Until today, I had not seen my old friend Bert for just over two weeks. I opened his door and called in, "Bert! It's me Yorkshire Pudding!" Then I went into his back room where he spends almost all of his time sitting side on to the blaring television. I had brought him a fresh "Banner Crust" sausage roll in a paper bag.
I was taken aback when I saw him because he is in the middle of a shingles attack. One side of his face is perfectly normal but the other side is reddened and a little swollen with a cluster of dark scabbing around his right eye and forehead - rather like the poor woman at the top of this blogpost.
Bert appears to be over the peak of the attack and in ten days or so he should be fine though there could be some lasting scarring. Shingles is most common in the elderly and over in America one in three senior citizens will probably experience it.
Though I have been invited to my local health centre for an anti-shingles vaccination later this month, I didn't really know much about the condition until today. Upon seeing Bert, my immediate concern was that it might be infectious. However, I need not have worried because it seems that only people who have never had chicken pox are at risk of getting it if they come into contact with victims of shingles.
Anyway, having spent ninety minutes in Bert's presence, I decided not to visit my daughter's house because Baby Margot could potentially become infected - a remote possibility I know but I didn't want to risk it. She was exactly three months old today.
On the mouse front, I have laid the trap again. It was perhaps twenty five years ago that I was last aware of a mouse in the house or as Scots say, a moose in the hoose! Back then I caught just one mouse and that seemed to do the trick and this time round we have seen no mouse droppings whatsoever. Thus, I am not expecting to have to dispose of another dead mouse in the morning. We'll see.
I am driving over to Hull tomorrow to see my beloved Hull City play the London club Millwall in the English Championship. Up The Tigers!
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/sJ5z0Wg