The Saturday List #288 - My Top Ten Highlights of 2020

 You might be thinking "What possible highlights could there be?". Initially I thought so myself. Then I reviewed my Insta feed and you know what, there have been a few. Until March, it was actually an OK year and after that it had its moments. You know what. I'm blessed. I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world, who puts up with me. My kids are healthy and the business is surviving. I still play football, I even scored a hat trick on Thursday.  So here is the impossible list. The glass is half full!

1. The year started well, with the Punk festival at the 100 club. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Boys

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2. Also in January we saw the legendary Judy Collins at The Union Chapel. She was rather good

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3. Also in January, we had a trip to The Etihad to see City despatch local rivals United in the League Cup. Most enjoyable!

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4. In February, we had fun on the London International Ska Fest Cruise up the River Thames. That is always a fun night out

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5. On to March, there was a storm brewing but we were blissfully unaware as we went to Wembley and saw City lift the League Cup

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6. The last hurrah before Lockdown was the St Patricks night Party at The Mill Hill Services club

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7. In September we had a family break in West Wittering. It was amazing

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8. And we also made it to Madeira, which was a blast!

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9. Last Saturday we took the Midland Pullman from St Pancras to St Albans, via Manchester, which was a whole lot of fun!

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10. And finally, I think this is the year I've really learned to appreciate how lucky I am to live in Mill Hill, with its natural beauty and open spaces, which saved my sanity

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That's all folks

The Last Friday Joke of 2020

 In a year when I think we’ve needed the Friday joke more than ever, here is our last one. We hope you’ve enjoyed them.

Ten things that I simply cannot understand about government covid policy

 I know Boris has the worst job in the world at the moment. The last thing in the world I would want right now is to be responsible for the decisions he's making. But the awful truth is that he is getting it completely wrong and the decisions he's making make no sense at all. I will outline the areas that make no sense to me and I will outline how I think they should deal with it

 1. How can schools still be open if families are being encouraged to get together for Xmas? This policy should be renamed "Kill Ganny for Xmas". The schools should have closed 14 days before the relaxation, if that was what they were going to do, and restrictions put on mixing. Schools are driving the virus and that is where the circuit breaker lockdown was needed.

2. Why are theatres, pubs and other venues being closed if they have made themselves 'covid safe'? If there is no evidence of transmission, why on earth are these businesses being penalised? Councils should monitor venues and close ones that are not observing rules.

3.  Why are people still being allowed to use public transport in a non covid secure manner. Masks should be compulsory unless someone has a medical exemption and they should be made to demonstrate this. There should be large fines. It should also be compulsory to sanitise hands before and after entering mass transport systems. These are no brainers. Strangers are forced to mix, so make it safe. They should also take temperatures at busy stations. There are loads of people on Furlough who could be recruited to do this.

4. Supermarkets are making a fortune. They have made minimal efforts to make themselves covid safe. Large establishments should be forced to ensure that baskets, trolleys etc are sanitised and that only people with valid exemptions enter them. They should also take temperatures. 

5. Why are we still not testing people entering the country? This is where it started and this is where it will keep coming from. It is insane that temperatures are not taken. 

6. The tier system is highly flawed. Areas with low transmission are in high tiers, areas with high transmissions are only raised when the whole region is high. Tiers should be by neighbourhoods. They should be far more stringent where there is high transmission and local authorities need power to decide whether schools, pubs and other places can open. They know their own people. They should publish full risk assessments to back up any decision.

7. We should have descrete covid clinics. This should be completely seperate and ring fenced from the rest of the health service in high transmission areas.

8. The assistance for business is completely all over the place. In the early days, it was fair to cut Boris and Rishi some slack, but the whole process is arbitary. It isn't helping the people in real need. 

9. The way that test and trace, PPE contracts and vaccine procurement has been performed is highly dodgy. This should be done through the NHS and local health authorities and the whole process should be transparent. If things need doing urgently, then the reasons must be given and there should be openness. It appears that far too much money has been spent with 'friends of Boris'. This may be fine, but without transparency, how can we possibly know or trust them.

10. The selection criteria for early distribution of the vaccine is insane. We have 800,000 doses of the pfizer vaccine for a population of near 60 million and 8 million vulnerable people. This doesn't scratch the surface of either. The vaccine should have been given to those most likely to spread the disease to the vulnerable. This would massively leverage the effects, but there has been no mention of this at all. You kill a contagious disease by removing transmission vectors, not by randomly vaccinating vulnerable people.

I would appreciate some sort of answers, if anyone can explain to me what I am missing. These are all perfectly reasonable questions and I beleive that addressing them would keep us far safer.

So just how cancelled will my Christmas be this year?

No it's not my 2020 Xmas wishlist

Every Saturday I publish a list, the last list before Christmas last year, was the ten things that make Christmas special for me.  How things have changed. I mean if you'd said to me I'd be in Tier three this Xmas, I'd have thought you meant I'd have got tickets for the third tier of the Etihad for City's boxing day game. But here we are.

I thought I'd go through the list and see how much of it we'll be doing. It is rather sobering to see (last years comments are in italics).

1. Having the family around.

Well this year, if we are lucky, we'll have my sister in law. We won't have our usual Xmas eve family celebration after midnight mass. It will be a strangely muted Xmas this year

2. Listening to Punk rock on Xmas morning. ✅
As I noted last year 'This is a tradition all of my own. It is the one time of the year that I will play the Vibrators, Heartbreakers, Ramones, MC5, Buzzcocks and no one moans! Luckily the neighbours are deaf.'   and I am greatly pleased to say that if the family want dinner, they will have to put up with this


3. Christmas Eve Mass.

Sadly this isn't going to happen. I believe there are services and I may try and go, but without the carols etc, it just won't be the same.

4. The smell of Turkey and ham roasting in the oven.✅

Well so long as Mr Gerard on Daws Lane comes up with the goods, and he's not let me down yet, we are good to go for this.

5. Setting fire to the Christmas pudding. ✅

So long as there is a pudding, brandy and matches, this will happen!

6. Walking to the Adam and Eve on boxing day for a pint.

Sadly this is one that won't be happening

7. Pigs in Blankets. ✅

Yep, this will be happening.

8. Dr Who ✅

To be honest, I've not checked the schedule, but I sincerely hope that they will not ruin this tradition

9. The Pogues/Pogue Traders Xmas gig

Nope, the traditional start of Christmas is just not happening

10. And finally...…. I like the fact that the days have started getting longer, even if you hardly notice it! I always used to make a point of walking to the Ridgeway to watch the sun rise over the Totteridge valley on Xmas day with our old dog Bruce. Now all of the best views are blocked, but if you get onto the footpath across the Valley it is well worth it. Watching the sun set over the Mill Field can also be amazing. Logistically it is hard to get there on Christmas day for sunset, but if we time it right we might get there on the way back from the Adam and Eve.

I might take a few tins with the dogs and watch the sun set if the weather allows it, but covid can't stop the days getting longer. ✅

So it's six out of ten things I love. That means the glass is over half full which, all things considered, is a good thing!