Tag Archives: Leprosy

Covid, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and not much else

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This morning I had a Covid booster.  I went to the same pharmacist I went to last time, as I find the parking convenient. The service was not as slick as last time, but it was more cheerful, and I spent my waiting time reading the packets on the shelves. It seems that patrons of the shop suffer extensively from skin problems,, indigestion, constipation and, mainly, allergies. This is a whole new world that is waiting for me. I’ve had skin problems for years, and in Mediaeval times would have , literally been treated like  leper, as it seems that in those days they would lump all skin condition into one, just to be on the safe side. However, I am rarely troubled by any of the other problems. A high fibre diet seems to work for me most of the time, and my one recent deviation from bowel health, when I was ill over Christmas, felt like a betrayal. Fortunately, my bowels have returned to the regular habits of a town hall clock and allergies are something suffered by southerners and people who read health advice on the internet.

Puffins at Bempton

The local village of Burton Lazars had a leper hospital, so at least I wouldn’t have far to go. It’s also the burial place of the famous racing driver, Count Eliot Zborowski and his son Count Louis Zborowski. They were both killed in car accidents, and I have read a story that I cannot, at the moment, trace, that Louis was killed whilst wearing tha same cufflinks that his father wore in his fatal crash. The younger man was responsible for the building of four noted race cars – two were known as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and one was the Higham Special, which broke the world land speed record when driven by Parry-Thomas in 1926. Parry-Thomas would later be killed in the Higham Special (by that time known as Babs) in 1927 – the first man to die in pursuit of the Land Speed record.

Jackdaw

I can’t help but feel, when set next to the lives of the Zborowskis and Parry-Thomas, that I haven’t really left much of a mark on the world.

Happiness

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The house needs repair, summer is ending, I am old and arthritic. Politics has degenerated to infantile levels, nuclear war is just around the corner and the planet is dying.

For some reason, as detailed yesterday, I am inexplicably happy.

There is quite clearly no reason to be happy, and I don’t consider it to be normal. I prefer gloom and think that a sensible man should expect nothing from life because that is what life is likely to give him.

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Botham’s Whitby – an excellent pork pie

I could probably go to the doctor for pills – there must be something I can take to calm me down a bit – though they are likely, as so often, to find something else wrong with me. I wouldn’t mind if it was something interesting but at my age it’s usually something that involves taking your trousers down.

With an interesting disease I could have a whole new career ahead of me. If you can build a modern TV career on being from Essex what could you do if you had scrofula, also known as the King’s Evil or, less interestingly, cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis. That has good historical roots, gives a chance to talk about coins and I feel less guilty making jokes about it than I do about leprosy.

Julia - looking sophisticated in Bakewell

Julia – looking sophisticated in Bakewell

Leprosy used to be a good area for humour when I was younger, as Monty Python proves, but when you read up about it and the fact that more than 50 kids a day are diagnosed with Leprosy worldwide it doesn’t seem so funny.

When you think about it, I do have a lot to be happy about.

Maybe I should look on the bright side of life.

Tea, scones and sunshine. Bettys, Harlow Carr

Tea, scones and sunshine. Bettys, Harlow Carr

I added the photos later, when WP was working properly – they are things which make me feel happy. And in case you were wondering, they are in no particular order.