Change in the wind says I

Morning, 

Collapsing onto my sofa in my newly turned round living room (one of mine and Mr Warehouse's COVID Jobs to do up the house during lockdown) I was exhausted. As I listened and watched my future husband play on his Xbox I faded in and out of of my surroundings, sometimes falling asleep for mere moments and others just zoning out. I was burnt out and the last few weeks had been mental workwise which had lead to the position I was that Tuesday evening last week. 

You see, I had suffered from mental health issues before and with my depression and anxiety around certain things I was able to curb that and knew when it was coming and how the dark black cloud felt. But this was different and it had been building up and up for several weeks. And so after speaking with my doctors, they signed me off with work-related stress for a fortnight. I was shocked to say the least and as I tried to explain to the HR person I felt incredibly guilty, exhausted, stressed, tired and relieved all at the same time as feeling as though I was letting down customers, engineers and staff alike. And so after a brief discussion with my HR department (lady) the company took the decision to place me on furlough instead. 

Financially this would make me better ff as I would be on basically full pay for the fortnight my doctor has advised and should the worst happen whereby either there is not enough work for me to come back to or I am signed off for longer, as before my pay will be at 80% my normal salary (as paid by the government under the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme) rather than the minimal Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) which is approximately £90 per week. This being said however I made it quite clear that I wanted i noted and on file that the issues were as a direct result of work-related stress, something I had been trying to explain and communicate for weeks.   

Nevertheless, the "Free-Time" I have had, albeit a few hours in the day since I still need to drop Mr Warehouse to and from work every day has been nice. So far I have been able to keep up with some gardening, get into the kitchen to bake many a sweet treat including a monster of a white chocolate cheesecake that we are still trying t work our way through, despite giving a third away to Big Brother Warehouse and his brood. 

I am hoping that my time out of the "workplace" or whatever you want to call it can make for some time to craft and DIY. I have acquired my grandmother's old writing bureau and have plans to revamp it with navy chalk paint and golden metalwork to match the living room's luxe gold and dark blue theme. I plan on finishing off the crafts I started but never finished such as my pebble lamp and once I finish that, I plan on starting a few more including upcycling some white trainers into some 101 Dalmatian inspired sneakers and turning some frumpy looking creps into some bedazzling jewelled kicks to wear on the dancefloor once my feet get tired from the heels on my wedding day. And if I get all of that completed I have a long list of other things I want to either get some or at least get on top of for our upcoming nuptials including welcome signs, decor and even one of those fancy Captin Bride Hats I have seen on Pinterest that I refuse to spend £60+ on when I can just use some materials and gems to achieve the boujee look. 

Ideally, I would like to create some built-in shelves in the living room and even wallpaper the downstairs WC, although I think these are mainly weekend jobs for when I have an extra pair of helping hands. It seems as though we are all going to have many more of these bank-holiday-inspired weekends where everyone either does DIY or gardening. It seems as though "New Normal" and anything relatively life-enhancing is still off the books. With figures from the BBC that state that whilst the confirmed new cases of coronavirus in the UK are over 1,500 today alone, the death toll has significantly dropped to just 121 today alone (Monday 25 May 2020). Boris Johnson's statement to the nation several weeks ago gave us all some hope, and confusion plenty. 

I am just praying that we can get away in July and that the restrictions are lifted before 5th July, enabling our little family in the making to head for the beaches and beauty spots of Cornwall, although I fear that we will wither be amongst the disappointed millions, or the very first lucky few. Things are looking hopeful however, with airlines starting up at the beginning of June and July and promises of places like restaurants and cafe's being open beginning of July, I am hoping for the latter.

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx

5G Fake News or a Food For Thought?

Evening All, 

Following our last catch-up last week, I eventually heard back on the contractual changes being put in place in order to action Furlough amongst employees. Thankfully I am not one of them and continue to serve both my country and my company for another few weeks at least. I am continuing to work in whatever capacity that I can but for the most part, this is doing my normal job, full time and fully paid! As long as I am doing something, my bit if you will, then I am happy. And as I said, with no kids, childcare issues at nil, twenty-minutes drive from the office and having never taken ill since working for the company I would like to hope that this will continue for as long as it can, and fingers crossed that is soon so we can all go back to normal. 

So as I now welcome in week number two as officially working from home and Day 19 in self-isolation (not by my choice I might add) I am starting to get into a bit more of a swing of it. Admittedly it is still weird and strange, working from home with my little desk set up with Mr Warehouse's gamer headset and a picture of the dogs in the corner. Odd to think that this is my new norm. Only a few weeks ago, life was normal. I was eating out and cocktails at restaurants with Miss Hackney and Miss SugarCoat, Cups of coffee and Cinema trips with Miss Tweedle-Dee - All just a distant memory. I never thought that life would be as different now. 

As a nation, we are still awaiting another chat with our dear Boris (Johnson, our Prime Minister, and a secret hunk of mine) although after coming down with the dreaded COVID-19 Coronavirus and being sent to ICU at London's St Thomas Hospital, I doubt that it will come very soon. That being said we, as the British Nation tuned in yesterday to listen to Liz (Queen Elizabeth II) talk us through what she described as a different challenge to those we have faced before. The BBC broadcast went on with the Queen who is now ninety-three bless her said the "painful sense of separation from their loved ones" that social distancing was causing for people reminded her of the experience child evacuees had during the Second World War.

Although the last week had got me thinking outside the box?! What happens if this was created? Manufactured? Constructed by a sick individual in order to gain financially or get their rocks off on the hundreds of thousands, if not millions by the time this goes out dying. Or worse - What if it is multiple people? An organisation? Illuminati maybe? No?!

A website called Wired.co.uk dived deep into the speculation that seems to be hitting social media around the links between 5G and the deadly COVID-19 Coronavirus. From an interview with an obscure Belgian doctor to apparent arson attacks in the UK, the conspiracy theory that 5G is somehow linked to the coronavirus pandemic has spread unlike any other and gained a huge following by celebrities alike including Dancing On Ice judge Jason Gardiner, Actor Woody Harrelson and Boxer Amir Khan. Even TV Darling Amanda Holden tweeted it before revoking it saying she "didn't know what it was about".

Now I know what you are thinking - What? Phone signals and 5G and Coronavirus flu? That is the most ludicrous link anyone can ever make, especially for someone such as myself who loves a Shane Dawson Conspiracy Series on YouTube! But hear me out as the more I read into it the more it seems plausible. It started with a Belgian newspaper (Het Laatste Nieuws) who published an interview they had done with Kris Van Kerckhoven, a GP doctor from a small town near Antwerp on 22nd January this year. 

Headlined with "5G is life-threatening, and no one knows it” which has now since been deleted from its website caused waves that have burned through social media and the internet. But it has not just remained online, oh no as the wild conspiracy theory has now broken out into the real world because not only did this Belgian Academic claim that 5G was dangerous, he also said it might be linked to coronavirus which was soon to sweep the planet. Obviously, at the time of publication, the outbreak was barely making international news. It wasn't relevant in the western world. So far the Virus had claimed just nine lives and infected 440 people with almost all of them in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The Belgian news article went on to state that since 2019, numerous 5G cell towers had been erected in and around Wuhan. 

Now Dr. Van Kerckhoven did caveat the statement with the notion that he had not checked all of his facts and that it should not be taken as gospel, however he had suggested the link and therefore the touchpaper was set on fire. Quickly picked up by anti-5G campaigners, Facebook and many other outlets linked to and quoted from the article. And so the snowballing and (forgive the pun) Chinese whispers started. Claims were made that this was proof of something very dark indeed happening with the rollout of 5G, an upgrade in mobile technology superseding its predecesors (3G and 4G), enabling faster browsing and allowing us to do things like watching videos, stream music or scroll through timelines, all whilst on the move. But this idea that Dr. Van Kerckhoven was peddling wasn’t new. In fact, it has been bubbling away quietly for a few decades. Someone's old chip shop paper you may say, especially when compared to the unfounded concerns about high-voltage power lines in the 1980s, mobile phones in the 1990s and that dreaded millennium bug that was going to end the world. 

Het Laatste Nieuws editor Dimitri Antonissen soon took down the article from publication and the website stating that “the quotes were unfounded and we regret the fact that the story was online for a few hours”. But it was far too late, the cat was well and truly out of the bag and running for the fucking hills. So? Does 5G worsen the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus by weakening your immune system? Is it true that 5G outright causes coronavirus-like symptoms? Is the coronavirus lockdown is being used as cover-up to install 5G networks that can tap into and listen to everything? Is that Bill Gates bloke in on it all? Or is it that this is all an Illuminati mass-murder plot to kill off the weak and vulnerable so as to control populations and ergo ease in the idea or a new world order?

Who Knows. Truth be told no one does, and honestly, most of it sounds like utter shite. But, just maybe, if someone wanted to create something so devastating, so awful - They probably could. And if they wanted to unleash a deadly virus on the world, what better time to do it?! Starting it off in China, one of the world most controlled populations, bursting at the seams with people, all ready to go home to their families for Chinese New Year. With no sea to cross and not much-limited travelling, it wouldn't take much for the infected to start travelling to other parts of the world. Where is easiest to get to without boat or plane from China - Europe. And in Europe right now we are in Winter, admittedly coming into spring but most people around this time will have sore throats or coughs. A normal cold you might think on any other year but this. Just a thought. Just an idea. Just a theory. But nevertheless, a theory that has infiltrated every level and type of celebrity culture and could be used as a clever cloak for the dagger that the governments of the world hold?!

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx