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anna_wing1 For no obvious reason, Lap-cat decided that he needed to pee on my shoes. Luckily these are embroidered fabric mules, which can be washed and sunned, and Housekeeper caught it while the incident was, so to speak, fresh. Cats, they are like that.
2 Bus-stop Cat, my portly black-and-white gentleman, started limping badly and developed a lump on his leg. Very likely to have been an insect bite that got infected. Vet was summoned at 9 pm by Whatsapp, came the next morning at 9 am. We weren't too worried, because he didn't appear to have a fever and he was certainly well enough to protest vociferously when we shut him in the kitchen before she arrived. But it's better not to let an infection take hold here, where treatment options for any serious condition are very limited. She took a look, agreed that it was probably heading towards becoming an abscess, and left basic oral antibiotics and a few doses of anti-inflammatories/painkillers in case he needs them (so far not). Luckily he regards himself as Housekeeper's cat, and will let her stuff the pills down his throat with minimal fuss. Seems to be recovering well, limp is much less.
3 It was reported to me when I came home from work that the gardeners had caught and killed a rather large snake in the front garden. I looked it up on-line, and it was probably a youngish King Cobra. I'm not in favour of killing the wildlife in general, but it would have been a bit awkward for the cats and the staff to have it in residence. This one was a bit over a metre long; they get up to 4-5 metres, and are known to be of tetchy temperament.
4 Some friends were in London for work, and wore their masks out. They observed that while very few people in general were wearing them, most of those who were were various kinds of Asian, and it seemed to be OK, whereas white people who wore them were looked at askance. So it had apparently been internalised by the native population, at least where they were, that masks are An Asian Thing. A Caucasian colleague who had indeed been looked at askance for wearing a mask while in London recently (he's an Aussie, with elderly and vulnerable parents in a nursing home, so he's super-careful) told me he had noticed the same thing. Very amusing, how cultural practices and attitudes can change so fast!
2 Bus-stop Cat, my portly black-and-white gentleman, started limping badly and developed a lump on his leg. Very likely to have been an insect bite that got infected. Vet was summoned at 9 pm by Whatsapp, came the next morning at 9 am. We weren't too worried, because he didn't appear to have a fever and he was certainly well enough to protest vociferously when we shut him in the kitchen before she arrived. But it's better not to let an infection take hold here, where treatment options for any serious condition are very limited. She took a look, agreed that it was probably heading towards becoming an abscess, and left basic oral antibiotics and a few doses of anti-inflammatories/painkillers in case he needs them (so far not). Luckily he regards himself as Housekeeper's cat, and will let her stuff the pills down his throat with minimal fuss. Seems to be recovering well, limp is much less.
3 It was reported to me when I came home from work that the gardeners had caught and killed a rather large snake in the front garden. I looked it up on-line, and it was probably a youngish King Cobra. I'm not in favour of killing the wildlife in general, but it would have been a bit awkward for the cats and the staff to have it in residence. This one was a bit over a metre long; they get up to 4-5 metres, and are known to be of tetchy temperament.
4 Some friends were in London for work, and wore their masks out. They observed that while very few people in general were wearing them, most of those who were were various kinds of Asian, and it seemed to be OK, whereas white people who wore them were looked at askance. So it had apparently been internalised by the native population, at least where they were, that masks are An Asian Thing. A Caucasian colleague who had indeed been looked at askance for wearing a mask while in London recently (he's an Aussie, with elderly and vulnerable parents in a nursing home, so he's super-careful) told me he had noticed the same thing. Very amusing, how cultural practices and attitudes can change so fast!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 10:22 am (UTC)I would like to go to a new art group, and I just know that if I turn up in a mask people are likely to be weird about it. :-/
Good news Bus-stop cat is feeling better!
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Date: 2022-11-18 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-19 10:20 am (UTC)But joining a group where the point is to sit around a table for several hours indoors in the warm making art and maybe some new friends is far riskier. It's most unlikely that anyone else will wear a mask there now. If I were visibly east asian in appearance then turning up for the first meeting in a mask would *probably* be 'ah see this person masked in the manner of their people, it's a thing they do' (in the absence of actual overt racists). If I do it, the conversation is likely to start with how It's All Over Now, We're Getting Back To Normal, which I find a bit stressful on a first meeting. I literally had this conversation with my GP practice manager when I first met her at a volunteering thing. The doctors are still masking up, but the admin staff aren't. :-/
I went to the post office yesterday in a mask, I was the only person in the store masked and someone literally laughed at me.
Hence I continue to hesitate over the whole new art group thing. I would like people to just mask and ventilate rooms, it doesn't seem that hard to me! But I think for a lot of people the mask thing literally does almost translate in emotional terms to 'are you saying I am dirty'. Which yes! you are! We all are, in that sense!
Gah.
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Date: 2022-11-20 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 03:47 pm (UTC)A vet who makes house calls? What fresh luxury is this?
Oh yeah, king cobra in the garden, we gets them. (Looks out at snowy roofs with fresh appreciation.)
At the supermarket yesterday I noticed that a rather larger proportion than usual of the shoppers were masked. Someone must have read the news about children's wards being at 100% capacity and didn't want to infect their tinies with even a cold, since there's a dire shortage of children's acetominophen. And for the rest, I live in Koreaville, luckily.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 04:28 am (UTC)since there's a dire shortage of children's acetominophen.
???!!!!???
One of the nicer things about winter in the UK was the absolute lack of normal vermin like mosquitoes and cockroaches. Not that a king cobra is normal, even here.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 03:34 pm (UTC)Yes, the shortage of acetominophen started in the spring with an inrease in viral illnesses in children. Mismanaged,of course, with domestic manufacturers resisting importation from abroad, and now foreign supplies are down because America is having the same issues and people started hoarding.
We still get cockrocahes in winter. They love our warm warm houses where they live year round. Of course the Brits don't heat their houses like we do, or didn't, but NAmerican roaches are definitely an indoor breed.
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Date: 2022-11-17 04:46 pm (UTC)That is so annoying re the masks.
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Date: 2022-11-18 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 04:54 pm (UTC)Never mind that by my estimate, 2% of the UK is infectious with covid at any time...
no subject
Date: 2022-11-19 06:46 am (UTC)And now it appears that as I feared, re-infections do increase your chances of complications. This is why I'd rather treat it like dengue, i.e. as if the next time may be the one that kills me (I've had dengue twice, my margin of safety is narrow)