Drive-through vaccination

Drive-through vaccination, October 2022

I had my Covid-19 booster, the fourth injection, at the same time as my flu vaccination. My invitation came from the GP, and now that I'm not in NHS employment I had to book an appointment at the vaccination centre whose address was given as the nearby National Agricultural Centre. I imagined that one of the buildings had been repurposed as a clinic, but no, after following the signs and driving for what seemed like miles around huge fields I reached a large awning where the cars were directed through in two lanes for drive-through vaccination. Leaflets were given and information taken through the car window, and although the picture shows a car in front of me with the door open, my vaccinator said she'd just jab me through the open window.

UJ and I were visited by a representative of the County Council Homes for Ukraine scheme to make sure everything was going well and we had the information and support that we need. We were seen together and then separately, and passed with flying colours, which means that my 'thank you' payments should start arriving soon. UJ is feeling sad at the moment because her Biometric Residence Permit has not yet arrived, which means she can't leave the country to go to Kyiv for her mother's 60th birthday. But on the whole she's doing OK, I think.

Then I went on retreat again - just a long weekend this time for the 'Groups & Pioneers' retreat, aimed at teams supporting small groups like ours. There weren't many of us at all - only four groups were represented, but as usual I came home with a load of ideas that I've got to try and run past the rest of the team, except that it's half term so they aren't looking at messages much and I've only had one response out of six. It's never easy when people are busy and volunteering in their spare time.

Through foreign eyes

Pat the dog, October 2022

UJ has been settling in nicely, and I find we have quite a lot in common. It was a little disturbing, however, to discover that I am only two years younger than her mother. She came with me to the Mitra ceremony at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, and she would be interested in coming to our local meetings except that she has a group meeting on Zoom at the same time each week. She has started the dialogue with JobCentre Plus about employment and benefits, and has been exploring the delights of Leamington, including the sports centre, the library and the many charity shops. We went for a long walk with Pat the trainee Guide Dog at the weekend, and happened to meet a couple of Ukrainians from Kyiv with their dog. UJ told me that Leamington seems to have all the benefits of a city but with countryside just 20 minutes walk away. I completely agree.

Her family and many friends are still in Kyiv, and the last couple of weeks have been difficult after Putin decided to send his missiles further into Ukraine. All are well, thankfully. UJ started to inform me more about the political situation there at the same time as the Conservative conference in Birmingham was taking place with the omnishambles that is our Government, and I think Ukraine is winning every sanity point at the moment. But interesting to find that UJ is quite favourably disposed to Boris - I had forgotten that he had led the way in supporting Zelenskyy at the start of the war, although cynically I suspect that was in order to get away from what he was facing at home. The recent bombing of the land bridge linking Russia and the Crimea went down very well with UJ, with jokes and memes appearing almost instantly (e.g. that the bridge could be repaired with that weird long table that Putin used to see foreign diplomatic visitors).

I returned to the periodontist, who pronounced me "healed" at which point I waved my hands and shouted "Hallelujah", an instant later thinking "I hope he isn't a religious man..." My concern disappeared when he replied "Praise the Lord!" in similar vein. Unless he was serious? He wasn't serious. He is quite a funny man. Anyway, I was due to see my usual hygienist the next day, which would have given me a more objective view on how things are, but she was ill and I was brutalised by the main dentist instead. His assessment was not quite as brilliant as the periodontist, but still good, and the consultations about teeth-straightening will start soon.

Meanwhile UJ and I ventured to the town recycling centre with its incredibly cheap charity shop - UJ is every bit as keen on second-hand goods as I am, but our choices are somewhat different. Not surprisingly she is delighted by knick-knacks costing 25p that will be ideal for Christmas present for the folks back home. She pointed out a fancy phone cover for 50p, which would have cost many tens of pounds when new, that was actually made for my phone so I could replace my broken one. We have managed to coordinate a couple of evening meals, with me adding vegetables to her mainly protein/carb combinations. This seems to be my role in a number of settings...

Then I journeyed to London, where I was house sitting for a week while Mr M and Lola II are away on their huge adventure. (They have been reporting in daily, and some of the photos are stunning.) One day I had a lovely time in Kew Gardens with Sister D. Another day I visited the British Library, the Wellcome Collection and the Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL. I'd never been to this museum before, and it is essentially one large room with cabinets around the sides and in the middle containing thousands of specimens, mostly skeletal or preserved in jars but some stuffed examples and a few dissected. The lighting is poor and the cabinets go up to the ceiling so it isn't actually possible to see everything that's there.

Grant Museum of Zoology, October 2022

UJ also went to London for the first time ever, which she told me is her dream destination. On the first day she went to the National Gallery, and reported excitedly that she hadn't realised that all the good museums in London had no entry charge. The next day she was planning to see the Changing of the Guard, join a free walking tour based on Harry Potter, and go to the British Museum. She sent me a message to say that she was coming back on a two-storey bus. It is delightful.

Meanwhile I was present for the installation of the parents' new motorised garage door, which will make the storage of the mobility scooter easier. It went well and looks good, except the workmen didn't bring one of the agreed parts and will have to come back all the way from Luton to install a rubber threshold. Now mum has the bit between her teeth and is coordinating the sale of the car, as well as the choice of scooter, finding a new cleaner, helping the new neighbours to settle in and advising the woman over the road about options for her garage door. And she seems surprised that she is sometimes tired.

Kew Gardens, October 2022

What I've been reading

The Children of Men
by P. D. James

narrated by Daniel Weyman

"The year is 2021. No child has been born for 25 years. The human race faces extinction. Under the despotic rule of the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters."

I thought that P. D. James wrote detective mysteries and hadn't realised that this was one of hers - I saw the film that was made of the book, which I seem to remember I thought unremarkable. So is the book, although as usual I read the story as just a story while other deeper messages are probably concealed within it, about the tendency of power to corrupt and the attitude of a population reflecting on its demise. I'm sure I could make some allusion to the current political situation but I can't be bothered and it's all too depressing anyway.

Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One
by Vishvapani Blomfield

"Whilst many accounts of the Buddha's life mix legend and history, this biography discriminates between fact and fiction to reveal Gautama, the remarkable human being behind the myth, and sheds new light on his teachings."

A useful book for me that fills in some of the gaps in my knowledge of the history of Buddhism, but also gives some idea of how accurate the records might be. It also made it clear that also going on was the usual territorial conflict between kings and provinces, the wandering holy men begging for alms, Hinduism and Jainism in the ascendant. And interesting to realise that he probably lived only about a hundred years before Socrates, and it was the time of the Jewish prophets.

Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Billy Bones, young Jim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. He has discovered Captain Flint's map, which will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island."

It's been a long time since I read this, and not much to say about it except that I hadn't remembered much more than the bare bones of the story. It was fine.

That Old Ace in the Hole
by Annie Proulx

"Folks in the Texas panhandle do not like hog farms. But Bob Dollar is determined to see his new job as hog site scout for Global Pork Rind through to the end. However he is forced to face the idiosyncratic inhabitants of Woolybucket and to question his own notions of loyalty and home."

What an interesting experience this was. Nothing much seemed to happen for 80 percent of the book, except that she introduces all sorts of characters with really good names (Freda Beautyrooms, Hugh Dough, Ribeye Cluke, Tater Crouch) and describes the scenery, atmosphere and activity of the Texas/Oklahoma 'panhandle' so you can see it and hear it and feel it and smell it. Then at the end she just pulls everything together and ties it up with a bow and it's glorious.

Living with Awareness: A Guide to the Satipatthana Sutta
by Sangharakshita

"The guiding principle of Buddhism is that things change - we change - and that we have the capacity to direct that change towards spiritual growth and development. In being mindful, therefore, we recollect not only the breadth of our current experience, but also our purpose in attending to it."

We were studying this material in the last module I did with my group, but I didn't have the book then - I borrowed it from the Birmingham Centre's library and mostly read it while I was on retreat. The book is perfectly readable but not inspiring, and it would have made much more sense to be reading it while studying instead of a month afterwards...

The Journey and the Guide
by Maitreyabandhu

"The journey starts with our mind, particularly when we begin to look into the truth of things—the truth of the friend in hospital, the coffin we carry to the graveside. What we find in our guide, the Buddha, is a man with a fit, healthy mind. To get fit, we need to work on becoming a happy healthy human being."

This book is aligned with the subject of my recent retreat, so I took it with me alongside the other recommended reading material. I've read the book twice before, once along with other members of my Buddhist group, but this time it seemed like a completely different book. Of course, it's me that's different, but it made so much more sense this time. So the main message I gained from the reading was how I've progressed in my understanding of Buddhism.

The Rainbow Road: From Tooting Broadway to Kalimpong: Memoirs of an English Buddhist
by Sangharakshita

"Long before thousands of Westerners flocked to Asia in search of themselves, Dennis Lingwood set out to search for the Buddha’s teaching in the land that gave birth to Buddhism."

I picked this out of the library at the retreat centre, where luckily we were encouraged to read, albeit with the retreat ethic in mind (i.e. not slasher thrillers). The centre had a really good selection so that when queries came up during discussion they could be investigated without resorting to phones or computers, which would normally be where we look for some obscure Buddhist reference or discover the meaning of 'inchoate' and 'chthonic'. [The retreatants from Poland, Netherlands and Sweden who were in my group did astonishingly well given the level of unnecessarily complex language in the reading material.] Anyway, this book is the first of a number of autobiographical memoirs written by the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order, and is very readable and completely absorbing. He was wrongly diagnosed with a heart complaint when he was 8 years old and was not allowed to move from his bed or even sit up on his own for 2 years, so that when the diagnosis was questioned and he was released from bed he had to re-learn how to walk. He ended up in the British Army during WWII, was posted to India, Ceylon and Singapore, and when the war ended he didn't come back. With a similarly-minded Indian friend he renounced passport and possessions and travelled around India as a mendicant Buddhist, ending up in Kalimpong, Nepal. I've already borrowed the second volume from the Birmingham Buddhist Centre library.

Arrival

Tiratanaloka, September 2022

I've had absolutely zero time for blogging since coming back from the retreat. It took me three days to get through all the WhatsApp messages and unimportant emails so that I could look at what wonderful and exciting things Lola II and Mr M have been doing in the Far East. I've still got 12 emails that I can't bring myself to engage with, but I'll have to do it soon. And my desk is a mess.

The main thing to report is the splendid news that Ukraine Jane (UJ), my refugee guest, finally made it to Luton on a flight that was only 3 hours late (but that meant we got home at 4 a.m.) There is so much to talk about, but I don't want to overwhelm her so up to now we've covered the recycling bins, kitchen cupboards and the hoover. The thing that really made her day was the fact that I've got a piano - she said that after missing her cat she was missing playing piano next.

Aside from that I've managed to get started on a new job for Mr MXF, which involves converting a large and complex Word document into a different format using an interesting tool called pandoc, at least at the moment that's what I think I'm supposed to be doing. I never can tell with Mr MXF. Plus my car insurance needs renewing, and there are messages from my utility company that I haven't looked at yet, so if I can get those sorted today I'll be ready for my visit to mum and dad tomorrow.

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It's now the day after tomorrow, the parental visit went well and we got closer to choosing a mobility scooter, and I have tackled the outstanding emails. UJ has been settling in - today she has a Zoom piano lesson with her teacher, which warms my heart. She's been to Birmingham to make a start on getting her biometric residence permit, got very lost on the way back from the train station when her phone battery ran out (so she's finally adopted my paper-based A-to-Z of Leamington), texted me excitedly to say there was a squirrel in the garden, and has borrowed my umbrella and my hair dryer (which probably hasn't been used for 20 years except perhaps to dry glue). She's been into Leamington to the JobCentre and around the shops, and asked me where to find second hand clothes, at which point I enthusiastically listed about ten different charity shops.

This is all very positive, although on the second day when I hadn't heard any movement whatever from her room by 12.30 p.m. I actually sent her a message asking if she's OK. We're living in slightly different time zones as I've usually had my lunch before she has had breakfast. But she's asked to come with me to the Birmingham Buddhist Centre tonight where a Mitra ceremony is being held. 

It's very interesting to see your life and community reflected in someone else's eyes - I hadn't really noticed that road signs commonly use yards, which I don't think are used in any other aspect of British life nowadays. She is still going to the wrong side of the car and laughing about it, and told me she'd never seen a letter box in the door of a house until she saw them in the Harry Potter films. And my front door, which caused quite a bit of trouble for my Commonwealth Games guests, is being no less troublesome for UJ. She'll get the hang of it eventually.