Yesterday, Friday, was a rather gloomy day and when the mornings are so much darker, it is a little bit more difficult to rouse ourselves first thing in the morning. But after the two cheerful carers had called and got Meg up, washed and dressed and then we had some breakfast, I hit the phone to get onto our doctors to book a flu vaccination appointment. I have been receiving text messages from our local surgery regarding vaccinations and when I telephoned them at 9.30 I was amazed to discover that I was No. 1 in the queue which makes a change. I booked both Meg and myself in for both the new RSV vaccine as well as the regular flu jab. For a reason best known to itself, the Government is making the RSV virus available to all of the population aged 75-79 and Meg and I come into this category. I wondered why the 80 plus group were not being offered the vaccination and discovered this. The over-80s are under-represented in medical research and so part of the issue is reluctance of over-80s to volunteer for the trials. Often they are less likely to be eligible to volunteer or the trial may be designed in a way that’s harder for an older person to take part. So there is limited data on the effectiveness of the new RSV virus on the over 80's but also there is some research evidence that it benefits 75 years olds much more than 60 year olds. This sounds suspiciously like a cost saving exercise and makes one wonder whether the government would not mind excess deaths from whatever cause in the 80+ age groups as this will relieve pressures on the Health Service. Mid morning, we received a visit of the Eucharistic minister from our local parish church who we have not seen for a week or so now. Afterwards, we made our way into town, picked up a copy of our newspaper and then paid a by now traditional visit to 'The Lemon Tree' cafe where we treated ourselves to the Friday bacon sandwich. Then we rather had to rush up the hill, no mean feat, to ensure that we got back in time for the late morning call which we did by the skin of our teeth. Just after we had breakfasted I received a text from EE, our phone provider that my two yearly contract was expiring that day. Eventually, I managed to speak with a human (which is quite rare these days) in order to secure continuity of our contract. As it happens, we have historic contracts for our broadband with BT and for our mobile phone with EE. Now BT has taken over EE so over the phone I was offered a new combined deal which looks on the surface somewhat better than our two combined bills and has Netflix and AppleTV thrown in as part of the deal but I am not sure how this will work with our existing FireStick but we shall see. I must admit that this morning I was more concerned to have absolute continuity of supply and this seems to be the case and I am hopeful that I should be able to go down to the EE shop in town next Tuesday (when I have a 'sit' service for Meg) where I may be be able to discuss the upgrade of my iPhone which is now two years old at a fairly minimal cost.
A couple of days ago, I received a communication from the Government to participate in the Family Resources Survey. This entails making ourselves available for an interviewer to call round to the house and to ask us both questions about all kinds of things I would imagine and as a token of appreciation for our efforts, we have been a voucher of £10.00 to cash at the Post Office. I happen to believe that surveys of this type are important for the government to get more comprehensive pictures of how families actually do live so we are happy to participate. I need, though, to make some phone calls to get all of this activated. Upon our return home, we received a really pleasant surprise. Our Irish friends who have just returned from holiday have invited us for a Sunday lunch and we have a lot to catch up between us. As it is difficult for Meg to travel, our friends are going to call round to our house and are going to be bringing a Sunday lunch with them so this is an occasion to which we can look forward with a great deal of pleasure. After our Friday lunch of a fish pie, Meg and I wondered if there were any decent films on the TV and were rewarded with a showing of 'Born Free'. This is a 1966 British drama film starring the real-life couple Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, another real-life couple, who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood. The theme music from this film is very well known and we are enjoying the film but with an idea that it all might end in tears at the very end. The young lioness, Elsa, matured into a fully grown animal and then it was realised that she would eventually have to be released to fend for herself. But the emotional tension comes in the film when the Adamsons come to realise that a hand-reared lioness has no hunting skills and would probably perish in the wild from other predators. After several not very successful attempts to 're-wild' Elsa, the Adamsons eventually succeed in then go off on a holiday. Upon their return, they return to camp near the point where they had released Elsa but there was no trace of her so, sadly, they are starting to make tracks for home. Just at the point of maximum despair, they fire a rifle shot in the air and Elsa hears this and reappears together with a litter of her own cubs. They then spend a very joyful afternoon in each other's company before Elsa and her cubs return to the wild as they are 'Born Free'. So this was a very emotionally compelling film and a nice way to spend a Friday afternoon.
© Mike Hart [2024]