Like a Longfin Eel

^a photo from last night’s dragon boating   A lot has happened in the last two weeks. My housemate got covid (mild) and I evacuated to higher ground to mates who I know through Whangarei connections (of all things!). A lovely Devon/Scottish couple who eat off tartan crockery that was given to them at their wedding in abundance, and they use every day in the hopes that it increases the chance of them smashing. Except it’s fairly robust. And the tartan is growing on them. Both are doctors of other specialities and their work rants were refreshing. R would practise the cello and J would fall asleep on the couch like a big cat. I digress. Some mates of mine from Auckland returned to Devon in a hurry, to be with their dying father (/father in law). Visiting hours meant that his own wife could only visit an hour a day when he was in hospital. And she was his only permitted visitor. I would sneak onto the ward in plain sight (with my scrubs, with my name tag) and sit with him when I could...

I’m sitting on the edge of an old umbrella to keep from getting wet as I sit on the footpath next to a busy intersection. J has his fists stuffed into his jeans pockets as he stands in the wind. Occasionally, he shudders in a “super shiver”, unable to hold it in. He’s not wearing a jacket. He dances a little on the spot, and the silver rescue blanket he’s standing on lifts a bit. I’m on J’s phone, while trying to figure out the postcode of where we are on my phone, when there are no houses nearby. It’s a bit pointless, it becomes clear that no ambulance is likely to be available for a few hours yet. It’s already been an hour since we first called.  The man on the phone tells me to order a taxi. I try several companies. They too, are booked out for the next three hours. I don’t know anyone in town with a car. We are less than 2k from the hospital.  Mr. F stirs from under J’s jacket, trying to get up. “I’ll just walk to the hospital!” He mutters. He leans on his bad arm and yell...

Passport for getting through borders… and for eating cake. Some reflections on mandates and life now. ======= I’ve been tentatively starting a Facebook comment based conversation with my second cousin about the vaccine mandate in NZ. He’s housing a couple who have lost their job because: they won’t have the vaccine (my view) or the government is creating a divisive society that is forcing people into abject poverty (his view).   He’s a good man, always been kind, is housing and feeding them as they can no longer afford rent (my view) or is allowing and fostering a cluster of dangerous political views (another relatives view, and also mine a bit). Or both.  The UK has only just now announced that the vaccine will be compulsory for NHS workers ( https://www.politico.eu/article/covid-vaccination-mandatory-nhs-england/amp/ )… by next spring (March-ish 2022). It’s a very heavy handed soft handed measure, and consistent with all the other British public health policies that slam the...

FOMP - fear of making plans. I was meant to be  here last night.  But a colleague and his kids have covid so another night shift needed covering. As I write, another colleague, who was to cover tonights' shift, is heading to the lab to test herself and her daughter, who has had a positive screening test and needs a PCR. So I'll head to bed soon, bank some sleep in case I need to go in again.  I'm hanging out for MIQ openings for March, I'm thinking of booking a flight home around the 22nd March next year. Theres an amazing, up and coming (up and already here?) artist,  Sam Fender  who has a show in Nottingham 20th March. He is so good. the capacity will be 10 000 people. I imagine there will be probably at least 10 001 there.  Mostly young people. Statistically more likely to be unvaccinated. Theres probably no surer way of mucking up my return flight than going to that show. A positive covid test for me as I leave the UK would stuff up all sorts of timing ...

So I’m going to stay a bit closer to home for a bit - I’ve been here over 6 months now and was a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t been to Dartmoor yet. It’s about an hours drive to the heart of if from Exeter, and although it is still Criss-crossed with roads and covered in farmland, it still has very much a sense of wildness to it. The hills are big but very flat; so all sense of distance is distorted- you can find yourself making quite a lot of elevation without getting all that puffed just because the hill eeks up slowly. The tops of the hills have thumbs of granite poking up- “tors” that remain after the rest has eroded, and with big chunks of rocks scattered around them from where the water has split apart the main rock over thousands of years. Think of perhaps, a Jenga tower, partly collapsed, with the pieces lying around. It wasn’t take-your-breath-away stunning like the highlands, but something different and I think, just as special - a slow realisation of the oldness of the place...

Devon Today population 1.2 million 5 ICU beds per 100 000 2937 new covid cases in the last week (366 per 100 000 people) 8 deaths in the last week 88% vaccinated (one jab) - 82% two jabs... and more starting to get boosters from 24th Sept  New Zealand Today population 5 million (but who actually knows because when exactly did we last have a proper census?) 4.6 ICU beds per 100 000 309 new covid cases in the last week (roughly 5 per 100 000 people) 0 deaths in the last week 80.2% vaccinated (one jab) - 57.5% two jabs  I went on a brilliant holiday in Scotland and walked a lot and loved it. I liked the immensely fresh air, seeing a red squirrel (in the distance, scootling across the road at speed like an eyebrow set free), the heather and the marsh. Picking fresh blueberries and trying new other berries - with a guide to let me know that eating that red one nestled in the marsh is okay . A bit bitter, but okay.  It's past halfway of my time here, and while I was away in Sco...

Without much fanfare, I got an email from work letting me know I can get a booster vaccine for Covid when I am six months post my second vaccine. I’m not quite there yet. There’s a bit of fuss about this approach (is it required?, does it work?, is it just for the UK to be boosting when other countries are trying to get their first?). I think it probably is a good thing and am looking forward to getting mine. The days are closing in, crisp and cool at the edges, with curling yellow leaves dumping on the path after rain and squirrels furiously stamping nuts into the ground. I feel like I’ve been in an adventure/night shift/adventure sandwich… it’s certainly quite a few weeks since I’ve been on a normal roster. I’m all out of sync and time is passing rapidly. I think I’m also feeling a bit, the Auckland lockdown situation: it feels strange getting out and about here knowing my sister is training for a marathon by going round in circles in her suburb. I was super well looked after by frie...