Well, what will this evening bring? A burbling Boris with all the news. There are two schools of thought here, keep locked up or ease the clampdown. There’s a strong case for both, I favoured continuing the isolation but then I’m fortunate to have a garden and to work from home and I could manage – provided I get a slot with Asda or Tesco! Not easy but at five in the morning I’ve discovered there is more chance although it wrecks the sleep pattern which doesn’t matter if you get that golden delivery. It’s funny the little things that send you into seventh heaven these days. I was told by an employee of one of the supermarkets that during the good weather delivery vans were packed with cases of beer and cigarettes. Not fair. Will it be easier now with the NI Direct form for vulnerable housebound people to get priority delivery?
The link is https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/register-priority-online-food-delivery
It’s a hefty form to fill in, doctors details, your details and your social and care number. At the every end of the procedure guess what – ‘The stores will make every effort to offer you an online delivery slot, but it is dependent on demand and cannot be guaranteed’. Sort of defeats the object.
Back to Boris and his dilemma. When I heard the argument for relaxing the rules I had to think again. Because the hospitals can apparently cope at the moment, let people loose and if they get the virus it can be dealt with although what about those mainly elderly people or people with some underlying condition who will not survive the disease? This theory about loosening up came from someone in the medical profession who said that allowing a ‘herding’ situation would hopefully build an immunity at this time of year and help ease the situation in the winter when it will be so much harder to control as the population fights flu and other ailments.
It’s a terrible decision for everyone. To go back to school or not, to go into work or not, to visit family or not, to have family call with you or not, even to go shopping or not. It’s heartbreaking to have relatives in care homes, your arms ache to give them the strength of a hug and the knowledge that they are not abandoned.
Indeed, what next?
Some Good News
The largest bird of pray returns to England for the first time in 240 years. The white-tailed eagle has been seen soaring in the sky in the south of England although this picture was taken on the Isle of Mull in Scotland by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images. Imagine a wing span of 2.5 metres – around six and a half feet by my reckoning. In the 18th century they were wiped out by illegal killing so lets hope that doesn’t happen again
Apparently they were a common sight in England before then, the last recorded in 1780 at Culver Cliff on the Isle of Wight before becoming extinct. The last bird in the UK was recorded was in Scotland in 1918 before being shot on the Shetland Islands.
Last summer, six young white tailed eagles were released on the Isle of Wight as part of a five-year project to reintroduce the species to southern England.
To wear or not to wear that is the question.
Seems that face masks are an optional extra but, if you can source them, at least they can stop your germs getting out and so offer some protection to the people around you. Despite the controversy as to their effectiveness at this particular time, it seems opinion falls on the positive side, it certainly does for the army of thousands throughout the UK are making them at home and donating them to those in the front line of the Coronavirus battle.
One young woman has done her research and is convinced of their value and is now supplying masks to the public and scrub gowns for Northern Ireland Scrubs, an organisation that coordinates the incoming garments and then sends them out to areas within the NHS, care homes, doctors surgeries and testing centres.
When I talked to Susan Rogers at her home in Newtownabbey a few days ago she admitted she was tired. Why? She’d been up most of the night completing a rush order of scrub gowns for nurses.
First I wanted to know about the face masks and she told me how she uses durable polycotton, a fabric made from a blend of polyester and cotton, which is soft and moisture absorbing.
“I started making masks for friends and family and that market grew. They are made using three layers of fabric and in nice bright colours. I charge for them so that I can buy material for the scrubs.”
Although these materials are available from companies on Facebook, as far as the scrubs are concerned, Susan did her homework and discovered she could buy locally from Craftswoman Fabrics in Kilroot who offered her discontinued scrubs fabrics. She then moved onto to packaging. “The staff in the Tesco store in Newtownabbey – specifically store manager Hughie – agreed to provide the plastic garment bags from their clothing deliveries to package my scrubs so everything can be donated free to those who need them most.”
Building a Career
Susan is 23 and has been sewing since she was 10 years old, loving how she could make something from nothing. At school she developed a love of art and her intricate work led her onto fashion and on to the prestigious National College of Art and Design in Dublin where she was one of the top 10 finalists in the Young Designer of the Year in 2018. She opted to remained in Dublin to become an intern for Paul Henry Taylors where she learned high end bespoke tailoring for both male and female garments and where a man’s suit could cost over £1000! “Mostly middle aged business men wanting the best, also custom made equestrian designs, cutting and tailoring individual riding jackets and jodhpurs to the customer’s instructions, gentlemen going to the races or social events and of course grooms wanting to look fabulous on their wedding day.”
With all this knowledge and experience she came back to Belfast to set up her successful design business but just now she can’t work with her clients face to face so she has turned her tailoring skills to supporting those in the front line of health care.
Susan’s masks come in two sizes £10 for adults and £5 for children with all profits being used to sustain the important work of supplying scrubs.
More on Susan’s contact details and her fashion portfolio at wearbyser.com
CULT FIGURE IS NOT FOR ME
I was recommended Tiger King as good viewing – WHAT! It was awful and I hated it and I can’t understand why so many people are raving about this man Joe Exotic who’s been called a man gone wild. Raving being the operative word. And now apparently a television drama is to be made on this strange person with Nicolas Cage taking the title role, eight episodes no less.
Apparently the focus will be on this man’s penchant for ‘big cats’ and his fascination for Carole Baskin a woman who tries to champion the tigers and their companions. To say Joe hates her is an understatement, he has put out a contract on the woman who now lives in fear of her life. You couldn’t make it up. I’m sorry I ever saw the programme I can do without that hyped drivel in my life. End of rant.
VE Day
The television programmes on Friday were fascinating and the original footage of the European theatre of war terrible. Then last night ‘Darkest Hour’, Winston Churchill sitting in a tube train getting the opinion of a cross section of people as to whether he should opt for negotiations or war. I can’t say I was impressed with this film, Churchill mumbled and seemed to bumble his way through not surprised he lost the election to Clement Attlee.
War is obscene, is it a necessary evil? During the commemoration of the end of World War 1 in Ypres, I visited the Peace Park in Messines with the famous round Ulster Tower where there are slabs of marble along the path each inscribed. The words of Patrick MacGill of the London Irish Regiment brought tears to my eyes: “I wish that I were back again in the Glens of Donegal, They’ll call me coward if I return but a hero if I fall.” However the inscription that made most sense to me was that of David Starret 9th Royal Irish Rifles, one of the 200,000 Irish men who signed up, one of the 30,000 who died.
“So the curtain fell over that tortured country of unmarked graves and unburied fragment of men, murder and massacre, the innocent slaughtered for the guilty, the poor man for the sake of the greed of the already rich, the man of no authority made the victim of the man who had gathered importance and wished to keep it.”
Keep safe and well, be patient and gentle, it will come to pass.