So it's Covid Vaccine Season! well, if you're over 80, in a vunerable category or know someone that knows someone. My wife had her vaccine just before Christmas because she works for the NHS, was supposed to have the second three weeks later but it's been deferred. My Dad and my Mother in Law have both had theirs because they are well into their eighties, so we are pleased about that and then the other day just before 5 O'Clock the phone goes, it's the practice manager where my wife works.
Did I want to have my vaccine, there were about 10 left and they have to used up by the end of the day or they get thrown out. Yeah, that's great, I'll get down there straight away. A minute later the phone goes again, it's her again. Sorry, they were all booked up when she rang back to book me in, ho hum! A minute later, phone goes again. 'Quick, someone's cancelled so I've booked you in'. So off I go and get my vaccination (Phizer by the way, before you ask. I had the choice, said I wasn't fussed).
Chatting to one of the Doctors whilst I waited the obligatory 15 minutes before I was allowed to go home, he was telling me that apparently they generally get 5 vaccines from each vial, but a few of them they get 6. They call up as many people as will use the 5 and then at the end of the day they are then left with a few extra vaccines from the bottles that contain 6 and so they ring round to get people in so they are not wasted.
We are now well into the third Lockdown and not seemingly an end anywhere in sight. Life is not getting any easier for many of us, schools not re-opening before at least the second week of March, that's at least another six weeks of home schooling and trying to keep the children amused. In reality, this is not going to go away to an extent that any semblance of normality will return until at least after the summer if not longer.
The sad truth is, that they have vaccinated about 10 million people once, by the start of February. There are 70 million people in the UK, that's the end of July if everyone only had to have one jab, but you need two, so by the end of February they will begin giving the second jabs and so those lower down the priority list will have to wait even longer for their first. Realistically, everyone is not going to have had both jabs before the end of October!
Not until we have all had at least one jab will the case numbers drop down to what they did last summer, before the second wave and we need that to happen before this lockdown can realistically end properly.
I'm sitting up in my loft thinking about what to write whilst listening to the recently rediscovered Love Not Money album by Everything But The Girl. Flicking through my albums looking for something to listen to and thought, I haven't listened to that for quite a while, so on it went and about 4 plays later I'm wishing I'd listened to it again sooner!
When I say album, I am generally referring to a vinyl album. The CD version is of course still an album but I would always refer to it as a CD or an album on CD, not just an album, that's possibly just because of my age and the fact that I grow up listening to albums on vinyl. Of course then it was all on vinyl or cassette, so it was just referred to as album or cassette. Nowadays it's vinyl or CD, or of course digital, MP3's and the like.
Although I have always liked listening to my records, I do in fact have more CD's than Records, but at the moment my CD player is being rather temperamental and doesn't always function properly, so I am listening to albums a lot lately and am enjoying the old albums I'm rediscovering, that I haven't listened to for years. Mostly I've been fairly conscious of trying to pick albums that I don't have on CD or digitally
By the way, I'm now listening to Blue Sunshine by The Glove (a side project by The Banshees guitarists Steve Severin and Robert Smith, whilst Siouxsie and Budgie were being The Creatures).
Why don't they check when they are putting up signs for roadworks and diversions? I'm pretty sure that they are supposed to. You have to submit detailed plans of sign locations and diversion routes, as well as which signs you are planning on erecting, for approval beforehand. So you would assume that these would be checked once the signs are up, to make sure that you have done it properly. Otherwise, why bother.
Recently they closed a road near us for Highway Improvements and as you approached the closed off road, there was a sign which was supposed to tell you that the road ahead was closed, but it had been mounted on the frame backwards and all that was showing was a plain black board with Road Ahead Closed on the back. Better than that, they had done the same from the other direction and when you drove up the road to follow the diversion, that sign to was the wrong way round, genius!
The information sign that tells you when the works are going to take place and the number to call for further enquiries is of course still standing there even though the works have gone and the road is re-opened. No doubt it will be another 2 or 3 weeks before that disappears!
The best ones are of course the signs that tell you of a New Road Layout or New Roundabout Ahead. These are, according to the Traffic Signs and General Directions, the rule book, supposed to stay up for no more than 3 months after the completion of the works. I have written to tell my Local Authority about a number of these that have been up for 2 or 3 years, and been told that they will inform the Highways Department to take them down. I'm pretty sure that most are still up and I wrote at least 3 years ago. Think I might have to have a quick check, maybe write again, I'll keep you updated.
Three or four years ago they replaced the traffic signal junction in the middle of Houghton Regis with a roundabout and once it was about complete they put the New Roundabout Ahead signs on the Lighting Columns on each approach. The trouble was, certainly on one approach, on the next column was a sign which read New Traffic Signals Ahead, still there from when they had installed signals at the junction 6 or 7 years earlier, the ones that they had just removed to build the new roundabout.
27th January has long been celebrated as St Yates Day, celebrating the day in 2001, when Tranmere beat Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park in the 4th round of the FA Cup and Steve Yates scored 2 magnificent headed goals, either side of a sublime goal from Jason Koumas. As I wasn't working that day, I wore a Tranmere shirt to mark the occasion!
A week or so after this, Tranmere legend Ian Goodison signed for the club and was given the squad number 30, a number he had for a few seasons but what it meant was, the back of his shirt read Goodison 3-0, a significance that many never latched onto.