Portrush (and other news)

 A (short) break from Still Life shots.  Back to Portrush West Bay we go - the sister shot of this one which you could nearly stitch together to make a panorama. 

Portrush West Bay, 2021.  Ilford MG Classic fibre paper, thiourea toned. 

The other news?  Pretty big news, actually.  I received a phone call yesterday morning (as I was writing this post, as it happens).  Normally I don't pick up unless I recognise the number but it was showing 'No Caller ID' which I've come to realise usually means hospital or doctors.  The message was a very welcome invitation to receive the COVID-19 vaccine - yesterday afternoon!  This was way earlier than I was expecting - I was thinking it would come in late February, since I'm lumped in the 'clinically extremely vulnerable' group (due to immunosuppressive medications I take for my ankylosing spondylitis).  I needed confirmation from my doc that I could go ahead since the vaccination team had a flag raised on my file about a previous reaction I had when eating Kiwi fruit.  Sounds odd, I know.  I used to be able to eat Kiwi without a problem but once, about 10 years ago while at work, I was snacking on one and had a pretty horrible anaphylactic reaction. Perhaps it was a bad Kiwi but I didn't ever feel inclined to test that theory and invite another reaction so from then on I have just avoided Kiwi, or anything which might contain Kiwi, like fruit salad or certain desserts.  Anyway, my doctor's surgery was no help whatsoever - in fact, they said they were no longer responding to queries about allergies and 'the vaccine' since they were inundated and that it was basically up to the people who were vaccinating.  Talk about passing the buck!  Anyway, by the time the vaccination team called back my wife and I had done more research than our doctor's surgery had (it would seem).  A not very difficult bit of desktop research confirmed from several reputable sources (NHS and the US CDC) that people with food allergies should get the vaccine.  Now why our local surgery couldn't have done that I do not know - perhaps concern about actually taking a decision which might invite legal challenges in the event of an adverse reaction or just plain laziness.  Either way, I don't think it's acceptable - not everyone is capable of searching for or reading medical documents about allergies and vaccines and besides, the information is readily available and unambiguously stated.  Anyway, we were invited to proceed and that's what we did - about a 45 minute drive to Ballymena's Leisure Centre, which had been re-engineered into a pretty slick vaccination site.  In the end, the vaccination team didn't seem to worried about my Kiwi fruit issue - the nurse, just as she was about to administer the Pfizer vaccine, asked me about food allergies and said while she had to note them, it wouldn't stop me from receiving the vaccine today.  Good stuff.  Afterwards I sat for my 15 minutes and then my wife and I drove home. To be repeated in 3 weeks and then I'm as protected as can be for the foreseeable.  Until then - and even after then - it's business as usual: Stay away from folk as much as possible, wear a mask and wash hands frequently.  While the vaccine can't prevent me from catching the virus it will, hopefully, mean that my body is more able to fight it.  It's certainly a big step in the right direction and I feel a bit happier about things this morning.  I'll feel a whole lot happier in 3 weeks time. No adverse effects, by the way, other than a slight tenderness at the injection site in my upper arm.

Before I finish, the one thing that really hit me was the number of volunteers at the vaccination centre.  There were lots - from the front door of the leisure centre to the exit: helping, guiding, advising.  They were masked up and had disposable aprons but by no means were 'suited and booted'.  You really have to admire folk who are willing to help others at some considerable risk to their own health when they could just have stayed at home.  I'd like to think these people will be recognised in some way by our country when all this has settled down - they certainly deserve to be.