You remember that PPE the UK has been exporting because it doesn’t meet UK standards?

A few weeks ago there was an interesting situation where the UK was trying to import PPE from Turkey while manufacturers in the UK were exporting it to the EU.

The government was asked why we were doing this, and rather than admitting that the issue was cost (production costs are lower in Turkey) they said that the PPE produced in the UK for the EU would not meet UK standards.

Well, that PPE that we had to wait ages for, cannot be used as it does not meet UK standards...

Nerf Star Wars

Two things.

The first is that my son thinks that Rogue One is the worst film in the Star Wars franchise.  To me that is obviously episode eight.  I love all the Star Wars films and while I felt the prequels were lacking, ultimately they were films designed to get kids to love Star Wars.  And they worked with my children.  My wife watched and liked episodes 7-9 as well as Solo and Rogue One.  Obviously, as she is not as obsessive about Star Wars as I am, she did not love them as much as I do.  But episodes 7-9 have large plot holes.  Which is a shame when both Rogue One and Solo did so much to fix the issues raised in the original Star Wars film.

Anyway the second is the battle we had today.  My son spent a lot of his money from presents on a very special Nerf Gun.  He has not watched Terminator 2, but he might enjoy it more than he would have now.  My daughter who had a quite lethal weapon has found that it is out of batteries and when she joined, it was with a less intimidating weapon, but one which they did not know.  The problem with the gun of my son is that it takes time before it can fire.  Which means that I, with my normal guns will mostly get the first shot or two in first.  But I do not have the volume of firepower that he has.  I can shoot once, prepare the gun again and shoot, until my six bullets are out. If he and his sister work it out I will be no match for them!

Patriotism. I love my country, but this is not unconditional.

First of all the family.  My children have been good and bad, but to my wife, as I have been at work.  Tomorrow, I might get to spend time with them, if they are willing.  My son has been playing PokémonGO with me and with the help of a family friend we undertook a difficult raid to attempt to capture a Pokémon called Darkrai. I have been doing quite a few, but an elusive shiny one has been beyond me.  My son though has one, despite this being his second attempt. To say I am jealous is an understatement. To describe him as pleased is the same.

But to the point of this post.  My love for my nation.

This has been an issue, here and abroad when it has come to supporting the state in its response to dealing with COVID.  The tweet that made me post this was one by a US politician in which she said “Republicans love America.  Democrats hate America.  It's simple.” Now I love the good things about my nation.  But I do not love everything about it.  I think that Britain is great, but that it can and should be so much better.  I am proud of many of the things it has done and does, just like I am ashamed of things our nation does and has done.  And when it comes to the USA, I am sure that for most people they would say the same.  Unconditional love for my nation is stupid.  It means I ignore the bad things it has done in the past and the ways it can be better now.  I respect the right of others to love the nation they are from unconditionally, but forgive me if I question this if someone they do not support is elected.

21 Bridges

Sunday was quiet.  I woke up early and relaxed watching Brooklyn Nine Nine.  After my wife woke up, I took her to the shops where she visited one store and bought some cards and a cake for friends of ours.  When dropping it off, I had a socially distant chat with them and later, an old work colleague.  Sadly, he had contracted COVID but has got over the worst of it.  He is still affected by shortness of breath but also mentioned GI symptoms which he did not go into in detail as we were on the street!

I did try taking my son out for a bike ride, but as it started to drizzle, he stayed at home after cycling up and down the road.  My daughter had gone for a walk by herself so I continued my exercise alone.  I am missing out on my Wednesday bike rides, but I need to keep up exercising as my stomach has been getting bigger.  My main challenge though is to get my daughter on her bike over this time.

I did get to watch Clone Wars with my son, but it has been annoying that the episodes appear to be out of order.  We watched one episode that may have been a prequel to the first episode in the first series.  And we are on the third series now!

But the highlight of my day was watching 21 Bridges with my wife.  (Though eating the jam tarts her and my daughter made cake second.). The film was predictable in places but was quite enjoyable, despite the high body count.  When it comes to police films, I would rate it better than average, and much better than the comedy we had tried to watch beforehand (we stopped after ten minutes of that).  With predictable films, what I am interested in is how he film is directed.  Are there major plot holes, and I do not think that this had any major ones.  And while predictable, it was in places once the story had evolved.  The strength of the film is the evolution and this is a film I would recommend as a lockdown film to watch.

Anyway, time for work!

Care homes and Nightingale hospitals

Sadly in the last week or two, more of those I am involved for caring for have died in care homes.  The bravery of those providing them with the care needed, despite the risks, literally makes me well up with tears when I think about them.

I think that more will pass away in the next week or so as some who are in isolation have now passed.

Which brings me onto why I have posted his.  On Twitter, a few people have noted how the Nightingale hospitals have been stood down.  Opening them was necessary as we in the NHS feared the worst.  The UK has been closely following the curve of Italy and Spain.  And we in healthcare were (and considering that the lockdown measures will be relaxed, still are) concerned that the NHS would be overwhelmed.  That does not seem to have happened due to the changes in what the NHS is doing as well as the way that the attitudes of people towards getting help from the NHS has changed.

Some have asked why patients who do not have COVID who from care homes where COVID is spreading are not transferred there.  There are many problems with that is that.  One is that they may take the disease from the home that is infected to the Nightingale hospital.  The next is that the care needs of those in care homes tend to be different from those in hospital and those nurses who work in hospitals have a different skill mix to those min care homes.  This brings up the next issue, staffing.  Before COVID-19 hit the nation the NHS did not have enough nurses.  Nurses have been taken from other duties but as the NHS prepares to deal with other issues.

While patients from hospitals could be discharged to Nightingale hospitals rather than nursing homes, this would require a lot more logistics to move them across greater distances and any communication issues when a patient is discharged would be harder to resolve.  

And last of all, many who are in care homes have made decisions (or the next of kin has decided) that they are not to be admitted to hospital.  Just as those who want hospital assessment should have it, those who do not wish it should not have it forced on them.

Family games night

I have bonded with the children today.  After stressing them out, and my wife.

The kids have been a bit distant from me in the last week, and in they felt that I was not being nice enough.  A little bit of attitude too much and I lost my temper.  Sadly this upset my wife as well as both of them, but it did get them to bond as they tend to stick together when one of us has lost our temper.  My wife explained how she felt I was feeling which was important later in the day.  After this discussion, which took place while we were getting some fruit, we dropped hem off and went to a bakery for some bread.  It is a local enterprise and while there was a long queue (they since have apologised for it) it was nice to get out of the house and relax.  My wife joined me after a while in the socially distancing queue (the lady in front of me was particularly observant about social distancing) so we got our hot date.  Another family that we know cycled past.  I suspect they came for food, but turned around on arrival.  It was nice to have a socially distant chat with them and I have to say I was envious that they were all out together.  They were quite kind thanking me for my work in the NHS, but while I was grateful, and am at risk at times, the real heroes are those working in hospitals and working in care homes.  In addition to which, I am very grateful that those running the shop are putting themselves at risk, along with so many others who are still working.  At my work, we screen those before we see the, if they need to be seen face to face.  Those in the shop see more people than me and have no screening.

Once at home, my family let me listen to Any Questions and Any Answers afterwards, bringing food and drink to me upstairs so that I could rant on Twitter about the topics raised. After this, I took the kids out on a bike ride.  My daughter has been active going out for a walk most days, but this was her first bike ride of the year.  For my son, who was cycling back and forth to school, he has been out of the front door to exercise, literally less than a handful of times.  I was hopeful that I could take them out together as my daughter in innately fitter than he is, but he has had so much more practice on his bike than her.  But they have not done well in the past, and the same happened this time.  This meant that I had to take my daughter back before taking my son out for longer.

I did get to watch The Mandalorian with my son and enjoyed the series finale.  I still say that the little green alien is evil, but my son still insists otherwise, despite the way it murdered a storm trooper.  There were a few plot issues, an example being how the robot got to the baby so quickly, but overall, a great series.  In addition to this, I spent an hour or two watching comedy with my daughter.

After dinner, thanks to a take away, it was a board game all together.  We each favour different games, but we settled on Labyrinth.  The first game was enjoyed by all, but sadly this was not the case on the last one.  Saying that, it was nice that we all played together.

We are lucky to have each other as well as our garden and house.  Especially when I do not know how my mother would have coped with me and my siblings when we lived in our first floor council flat in the past.

Boris and his desire to repopulate Britain

For a man who was a spotty nerd who loved academia, part of me admires how Boris Johnson is now doing his bit to repopulate the nation by himself.  Or rather with a series of women (because he requires the use of several wombs to repopulate the country).  In the public eye, he has been married to two, has had affairs that we know of with two, has a child with his fiance and rumours circulate about another two women (who may not have had any carnal knowledge of this prolific philanderer).  But when I say part of me, that is not the moral part of me.  Marriage, can be open, so long as both partners in it accept that is the rules by which they play, even if that only applies to one of them.  But a marriage where one person cheats, repeatedly, is not really worth its name as far as I am concerned.  So while part of me admires the repeated success that he has had with a string of women, most of me does not and is appalled at how it is acceptable for him to do this, but how any woman who had done the same would not be seen anywhere this level of government.

He was married to; Allegra Mostyn-Owen
Marina Wheeler

He is known to have had affairs with; Petronella Wyatt
Helen Macintyre

As we know, he is engaged to Carrie Symonds

And while these women deny it (and there is no reason to doubt them), he has been linked to; Anna Fazackerley
Jennifer Arcuri

In addition to this, there are allegations that not all of the interest that he has had in women has been consensual.

Why so many women find him irresistible, let alone are willing to trust him in a relationship is beyond me.   

But anyway, we know that he has at least six children and I, like many wish him congratulations on the birth of his sixth publicly acknowledged child.