Splish Splash!

A warmer (and wetter) day today, and the Robin returned to have a bath, I've added some more shots in a collage as an Extra. I attended an interesting Zoom lecture this afternoon from the Arts Society entitled Old Buildings, Fakes and Fallacies. I like quirky things, so it was lovely to hear about the fake facade buildings in London in front of the older open tube line to shield against the smoke from steam trains; the tennis ball hiding in the fancy ceiling at Stowe; the statue of Henry VIII holding a chair leg instead of a sceptre; and many other interesting oddities. I also packed up my tallboy for collection tomorrow, which (on my own) was much harder than unpacking it!!

Day 310 / Day 15 of Lockdown 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 1,610 (a new record) to 91,470 (revised basis), with 33,355 new cases (reducing well, although still v high), 37,946 patients in hospital, 3,916 on ventilation and 3,634 new admissions. 4.3m have now received their first dose of the vaccine. Provisional data up to 18th Jan show London has the lowest rate of vaccination in Eng at 4%, with the East of England next on 6% and the Southwest top at 7.6% - the vaccination programme has stepped up well. The ONS reports that as at Dec, 1 in 8 people in England had had Covid-19 from antibodies found in blood tests, that's 5.4m (the rate across my family and friends is considerably lower than this!). The rate varies a lot by Region, the highest being Yorkshire and the Humber at about 1 in 6. The lockdown in Scotland has been extended until at least mid-Feb. Labour say that the virus is spreading rapidly in prisons across Eng and Wales. The Health Secretary is self-isolating after being 'pinged' by the NHS Covid-19 app. 239,103 laptops/tablets have despatched by the Govt in Eng to help with remote learning since the start of term (801,524 in total).