Gingerbread Man

Another wet day, very miserable but mild. A quiet day, I reconciled my first bank statement from my new bank post the switch and all seems ok so far. I did ask them for a list of all dds and standing orders transferred across and I should have cancelled 2 of the dds earlier this year and there was one I’d didn’t recognise - cancelled now (something I should have checked before the switch). My new microwave seems to be working fine, albeit I’ve had to cut cooking times a tad from those given for its wattage. I caught up with Ep19 of Celebrity Antiques Road Trip as a friend had said it included a piece on Letheringsett Mill - a regular stop on a local walk for me for tea and cake. Nice to see it given some publicity. 

Covid Update
No weekly ONS infection survey data was published due to the Xmas break. The dropping of Covid controls in China has resulted in a very large second wave of Covid. Whilst this is of known Omicron sub variants, the amount of Covid spreading means a greater risk of a new variant emerging and the West is naturally concerned that it could be more dangerous. The lack of surveillance data from China isn’t helping. Several countries have now asked for a negative test to gain entry from China. Italy has imposed mandatory post arrival PCR tests, with mandatory quarantine for those testing positive and which enables genomic sequencing of the virus to take place. Yesterday there was a news story that over half of passengers on a flight from China to Italy tested positive. As usual, the UK said initially it didn’t need to take any action, became an outlier, then it’s just been reported that the UK is expected to require a negative pre departure Covid test for travellers from China (not yet confirmed).