She did wake me up during the night by licking me, and also did bark at sounds in the night from time to time, but otherwise, was much quieter than she had been before. I woke up properly around five in the morning, or I should say I woke up and sat up stroking her while I had a kind of power nap.
At six, I walked her to Goodleigh, this time taking her on the slopes of the woodland walk which she appeared to enjoy. Going up is easier when you have a dog towing you! A late morning trip to TESCO almost resulted in my wife losing her Linda Farrow sunglasses that she bought at clearance prices in the past.
We had a late lunch at The Chichester Arms. My amazing wife, that I do not deserve, drove us there. On arrival I was somewhat apprehensive due to the dilapidated look of the place but was pleasantly surprised. The portions of the Sunday Roast were huge and dessert was fantastic. My only issue with it was that my stomach is not large enough.
Anyway, we are now relaxing, other than my daughter who is diligently revising for her end of exams. She did take a break to help me type this, and also dictate parts of this entry.
To say that we are tired is an understatement.
I got home late last night and was not too pleased when my wife woke, as planned at about four in the morning. I tried and failed to get back to sleep, so got up and packed. We left later than she had planned though. The drive took us along the M4 and not past Stonehenge (one of our children admitted that they had thought it was in Scotland once and the other asked when we were to pass it). When we got to Bristol, traffic started to be a major issue. I tried to avoid it by driving round Bristol, but missed the turning, so drove into it. That was a mistake. The children helpfully pointed out that thanks to my diversion, our ETA changed from noon to 1400 hours! But the drive was not as stressful.
However, we did get here. Unlike last time, we are in the cottage and it is even more relaxing than when we stayed before.
I have been for a walk with Leia already, which she loved. The image that I have posted was taken by my daughter when Leia was waiting for my wife and I coming back from Barnstaple with take away food.
It did result in a conversation with my son about consent, but also why women do not come forwards when it comes to harassment, sexual assault and rape. But we also discussed the conviction rate when women do come forwards.
I say vaccinating, I was mixing the vaccines today, like I do most Wednesday’s. However being the clinician in charge of the morning, that meant dealing with the collapse, the almost collapse and the queries about if we should vaccinated a few patients.
This work has been hard as it has meant that I have not had the time to do the rest of my CCG work. Which means that I am very behind on my e-mails, and also my appraisal! Hopefully I will be able to sort this all out over the next few Wednesday’s in the next month or two.
I watched this with my son as we slowly work our way through the season. As the title suggests, the theme is about a same sex kiss.
Life was easier when I was younger. Saying that, being a nerd, I never got the courage to ask a girl out at the age of these characters. But, then, it was rarer for someone to accept their sexuality.
The ghost/hallucination of Hannah was an interesting addition to the series. Skye is lovely, and watching her trip to the house of Clay’s parents, my son warned me to be nice when he brings someone special home.
My daughter asked me for a quick summary about what has happened in The Holy Land. It is a bit hard to explain this.
From my understanding, issues arose as a result of the eviction of non-Jews from Jerusalem, violence towards Muslims during Ramadan, and the violence at the Dome of the Rock.
Let me be clear, I think that a two state solution is needed. I consider the way Israel acts towards those in the West Bank and Gaza to be the actions of apartheid, but I am also aware that Christians and Muslims in Israel have more rights than the Palestinian Authority or Hamas allows them in Gaza or the West Bank. But the situation for Christians and Muslims in Israel is changing.
Back in 1993, the Oslo Peace Accords had been signed and it looked like a just peace for many would come to the region. Yes, many Palestinian refugees considered this to be unfair, but it was a better situation than things had been before. But then settlement expansion started to take place. Some considered these to expansion of settlements that had already existed, but many considered otherwise. Basically, the Palestinians negotiated a peace deal, and then Israel ignored it.
The issue of the Right Of Return is a contentious one. Allowing Jews with an ancestral right to return to Israel is right, but only if the same right is given to the Christians and Muslims who used to live in Palestine. Two examples of this are two villages, Iqrit and Kafr Bir'im. But I doubt that is going to happen.
As much as I disagree with the actions of Israel towards its non-Jewish population, as well as its actions in annexing land in Jerusalem, there is no justification for Hamas to fire missiles from Gaza, even though Israel has attempted to lay siege to it, and I understand why Israel has responded with force.
There is a lot I have missed out, but I have to return to work now.
Posting this on The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia may be a red flag to some, but this has been something I wanted to update my view on for a while. I have posted my views on this before and I am aware that many will consider me to be transphobic for my views.
Part of my views are based, not on discrimination against those who are trans, but rather based on safeguarding. My job role involves this, and I have encountered predators both in a personal as well as professional role. Put simply, I have few concerns that someone who is trans is going to assault others, specifically, I have few concerns that someone with a penis who is a genuine transwoman, is to assault a biological woman in a safe space. This is despite having treated someone who identifies as a woman, who did sexually assault women (they were in secure accommodation to control that risk). I am more concerned that men who wish to sexually assault women or worse, will use the rules to self identify to gain legitimate access to safe spaces and carry out assaults.
Some have called for a risk based system on this, thereby preventing those guilty of assault and rape from having access to the women they have assaulted. But that forgets the discrepancy between the number of assaults that are alleged to have taken place, and those who are found guilty.
Another reason for my view that spaces should be genitalia based are as there is an argument that there are a hundred genders. Not everyone identifies as female or male. Restricting safe spaces to male or female forces them to make a choice, but having the option to have this based on genitalia is a simple (and if needed, verifiable) method. Ideally, people should have the option of using unisex spaces, but not everywhere has the ability to cater for that.
I do not agree with everything that JK Rowling has said on this, but I do agree with most of what she has said. I am still sad that my children, who have called her a transphobe, have yet to read what she has written about her views. However, that does include that there is an issue those born with the genitalia different to the gender they end up identifying with. Working in healthcare, certain things are affected by sex, an example being how eGFR is calculated. Not allowing for this means that some people may be over investigated for issues that they may not have, or worse, people may not be investigated for issues that they do have.
The kids and I had fun with Leia during the day, so I did get some time to recharge my batteries.
When ironing I watched Addicted to Fresno. I had started to watch it a while ago, but my wife hated it, so I finished it while ironing. I liked it, but I can see why it did not do well as the subject matter is not something that appeals to many. That and the end of the film which I thought was not discussed that well as there was no insight into why the character did what they did. I am glad I watched it, but I would have been disappointed if I had paid to watch this in the cinema.
Today was a family trip to IKEA. As we were in the area, we popped round to see my mother and the parents of my wife. Of course, there was no hugging and this was a socially distanced meeting outside in the respective gardens as restrictions are to be relaxed on the 17th.
Due to the time away from the house, we took Leia with us and I spent time walking about with her while everyone else was in IKEA. I now suspect that this was a deliberate ploy to keep me outside so that I could not say no to purchases! I did pop into the TESCO next to it as we had forgotten to take food for Leia and I was surprised at how many people were wearing facemasks under their chins! Do they not realise the dangers of the Indian Variant of COVID?
Anyway, we are home now, my wife and I listening to Sade after an internet concert with Paul Weller.
In summary, a good and bad film.
I have wanted to watch this for ages and as a film I thought that it dealt with the issues of racism very well, as well as acceptance of how people are people, no matter what skin colour they are.
I got the feeling that the film tried to put too much into it as it appeared to only offer a superficial look at many things, an example being the acceptance of the Ray Gun in the POW camp. Saying that, character development is not the main forte of many war films.
This is a story that needs to be told. When I grew up, I can never recall seeing someone non-white in an American war film (I do remember one in 633 Squadron but that character was played by a white actor anyway).
Our past is something that we need to learn from, both the good and the bad. This film, does not explore the characters that much and if not for how it dealt with the subject matter as well as the subject itself, I would not recommend this. But this film in some aspects is more important than other war films. Like most war films it deals with courage, sacrifice and heroism, but unlike others, this also deals with how too many of those whom the Redtails served with had the same views on racial superiority as those they were fighting.
Working in healthcare, this episode cuts more than most. I sit in the role of Mr Porter. I know why he acted the way he acted.
And that is not counting being a parent. I have watched this and the other series’s from the perspective of a parent. I never want to experience what the parents of Hannah Baker did. My son understood why I had to hug him for several minutes.
Afterwards we discussed Tony. He had a lot to take on and I wanted to get across that Tony did not need to keep all the secrets without talking to someone. He did not need to share the secrets themselves, but he could have talked to someone about aspects of them, and what it was like to keep them. For the secrets he kept, were in my view, secrets that someone his age should not have had to keep.
On a different topic, while I had a meeting at work, my son went out to meet friends in town earlier today. Sadly for him, not all were able to make it, but he will see them again on Monday, assuming that he or them are not ill (he was at home for two days last week). My wife and I had a discussion about how much money would be acceptable for him to spend. My wife and I disagreed, but he ended up spending the higher amount that had been discussed. One of is I guess did not consider inflation in what children would want to spend. Saying that, a lot of the money was on food and drink.
So to top the day, my son wanted to watch 13 Reasons Why. While this is a depressing end to the day, it is one of the few things that he will do with me. And the topic of this is rape. An interesting topic considering the film I watched with my wife and daughter on Sunday.
My son was not aware of the appalling statistics when it comes to rape and convictions. He is now.
I watched this film after a morning vaccinating. It was a long morning and due to NHS England sending more vaccines than the area normally has staff for, it was a busy one. Normally, I would be mixing, but the day started earlier and ended later. So I asked if I could vaccinate instead which meant that I did not have to get in as early. With more people vaccinating, the person mixing the vials has to work faster than normal. When I did this in December, we were vaccinating the elderly and it was cold, which meant that people would come in wearing several layers of clothes and mobility issues were often present. Now the patients are younger, and while the weather is still chilly, it is not as bad as before. The patients move quicker and expose their arms faster than before. It takes me about five minutes to prepare each vial and if I have the energy not to take a break, I can keep up with this, but I often work late on a Tuesday night. And last night was no exception.
Getting home, my son was at home has he had a stomach upset the day before and he spent time looking after Leia. When my daughter got home, she went to revising for her exam on Friday. When Leia did see her, after I had taken her out for an evening walk (I needed the exercise), she was overjoyed to see her.
As noted, I relaxed by watching Love and Monsters. It was an enjoyable film. When it comes to the test of price, I would not have been disappointed if I had paid to watch this at the cinema. In fact, it would probably be best to watch this on the big screen, after all, as the title implies, there are monsters in it. Watching an end-of-the-world film that has nothing to do with COVID was fun as well.
Of course, Leia would be a better companion than Boy, but I will never get to know how she would fare in combat against a giant crab.
What an amazing film. Before I talk about it, a quick family update.
My son has found that he has issues recording the time when it comes to playing Minecraft on the Switch. I wanted to ban him from it for two days, but was overruled. It is a shame as when he is not on the switch, he is more engaging, we walked into town together yesterday as well as on Friday night (though only as far as TESCO).
My daughter is preparing for her GCSE in Religious Education next week. Or rather exams to aid her teacher assessment.
Today, I retuned to the pool where last week, Leia want for a swim. When I got her there, she wanted to chase after things, but was quite patient when I prevented her from doing so.
Anyway, the film. Amazing, dealing with issues some of which are still being faced, such as victim blaming. It was sad, especially when I know it is happening too often. Would I pay for to watch this in a cinema? Yes, with no hesitation. The film draws you in, has characters who are quite believable and while parts are predictable, others are not.
I love Jane Seymour, but her accent was terrible, though it could be argued that with someone living abroad for a time, the accent would not be one or the other.
To be fair, there were no huge holes in the plot, and the characters were played well. But I did not warm to them and when the end came, it was appreciated.
