for a mooch on the shoreline. It’s lovely to be out in the sunshine and the fresh, sea air.
We did a 5 mile walk which started on the Marina and took us along the beach path as the tide started crashing in. It is so good to be out here.
There are fewer fishermen these days but there is still a roaring trade for their product. There is a whiff of fish mingling with the sea salt all around as we walk, drinking in the sun’s rays. Could be in the Mediterranean – Marseille? We griddled Tuna steaks in the garden this afternoon. They were ‘sushi-grade’ and absolutely wonderful with Greek salad. Isn’t life fantastic?
Saturday, 27th February, 2021
Snow moon hunters found plenty to photograph down at the beach last night …. apart from a distant moon. The sunsets/seascapes are delicious.
The shoreline provides for both ends of the emotional spectrum – from moving disturbingly to tranquillity and repose. Perhaps we are capable of both at the same time.
Another gorgeous day. Going out for a long walk to drink in the sunshine. Quite a few people have had the same idea.
Fortunately, we got there for around 9.30 am and walked for an hour or so. By the time we were leaving, parking was impossible and the esplanade was full of joggers, bikers, skateboarders, dog walkers, little kids and old codgers, lovers …..