"Correct me if I am wrong but you should not be driving into the city unless it is for work or essential shopping."
My response was as follows:
"We had essential food shopping to do. The city is a similar distance to other supermarkets. I am also a working journalist so am classed as an essential worker. This is the first trip out for us by car for over three weeks so I feel reasonably comfortable about what we did. It will probably be another month before we use the car as we will walk to the supermarket which is a round trip of about five miles on foot. You mention yourself that it is ok to drive into the city for essential shopping which is exactly what we did. There is no definition issued by the Government about the maximum distance for supermarket/food shopping. I'm sure many people in rural areas have to go a considerable distance. It also seemed sensible to us that, as we were going into the city, we did our daily fitness walk whilst there. I feel quite confident that we are following the rules in every respect."
I think the phrase "a working journalist" is an important one here. I am currently working as a freelance for the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News and also voluntarily for a number of magazines and publications including this blog. I see part of my function during lockdown to report on various matters as I see fit and, in some small way, give the flavour of what is going on through my work.
I also hope in some small way that I am able to bring a little bit of sunshine to local people who cannot get out. I would be pleased to receive comments on this and whether people feel I am fulfilling a reasonable function or, as a couple of people have said, have been going beyond what is reasonable (their definition of which in this case was a drive of approximately 10 miles).
A problem quite obviously arises due to confusing Government messages. What is meant by staying local, how many miles is it reasonable to travel (if any) for exercise and many other questions that we have no answer to and that just leads to confusion.
* * *
I spoke a few days ago about lies, damn lies and statistics and tried to illustrate that figures can be used to fit whatever argument you are trying to put forward.
I felt sorry for Prime Minister Boris Johnson (and that's not an emotion I feel very often).
The Guardian newspaper was particularly bad here with the emotive headline: "New Covid Variant May Be 30% More Lethal Warns PM."
Nowhere in the article did Boris Johnson say this or use the word lethal. Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance did point out that the new variant could see the death toll raise from 10 to 13 per 1,000 people with Covid. So a modest rise. Of course it technically is a 30% rise but, thankfully it still means that 987 people will survive. So if you wanted to mount the converse arguments you could quite rightly state that 98.7% of people testing positive for COVID will survive.
* * *
I still get a buzz when I wake up in the morning to think that my latest blog has gone live and people are reading my ramblings. Then I look forward to reading the comments that are left - most of which are very supportive of the blogs and their content.
I also still get a buzz from seeing my news and features from the village appearing in the local newspapers. Spent a large chunk of yesterday writing a feature on Hethersett-based athletics coach Mike Utting who has been named England Athletics coach of the year. This is a top national award that recognises Mike's contribution to the sport and the way he selflessly encourages young people. Mike has also had a close involvement helping with the Great Britain team at the Paralympic Games in both London (2012) and Rio (2016).
Hopefully the feature will be on the EDP24 website later today and in the written newspaper shortly after that.
* * *
I mentioned a short while ago that we have had smart meters installed. The main benefits of having the meters (one for gas and one for electricity) is to save having to send in regular readings and also to be able to monitor how much energy we are using and help to control its cost. That's the theory and to do this second thing you are given a gizmo which you plug into a wall socket. Unfortunately after just 12 days ours has stopped issuing readings and now just gives us a message stating it is trying to connect.
I checked this on the Internet and it appears it's a common fault. There were so many messages from people who have experienced similar problems that I began to question the point of having something that is supposed to tell you how much your energy use is costing but doesn't.
There is a Government initiative to provide all households with smart meters. Perhaps they should be investing a little more money in ensuring these gizmos work. Apparently their malfunctioning doesn't affect the working of the meters themselves, just our ability to see what the hell is going on.