Spikecollie

Met Éireann also forecasting thundery embedded downpours. Tabhair aire do mo chara... Slainte!

Not quite so nice when you are alone and the power goes out! I love the noise when I have OH to cuddle up to. I have my dog but he tends to snore through it!

Stay safe and watch your ball(s). I've just had a run and a ball game with my dog. Windy (often is here) but nothing extraodrinary. Stay safe...

DON'T! I don't want to see your story on the news tomorrow morning. Stay put, PLEASE! The emergency services might have more to deal with...

Yikes! Don't mention the St. Judes one. We flew back from from France in that and didn't get where we wanted to go!

Scared the poo out of me last lundi matin. I needed a cert off work which you have to have but had to wait among coughing adults and infants. Did I pass my maladie onto them - them to me? Great system here but overused. I came home with a bundle of meds for 5€ which I have hardly used - I braved it out - could swallow with sore throat but went to work.

I think you misread my post, Dami. I think people should be able to consult a doctor when they or their loved ones feel unwell. That's the cultural norm here. What scares me is how we go on paying for this as we all get older and live longer. We don't get 10 minute consultations here either, you get as long as you need. When I went to the doctor last Monday - he has non-appointment hours between 0800 and 1200 - I waited for an hour and a half. If you have a scheduled appointment you get as long as you need too and those after you wait. You get a full, careful examination (in my case of a throat infection I got a full lung and heart check and a fever scan). You get an appointment or home visit same day too. In France it is compulsory to have supplementary health insurance if you have a permanent job. Mine has just started. I pay 11€ a month, my employer pays 30€ and I can include my OH when he comes back for an extra 20€. It's a lot out of my small earnings but staves off a major hospital/medical bill should it come.

I never go running without my mobile but my signal is more patchy than most! People ran remotely in days without mobiles. What am I supposed to do? Only run when the weather's good or in good signal areas? That's a farce in a rural area. I wear suitable clothing but had a bike ride a couple of years ago to view some rime on the hills where I was in serious fear of hypothermia/frostbite on the descent. You have to be sensible but total risk aversion also risks lives...

Living and working in France has totally changed my attitude to medical care. Here, you can't self certify sick from work so you have to see your doctor to get a sick note - otherwise you have an unjustified absence - even for a day. Aside from that, people consult the doctor for everything, even minor complaints. I have to say, I don't but I think it's a good thing. It's not expensive - my cousin in Ireland just told me that the GP consultation fee had risen to 60€. That's an abomination for anyone without insurance etc. Here it's 25€ with immediate reimbursement to 0€. If you feel unwell and feeling unwell is very subjective, you need to see a bloomin' doctor - saves the population from the lurgy, makes you better and saves the state/employers money, no argument. How we go on funding this is open to debate but people will still go on getting sick...

Met Éireann also forecasting thundery embedded downpours. Tabhair aire do mo chara...

The cultural origins are quite interesting too. I always compare China to a "bowl". A little outside rim where all the development is and a great big pretty deprived void in the middle from which everyone wants to migrate to the rim! Not having/being able to afford medical care makes you extra scrupulous about your health but in an environment of poor educational levels and health awareness, myths abound. Hypochondria is essentially self defence. Transfer these factors into the internet/social media environment and of course people are scared bloomin' witless in the wake of SARS etc.

Yes! "Any excuse" behaviour is a frightening prospect, but I (hope) and don't think it will come to that. My nephew is a police officer and reports that 75% of his duties concern mental health and drug/alcohol related issues. As I've said before, our Western society (particularly urban) is shot and we need to remodel. Definitely not in the Chinese fashion but someone better come up with some ideas pretty soon. Caring for vulnerable people, as I do now, makes you rethink what it is to be a human being - giving back to the world, the small happinesses in life, the ease of getting satisfaction without buying stuff or spending much money. Animals do that to me too - my dog expects so little but gives me so much. If this doesn't turn out to be an absolute burden on our health services to the point of collapse, then I would hope (maybe in vain) that it will make us think about what could have been had that happened. Maybe we can learn from it, make changes and start to really reform before it is too late. How? It's not about recycling and banning petrol/diesel cars, it's about getting reconnected with each other and realising that we need communities, face to face networks of people looking out for each other. Little steps, little things but we can't keep going on like this...

Five new cases here in France in Haute Savoie as someone already pointed out. I chatted with my doctor this morning as he was leaving my neighbour after a home visit - outside formal medical visits we chat very socially with our médecins here in the small village. He says health professionals are as baffled as everyone else about the statistics but there is absolutely no sense of panic. French doctors are interested in the young/old factor - how few children seem (according to the data they have) to be affected but he also said there was suspicion about pollution making people more vulnerable. He also mentioned the "low exercise" culture in China augmented by long working hours (we're both run and cycle so we share the knowledge of what benefit that does to our bodies!). He also said, as I have picked up from my clients, that a lot of vulnerable people are becoming increasingly frightened for probably no reason, doing more damage to their health and well being than the virus probably ever will.

Back to the pollution problem, maybe? Just an idea? I recently had a very nasty throat infection (see status updates) but I fought it off very quickly compared to some (with what I think is my good immune system, my docteur agrees). I am very pollution free here and my allergy issues are almost nil save stings which I have meds. for. No sneezing, snuffy nose...

I am not a conspiracy theorist! You know me. Just a hypothesis - null is good - but could people be killed off to quell the numbers. Just a question...

And when you don't know what you have got. That was the first time I had ever known about Norovirus. I was so ill after I arrived in the south of France I couldn't even get out of bed that night to answer my neighbour who called. I had left the door open in case I needed to call the emergency services (I felt that bad) and he just called up to me and reassured me that I had what a lot of people had! It's all about contact...one to one or on surfaces.

Bit of cultural awareness needed within a country! I know this well from rural Ireland where I spent some time growing up.

I was constantly getting "lurgies" when I travelled a lot by air but I was doing a lot of travelling. Despite being meticulous abouit hand washing, not touching toilet doors without tissue etc., there is really no way you can completely protect youself. You have to touch seatbelts, seats, tables and who knows whatever else. I was once struck by the Norovirus just as I boarded a train in northern France (it's a very sudden strike if that is what you really have). I took the train to Paris and flew to Montpellier (I won't describe the events (save that the seatbelt sign was on all the way and I couldn't use the toilets and my Immodium was in my checked bag). I hired a car at Montpellier, went to service stations for their, ehm, facilities. All the time unaware that I had Noro., rather than some sort of food poisoning, which can survive outside a host for a long time.

Mylo and I saw our first hedgehog foraging about on our walk this evening, a good size and clearly taking advantage of both "bin night" and the few slugs and snails which have emerged.

They're not allowed to use place names or names of people - but if they could, I'd quite like "The China Syndrome" - remember that movie from many years ago.

The pollution levels in China are horrendous. When I was in Hangzhou I had almost immediate swollen, sore eyes but fortunately I had my "infected eye drops" with me. When I flew back to Hong Kong from there the aircraft decended through a yellow "fuggy" haze of pollution. No, this cannot do people's respiratory systems any good at all and the chronic, low level inflammation that many must suffer from makes pneumonia from a lower respiratory tract infection more likely.

I'm 54, healthy liver, resting heart rate of 55 and I love life and live it to the full. Being older doesn't mean being sicker. Me and me dog run at least 5km every day, sometimes 10km. You are how you live life...

Not sure how to advise you. I'd ring my GP and ask for advice... Sending good wishes...

Sadly, people are used to meat in nice plastic containers. I have eaten many a glorious Ligurian rabbit stew (Jamie recipe.) prepared from my previous dog Spike's catches. My father taught me how to skin and prepare. Over here we have shot and eaten ragondin - Coypu - kept us and Mylo, especially, going for months. Veggie prep. is a technique too - you have to be in touch with your food...

Tete (can't do the accent on the "a") a veau is still a delicacy here - being nearly veggie, I have tried to avoid it but no doubt one day I will succumb. The culture in a lot of countries, particularly rural areas, is to waste nothing, therefore eat and use the whole of the animal. My Mum used to do pig's trotters...