So ... How's Your Girl?

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There are others who will have suffered far more than me, either directly through Covid or indirectly from either health conditions which have been neglected or hating the life forced on them by circumstances. I don’t have any major life-changes to report as everything has pretty much been in stasis; it’s been dull much of the time, but for me not particularly unpleasant. I’ll spare the gore, but after a rotator cuff injury that crept up on me and took weeks of physio to shift (but is now fine) Crohn’s was diagnosed (unusual in one’s 50s, I was told?), then treated, which resulted in 5 days in hospital with treatment-drug-caused pancreatitis (about a <1% side effect, apparently). I would classify this experience as "unpleasant". The arm full of morphine was the best bit. The early effects of this spoiled one of my "holidays", and one (world class whale watching in Indonesia) was put off for 2 years. My June 22 trip to the Galapagos is looking decidedly shaky just now, too. The last two are somewhat first world problems, I grant you. A combination of life going faster with age (I’m in my 58th year), plus my ADHD tendencies, means that it can be hard to get a coherent sense/shape of this last twelve months. That notwithstanding… Dislikes humankind? Generally, yep. I don’t see much to like in most of humankind (too much evil crap and shit stuff and we allow it to happen. And social media and YouTube are real windows into how utterly crap so many people are. And so are the governments we vote for).

Another strange year for everyone I’m guessing but personally fairly straightforward with only a few speed humps of life to negotiate. Due to Mrs F’s translatlantic work meetings, studying/sleeping teens, etc, the record player has rarely been on. The good news is, after 10+ years, work is finally underway to soundproof my garage (and have a dedicated WFH box-room office). The hernia prevents me from anything DIY, but Mrs F continues to keep me in the style to which I have become accustomed, so I’m going to pay an electrician to do the stuff I can’t.The good people of the Afterword have kept me smiling and thinking all year, thanks to you all for your bounteous wit and wisdom. May your God go with you all. Lord Frost refused to have any form of structured relationship on foreign and defence policy post-Brexit with the EU – though the EU wanted one – and we are paying a very heavy price as a result,” he says. Hi @Arthur-Cowslip– getting your Type 1 diagnosis this late in the game, I assume that you have what I got diagnosed with a couple of years ago: LADA?

Our latest Opinium poll shows that over 60% of people now think Brexit has either gone badly or worse than they expected. It also found that 42% of people who voted Leave in 2016 had a negative view of how Brexit had turned out so far And this is before new rules on imports from the EU will be implemented in January, which business leaders say will lead to further falls and delays. Then food products from the EU will face extra physical inspections from the summer. Greetings at the end of a second COVID year, to those who have kindly taken the time to post above, and you others reading, but not posting. It’s coming up to 10 years (next summer) when I dipped my toe into an already-thriving community, such that I still feel like quite the newcomer/arriviste. There’s such a wealth of life shared, (not just in this thread) lightly tied to the tagline of ‘byways of popular culture’, that it’s a privilege to host (this time) this annual community of expression. The times when I’ve had a scare haven’t been too bad, I can physically feel that I’m going too low when I reach 4 or slightly less, and I always carry glucose tablets in my bag, just in case the need arrives. It’s very distinct so I know immediately, and don’t need a meter to tell me so.

How so?

I’m still only part-way through the book I’ve been working on (on/off) for maybe 4 years. Hopefully, I can finish it in 2022. Like the album above, it feels like my last. Maybe it’s largely a product of the past couple of years, though it’s certainly also influenced by the sense of impending doom around the climate/state of the world, but there’s a general low-level malaise or melancholy that I find hard to keep at bay. It’s okay when I’m busy and ‘in the moment’ and don’t have to think too much. Beyond that, I’m stunned that anyone at this point would, for instance, choose to have children. Spent most of the year alone trying not to get Covid (and succeeding – a positive). A boring, rather depressing year. In other areas, Grant says the UK has been weakened, particularly in its influence and power on the European and world stages. It feels like life has been on hold for a year or two and that is not too desirable when you are on the cusp of 60 so realise you don’t have such a large number of years left that you can afford to be wasting them.