Swine Flu seems to have fallen out of the news this week so I thought I had better revive it, its been such a good topic of conversation for the past few weeks it seems such a shame to let it fade away without comment.
I have had a cold this week, an ordinary summer cold with the usual sneezing (such a waste of energy and so annoying) runny nose, vaguely sore throat which started at the weekend and by the time I went into work on Monday it was on its way out.
I had hoped for a little sympathy but I spent the week reassuring people that I had an ordinary cold and not Swine Flu. Have we all gone mad? When does someone who obviously has a snotty nose but not much else suddenly need to be sent home from work, I refused to go, I was fine.
I would certainly have thought I was ill if I ignored a fiver on the floor, so as a test I chucked a fiver on the floor (nowhere public however, just encase someone beat me to it!) and happily retrieved it several times for a few days. Convinced I was OK I gave this up as a waste of time and energy but I do think that its a good test for those in doubt. Perhaps I could market the idea, sell a fiver all wrapped up in a plastic bag for say a tenner and people could then self diagnose (so many people like to work out what is wrong with them - consider the pregnancy testing kit market, diabetic testing etc - huge).
Then they could spend hours trying to get through to the Swine Flu hot-line confident in their diagnosis which will then be confirmed by a teenage non-medic that they are ill. Then the non-medic can give you a voucher that allows you to go and get some pills that may at best reduce the time you are unwell by a day at worst give you side-effects that actually make you unwell.
Like I said we have all gone mad! and its costing us a fortune perhaps I could promise not to ask for Tamiflu and have a reduction in my tax bill. That idea I think probably needs pondering on this week and no doubt I will return to reducing my tax liability over the coming weeks!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Musing on the Moor - tourists
I had a busy week at work and by Thursday evening I was really looking forward to a peaceful weekend, I had no great plans other than pottering around our plot. The weather forecast was good, that meant - avoid the beaches like the plague.
A sunny August weekend in Cornwall always means an invasion of 'emmits'. This is a local term for holiday makers that fed up with the queues on the A30, head off at great speed down the country lanes without any idea where they are going they usually end up lost. At this point all common sense leaves them and on strange, very narrow roads where two cars cannot pass each other without pulling into the hedge they discover the secrets of the 'Cornish hedge' which is usually made of granite disguised by some very attractive weeds and results in their 'pride and joy' ending up bent and buckled when they hit it.
The lanes are only short cuts if you know where you are going and don't think that 'sat nav' or 'pratt nav' as I call it will help it won't, the lanes are slow and don't go where you think they are going, they are the long route. They head off in the right direction but half an hour later you are back where you started and the queue is longer and slower, so stick to the main roads and just accept that there are no motorways in Cornwall - we like it that way - just come down here and relax, take it easy and expect it to take ages to get anywhere, its part of the charm. The A30 is now partially a dual carriageway which means that Cornwall is accessible without having to leave home at 4.00 am and it taking 12 to 18 hours to arrive but just as I think of the ferry to France (I hate the Channel Tunnel) as the beginning of a holiday and time to get into relaxed mode, think of the single bit of carriageway east of Bodmin as the transition from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to holiday.
Its only about 3 weeks until the kids go back to school and we can reclaim the A30, the lanes and beaches again.
A sunny August weekend in Cornwall always means an invasion of 'emmits'. This is a local term for holiday makers that fed up with the queues on the A30, head off at great speed down the country lanes without any idea where they are going they usually end up lost. At this point all common sense leaves them and on strange, very narrow roads where two cars cannot pass each other without pulling into the hedge they discover the secrets of the 'Cornish hedge' which is usually made of granite disguised by some very attractive weeds and results in their 'pride and joy' ending up bent and buckled when they hit it.
The lanes are only short cuts if you know where you are going and don't think that 'sat nav' or 'pratt nav' as I call it will help it won't, the lanes are slow and don't go where you think they are going, they are the long route. They head off in the right direction but half an hour later you are back where you started and the queue is longer and slower, so stick to the main roads and just accept that there are no motorways in Cornwall - we like it that way - just come down here and relax, take it easy and expect it to take ages to get anywhere, its part of the charm. The A30 is now partially a dual carriageway which means that Cornwall is accessible without having to leave home at 4.00 am and it taking 12 to 18 hours to arrive but just as I think of the ferry to France (I hate the Channel Tunnel) as the beginning of a holiday and time to get into relaxed mode, think of the single bit of carriageway east of Bodmin as the transition from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to holiday.
Its only about 3 weeks until the kids go back to school and we can reclaim the A30, the lanes and beaches again.
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