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some thoughts on covid-19 and hospitals
I don’t usually venture into the political scene on my blog, but I am becoming increasingly worried and angry.
I know that this pandemic has to be contained as much as possible, but it seems that everything in the NHS has gone into this.
Hospitals are full of Covod-19 patients and other treatments have not been happening, some of which are for patients with serious and life-threatening illnesses.
As I understand it, many patients’ treatment has been put on hold. Mine for one, but mine is relatively minor compared to others.
It is impossible to get an appointment in my area at the moment, either with the hospital or the GP. I had a brief phone consultation, which, in my opinion, resolved nothing. The consultant wants further tests, but nothing is going to happen for the forseeable future.
One NHS Trust that I know of, because a friend lives in that area, has kept one hospital ‘Covid-free.’ All Covid cases are sent to the other hospitals. As a result, her treatment and operations are going ahead as normal.
In my local area, the Trust has 3 hospitals. Why have they not designated one as Covid-Free?
And what about the Nightingale Hospital that was built with great fanfares and then not used? Could Covid patients not have been sent there, leaving other hospitals free for other treatments? I appreciate that it was only a ‘field hospital’, but it was built for Covid patients, so must have been able to deal with them.
I predict a rise in deaths from other sources because of this. It might already be happening, Probably is, but we’re not told of this. Only Covid deaths are important, it seems.
I tried to find how many cancer deaths had occurred so far this year and compare it with last, but could not find the statistics. I did find out that it is expected that over 18,000 more cancer deaths alone will occur in the UK due to Covid-19. Some of this is because people fear going to A&E due to the virus. But if there were a Covid-free hospital, that would be eliminated.
I have not researched the expected deaths from other serious illnesses, but I am sure that there will be an increase in them as well.
I am concerned that with the easing of lockdown, and the ignoring of the rules that are already there, we will see a spike in infections and deaths from Covid-19. People are gathering in large groups with no social distancing, and not only for demonstrations. This will mean that for those waiting for hospital appointments and treatment will be put on hold for even longer.
Thank you for reading. What do you think? Do you have any illnesses that are not being treated because all the hospitals in your area are full of Covid patients?
Cover preview
They say that you wait ages for a bus, then 2 come at once. Well. I’m not talking buses here, but news of my books.
A few days ago I told you of the release of my new audiobook, Vengeance of a Slave. Yesterday I got the suggested cover for my latest book.
Its a novella, a prequel to my Wolves of Vimar series, and tells about the parents of Carthinal and how they met and fell in love.
Of course, things aren’t as straightforward as that. He’s and elf and she’s a human, so there are family problems. How do they overcome them, and do they live happily ever after with their little son, Carthinal? You need to wait until it’s out to find out!
Anyway, here’s the cover. I like it and have emailed my publisher to say so. What do you think? Would you pick it up if you saw that cover? Let me know in the comments box.
Here it is.
Audio book release
Hi. I just received an email saying that Vengeance of a Slave, my historical novel set in Britain at the time of the Romans, has been released as an audiobook. You can get a free 30 day trial of this book if you follow this link for the UK
and this for the US
If you do listen to it, I would be very grateful if you would post a brief review. Reviews are very important to authors and readers alike as there are so many books published it is difficult to know if a book is for you or not.
the Stones of fire and water is free.
After finding the gems associated with the worlds of Earth and Air, Pettic needs to enter the final two Elemental Worlds to find the gems of Fire and Water.
In these two worlds, as before, he has to preform a task to help the inhabitants before the jewel will reveal its whereabouts.
But when he has found these gems, how can he rescue his friend, the Crown Prince of Ponderia? First, though, he needs to find the two missing gems.
In Ignis, the land of fire, he finds the magical creatures are having fewer and fewer offspring. Can he help them and find out the cause? And what can he do about it?
In Aqua, the land of water, he meets merfolk who have a problem. Their leader is dying because his magic staff has been stolen. Can Pettic find this staff and the culprit before it is too late?
I am pleased to say that the same narrator who narrated the audio version of The Stones of Earth and Air has agreed to narrate this book, too. He has finished the narration, and it is now with the publisher. I hope it won’t be too long before it’s available.
In the meantime, for those of you who can’t wait, the ebook version of The Stones of Fire and Water is FREE on Amazon from tomorrow (14th June) until Thursday 18th June.
Click on the link now, before you forget or you’ll miss this opportunity.
You can get your book by clicking on the title, or the cover in the sidebar or the text.. This will take you to Amazon where you are.
I am always pleased to hear your comments. Add them in the comments box.
Free Author Resources
Who doesn’t like Free?
Some alternative words to use for the senses
We are often told, as writers, that we should try to use all the senses in order to bring our stories to life. We have 5 senses (although some people say there is a 6th, and some stories deal with it, including some of my own) and it’s a good idea to change the word to describe the way the character experiences the sense.
We could say ‘He saw the dragon descending to its lair.’ But we could make it stronger by using a different word (or phrase). ‘He became aware of the dragon descending to its lair.’
In the above picture, we would be able to smell the vegetation, hear the birds singing and the rippling water. We see the green of the plants and the brownish colour of the water. We could dabble our feet in the water and feel the coolness, or the grass under our feet when we get out.
I’m not sure about taste, here, but if we know what we are doing, we could taste some of the plants. I know I’ve done so when I was young. the sweet taste of blades of grass when chewed or the nectar in the base of clover florets.
Here are some ideas you could use instead.
Sight:
become aware of, detect, discern, distinguish, give the impression of, identify, look, look like, note, notice, observe, perceive, realize, recognize, reveal, seem, sense, sight, spot, watch
Smell:
scent, sniff, inhale, detect,
Hearing:
catch, eavesdrop, overhear, listen to,
Touch:
feel, handle, stroke, caress, fondle, paw, grope, rub, run fingers over, run hands over.
Taste:
savour, sip, nibble, sample, try, lick
Do you use all the senses when you describe a scene? It certainly brings it to life.
Please leave a comment in the comments box.
When It’s All Up
This is a checklist everyone should think about.
The Future of my Blog
Kevin is having a few problems with WordPress changing from Classic editor to Block editor. I hope WordPress sorts it out quickly. They obviously didn’t think of blind users when they started Block Editor. Most remiss of them!
making bread
Bread Making
Before Covid-19 took over our lives and made it difficult to go out, except for essentials, few people made their own bread. I have always made it from time to time. I find it therapeutic, and the bread tastes so much better than the shop-bought stuff.
Hand-made is better than bread machine, too, in my opinion. I somehow feel that in a bread machine, it’s not really made by me. I stick in the ingredients and leave the machine to do the work.
However, when the lockdown came, everyone seemed to decide that this was the time to make their own bread (and cakes, probably biscuits, pies and everything else that needed flour). Flour vanished from the shelves, as did yeast, so I was stuck.
Amazon came to the rescue, however, and I got bread flour and yeast. (Both from the UK) I could only buy 16kg flour, so that’s a lot of loaves! I also bought some bread improver, too.
So we set off to make bread. We decided to experiment and wrote what we thought of each experiment.
First of all, I would like to mention the yeast. Of course, you can use fresh bakers’ yeast if you can get it. (I got some from Morrison’s before all this lockdown stuff kicked off.)
The problem with fresh yeast is that you need to use it fairly quickly as it only keeps 2 weeks maximum in a refrigerator.
Also, be careful when using dried yeast. Some is ‘quick’ or ‘fast-acting’ and some isn’t. If you have the fast-actingtype, you can simply sprinkle it on your flour and mix well in. For the other, non-quick, you need to activate it first in some warm water taken from the total amount you are going to use. If you like, you can add some sugar to help it get going, but not too much.
Here is my final recipe:
Ingredients:
500g strong bread flour
350ml warm water (about 30C)
2 teaspoons sugar
7g dried yeast (activated if necessary with ½ teaspoon sugar)
5g bread improver (optional)
2 teaspoons salt.
Method.
- Put the yeast into a cup and add ½ teaspoon from the sugar. Pour in about 50ml of warm (30C) water from the 350ml and stir with a fork. Put to one side and leave for around 10-15 minutes, or until it’s bubbling and frothy.
- Carefully weigh the flour and put it into a large basin. Add the bread improver (if used) salt and the remaining sugar. Mix thoroughly together.
- When the yeast is nice and frothy, pour it into the flour. Use a little of the warm water to make sure it’s all out of the cup, then add the rest of the water.
- Mix until it comes together and makes a fairly sticky dough. Turn it out onto your work surface WITHOUT adding flour. If you put flour on your work surface, it will make your carefully weight amounts wrong.
- Knead the dough. I used a technique from Richard Bertinet who is a professional baker. You can watch a video of how he kneads bread on YouTube.
- When the dough is elastic, dust a large bowl, put the dough in and cover it with a clean tea towel. Leave in a fairly warm place for at least an hour. The length of time will depend on the warmth of the room. Wait until it has doubled in size.
- Shape the dough and make rolls, round loaves, long rolls, or put it into a tin. Cover again with a tea towel and leave until doubled in size once again. The longer you leave it at this stage, the lighter your loaves will be. The yeast will produce more carbon dioxide and thus more holes.
- Preheat your oven to its highest temperature (ideally around 250C). I heated mine to 230C which is as high as it will go. Heat for at least 30 minutes. I used a baking stone, already in the oven, but you can use an upturned baking tray, heated in the oven for the half hour.
- I used a wooden slider thingy to get the bread off the tray it had proved on, but you can use whatever you have. Be very careful not to handle it as it will quickly collapse. Slide it onto your stone or tray and shut the oven door. I allowed it to cook for 10 minutes at the highest temperature then turned it down 20C as the first ones I made were slightly burned on the crust.
Cooking time will depend on what you’ve made. Rolls will take around 15-20 minutes, but a large loaf can take up to 45 minutes.
When cooked, the bread will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
You can get the ebook version of my first recipe book, Viv’s Family Recipes FREE from today until June 2nd. I have an interest in history as well as cooking and this book has recipes from the early part of the 20th Century until now. It is interesting to see how our tastes have changed during that time.
I’ve been wondering whether to publish another recipe book. This time it would be a yeast cookery book, I think. What do you think of that idea?
Let me know in the comments box.
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 