Feeling very chilled out in the sticks. Yesterday evening was rough – I was not well – but I’m fighting back after a good night’s sleep and an additional nap this lunchtime.
Bit overcast this morning…
…but the muted yellows of the Klein Karoo scrub and the fresh greens of the local farmland really don’t need the full sun to make them pop.
And the mildly ethereal white horse finishes the view from the wood-fired hot tub nicely there.
Hoping for some clearer skies for a bit of night time ‘togging later, but that’s assuming I can find the energy to put up my tripod*.
I might not work in a lab at the moment, but you can never quite get rid of the microbiologist in me.
Not only did I do this test from a specimen that I took from my own good self…
I also predicted the result. Correctly, nogal.
Look, I’m anything but surprised.
Given the information that I am getting from the school after last week’s trip, this is a clear case of Tour Pox. I could use the old English term: “There’s a bit of it going around”, because there is, but that won’t help anyone who has got it.
We’re going away for a long weekend, starting this afternoon, and I’m gutted that I’m not going to able to do all the stuff that I was planning on doing, but while nothing will get rid of this any time soon, a change of scenery, some fresh air and a lot relaxation – and staying away from other people! – is surely the best way to pass the time while I’ve got it.
If it seems like we haven’t had one of those for a while, it’s because we haven’t. Well, not an interesting one, anyway. This one though – sadly – is of interest.
Why? Well, it has 35 mutations on its spike protein. That’s the bit that our immune system recognises. 35 mutations means that it’s likely to be disguised (at least partially) from our immune systems, meaning that we’re more likely to become infected with it: even if we’ve had the vaccine or if we’ve had Covid (of any variant) previously. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have any defence against it though. More likely just a bit of a slower, poorer one.
We don’t know a lot at the moment: we’re not really looking for Covid as much as we have been before, so this could be sneaking in a bit under our radar. We’ve only seen 9 cases* in 5 countries, which seems like nothing, but at least 6 of those cases have no travel history, suggesting that they acquired the virus locally to them. It can’t just have appeared from nowhere: that indicates community spread.
And those 9 cases (UK, Demark, USA, Israel, and now South Africa) show very similar genetic sequences. That means that they haven’t had much time to mutate or change, and that indicates a rapid spread.
We’re not seeing millions of hospital admissions though, which might (hopefully) mean that this is not going to cause serious illness or mortality. But it’s likely there just isn’t enough of it yet for that to be a foregone conclusion. It is being found in wastewater screening, which probably means that there is a growing reservoir of undetected cases out there.
Honestly, scientists have been waiting for the next wave. There was never any chance of Covid just going away. And we’re still (yes wow, “still”, even after 3½ years, lol), in the early equilibrating days of what will almost certainly be a long-term virus/human relationship. Each party is still weighing up its opponent and figuring out its next move. Metaphorically, at least.
It remains to be seen if this variant will trigger a new public health crisis or will fall away without troubling us too much. At this point, the jury simply doesn’t have enough information to make any decision, and so we wait and we keep learning from the information we can get.
At the moment, it’s very much watch this space. And maybe hope for a not guilty verdict.
*I had to update this figure twice while writing this post.
It’s been a while since i did one of these and my Pocket is filling up again. So…
It’s Springtime! (in the UK) and time to switch to BST. But this isn’t the correct way to put your clocks forward:
And this might work, but is also very confusing:
Pro-tip: Use a whiteboard marker and you can simply use a damp cloth to change the clocks back again in October.
Good news for me on this change is that evening football matches now kick off at a more reasonable time and so I can watch them and still get enough sleep (see below).
However, that good news is tempered somewhat by the fact that their Spring means our Autumn. And the weather has been doing its bit to remind us of the changing seasons. We’re losing 2 minutes of daylight a day in Cape Town each day at the moment, and we crossed the 12 hours daylight/12 hours nighttime line yesterday.
I was reminded of this Soy, Ginger and Chili salmon recipe today. I must cook it again. Today is all about the big boneless gammon joint on the hob, though. The whole house smell of cloves and all-spice (coincidentally also the name of the giant robot formed when all the Spice Girls zigazig-arred together like the Power Rangers). Delicious.
The future is bright: Sheffield United win the Professional Development League (North) for the third season running.
A fact made even better when you look at the whole league table:
tl;dect (didn’t even click through) – risk of developing LC drops after a secondary infection (UK 4.0% to 2.4%), but that’s still not zero!
and just for reference, 2.4% of the UK population is one and a half million people. That’s a lot of potential cases, and a huge burden on individuals, families and the health service.
Covid really is just like the common cold.
I was out on a run earlier this week and was thinking about how I couldn’t even manage a staircase in the aftermath of my acute Covid experience. Things are clearly much, much better now, although it took over a year to get back to normality. That said: three things I have noticed post-Covid: I need more sleep, my lung capacity still isn’t what it was before, and my memory (which use to be very good) really isn’t as good any more. Especially on people’s names. Other random nonsense (phone codes, capital cities, song titles/bands) – generally fine. Names (famous ones or personal acquaintances) – nope.
…The problem is that people are increasingly building rock cairns to leave their mark or symbol of their presence in a natural setting or for posting on social media. Therefore, when engaging in this activity, it is important to be mindful of the potential negative impacts on the environment, wildlife and other people’s experiences.
Moving rocks and stacking them can disturb the natural habitat of tiny creatures. On the rocky shore, these organisms, such as crabs, molluscs, and algae, depend on their environment’s rocks and other structures for shelter and protection. By moving or stacking rocks, we may inadvertently destroy or disrupt their homes, harming their populations. Similarly, rock stacking can also have adverse terrestrial impacts on insects and moss in wilderness areas.
The article has a (terrible) picture of Agulhas National Park in it. So this is a local thing, close to my heart. And when the kids were younger, we did used to do this from time to time, albeit that our towers were built near the low tide mark, ready to be knocked down as the waves came in, and never for social media purposes.
Anyway. No more. Stoppit.
Lastly for today: a new way to filter flights on flightradar24. This is the update that everyone as crying out for. And it works. From being a very cool tool, its now also massively powerful. You can now get it to do whatever you want (and even more if you pay for a subscription). A lot of the features are in the free Beta version at the moment, but it seems to be stable and full rollout isn’t likely to be far away.
A quick post during a very busy day, which still has at least 9 hours to run.
Feeling a little overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, and taking some comfort from this little guy we spotted on (and safely removed from) the Brandfontein road last week.
If he can do it (with a bit of help), then surely I can, too.
One big positive is a big negative on a follow up test for the Boy Wonder. Still another 2 minutes to run on the LFT next to me as I type, but it’s not going to chuck up another line in the next 120 seconds, and that’s very good news.
Aside from his viral load, he continues to improve healthwise as well, although he has now developed a very viralesque rash on his face and chest, which is – as ever with Covid – equal parts weird and interesting.
