Yesterday I spent hours listening to a playlist from 1986 (can you guess any?)… my BIRTH YEAR. So yes, I am 36 and that seems to be one of those birthdays when you feel like looking backwards and maybe forwards. A kind of balancing spot in time. Looking back… I have not blogged for quite some time. Almost exactly a year. Have you missed me?... Ha! That blog from October 2021 talks about the end of BORIS’ ROADMAP and how I have managed to start sitting outside the pub etc… But it also noted many worries about not being able to have a COVID booster or an Annual Health Check and how to cope with another long dark winter. Has much changed in a year? Well yes and no. Back in Spring/early Summer (when Boris was still PM!) everyone was told to go out and “live their lives”. This felt pretty scary and unsafe to me as COVID was still raging, there were no masks to be seen, no tests and I could not get a SPRING COVID BOOSTER. Ma asked and asked but got turned away. It was stopping me from living my life whilst everyone else seemed to be going out there. And OMICRON was being more than friendly. The tale of what did not happen is long and shocking but ended with a trip to a big vax centre in Cambridge armed with a letter from my Neurology Consultant “give this man a booster”. It was a struggle, an argument, included startling advocacy from my PAs and eventually I got a booster on May the 21st… It did mean spending 40 minutes in a big shopping centre, my first time since SHEILDING. Guess what? You guess, I caught COVID. My Ma, Sister and PAs gradually all caught it from me and it was not at all like a common cold! 5 days later I was in Intensive Care in my local hospital and my family could not be with me. Not going to detail the nightmare… But I did not come home until the end of July!! We are still all shaken and Ma is quite angry. So look forwards not backwards from my mid-life vantage point >>> FUTURE. Ma and my PAs said that a miracle happened… but several days after hospital I made it to the Cambridge Folk Festival… Just for a few hours each day and had to sleep in my chair quite a bit. Oh it was marvellous and I was able to vote for and choose a new artist for my prize this year. The Wonderful Angeline Morrison… Please take a look at her work on this link. She is already becoming a friend along with Mishra, Katherine Priddy and Nick Hart/all previous winners. Because we had had COVID good and proper… By the end of Summer me and Ma felt a bit free and took some risks with new found immunity and after those locked away years… Ma dressed up as David Attenborough and joined the Strawberry Fair Parade (theme was LOVE OUR PLANET). I went on a holiday adventure in my new BIG BLUE VAN to meet up with some old friends. A proper adventure… night drive to Scotland, choppy ferry crossing to Ireland, a breath taking view from the holiday cottage… Oh and I tried Guiness. It was all amazing! “Get out there and live your life”. So I am back “Pubs, Gigs and Cakes” are a real feature of my life again. I even managed a Tom Jones concert. I’ve got a FLU jab and a COVID booster under my belt/in my arm. BUT Winter is about to become a reality and adjustments will probably be made… quieter times, less crowded places. Going to keep this return BLOG positive… So next time we could talk about the health access barriers/challenges I experienced both as an in patient and now as a (middle-aged!) man with learning disabilities in the community. Health Inequalities are still a huge reality. Did you all watch the recent Panorama programme? But in the mean time… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME and thanks and love to my PAs, friends and family. FIREWORKS PARTY TO PLAN FOR TOMORROW. BLOG POST SCRIPT… Here are some more COVID freedom pics… Hockney exhibition. Taking my whole team punting. Buskers in my garden. Wore my MBE medal to the pub in honour to the Queen.
5 Comments
Angeline
10/28/2022 02:08:59 pm
Happy Birthday Christian! Very happy you recovered, got your booster & had an amazing holiday!
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Helen Daly
10/30/2022 03:15:59 am
Happy Birthday Christian x
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Lisa
10/31/2022 12:35:57 am
Brilliant blog .. loved seeing you in Ireland x
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11/25/2023 02:56:30 pm
Of course, unemployment comes at the beginning of the biggest problems experienced in our country. In this sense, this section is one of the sections that attracts people's attention. It is one of the departments where the unemployment problem is minimal and there is an opportunity to find a job abroad if necessary.
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AuthorHello, I'm Christian, welcome to my blog. Archives
October 2021
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