Vaccine, what vaccine?

 Vaccine, what vaccine?

Lockdown officially ended yesterday. Today, Wednesday Dec. 2nd, I awake in tier 2.  Nothing has changed. I went for a walk with friends. Same same.

In cities it is more obvious. Non essential shops can open again. Cue queues outside Primark across the country. Crikey, and I thought my life was boring. 

Banner Headline to detract the nation from the first day of 'lockdown light'. Oh look, the UK is the first nation to approve the new Pfizer vaccine for use. Supplies are due imminently. Hah.

1. For " first" substitute "only"

2. For " supplies" substitute 40,000 divided by two as its two doses a go.

3. For " imminently " substitute " sometime later this month, hopefully, rush this from the EU before the inevitable Brexit border hold ups".

4. Hah because this is the vaccine which has to be kept at -70. The Pfizer cold storage lab in Havant is closing prior to Brexit. So far the only place to store this on arrival is in hospitals-somewhere.

Detract, um, possibly. Yesterday was a bad news day for the Government. The revolt in Parliament on the vote to pass our new stricter tier system revealed the depths of dissent and rebellion across public and private alike. 

78 MPs voted against the measure. 15 were Labour who ignored the order to abstain, but the rest were Tories, the biggest two finger salute yet to Boris Johnson. The measure passed because Labour abstained , not because of this Government's majority.

The village idiot posing as our Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, failed miserably to reassure everyone that the vaccine is within sight. Boris Johnson today held a press conference to try again. Double fail. 

Experts, the real ones, suggest we might get our lives back by next winter.  Now that I do believe. 

So as the one sure fact is we are safer outside, if we can get to the spring and summer we'll  get a breather. Time to actually sort out a vaccine?? 

November has given way to December without much notice. I continue my journey through the mire of 2020.  Paul works from home. I work at not falling into the yawning gap of emptiness where once I had a life. 

Long given up any idea of a journey. Those early lyrical tomes now seem laughable in their innocence. There is no end in sight. My life as I knew it has gone. 

I have lost precious months with my pre school granddaughters I cannot replace. I can no longer remember what it feels to lose myself into an art exhibition, a film, a meal out. 

Current concerns: how many thermal vests can I layer up together to walk in the frozen wastes of the Sussex countryside. Will my walking boots hold out til the spring? Dear God, how cold is this country!

I rest my case. My world has shrunk to a shadow of its former self and so have I.