preparing for a hermitic winter

some new podcasts or podcast episodes i like (all links are spotify)

The Jordan Harbinger Show: Garry Kasparov

 Wondery: Over My Dead Body

Wondery: The Shrink Next Door 

 

a friend of mine (not very close) has had cancer for over a year now. its in a pretty bad stage at this point. it hit me to begin with cos we are around the same age, but during covid ive been feeling extra sad as she had to shield obviously, but now that she has been in the hospital shes just there all alone. no visitors allowed. and to know shes in a really bad condition and her parents nor close friends cant visit her, it just must be horrible. my covid issues are pretty small in comparison.
related thoughtful writing;
Guardian:  At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on (Elliot Dallen)

im submitting to getting a bigger pot for Gary the plant, it just needs to look nice on the window sill, thats all.

i finished the bloody Starry Night puzzle, but it was painful. i kept thinking maybe its good that i actually carry on with something and dont give up when its hard. maybe people are supposed to enjoy puzzles when they are harder? maybe im just always taking the easy route? whatever, the next one will be easy, thats for sure. instant gratification.  it is something i bought to make doctor smile too (hopefully), a hospital themed  one. i do the puzzles 98% but occasionally he stops over to help a bit, maybe more with this one. 

the dentists have started opening their practises and i booked a time for a checkup - which i skipped last year so lets see how bad things are now. i got an email with information on how they now function with covid around, to cancel if this or that or whatever, plus a patient form that im sure ive filled when i originally went to them. below are the first 2, the patient form is just asking about medications, allergies, allergies to anesthetics, whether i bruise easily, whether anyone in my family has diabetes, and so forth. it also asks for the and and contact details  of 'my doctor'. im pretty sure im not the only one who is just signed up to a GP practise and has no idea who their assigned GP officially is?! when you sign up, you don't get a letter saying "this is your doctor", im not sure how you're supposed to find out, and i guess its just cos it doesnt matter anymore. you book appointments with whoever you want. so they should just ask for GP practise name, as that's something everyone must have. very small thing, but it sounded so archaic and removed from today's reality that it got me annoyed. 

we met Can & Burcu at a polish restaurant earlier this week. i was a bit skeptical but it was pretty nice, tasty dumplings and all. obviously not ideal for vegans or vegetarians, it seems polish cuisine is meat heavy, but interesting drinks and all. we were celebrating Burcu's new job too. 

corona is so much worse here than it has been in finland. i keep watching finnish tv shows like what, they shot this last summer?! the people are sittng so close to each other, what is this? but it just wasnt such a big deal there. of course the media has been all over it, but then you look at the numbers and the reality and it's just... lucky bastards. also well handled, obviously! probably more that than luck, but whatever.  and now they are screaming over a second wave, then there is like 25-80 new cases per day. better start screaming too early rather than too late of course, but from my perspective right now it seems a bit exaggerated. abd then as cases are rising in europe as well as finland, finland is finding ways to OPEN the borders. which does make sense tbh, lets be honest tourism and business travel kind of has to continue...   i hope i get to go this winter, but UK itself looks like it's headed towards tough times again. the number of infections is almost as high as in the spring, howevr i dont think its fair to compare the numbers as in the spring so very few people were tested. only the really ill ons in the hospitals, really. so that was the iceberb, back then. now, although the track & trace is failing miserably, they are testing almost everyone who thinks of asking it and wants to go to a test center. so i have no idea where we really are in terms of comparison. but doctor says he can see there is a change, yesterday 3 covid patients during his 9h shift. compared to maybe 1 per shift in the past week or two, and zero before that for a couple of months. our area is not at the center of the epidemic at the moment though. media is saying politicians are discussiona second nationwide lockdown, if the local lockdowns don't do the job. but i have trouble believing they would do that. i just dont think the economy can take it, and while people just look at the numbers and sort of reasonably scream for hard actions, there all kinds of other numbers that actually, infortunately, need to be considerd. many of them estimations. economy suffering means people suffering, essentially. how many more poor will we have 6 or 12 months from now due to covid measures and lockdowns? how many is acceptable? how many more people will have died from cancers and other potentially curable illnesses cos they couldn't get treatment sooner due to covid measures? when GP's handle most patients over the phone, i'm gonna make a bold claim that it will show in some numbers somewhere. two GP friends i spoke to recently, while saying the phone consultations are going quite smoothly actually, admited that there will be negative consequences. anyway. we have been hoping to get out of town with doctor next weekend, kind of friday eve to monday sort of thing, but i dont want us to book anything before earliest thursday, cos we just dont know whats happening. i do think there will be more rules and restrictions again. i am meeting Anni for a dinner tomorrow and after that i have not set any other plans, i have a feeling in the next week there will be some changes. and now that ive had a nice, social summer, im kind of ready to stay indoors again to a big extent.