Three years

March 23rd. 

Three years since the entire country was locked down. 

Three years since we were told "Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives".

Three years since most workplaces, cinemas, clubs, pubs, restaurants and 'non-essential' shops were forced to close.

Three years since schools closed and children weren't allowed to see their wider family and friends or have a hug from their grandparents.

Three years since elderly people in care homes were locked away with no visitors.

Three years since some poor souls died alone in hospital; their families having to watch on an iPad, denied the chance to be with their loved ones in their final moments.

Three years since our politicians lost their minds, but found a really good way to control an entire population while simultaneously trashing the economy, children's education and the health service.

I thought, as time went on, I would lose some of the anger I felt about what politicians and 'scientists' did to us. I was wrong! Now I'm able to look back at it all and see everything they put us through, recall how much they lied and how badly their disproportionate reaction to a flu virus has affected every aspect of life, I'm actually more angry! 

It won't do any good - politicians are fireproof; nothing touches them and nothing stops them. 

I'm not a great believer in natural justice - I just hope that in some way or another they're forced one day to pay for what they did.

The start of Christmas

Since I was here last we've lost Boris as PM (thank god!), lost Truss as the subsequent PM (she might have turned out to be ok but her MPs gave her the boot) and laughably, we now have the useless Rishi (why are his clothes too small?) as the third PM since the end of the summer. Don't ask...

Sadly, HM the Queen died at the beginning of September. At the age of 96 it wasn't a surprise but it was still a shock. Most people had never known this country without her as Monarch. It still seems strange.

Meanwhile, Covid has all but been forgotten despite the best efforts of the media and the NHS to keep it relevant; unsurprisingly, the NHS is continuing to use Covid as the best excuse it can find for being relentlessly useless. Nothing new there, then.

The scorching days of summer seem long ago. It's now winter, it's cold, the sun sets at around 4pm and Christmas is approaching at speed. There was even Christmas music on the radio today!

Our Advent calendars made an appearance this morning! I bought one for Mr S-V from Bonne Maman which has a dinky little jar of jam behind every door... how cute is that?! - and we've unearthed the decorations ready for their annual outing in a week or so.

Best of all, given that it's December the 1st, we've made a start on the "treats" drawer in the kitchen which is full of nice little bits and pieces to have with an afternoon cuppa; well, there's no way I'm waiting until Dec 24th before I dive into the goodies!

Today's little treat was a slice of stollen - I've never made one and I'm never likely to; why bother when Waitrose does them so well?

This year Waitrose and M&S will be doing most of the heavy lifting in the kitchen as mobility issues have become a bit of a problem for me. Kitchen chores have to be broken down into small chunks so I shall only be making the things I really want to. 

Obviously, that includes a Nut Roast Wellington for when The Troops come for lunch on Christmas Eve, and a tray of Not Sausage Rolls. No Christmas at this house would be complete without them! 

I've already made the usual batch of Freeze-ahead Roast Potatoes which really are the best thing since sliced bread; they're snuggled up in the freezer along with red cabbage and desserts from Waitrose.

I saw a nice recipe the other day for sprouts stir-fried with chilli and crème fraiche - I'd post a link if I could remember where I saw the damn thing!

As usual it will all creep up on me and I'll say, as I always do, that next year I'd like to do something different or maybe we could just ignore Christmas altogether. Then next year comes around... and off we go again!

Once a liar, always a liar

I said he was lying and now the police have confirmed it. Boris Johnson, our esteemed (esteemed?!) Prime Minister has been fined over his lockdown parties. Our tax-dodging Chancellor and assorted others will also have to shell out for breaking the rules that they implemented. Of course, the rules were for others, not for them.

The week before Boris's first party (there were eleven others!) it was our son's birthday. Under the rules we weren't allowed to meet indoors so we sat in their garden for socially distanced tea and cake. We didn't break the law but the people who made the laws did.

They told us repeatedly it was a highly dangerous virus, so dangerous in fact that we couldn't see or hug our closest family... but that was just another lie, wasn't it? Covid was never the deadly virus we were led to believe. Would they really have put themselves and their families at risk if it was as lethal as they said? I can only suppose power and status somehow confer immunity... HM the Queen mustn't have got the memo about that; without any fuss she managed to follow the rules even though the PM didn't.

Boris has paid the fine and given a full apology but, even while apologising, he tried to weasel out of any responsibility by saying he didn't realise it was a breach of the rules. The rules he made!

He must think we're as stupid as he is. 

He can shove his apology... sideways. It's worthless, as is he. 

He should do the decent thing and resign but, sadly for us, there isn't a shred of decency in his miserable body. He's a lying scumbag who, when he's caught out lying, just tells more lies. They trip so easily off his tongue; he clearly thinks his position puts him above the law.

I'm amazed at how many people online and in the news media are saying it wasn't important, move on. Clearly, I have higher standards than them and certainly higher than the people who supposedly lead this country.

Our "wonderful" NHS... yet again

It was two years ago yesterday that all over-70s were told to stay at home for their own safety because of a dangerous new virus... subsequently called Covid-19. The following week everyone was told to stay at home. So began two very long years of lockdowns, rules and regulations.

Recently all the ludicrously disproportionate restrictions brought in to contain this "dangerous" virus have been ditched; Boris says we have to live with it. Great... about time, too; pity he didn't say it sooner. 

To all intents and purposes Covid is over, so why is the NHS keeping up the charade? Hospitals are still restricting access to visitors; people still have to wear a mask to enter its sacred portals; many wards are still closed, allegedly because of a shortage of staff who are off sick with Covid (why, when they're all masked and jabbed and in every other workplace there's no staff shortage at all?); GPs still won't allow patients to book face to face appointments and hospital waiting times for treatment are growing longer by the day.

The NHS lives in its own little world - covering up its many inadequacies by keeping people at arm's length. There's no accountability, no responsibility. The longer they can keep people out, the longer they can perpetuate the lie that they're working desperately hard and absolutely run off their feet. The actual fact is somewhat different - we have a health service which is letting down the nation, it is not fit for purpose. It's a money pit - politicians keep throwing our taxes at it, saying how "wonderful" it is, but there is no discernible improvement in the service offered. It's a conspiracy of silence.

I spoke to someone today whose relative is in hospital. An appointment has to be made before visiting and only one named person is allowed to visit. One hour, once a day. Problem is, no-one ever answers the phone to enable an appointment to be made! Said relative was in A&E for a day and a half waiting for a bed and has now been in hospital for five days - without once being helped to have a bath or shower! Just one small example of the "caring" face of our health service. It's outrageous.

Covid has become very convenient for the NHS - they won't let this virus go without a fight. It's their only cover against people seeing how crap it really is.

I previously said the actions of the NHS regarding Covid were a pointless pantomime - it's worse than that, it's a cover-up of mammoth proportions where people are suffering at the hands of the very institution that should be helping and protecting them in their hour of need. "Shameful" doesn't even come close.

NHS theatre

I'm still wittering on about Covid even though, as we know, it's yesterday's news. It's over. So why is the NHS continuing to behave like it isn't?

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the local hospital - an investigative procedure for something that could have been very nasty but, thankfully, turned out not to be.

I wasn't asked if I'd taken an LFT (No), I wasn't asked whether I had any Covid symptoms (No) nor was I asked if I'd been vaccinated (emphatically, No!) I had to wear a mask and wash my hands at the door. I was then seen by five different masked medics who were all within inches of my face. There was no other PPE or special safety measures used by them, nor were they wearing gloves. I was fine with this. So it's clearly not the very dangerous disease they've been telling us, then?

So why had most of the chairs in the waiting area been removed, leaving several people with nowhere to sit while they waited to be seen? Those chairs that were left were placed singly, two metres apart. Some poor souls had to stand and were leaning against the wall. 

This is a major hospital in one of the richest countries in the world. How on earth is this acceptable?

The NHS has clearly not seen the date. It's March 2022 not March 2020. Someone send them a memo... You can stop the pointless pantomime, we're done with Covid.

March 1st

A busy Tuesday. 

St David's Day, Pancake Day and the first day of Spring (meteorologically speaking). Sadly, no-one told Spring that today's the day it has to leap into action, hence it's cool and cloudy with a faint drizzle going on!

The rest of the world looks dire at the moment - just seeing the headlines today makes me want to put my head back under the covers. No sooner does Covid push off than Putin starts up. So sad for the Ukrainian people.

I think I'll concentrate on Welsh Cakes and Pancakes rather than the wider world. I know where I am in the sanity of my own kitchen.

Right... the frying pan is calling me!

Events

"Events, dear boy, events."

It's widely thought this was said by the late former PM Harold McMillan in answer to a question about what presented the greatest challenge for a statesman; whether he did or not I've no idea, but it certainly sums up the situation at the moment.

I've said repeatedly that a big event was needed to put Covid in its rightful place, something big which would allow people to get the risk and danger of Covid into proportion. It looks like we now have that big event. Sadly, Russia is currently invading Ukraine.

Dear god, the state of this world today... as if people haven't suffered enough for the past two years.