My Somerset Life

A diary by Brian Snellgrove

Birthday Boy

So I’m 76 years of age but of course still a teenager inside. They say that Geminis never grow up, they just become more eccentric and I would concur with that.  Last night I did not sleep particularly well so I stayed in bed until about 9:30 am, made my usual coffee and had Wheatabix with a banana and milk and then I was ready for my virtual service at my church. At the time of trying, our vicar is still not very good at delegating and I keep on asking that they do rehearsals for the ZOOM meeting but they stumble on somehow. I could make a few points but I don’t want to be known as a whinger.

Birthday correspondence from all over for which I am duly appreciative. I try to respond to letters within an hour if I’m sitting at my desk. One less welcome letter, or should I say two letters, were from my allotment saying that two people have had their strawberries raided. This happened two years ago. Apart from barricading the place I don’t quite know what we can do and I guess it’s an occupational hazard but in general we are fortunate.

We thought about going out to have a takeaway food lunch but it wasn’t that warm so Françoise agreed to make a fish pie with salad. We preceded this with a bottle of very nice champagne with miscellaneous toasts to all and sundry. More sleeping in the afternoon interspersed by watching videos about North Korea. DW Deutsche World did a very good video which I found on you Tube.

After having had a snooze, time to enter more data this time on the coronavirus. Just to show you what I’m up to, I enclose today’s offerings. I love listening to Dr. Vernon Coleman. He thinks and speaks in English and communicates very well and is totally non-apologetic. This is one of the slower days for news. I wish I had more time to actually read all the stuff. If you want one lighten try items C722 about how thousands of people have been murdered. If you want to depress yourself watch C718 about the long planned “reset” of the world, for our safety and security you understand.

7 June 20

VIDEO –   Losing Friends Because of Corona Tribalism | Carl Vernon Are we led by fear or by love?  9.26  Pub/added 7 June 20 C724

ARTICLE  www.nextgov.com intelligence community wants better tech for COVID– 19 and the next pandemic. IARPA is looking for early – stage research proposals in five key technology areas Pub 1 Jun 20 Added 7 Jun 20 C723

VIDEO – Dr Vernon Coleman.  Coronavirus: Is this how they plan to steal and sell your DNA?  We in the UK might as well be living in China. Coronavirus: How and why thousands of old people have been murdered  14:08   Pub 2 Jun 20 Added 7 Jun 20 C722

ARTICLE and VIDEOS  thetruthaboutcancer.com – mask or not mask? (see post as well) Published 7 June 20 C721

ARTICLE – Lockdownsceptics.org  How at risk are your children from coronavirus. Interesting analysis of  the Sweden situation. Ed. Pub 17 May 20 Added 7 June 20 C720

ARTICLE – Daily Mail online (beware the pop ups)  Experts cannot find a single child under 10 who has passed on coronavirus to an adult despite huge trawl of data raising hopes they pose no risk. Experts failed to uncover any cases of children under 10 transmitting the virus   Pub and added 7 June 20  C719

VIDEO ARTICLE – ♠ Spiro from Activity Post – Problem reaction solution at it again.  The great reset plan revealed – How COVID ushers in the new. Pub 6 June 20 Added 7 June 20 C718



My Somerset Life

A diary by Brian Snellgrove

A failed expedition to get a spare key for my Volvo

 

wheat field see below

I recently bought an old Volvo V70 for  £1250, spent about £400 on a couple of new tyres and a complete oil change and there was only one trouble with the car and that was that it had only one set of keys. Anyone who has had dealings with Volvo know how security conscious they are. I rang up a Volvo outlet to be told that the cost of getting a new key would be £250 which includes the key itself and the programming of the key. Unless the engine recognises the code, the car will not start.

I found a local locksmith who said that he did programming, so off we set to a place called Cranmore, a little village about 10 miles south of Midsomer Norton. The cutting of the physical key was easy enough but the problem came when we had to program it. Evidently the key has to be read and then returned to a unit three times with intervals of up to 15 min in between. This is a deterrent for those wishing to clone the key and steal the car. We were there for about one hour 30 min. While he was working, I went for a lovely walk on an archetypal spring – summer day with wheat blowing in the breeze. This made the visit alone worthwhile. Alas, he could not program the key so we returned empty-handed.

disused rail tracks make me very nostalgic and sentimental

I made one mistake with my  new car that I shall not make again. I had a set of new tyres fitted and one had a puncture which I did not realise and drove round on for a mile or so thus destroying the tyre. Fortunately I was able to replace it and will go along tomorrow Saturday to have it fitted. You may wonder why it is possible to miss a puncture but these tyres are of the sporty variety and are much thinner than the average model. Ah well, put it down to experience.



My Somerset Life

A diary by Brian Snellgrove

A mixed day of fortunes

I was riding my new car along the Radstock Road when I heard a bang and the curbside front tyre blew. I drove back gingerly home and called the RAC. They had some questions for me. Have I’ll anyone been in contact with anyone who’s got the coronavirus. Am I suffering from any health conditions. This topic is everywhere and there is no escape. The roadside repair person rang me about 9:30 PM asking me to put the keys on the top of the car, social distancing he explained. He seemed somewhat stressed, I’m not surprised at the end of a long day, but he was having to carry out orders which he probably doesn’t understand. Anyway, the service was good enough. The tyre was brand-new and showed no signs of damage so he told me to take it back to the garage and ask them what they thought and if they had an explanation.

My new car has higher specifications and is going to cost me £330 a year to tax. I guess it is because it is more sporty, not really ideal for going round in gardens but it was the only example I could find at a reasonable price.

Last night we had our weekly ZOOM meeting. We had nine people, less than I expected and I told them all about the new system that I had brought in where instead of writing e-mails to each other we could contribute to a message board type of system within a website. This would mean that people could opt in only to the material that they were interested in.

Today I have only done a moderate amount of work compared with my usual volume. I’m largely bereft of inspiration at the moment so I think I will close and have an early night. Today, I spoke to a friend in London about the effect of the so-called pandemic and evidently there are plenty of cars around so people are getting back to normal. She knows to people who had died of the virus and I reminded her that doctors are told to put cause of death as Corona even though they haven’t tested positive. She told me of a doctor who refused to put Corona until the body had been tested.

I find it cheers me enough up enormously to share with people on the same wavelength even if we don’t agree on everything. The cumulative effect of so many people observing the social distancing when there is no shadow of evidence or scientific study is getting to me somewhat. Masks are even worse because they anonymize people.



My Somerset Life

A diary by Brian Snellgrove

A Daily Mail sort of day

Today, I had to go to hospital for a scan of my stomach to make sure that nothing untoward was going on. I parked at the park-and-ride in Odd Down south of Bath and waited and waited for a bus that I was assured went every half an hour by a driver in another bus. I waited in vain in the lovely sun and eventually went to the centre of Bath by another bus and caught a connecting bus to the hospital.

Many arrangements have been made for social distancing.  On the bus, you can only sit on one seat in a row and the rest is cordoned off with warning signs. At the bus station, they are not allowing people to get off the bus because of the said social distancing and so buses have to alight about 100 yards away adjacent to the car park. They then do another turn round the block and come in to Dorchester Street  or bus station itself to pick up passengers.  There were very few people to pick up anyway and it is not uncommon to be the only person on a bus.

Anyway I arrived at the hospital at 12:05 for 12:15 appointment. I was seen at 1220 by a delightful Greek doctor who did at least 20 scans of my stomach in the most conscientious way. I complimented her on her thoroughness and she did not understand the word thorough and how to get the nurse to explain. She then berated herself saying that she was utterly useless at English and I responded by saying that she was not utterly useless and I gave a joke Papal Blessing to absolve her from her sins.

About half the people, and that includes the staff, were wearing masks and the other to my great relief were not.  After the examination, I returned from the ward to the central area where they were serving tea and coffee. On the way I saw the most ghastly picture nurse care I have ever seen. What is this all about? It reminds me of other famous campaigns in the past. I had a small Latte accompanied by a chick pea sandwich for the princely sum of £6.60. The sandwich was worth about £1.50, the latte about the same but what do you do.

I had a chat with the bus driver on the way back and we talked about the political situation. He, obviously fed by the mainstream media. said that any government faced with new situations would have behaved in the same way right back to Winston Churchill. He said he thinks we want to draw a line under Dominic Cummings who he said went up to Durham to see his family. I said that actually he went up to sign a contract with Glaxo Smith Kline for research into a vaccine with a French company. He turned on me somewhat said, where did you get that information? It could have been made up. Was there a photograph of him signing the contract? I said, probably no. He said well you can make anything up, bloggers do this just for a laugh. I realise that it was of limited value to carry on with the conversation.

On the way that we visited my favourite little village Wellow.  Down to the Ford which floods quite regularly in winter but during this dry weather was hardly more than a trickle.

Back home, to finish my newly designed website with lots of participation of members. David, the dour Scottish person who is my web developer, made short work of my questions and now 48 hours after starting the redevelopment, we have workable integrative website, with sensitive user participation and respect of  privacy. I shall present it to the group tomorrow Wednesday and see what they have to say.

What a lovely evening it is so we both sat back with a glass or two of wine. tomorrow, rain threatens so that will be good for the ground. In the Daily Mail which I rashly brought there was very little news of any value. Someone was saying that we have to reduce the social distancing to 1 m otherwise industry will suffer. Another person was talking about good food to increase resistance to the non-existent virus but did not make any mention of vitamins C or D. Totally useless. Anyone who trusts the mainstream media for their news hasn’t got a chance in hell. Pure propaganda.



My Somerset Life

A diary by Brian Snellgrove

Times they are a’changing

The phrase was immortalised by Bob Dylan. He is the perfect person to sing this haunting lyric with a mixture of nostalgia and realism

Come gather ’round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin‘

Today, another sunny day, was accompanied by much development work on my ZOOM site. I need it to be ready for Wednesday afternoon when I have my next meeting. I want people to be able to sign up and contribute material in a closed environment away from the Twitterati and the Facebookers of this world. This pond skating does not work and does not develop the brain.

I find the best way to develop a site is to first of all listen to the person who is hosting the site or in a position of knowledge, do all you can to follow their  instructions, write the questions down in a group and then have a dedicated session to talk about them. I did this today, sent my questions off and we had a Skype session and sorted out pretty much all the problems at one go. I find that providence gives me a tailwind. I only thought of developing my site on Saturday, it’s normally weekends when such things happen. I know that I have to keep the flow going and it is worth giving all my care and attention to the matter in hand.

I spoke to my son in Thailand. He is still hosting his mother and father-in-law. He explained that they had been invited to return to India from which they had visited but they would have to pay their own fair, and spend 14 nights in a hotel near the airport by way of quarantine. They decided that this was far too much trouble and expense so they are staying on. I don’t blame them and I would have done the same. At his school, the school where he is teaching, the parents want a discount because the present lessons are being done remotely and they don’t feel their children are getting the same benefit as having them at school. I can see their point.

I think that fewer and fewer people are believing the government’s guidelines because they are so inconsistent and illogical. I notice more people standing closer together as instinct takes over. I have had no reports about what has happened to children who have gone back to school today but I hope they are not made to sit in an isolated position though I fear this will be the case. What on earth will playtime be like? Will there be any actual play?  I know that Italy is opening up, other countries are following suit, Sweden never closed down and the figures are not worse, site hope it will peter out before the next no doubt planned “second wave” which will come in the autumn I guess. I wonder how long this lie will perpetuate.

To the allotment, everything is in full swing and looking lovely. People have done a wonderful job and most allotments are full of vigourously growing crops and weed free. I hope we do not have visits from opportunists when harvest season comes. A couple of years ago we had strawberries stolen, they are the obvious things to take. Crops like potatoes, leeks, are low on the temptation list of the people get hungry through lack of food you never know what might happen.