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Mike Sedgwick

What to do in Lockdown

December 31, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 6 Comments

The gazebo

A Happy New Year to all Chandler’s Ford Today readers. Is there anything to be happy about? The only good news is that I have had the first of my vaccination jabs against COVID-19 (the Pfizer-BioN Tech for the techies, I can even tell you the Batch number if you like). The next one is due on Jan 9th. Then, at the end of January, I shall be free, protected, like a modern-day knight in armour. The vaccine is 95% effective. Does that mean that, if I get COVID, it will only be 5% as bad as expected? Or does it mean one in 20 of us might get COVID? More important is, although I am protected, could I spread the virus to others?

More important still is that the AstraZenaca vaccine is now approved and is more robust in that it is easier to store and distribute.

Vaccine Image via Kaboompics
Vaccine Image via Kaboompics

Party Outdoors

[Read more…] about What to do in Lockdown

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Tags: Chandler's Ford, coronavirus, Covid-19, family memories, Hiltingbury, lockdown, publication, science, storytelling, writing

Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?

October 31, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 6 Comments

Knight by GraphicMama-team via Pixabay

There is a story of a pompous man pushing into the front of and airport check-in queue. The check-in girl tells him to go to the back of the queue. ‘Do you know who I am?’ asks the man. The check-in girl asks the queue, ’can anyone help? This man does not know who he is.’

I sympathise with this man, not because of pushing into a queue, but because I am not known by my name any longer. The days when I heard people say, ‘Hello, Mike, nice to see you,’ have gone because, in COVID protection mode, no one sees me.

kaboompics - man working on a computer
Image via Kabookpics

Reduced to a Binary Digit

I am known to my computer but only as a string of digits. The screen wants to know my ID number, password, authentication code, admin password, username, wireless key, PIN, account number or registration key. Then there are numbers and codes sent to my phone which last only an hour or so. If I go to a bar or restaurant, my phone communicates with a QR code. I can text my order and someone brings drinks. [Read more…] about Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?

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Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, Covid-19, Eastleigh, news, reflection, science, storytelling, technology

Pandemics and Epidemics – I have been locked-down for 100 days

June 15, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 2 Comments

Lockdown for 100 days

By the time you read this, I will have been locked-down for 100 days, from March 9th in fact.

This is not the first epidemic or pandemic I have experienced. The first, in 1961, amounted to nothing very much but, without prompt action, it could have been even more serious than the present one.

I returned home to my student flat late one night to find the door locked and bolted. I rang and banged and shouted and eventually my flat-mate, Taffy, appeared on the balcony.

‘You can’t come in, mate.’

‘Stop messing around, Taffy and let me in.’

‘Can’t, it’s smallpox.’

‘There’s no smallpox here. Let me in.’

Lockdown for 100 days
Lockdown for 100 days

‘But there is in South Wales and in Bradford. We are possible contacts because we spent the weekend in South Wales. We are in quarantine for 10 days and must have no contact with anyone. Public Health sends someone around with food which they leave at the door.’ [Read more…] about Pandemics and Epidemics – I have been locked-down for 100 days

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Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, Covid-19, Eastleigh, medicine, science, storytelling

Prosody

June 7, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 3 Comments

handwritten poem by a 6 year-old

It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it. The panel game, Just a Minute depends on it. My granddaughter (aged 6) wrote a performance poem about the programme. I have kept the original spelling:-

This is

Cklap, cklap, cklap

A game of

Cklap, cklap, cklap

Consontrashon

Clap, clap, clap

No repeets

Clap, clap, clap

Or hesetaison

Clap, clap, clap

I’ll go first

Clap, clap, clap

And I’ll go second

Clap, clap, clap

Subject is

Clap, clap, clap

Enithing.

By GT

Jan 2020

[Read more…] about Prosody

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Tags: books, Covid-19, news, reading, science, writing

Through Eastleigh Airport to Colombo

May 29, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 3 Comments

The Route

In these strange and uncertain times of lockdown, it is good to find a story of a man who, by determination, perseverance and skill, managed to break the involuntary lockdown after World War II and get back home.

James Peter Obeysekere, known as Obey, was a law student at Trinity College, Cambridge when World War II broke out. He elected to stay on to complete his studies but then, could not get home to Colombo, Ceylon (as it was). He had learned to fly with the Cambridge University Air Squadron and had done some aircraft ferrying duties and worked for the Royal Observer Corps during the war. [Read more…] about Through Eastleigh Airport to Colombo

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VE Day 75 in Chandler’s Ford – Memories of the Original VE Day

May 9, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 1 Comment

Lakewood Road decided to have a socially separated street party yesterday for VE75. I replied to the invitation and said I was at an original VE day party. Several people expressed an interest in the comments so I thought Chandler’s Ford Today might like to see them. As it turns out, I am not the only one who attended an original party.
[Read more…] about VE Day 75 in Chandler’s Ford – Memories of the Original VE Day

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Tags: celebrations, Chandler’s Ford community, family, good neighbours, Hiltingbury, history, interview, local interest, memory, news, storytelling, war memorial, World War One, World War Two

Care in a Time of COVID

May 7, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 5 Comments

We are beginning to think of ending the lock-down. How different will it be afterwards?

That little strand of RNA wrapped up as COVID-19 has altered our behaviour. It has shut our institutions; schools, universities, travel, industries, retail and the legal system. Health, policing, food and pharmacy remain active with some local travel.

Some of us have been able to work from home and found it satisfactory. A friend is wondering why he keeps a London office; a weekly meeting in an office hired for half a day may be sufficient. Others strive to work amid the domestic activities of children and housework. The fashion for open-plan living areas in houses has not helped.

Coronavirus image by Karolina Grabowska

[Read more…] about Care in a Time of COVID

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Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, Covid-19, local businesses, medicine, memories, news, science, storytelling, travel

Graffiti

April 4, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick Leave a Comment

Along the main Kandy Colombo Road

Banksy has recently created another graffiti; the press goes wild about a competent painting on an ugly blank wall. It is graffiti and not graffito, the singular form is not in use. Banksy’s graffiti is hailed as Art. Why? Why, in a country with at least ten universities giving degrees in art and design, with independent art schools and with flourishing art groups throughout the land; why is a single piece of graffiti something of an event? [Read more…] about Graffiti

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Tags: history, Sri Lanka, storytelling

Tell Me a Story

February 28, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 1 Comment

Good books will deepen your love of reading - Pixabay

At the back of a class of 5-year-olds, I watched a teacher telling a story. Thirty children sat silent and still with mouths agape and eyes fixed on the storyteller. The story, like most children’s stories, held a moral. It was Big Bell and Little Bell. Here was the power of storytelling.

story image by Tumisu via Pixabay

Most of us can remember being told stories. I remember a story about a man pulling a sword from a rock. Grandfather told stories of engineering feats that went wrong. There was a railway engine whose boiler burst as it tried to climb Lickey Incline near Birmingham and how bank engines were provided afterwards to help the climb. [Read more…] about Tell Me a Story

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Tags: poetry, Story, storytelling

What’s Your Poison?

December 31, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick 2 Comments

James Parkinson's Essay on the Shaking Palsy, 1817

What’s yours? A question asked in bars around the country; whisky, gin, beer. In another context, the question is not asked, because most of us are not interested, but the answer is given at length. What’s your disease?

There is no one so proud as the, now recovered, person describing how baffling and serious their disease has been. ‘None of the doctors knew what it was; I even saw the professor and he did not know.’

bear having a cold image Myriams-Fotos via Pixabay

I eavesdropped on one such conversation at a drinks party. The man described his symptoms well and insisted that the disease was a mystery. I interrupted and asked, did he suffer from diarrhoea and vomiting about two weeks before the illness started? How did I know? He had not realised that this was the start of the illness. [Read more…] about What’s Your Poison?

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Tags: memories, science, storytelling, travel

Snakes and the Supernatural in Sri Lanka

December 28, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick Leave a Comment

Eclipse viewed through cloud. For the techies - Exposure 1:2000th second, f8, 129mm, ISO 80 Camera - Lumix DMC-TZ80

Eclipse

Fifteen years to the day after the terrible Tsunami swept across Sri Lanka, another powerful natural phenomenon struck awe and even fear for some of the rural people. The morning sky turned dark.

We had travelled upcountry to a place called Naula, close to the line taken by the total eclipse of the sun. Our friends packed a welder’s visor in their overnight bag. I thought David, an engineer, was planning to do some welding when we reached our destination, but it was his wife who had the foresight. She follows events in the heavens and told us of the eclipse.

When the time came there was cloud cover which was fortunate for me as I managed to take photographs of the eclipse through the clouds. In between the clouds, we observed the eclipse through the visor.

Observing the eclipse from Sri Lanka
Observing the eclipse from Sri Lanka

The cook and some of the staff where we stayed thought it was an intervention of the gods and wanted to go to the temple. Many people did visit temples, churches, kovils and mosques but it was the schoolteachers who could tell them what was happening. We collected the staff and let them all have a look through the visor. One of our Sri Lankan friends explained what was happening, but I am not sure we convinced them all.

Eclipse viewed through cloud. For the techies - Exposure 1:2000th second, f8, 129mm, ISO 80 Camera - Lumix DMC-TZ80
Eclipse viewed through cloud. For the techies – Exposure 1:2000th second, f8, 129mm, ISO 80 Camera – Lumix DMC-TZ80

[Read more…] about Snakes and the Supernatural in Sri Lanka

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Tags: Christmas, culture, Sri Lanka, storytelling, tradition, travel, viewpoint

Queen’s English styled by Jacob Rees-Mogg Esq. M.P.

July 28, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick 11 Comments

News for all writers on how to write? Previously I have relied on what I was taught by teachers, with the aid of raps on the knuckles with a ruler in earlier years. Now we have the advantage of the new Rees-Mogg Style Guide which recommends the use of Esq. which needs a full stop but Miss and Ms doesn’t. He declines to advise on how the write the plural of Ms. (I put the stop here as it is the end of a sentence.)

Unacceptable Words

[Read more…] about Queen’s English styled by Jacob Rees-Mogg Esq. M.P.

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Elections and Politicians

May 27, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick 4 Comments

Two down, another one coming up.

‘You’re joking. Not another one!’

Local council elections, European elections and next, an election for the new leader of the Conservative Party. But do not worry, you will have no part to play in this unless you are a member of the Conservative party and who will admit to that today. [Read more…] about Elections and Politicians

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Sri Lankan Bombings

May 2, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick Leave a Comment

I have visited Sri Lanka over 15 times now, living there for several months every year for the last 10 years. Early visits were during the civil war and there were inconveniences such as roadblocks, curfews and limitations on travel.

On one occasion my friends arranged an escort to the airport. There were no problems with me giving lectures at the University and to audiences containing Sinhala and Tamils. [Read more…] about Sri Lankan Bombings

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Tags: adventure, culture, education, history, news, Sri Lanka, storytelling, travel

Elephant Hunt

April 25, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick 1 Comment

Edward, Prince of Wales, born 1841, had a reputation as a playboy. One of his 55 mistresses was Alice Keppel whose great-granddaughter, Camilla Parker Bowles, became the mistress and then wife of the present Prince of Wales. Edward became King Edward VII on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, in 1901. The Prince’s other great interest in life was shooting animals.

This transcript from The Times reports a visit of the Prince of Wales to Ceylon in 1875 and relates how the highest dignitaries of the British Empire enjoyed a day out in the jungle. [Read more…] about Elephant Hunt

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What’s not on the Menu

January 30, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick 1 Comment

It is pleasant to be offered a small savoury amuse bouche in a restaurant to savour before your meal arrives. Also, to be offered a post-prandial mint chocolate or small liquor.

Restaurants theme themselves to appear more interesting. The Cricketers out here in Colombo is decorated with bats, balls and stumps. The Slug and Lettuce chain may be themed but I have no intention of finding our as neither are to my taste. [Read more…] about What’s not on the Menu

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Freedom

January 30, 2019 By Mike Sedgwick 5 Comments

Freedom to –

“The more people chant about their freedom and how free they are, the more loudly I hear their chains rattling.” ~George Orwell (1903-1950)

We’re a free country, aren’t we? Well, kind of. We are encouraged to think so. Our government tells us we are. The more they tell us the more we wonder. [Read more…] about Freedom

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Tags: Freedom, George Orwell, opinion

Party

December 30, 2018 By Mike Sedgwick 2 Comments

It is the season of parties, not to be left out, we are arranging one. Is it any different in Sri Lanka?

Invitations –

Sri Lankans do not seem to plan their diaries too far ahead nor do they always respond to invites but they turn up on the dot. There is no angst about who to invite and there is no angst about who should come. If you have friends staying, you take them along. [Read more…] about Party

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Tags: adventure, Christmas, Sri Lanka, tradition, travel, writing

Armistice

December 1, 2018 By Mike Sedgwick 1 Comment

At 11 in the morning of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns fell silent on the fronts of the world at war. Turn your minds to that event and write a strict 500 words to catch the moment. [Read more…] about Armistice

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Tags: culture, history, memory, Remembrance Sunday, war memorial, World War One, writing

What did Jesus Look Like?

November 25, 2018 By Mike Sedgwick 7 Comments

What did Jesus look like? You know, don’t you? He has long, straight hair, a full beard, wears sandals and Arabic robes, he never smiles.

In Europe, he is depicted with fair skin and hair. What did he really look like? There are no clues from the Bible. [Read more…] about What did Jesus Look Like?

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Tags: Christmas, Remembrance Sunday, Sri Lanka, travel, writing
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