DAY THIRTY-ONE: Sunday 31st January 2021:

A tale of two cities. When Charles Dickens wrote A Tale Of Two Cities those cities were London and Paris, as I write today of two cities they are Milton Keynes and Brussels – Milton Keynes and its concrete cows – Brussels and its sprouts !

I have written over the past month fearing the vaccine roll out. Yesterday I received my letter inviting me to have my jab in MILTON KEYNES where I live. I went to-line to process my appointment, what a BEATUTIFUL system was there waiting for me. It was easy, it was efficient and it made me feel happy. I have my first vaccination booked for Thursday next week at a pharmacy walking distance from my home. I have my second jab booked for April at the same pharmacy. I can not praise too highly the NHS system behind the vaccination programme.

I assume the world-famous Milton Keynes concrete cows have their vaccinations booked. SMILE !  A SMILE is the vaccination for sadness.

Milton Keynes and its famous concrete cows. Brussels and its sprouts. YUK !  Does anyone really eat Brussels Sprouts ?  Do snakes eat sprouts ?  Do snakes live in Brussels ?  Of course they do, they live and work in the e u (I deliberately use small case letters !)  The European union has been twisting and turning like a snake and it pursues its disreputable misconduct over the virus programme. The e u has shown a venom any snake would be proud of.

The news today is full of china virus and what was happening one year ago.  I hope for many, many, many years to come people will look back upon the wonderful roll out of the vaccine, in my case within Milton Keynes home to the concrete cows as well as the way the venomous sprouts of the  e u have behaved in Brussels.

A SMILE is the vaccination for sadness. Although what I have just typed is sarcasm, sarcasm behind fact please take it as a SMILE.  Next time you are in the supermarket not buying Brussels Sprouts do stand and look at them then SMILE.

So what do we have for SMILE OF THE DAY:

One day it just clicks…..  You realise what is important and what isn’t.  You learn to care less about what other people think of you and more what you think about yourself. You realise how far you’ve come and you remember when you thought things were such a mess that you would never recover. And you SMILE. You SMILE because you are proud of yourself and the person you’ve fought to become.

Writing wise yesterday was quite productive: 4,504 words bringing the total since January 1st to 260,325. I really am looking forward to my vaccination next Thursday so I can write about my experience. The one thing about the jab was a worry that it would mess up my next blood donor session. However, seven clear days are needed between the jab and the donation so with my next donation happening on 15th February all will be fine. SMILE.

Today I will be offering the January edition of my diary to Amazon for publication and I will finish MILTON KEYNES A DISCO FOR A NEW CITY and upload that to the system. I have to sort out the muddle within Amazon’s system for BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS and POETS CORNER. When all that is done I will have published 9 books in the month

Barbra Cartland’s world record stands at twenty-four publications in a year. I set myself the challenge of 24 books containing one million words. Where’s the calculator ?  260,325 divided by 31 equals 8,397.58. Multiply that by 365 and we get three million and sixty-five words. I think I need to up my target but I will wait and see where I stand at the end of next month. Next month starts tomorrow. February – Gilbert and Sullivan described February as a BEASTLY month. We’ll see.

Time for ON THIS DAY:

31st January 1950:  President Truman orders the development of thermonuclear weapons. DID HE !  What a nice man !

31st January 1958: The Van Allen radiation belt was discovered in space. I was seven years old at the time and I remember that. Does any seven year old today know what The Van Allen belt is ?

31st January 1961: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.

31st January 1968: The Viet Cong attack the US embassy in Saigon. Damn war !

31st January 1971: Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell lift off for a mission to the moon.

31st January 2020: The UK’s membership of the European Union ceased.

I am a mega fan of Wikipedia, still have difficulty spelling it but use it every day to kick off research in my writing.  However, every day as I write this little feature I can never find anyone within its long list who was born on this day who I have ever heard of !

31st January 1956: A A Milne creator of Winnie The Pooh, born 1882, died. I wish I could create characters like that and build stories around them.

31st January 2016: DJ Terry Wogan, born 1938, died.

Today’s MUSIC MOMENT. Let’s have some fun with Brussels Sprouts. Go to YouTube and carefully type in: Veggie Boogie: “Breakin’ Brussels Sprouts,” by StoryBoys | Netflix Jr

More tragic figures. Yesterday 23,275 more cases and another 1,200 deaths. It is so hard to compute these numbers each day and to realise the people behind them. Because it is hard that does not mean we should stop trying. PLEASE each night as you go to bed lay your head on your pillow and spend a moment thinking of those who are no longer with us, those who are grieving and those who cared for them with love during their illness.

Bringing the numbers closer to home I am here today recording within Dave’s Diary the numbers from Milton Keynes. Another 80 new cases and 9 deaths.

I have to think this through a bit, perhaps I will talk more next month – tomorrow,  is there a way when we receive our vaccination we could receive it in honour for those who have died ?  I need to think about it.

I often quote when speaking of WWI and WWII They gave their young lives so we could live our old lives. Indeed that is included within MILTON KEYNES A DISCO FOR A NEW CITY. I am going to try to come up with something similar to honour those who have lost their lives, those who grieve for them and those who cared for them.

So I come to the end of Dave’s Diary for another day and the end of Month One. In a few moments I will submit all of this text to Amazon for publication. Fingers crossed it navigates their upload system.

Speak again next month.

Dave



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