Love and Monsters

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.  

Promising Young Woman

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.  

Dinner with Friends

This was a bad film.  Just not enjoyable for me.  Not terrible, but being a man, I am not part of its target demographic.  It is called Friendsgiving in the USA.  It is not terrible, just annoying.  With the cast it has, it should be much better, and I would imagine that it could be a lot worse without them.

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.

COVID19 and the myth of asymptomatic transmission

Spoiler, there is no myth.  However, it is more accurate to say that most of those with COVID who have no symptoms are in fact pre-symptomatic as they will go onto develop symptoms later.  It is hard to state this as a fact as this requires extensive research to say so, but working in the NHS, in May last year, I took part in a study looking at this in the NHS.  While none where I work were sent home as a result, some others in local GP surgeries were.  Also before Christmas, in a GP surgery locally, one person who had no symptoms at the time infected those they made cups of tea for, and we know this as they developed symptoms after the tea round and those who had the tea got COVID after!

In September 2020, Donald Trump proved that in what many term the Rose Garden Super Spreader event.  It was held so that President Donald Trump could officially nominate Amy Coney Barrett to the vacant Supreme Court seat before he was voted out of office.  It was outside and this was felt to be safer than holding it indoors.

It was known that his rallies were linked to the spread of COVID, so while many thought that an outdoor event would be safer, the danger of this event was known.

I do not like having to wear a mask, but I know that by wearing one, I reduce the chance of catching this disease, but more importantly, if I have it, by wearing a mask, I am much less likely to spread it.

If those who attended the Rose Garden event had worn masks, less would have been infected.

Last of all, COVID19 is real. People down our road died of it, I have treated those with it, and the nursing home I help in has yet to return to full capacity after COVID killed so many in it. Our local hospital is back to operating on patients as it did last year.  Earlier in the year when it was full of COVID patients, it had to restrict operations, initially to emergencies only, and then later to life and death operations only.  

We can see what is happening in India where government incompetence has shown what happens when a decisions are made to ignore the need to flatten the curve.  Just like what happened in Brazil.  I just pray that others learn from this.

PMQ's and how the Prime Minister is interested in saving lives. A shame about the 127,256 bodies which have piled high

People in our country are not interested in allegations that the Prime Minister has taken what many consider an illegal donation to furnish his Downing Street flat so he does not have to live in a skip. According to many, the population are interested in how vaccination has been a success for the nation.

 

Fortunately, despite Keir Starmer missing it, the Prime Minister, when asked in parliament who initially paid for the refurbishment, stated that he had already answered the question and that it was him.  (Check the link at one minute.)  Instead of people being focused on yet another allegation of Conservative sleaze, they are interested in how Boris has saved lives, and of course, they are not interested in the allegations that he had said that he would be happy for bodies to be piled high.  

Many do not mind that we live in a nation where the rich appear to be able to buy access to the Prime Minister.  I do.  It is hard to tackle issues of corruption in nations abroad when we have a government that ignores the law, allows bullying to take place and appears to give lucrative contacts for PPE (which does not always work) to friends. 

I am sure that we can trust the Prime Minister.  It is not as if he has any dodgy contacts or has repeatedly lied to about his fidelity!

Stowaway

I liked this film.  I saw that it had Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick and Daniel Dae Kim in it and had to watch it.  That and it is a science fiction film.  

When it comes to films, it has to be compared to Gravity, but while that has action and drama, this is much more slow moving and leaves the viewer to ponder on ethical questions.

One test with films is if I would have paid to watch it.  The answer for this film is possibly no, but it is worth watching despite that cut off, and if I had paid to watch it in the cinema, I would not have been disappointed. 

Jennifer's Body

I have watched this film before many years ago.  My wife did watch it, or the beginning of it before, but decided not to continue.  My daughter and I finished watching this yesterday.  It was weird watching bits of it with her, but overall, I think that this has stood the test of time.

To be fair, I do not watch as many horror films as I would like, and this is not really one, but is an enjoyable mix of gore, horror, comedy and the supernatural.

Anyway, we watched it after my son, wife and I had got back from Freeport.  We took Leia with us but it was crowded and she cannot be trusted in crowds so I took her on circuits around the periphery of the shopping centre.  She found a field which she loved to explore which gave me more much needed exercise.  We had intended to arrive earlier but having to bathe Leia meant that we were much later than we had intended, hence it being so crowded.  Maybe next time... 

And last of all, Line of Duty.  The cliff-hanger is now in the open, but we have left not knowing who H is and we are all assuming that the Spanish connection has been shut down after the discovery of the lap top used to send messages, we presume from H.  But, if the messages were sent from Spain, that does not explain how definitely was spelt as definately. While I thought that this is could be a Northern Irish thing, it is something across the internet.  Jed Mercurio is a git, a genius, but a git as we do not even know if there is to be another series!