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swans in the sunset

Port Meadow, Oxford
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9 comments

Howard Somerville said:

A good one. With some post-processing, even better.
4 years ago ( translate )

Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:

An old one that's been cropped to 6x4 to shift the horizon off centre.
I hope Roy is well and not succumbed to the virus.
4 years ago

Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:

Sorry, I don't really remember "Roy" or how he came about.

I'm classified by the NHS as being at "severe risk" and am supposed to have been shielding these last 11 weeks, but haven't been, and notwithstanding have not yet succumbed to the virus.
4 years ago

Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:

Severe risk? Is that due to your venerable age?

The virus has clearly affected your memory, though, if you've forgotten Roy the cropper.
4 years ago

Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:

Of course, yes, Roy *Cropper*.

The Severe Risk designation is due to my contracting (following a first session of chemotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer last August) near-fatal Enterocolitis and spending 12 weeks in hospital.

Although at one point one of my lungs had collapsed and both were fluid-filled, and I was kept alive on oxygen, I myself don't think that they're permanently damaged, and hence have been ignoring the advice to shield myself for these last 11 weeks, a risk I rightly (it appears) thought worth taking.
4 years ago

Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:

I'm sorry to hear that, but glad you feel able to make your own decisions without surrendering to government tyranny.
4 years ago

Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:

The government is under attack both for imposing the lockdown at all and for imposing it too late and then easing it too soon. They can't win.

My decision was a personal one based on the fact that I'm going to die anyway, and I wasn't prepared to waste what limited time I have left, and the fine Spring weather, by being stuck indoors for 12 or more weeks. And (as I intuited) the risks were exaggerated - the NHS was not overwhelmed (the Nightingale emergency hospitals weren't even needed) and deaths weren't in the millions.

And it was obvious to me that the NHS criteria of who was at "severe risk" were very broad-brush, one-size-fits-all ones, and based mainly on guesswork.
4 years ago

Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:

A brave and wise decision. I hope your follow-up care is not being impeded by the lockdown?
4 years ago

Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:

Yes and no. My follow-up care at present consists of 3-monthly injections, done locally, which have not been impeded, and periodic blood tests and consultations at the Charing Cross Hospital which have. But for as long as the injections continue to work (which they may do for months or even years) they will be sufficient. Follow-up care for the effects of the Enterocolitis was non-existent anyway.
4 years ago