Still Going

There's only a few flowers in my garden that are still going, the osteospermums and the geraniums - such great value flowers. I've been feeling a bit rough today, so have just caught up on the soaps and have been watching the tennis. Last night I stayed up to watch Roger Federer's last ATP match, a doubles match with his long term rival and great friend Rafa Nadal. They didn't win, although it was very close and they did have a match point. But that seemed irrelevant, it was all about having a chance for Roger to say goodbye after a stunning career. I have seen him many times, including three times when winning the year end tour finals at the O2 arena (he went on to win the tour finals more times than any other man and Wimbledon more times than any other man). He's just spellbinding to watch, and will be sorely missed, but I have no doubt he will remain involved in tennis in some way.

Day 919 / Day 210 of no Legal Covid Requirements in England (for my record only)
The weekly ONS infection survey of private households up to w/e 14th Sept showed UK cases rising for the first time in two months, although levels are still low (if you can call nearly 1m low). There's an estimated 1 in 70 with the virus in England (rising); 1 in 55 in Scotland (falling); 1 in 75 in Wales (rising), and 1 in 80 in NI (falling). Tim Spector of the Zoe health study says that new daily cases reported to them have risen by 28% in the last two weeks. The WHO has said that the end of the pandemic is in sight, but we're not yet there. It has also estimated that vaccines meant globally 19.8M deaths were avoided in 2021. A mobile phone app has been developed which uses AI to detect Covid in people's voices, potentially with more accuracy than LFTs and obviously much cheaper.