Village Halls

I took this at the High Kelling Village Hall where the U3A photo group meets on the 3rd Friday of each month. Living in a rural area, the village halls are the centre of village life and play a key role for the broader community. I always have a look at the books donated to raise money for charity and smile at the use of the ‘honesty box’. There was also a large crate for donations to the community fridge. 

The AA came out this morning and found I had a very flat battery. They soon got the car working and left running whilst he did the paperwork, then I had to go for a reasonable drive to charge the battery. The question is still, why was my battery flat? It could be low use, but I suspect the random brief warning messages and issues I’ve been getting might be related. So I’m taking my car to the dealership late Monday, it will be tested straight away to see if faulty or draining quickly and hopefully the battery issues will be sorted on Tuesday along with the software update recall. I’ll have a courtesy car to get me home and back. I have seen online an issue with the unit that had to be replaced, not switching off, this is the unit needing the software update recall. I’m finding out far more than I should need to know about my car! 

Covid Update
The weekly ONS infection survey of private households up to w/e 10th Jan showed infections are falling, with an estimated 1 in 40 with the virus in England (down); 1 in 30 in Scotland (down); 1 in 25 in Wales (down) and 1 in 25 in NI (down). China reported 59,938 Covid deaths between 8th Dec and 15th Jan - unclear how reliable this figure is. Research has suggested that unvaccinated people with Covid retain a greater risk of death and cardiovascular disease for at least 18 months. The British Heart Foundation reported that in the first 18 months of the pandemic, 491,000 people appear who have missed out on being prescribed blood pressure tablets, and 316,000 did not get tablets to lower their cholesterol. HMRC has said that an estimated £4.5bn was lost to error and fraud in the 20/21 and 21/22 tax years (£3.5bn in the Job Retention Scheme, £1bn in the Self Employed Income Support Scheme, and £71m via Eat Out to Help Out).