Jim Stewart's Blog

Well, my freezer is up and running. So today I made a big batch of soup to freeze. I am now almost at the end of my fresh produce – just a few carrots left. Thank goodness I have another food delivery coming this week.

Another day in the garden sorting out the good wood and the rotten wood. Finally finished. I also managed to pass a dozen seedlings to the neighbour. All of them Chipotle. They say they like hot stuff – hope they like it really really hot.

I’ve been doing a few COVID risk assessments this week. It struck me that protection from coronavirus was really similar to protection from radiation. Keep away from people, limit your time near people and shield yourself with masks.

But the thing that stands out most is the idea of the virus on a surface. I would rather have radiation because you can measure it. But there is a good read over. So places like door handles and petrol pumps are things to watch. Personally I would think most about horizontal surfaces (like shopping trolley handles).

I think there are some parts of the new advice that might be better. I would not sit on a park bench. Yes, I know they are outdoors, but there are several reasons why it could be more of a risk than other areas. It had stood out to me from park photos and was one of the things that stood out to me about the DC story. If you knew that somebody that had the virus had sat on a bench beside the river would you then go and sit on it? I wouldn’t.

We have a long way to go, and we need to be careful. But one of the things that struck me when I was thinking about the comparison was the materials we use and the design of our places. Things like fabric covered chairs are really hard to keep clean (for example think bus seats and office chairs). If I were designing a world to avoid passing on a virus it would look a lot different to what it looks like now.

It does make me think about our balance of form and function. Starting to wonder if we will see a return of 70’s pvc seats in cars. If we need to live with this long term then the world is going to look more and more like the inside of a nuclear power plant, and that would make the Amish world seem fancy.

I’m also wondering if my hair is growing faster these days, or have I been in isolation longer than I remember. When will I next get to see my barber? And will any of us ever go to the dentist again?

The more I thought about it the more I realise that perhaps I am not quite ready for the degree of change we might see.

A cool shower and 3 litres of water later and I am starting to feel human again. A long day in the garden – and more to come. I fixed the neighbours fence, put up some trellis to grow my passion fruit along the fence where the shed was. I planted it two years ago. First year it grew about a metre. Last year it exploded and grew all over the place. I have cut it back but now need to make it behave.

I then moved on to the front lawn. I want to stop people cutting the corner, so I bought a tree last year and planted it in a pot. Today it was time to put it in the corner of the garden. The position is a bit exposed, but I hope it lives. The variety is called harlequin glorybower. Hoping I can keep it under control – maximum height is 8m with a spread of 8m. The colours look spectacular.

The next one I need to plant (Prickly Myrtle) is also a bit big, but will also add some interesting colour.

With the hot sun I fried.

Quite an odd day in terms of daily briefings. It seemed to tie in with something I have been thinking about. I’m not catholic. Far from it. But I was watching the film “The Family” the other day and there was the confessional scene where the priest demands they leave the town after hearing confession.

It got me wondering. Confession is good for you in a lot of ways, not just in terms of religion. We see it in drug and alchohol recovery programmes. Even groups like weightwatchers work on a similar principle.

I started to wonder if the kick back by Martin Luther (the original one) against things like indulgences (get out of hell free cards for a price) has led to a protestant rejection of the concept of confession.

Watching Dominic Cummings today reminded me of my young days. My cousin’s daughter was a couple of years older than me. We were exploring a house demolition area one day when she pulled out some matches and set fire to the dry grass. It was burning well when my father drove along the road. Of course we were putting out the fire. We told him we were being good kids. Somebody else had set the fire (the invisible arsonists). He didn’t believe me. I mean why didn’t he believe me, even though we had set the fire we were putting it out? He stood there watching us put it out and told us not to do it again.

I have no doubt DC did what he thought was right for him. Today he was encouraged to come clean about bending the rules, but he kept saying “Somebody else lit the fire, I was putting it out”. But part of that was probably because it wasn’t a confessional situation, it was a pack cornering somebody, and in those conditions people close down, not open up.

We see the same defensive response from another world leader over the pond.

We all want people to be held responsible, but we also want people to be open and transparent. So how do we balance the two. The truth and reconciliation in South Africa is one example of trying to achieve the balance that has impressed me. I think it might be good to follow this model in the future here (not just for this virus issue, but to help transform our country – and maybe to counter the newspaper shock horror probe attitude).

I am left with the puzzle, would I be willing to accept a commission if it allowed people to ask for amnesty like the South African commission did. Where do I sit on the balance between truth and punishment. Would I be willing to forgive to get the truth? Or am I just too protestant to believe in confession?

As I write this Boris is on TV trying hard to defend his right hand man, Dominic. People are calling for blood. No doubt a lot of the calls are based on a simple hatred of the man – many people see him as an evil influence in this country.

I think about my own case. My family are hundreds of miles away. I have given some thought to what I would do if I caught the virus, or if they did. I know I have a raised risk if I catch the virus. But I have come to accept that if I were to catch the virus I might not get the chance to see my family again. I would not want them to risk their lives to see me. So comparing the actions of DC against the actions I would take leaves me with the view that he was wrong.

But is our hatred enough to condemn somebody, or is a comparison with our actions the right way to go. And anyway, he wears a lanyard talking about God. Or maybe we need some rules (which gives me a good segway in to this video – can we rename it the DC anthem?).

I used to go to a church in the East End of London. One of the elderly guys there was Joe. He had been a prize boxer. He had been a member of the Diamond Gang, collecting “insurance” from local traders. He would recount stories of the East End, including the time the Krays bought their first shooter from his friend.

One evening he said he thought he had done wrong, but he wasn’t sorry. In his row of houses there was a frail lady. At the other end there was a thug with a big dog. The thug would terrify the old lady by letting the dog jump up, held back by the lead. He had gone out and explained to the thug that this was going to stop. The thug started to complain. Joe said to us “When he woke up…” Joe had planted a left hook and knocked him out. A good man did a bad thing. Was this right?

Another thing Joe told us was that at the height of the London gangs the streets were really safe. Ordinary people were not robbed or attacked. The criminal gangs protected their neighbours. Bad people did good?

We can all remember that movie where the evil person was going to escape, and the frustrated cop shoots him. We know it isn’t right, but there is a bit of us (bigger in some than others) that smiles at that.

A friend posted something recently that got me thinking about this.

I just read an excerpt from a 1933 letter of a German Theology Prof. (Tübingen) reporting to his higher-ups the good news that 80% of the other profs. were glad to get behind Hitler and support him. He assures them that the rest – while not willing to go so far as to praise or support Hitler in an unqualified way – are at least all convinced that Hitler is God’s CHOSEN INSTRUMENT to do good for the German nation and the German people.

Yes we can have “feelings” about whether people are good/bad or whether acts are right and wrong. Yes we can say “he is going to make us great again”. But unless we have some touchstone to judge against we can easily be led in to supporting evil because they do good.

What are the core values that we set as guides for our life? And how do the people we follow stack up against those values?

Why am I thinking about Monty Python’s Big Red Book?

Anyway – on to today. I got a freezer delivered today. I decided to read the instructions to see how long I had to leave it before switching on. It was nice to read “Children aged from 3 to 8 years are allowed to load and unload…” but “Children should be supervised…” So people need to be told how they should parent their children by a freezer manufacturer? Hmm – sounds strange.

The instructions were packed inside the freezer, and included instructions on how to unpack. That doesn’t fill me with confidence in their ability to get instructions right. And then as I read on I come across “Do not store explosive substances…”

Hang on – I really don’t need to be told not to store explosives in a freezer in my garage.

But this does seem to be typical of the instructions we are given. Companies need to tell us that plugging ourselves in to mains electricity can be harmful. Obviously they would be liable if they fail to do that.

I wonder about the validity of our laws. Should we really be making laws that are contrary to natural law? By doing this are we dooming our species to extinction?

Looking at the behaviour on the beaches this week can make you wonder. We need to help people develop judgement.

This was one of the reasons I enjoyed hiking in Greenland. I used it to improve my judgement. There were dangerous areas and detours, and trying to get a balance made the day easier.

I remember visiting the Grand Canyon and seeing people doing things I thought were dumb. I started to wonder about my judgement – was I being over cautious. Then I bought a book called “Death in the Grand Canyon” detailing all of the deaths in the canyon – and I realized my judgement was actually quite balanced.

I will not be going to the beach quite yet.

I had an interesting conversation with the Godson tonight. He was using dumbbells and I asked if he had tried juggling them. At that point his dad decided to demonstrate. Thankfully no broken toes.

However I decided to ask him why young people avoided church these days. His answer was quite enlightening – he told me none of his friends got out of bed till 11. So how would you expect young people to attend church at a time when they are in bed?

Another friend was commenting on the different work times people are developing, home working is partly destroying the old 9 to 5.

We never call people after 9pm or 10pm – why? I am awake most nights till 2am so whywould it be wrong to call me at midnight?

There are so many “standard” timings for things in life. I read an article a while back that talked about normal sleep cycles. It mentioned that in the recent past it was normal for people to wake in the middle of the night. When they did they would go out for a walk, a quick half or something, then come home for a second sleep.

Thankfully my life is free from a lot of constraints so I was able to try out the two sleep option – wake up during the night – do something – then go back to sleep. My work is also able to vary – so I normally start at 11 and work for 2 hours then take a break till 5 in the evening till it finishes. It makes my life much more relaxing.

I have been enjoying the occasional time outside after midnight. The streets have been empty.

One of the things about the relaxing of lockdown will be the need to vary our lives. The scientists have come up with a 4 on 10 off cycle, but as far as I can tell that assumes we will all live our lives to the same 9-5 schedule.

One of my friends has asked whether schools should hold summer classes for some students – good question – why do all years have to attend at the same time?

My guess is that a lot of our time constraints come from the industrial age, factory shift working. But do we really need that today?

Somebody said today that they liked to call in for a coffee on their way to the office. No fixed time, just a random visit and chat. Maybe we need to take a long hard look at whether the clock is controlling our lives. As I said before, on day 1 I took my watch off and have not put it on since.

I actually wonder whether the clock has become a kind of God to us at times.

I’ve just watched the Bill Bryson film about his walk on the Appalachian trail. I walked some of it (500m of it). It was funny watching being sold the top equipment (high tech) for the walk, not knowing what he would need.

It reminded me of my first trip to wild hike in Greenland. I studied as many guide books as I could, not too helpful. My first trip I took my old Blacks tent, plus a load of other things I had no idea whether I would need. My next trip I took a lighter tent, oddly enough one that is popular on the Appalachian trail. There were a lot of things I got wrong on my first trip.

I quickly decided after I arrived that crampons were a mistake, but the ice axe was great for wet steep grass slopes. On my first year I took a two way maritime radio with me for emergency contact (I later switched to a SPOT device).

I remember starting in Brathalid, aiming to walk to Narsaq over a week. A tour group arrived at the same time heading in the same direction (with luggage transport arranged). I had spent weeks walking beforehand. I noticed they had new boots. Bad sign. It was really hot that year (yes Greenland really can be hot). There were very few sources of water at the time. Two of the group were emergency evacuated with hear stroke.

I started walking. One of the guide books had guidance on the way to walk “follow sheep paths – these sure footed creatures never go wrong”. It did strike me that this was a simplification – sheep have four feet and are much shorter than us.

Then you come across things like this. Yes, this is the sheep path I was following walking right in to the lake. And there were others worse than this – some were so precarious on the edge of a precipice that I couldn’t stop to take photographs.

I then got to wondering. Do sheep suffer from mental problems. Are there sheep that are psychopathic? Could sheep actually be trying to lay traps to kill innocent hikers? This was confirmed on a later trip to Greenland. I was walking past some sheep and a lamb walked up in front of me (a bit like the VW add). It clearly decided it was not going to let me pass and tried to headbutt my shins. I planted my walking poles in front of me to stop it hitting me. It then decided it wanted to bite me. However all the books will tell you that sheep do not have mouths that are designed for biting people. So I was faced with the half comical sight of a lamb struggling to turn its head sideways to bite me. It took about 15 seconds each time, so I just walked away each time.

That first year I walked for three days to the hills overlooking Sillisit, I was keen to do the walk to Narsaq. I woke up and made some coffee. Sitting there on a rock a bird came and perched beside me. And I just sat there drinking coffee. I stopped the walk at that point. I changed from “doing” to “being”. Things like the Bible quote “be still and know” started to mean more to me. The creation story – a day of doing nothing at the end of the week.

Every year since then I have taken time to just be. The last time I went I just walked from the airport to the flower valley and put my tent up. I sat looking at nature for a week.

Last night I had a decent length post-midnight walk to the village. First time for 2 months I had walked along that path. Almost every second garden had seen dramatic changes. People have been doing so much since lockdown. Part of the reason, I think, is that “being” can be hard.

I think I need to do less more often.

I don’t need sugar, I’m sweet enough. Stupid saying, but I really don’t crave sugar. I like savoury. It has become much clearer since lockdown and the restricted shopping. The options on what to buy have been reduced. I feel for people that need gluten free food, with the flour shortage they have their only food options grabbed by others.

For example. I use a lot of tomato puree. It use it to make sugar free sauces and dips. I use it on cheese free pizza. And a lot of other things. But if you can only buy three items of any kind it sort of reduces the options. One of the things I really like is a spicy salsa that I make myself. Anybody that knows me knows that I have a weakness for crisps – so I have taken to a bran based something (whatever is available and sugar free) dipped in my home made salsa as a snack. But both the healthy bran products and puree have been very limited.

I have never been a great supporter of the “shops selling us food that is bad for us” as the reason so many people eat badly, I think we get what we demand. But seeing how few options there are for healthy variations has started to make me wonder. There are certainly lots of unhealthy options. And there are more relatively healthy options in the sweet range than the savoury range.

On the good side I have now found a supplier of my ginger drink (sugar free 100% ginger). Saves me drinking too much coffee.

I am also getting really good results from the garden. My bottle greenhouses are working really well, so I expect a good crop later this year.

In case you are wondering – I have cut the bottle just above the soil level, and used castellations to fit it back together. It works pretty much without water. I now need some bigger bottles (5l kind) to get a system to challenge Mic’s kitchen hydroponic lab. I need to look at how I can develop this without soil.

Moving the car to make easy access for my delivery yesterday has led to some interesting responses. Neighbours have been very inquisitive. I wonder if they think I am building a toilet paper store with the wood I had delivered.

Maybe I should, but I think a fire proof safe would be the best thing to put at the center of that.

Anyway, time for my home-made sugar free tomato soup.

Today was D Day – and there were plenty of landings to organise. I had a series of deliveries expected this week, but somehow they all arrived early – all of them this morning. My ginger drinks arrived, along with some really good quality flour. And the decking, and the hard drive enclosure (thanks to Andy for finding a company that had some in stock).

I had to move the car to make sure there was enough room for the wood delivery – so I decided I would take the opportunity to drive a few minutes to charge the battery. It was nice just to do a tour of the block.

The new excess deaths data was made available today. I know a lot of people wonder if we can trust the numbers because they seem to keep changing. The excess deaths is the number that the scientists think is most representative of the harm caused by the pandemic.

Oddly enough the excess death number is likely to go down later in the year if we don’t have a second wave. The reason is that COVID is, in part, moving deaths from later in the year to earlier. So we expect there may be a lower number of deaths than expected once the first wave has passed. It will be a year before we see the numbers settle.

The daily reporting is really about giving an impression of where we are, it is not the data the scientists are using, it is prepared to help us understand whether we are doing the right thing.

Talking of doing the right thing I was a bit annoyed by the Uber advert today. This was followed by Steve posting a related video. these adverts hoping that when you see them you will hear “look at how amazing we are in supporting the NHS” but actually could be accused of using COVID to try to sell you a product.

I used to live in a flat above a local post office – and the owner explained to me that he had between four and six items he didn’t make any money on (things like tea, sugar, bread) because those were the items people compared prices on. It was a loss leader – do something that costs in order to make more money.

When you see the adverts just ask yourself, is the NHS support a loss leader to get your business.

I see Starship Troopers 3 was on tonight. I still remember watching the first film in the series in a cinema. People were laughing and cheering at the tongue in cheek comedy. Humans were fighting evil bugs and splatting them. As the film progressed the uniforms changed and it became obvious that the humans were modeled on the Nazi regime. The torture of bugs that they had cheered a few minutes previously was actually a representation of concentration camps. The film was about how propaganda could influence people.

I have decided to try to keep a note of the companies selling their products on the back of their wonderful good deeds. It will be interesting to see if they are still doing it in 6 months.

I was hoping to use the existing base of my old shed as a base for the decking I am putting it. Unfortunately one of the joists was rotted, which meant I would need to start from scratch. The problem is that modern joists are a different thickness (we have gone metric). Not by much, but enough to cause stress to the decking.

Then I noticed a couple of pieces of wood from inside the shed had the right size – so I was able to use them. A lucky break – finding two pieces in good enough condition that were the right dimensions.

I remember a story about a relative that went for a 2 hour walk and mid-way met up with two men talking. He ended up getting in to an argument (not the angry heated type) with them. In the end he had to leave to walk home. But the next day he walked back to continue the argument. He won in the end. But before he left he admitted he was wrong, he just wanted to win.

You can imagine many reasons, but being different, standing out from the crowd – asserting his individuality, they are all valid guesses.

I’ve seen a few differences over the last few days, whether it is with the list of symptoms, the different track and trace in Scotland, the three levels in Wales instead of the five levels in England. Countries have won freedom to make their own decisions, but every time they make a different decision they make the decking just a little more wobbly.

On a personal level we saw protests at the weekend with people gathering in parks to demand an end to lockdown. I am not sure about the modelling, but I am pretty sure it would not take many people behaving different to the majority for the effects of the lockdown to be negated (the care home issue suggests that).

I like to be different (I guess it might be a family trait). But the building of a raised decking platform has challenged me – maybe I need to use my freedom to be different to choose to be the same a little bit more often.

In other news I needed a new screen for my computer and it arrived today. I didn’t need very high resolution (happy to go for 1080p – 1920×1080). It was interesting – a simple monitor cost more than double the price of a TV that could be used as a monitor (with built in DVD player). So I bought a TV – and the screen size is enormous.

I think I might try to plant one of my trees tomorrow – but it looks like it might rain.

I was socially distancing chatting with my neighbour the other day and she showed me three sets of masks she had bought. One set of four square masks had a pocket and came with 40 filters that could be inserted. They were produced by a local Polish woman.

A second one was a small mask with a dart and no filter option. The third option was a design I have seen with multiple layers and a pocket for filters that were not supplied. It did have a metal nose clip. That cost £4.

Home made masks are about stopping your virus from getting to others, especially when you cough. It is a bit like the “coughing in to your elbow” rule – with a permanent elbow fitted to your face.

All of them are pretty, but people seem to be making things from pretty material rather than functional material. The government website suggests using a t-shirt or two pieces of cotton fabric. The idea is you should be able to breathe through the face mask (not around the sides).

I’ve been trying different designs and I think I have come up with a winner. Old underwear (washed of course). The elastic material clings to the face really well, and if you get the right pair they need almost need no adjustment. It has the big advantage over the other designs that it also ensures nobody will dare to come within 2m of you – I mean who would get close to somebody wearing underwear on their face.

Why are trousers and underwear called a “pair” when there is only one item? I mean I can see the reason for glasses – there are two lenses.

And then there is the other puzzle. I have just been watching Mercury Rising. At the end the bad guy false off a building. Why is it that “bad guys” always smash through a glass roof near the ground when they fall?

I guess these and other questions will remain unanswered in my life, and I just need to accept it. There are so many people clamoring to find people to blame for the deaths in this pandemic. Is it that lab in China, is it that leaders failure to fill the cupboard, is it that delay over action? But what if after years of investigation we find that there is nobody that can be clearly blamed? Can we live with just not knowing?

It can be incredibly hard letting go of the need to blame and the need to hate people that we think have harmed us. I don’t want hatred to be the story of my life.