Category: HEALTH

Tessa Barrie’s views on Health

WEAR A SODDING MASK! IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU!

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Wear a sodding mask! It’s not all about you! If you don’t want to wear a mask to protect yourself, then do it for others who are less robust than you. There are people out there fighting pre-existing conditions whose lives are already a struggle.  The last thing they want is to contract COVID-19.  If they do, the probability is that they won’t survive it.  Do you really want that on your conscious? Is that really YOUR CHOICE?  So, get over it!  Wear a sodding mask!

HIGH CHOLESTEROL? WHAT’S CAUSING IT?

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Last week, my GP told me I had high cholesterol.  For those of you who don’t know the implications of having high cholesterol, it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. It was the wake-up call I needed, because my GP told me the same thing in December 2019 and, now it’s higher than it was before. I need to find out what’s causing it.

Autoimmune Disease: What factors constitute being on the Severely Vulnerable List?

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Suffering from Autoimmune Disease doesn’t automatically put you at the top of the COVID-19 severely vulnerable list. However, certain medications prescribed to autoimmune sufferers might.  None-the-less, receiving a letter this week, four months after Lockdown, telling me I was on the severely vulnerable list – I wasn’t before – came as a […]

Opting out of the Rat Race

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Slow but steady is the pace I live my life these days, and I am much happier and less stressed for having opted out of the rat race.

Sclero-what? The Scourge of Scleroderma

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In 2015, I found out I had scleroderma. I’d known for a while that I might have it but, after the official diagnosis, it turned out I had it for much longer than I initially thought. It is a strange and diverse disease that nobody seems to have […]

A Wuss’s Guide to Dentophobia – It’s only When I Say ‘Ahh!’

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I’ve suffered from Dentophobia, ever since I can remember.  My first dental check-up, aged about five, ended in tears.  My mother took me to a revered dentist in Cheltenham called Dr Dagger.  I kid you not. Since my, ‘oh woe is me, I’ve got a Humpty Dumpty face’ post […]

When You Look Like Humpty Dumpty

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I’m a Baby Boomer, it’s Lockdown, and I woke up yesterday with Mumps-like symptoms.  It’s unlikely because I’ve had Mumps. I was about eight-years-old and, surprisingly, I remember my Rubulavirus encounter quite well.  Wandering around in my dressing gown looking like Humpty Dumpty, when I was supposed to be […]

Never Give Up (In Memory of Yvette Dislins)

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As a wannabe novelist, there have been many times over the last five years when I been ready to quit. When I’ve thrown all my manuscripts into a black bag and headed for the dustbin. I’m sure we’ve all been there, but something inside us keeps niggling. Willing […]

LOCKDOWN

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It’s Monday morning, the start of another working week, which was greeted by steely grey clouds at first light and the biting chill of a northeast wind. However, this was no ordinary morning because there was no rush hour, no scrabbling to find a parking place because as of 8.00 a.m. this morning,  the small Island of Jersey, Channel Islands followed the UK’s lead, and officially went into lockdown.  

How to Get My (Writing) Mojo Back

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In January, I was in full steam ahead writing-mode.  I honestly believed I could finish book number two by the end of April. I was writing with a confidence I had never felt before, and it was a fantastic feeling. Unfortunately, my purple patch fizzled out about 3 weeks ago as the Coronavirus shit really began to hit the fan.

Perhaps I had been blinkered up to that point? Hoping Covid-19 would just go away.

Now just doesn’t feel like the right time to be writing a murder mystery spoof.  So, it’s not actually the curse of the writer’s block that is to blame; it’s the Coronavirus Curse.  The inability to focus on the writing that I love.

The Wind of Change

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We half-ran through the bustling streets, hand in hand. The soft, south-westerly wind carried the pungent smells of cooking meat and bubbling sauces into our faces, reminding us that it’s time to eat, and we are spoilt for choice.   Neon lights flash around us, the pounding heartbeat […]

The Boomer Generation

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After a week of soaking up the sun, I woke up to what sounded like gravel being hurled against my window this morning.  Only it wasn’t gravel, it was rain/hail.  It was only 5.45 a.m., which was annoying as I didn’t have to go anywhere.  Still, I had five hours of sleep, instead of four. 

Life As We Know It

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It’s horribly surreal.  Waking up to another beautiful morning and knowing the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan.

Life as we know it is about to change.

The fields around me were ploughed and planted with potatoes yesterday. Superficially, life as we know it appears to be carrying on as normal, but a big, black underbelly of invisible menace is lurking, waiting to strike.

Bringing out the Worst in People

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IS IT TIME TO START ENFORCING FINES FOR PEOPLE WHO FLOUT THE SELF-ISOLATION RULES?

One woman went to a coffee shop yesterday having returned home from a holiday in Teneriffe. Another, in a similar situation, said she had run out of food, so had to go to the supermarket. Which begs the question, and just not here in Jersey, why do people have to flout the self-isolation rules when they know the lives of more vulnerable people are at stake? Does their selfishness know no bounds?

A New Dawn

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For those of us already working from home, as well as those who are self-isolating, take heart ♥.  The fantastic weather we are having may be doing more than boosting our Vitamin D and taking our minds off the uncertainties for the future.

Mental Preparation

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I woke up sneezing this morning and wondered if the bastard-bug had got to me.  However, after two cups of coffee and two pieces of toast later, I am glad to report that the sneezing fit was probably something to do with a stray speck of dust.  Being vigilant is a good thing, but I need to get a grip on automatically assuming that one sneeze means I need to self-isolate.

Living under the Cloud of Covid-19

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I’m confused. We are caught up in the worst public health crisis for a generation. Yet, we are expected to carry on regardless with a big, black Covid-19 cloud hanging over our heads.

Life Beyond the Bastard Bug

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During my supine week, the fug in my head made it difficult to process most things, let alone finish the edit.  I did still retain the brainpower to operate the TV remote, but everything I watched made me cry.

VIRUS ALERT!

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I started off 2020 with targets, and have been thrown off course already.

I’ve been knocked for six by some microscopic little bastard that has invaded my body and seems reluctant to leave.

ECLIPSING MYSELF: The New Improved Me

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At dawn one morning I found myself talking to the Universe, well nobody else seemed to be listening and begging it to make my shit state of affairs go away.

The mighty Universe must have heard, as shortly after my impassioned plea, I was scrolling through Facebook and found Julianne Palmer, a clairvoyant in Australia.  I noticed that one of my friends had liked her page, so I had a look.

In the past, I had never paid too much attention to what the stars had to say about what fate lay in store for me, but I was desperate for an indication from somebody, that my life was going to improve.  So I took a leap of faith and picked a card.

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