Hi team,
Welcome to the twenty-sixth installment of Furloughed. Maybe it’s a newsletter about things I’m doing while furloughed, things you can do, or both.
This week we got our second vaccine, and my friend brought me some jam her husband made from strawberries in their allotment. And some period pants. I salute anyone who gifts strawberry jam and period pants together.
The jam more than made up for the day after the vaccine, when my partner and I were comically useless and I decided that the only way through was food. We ordered an emergency pizza at 10 pm, which I think helped a lot.
It was like body flu - no cold, headache, or fever, but twitching and heavy all over. If Covid is worse than that and for two weeks or more I definitely want to avoid it like the plague.
The bringer-of-homemade-jam friend went past South Park here in Oxford after our socially distanced picnic and told me there were people standing in it and then that it was art. This was confusing until I walked past. It’s a public art piece — Standing With Giants. I found it very moving.
I hadn’t realised how much we are going to need things like this to help us heal.
These are from some of the notes that you can read before you walk past:
From Tina Bass to her Mum
“Dear Mum… me and Kelly are so proud of you for working for the NHS, you sacrificed your life helping others, I never told you just how proud we were…”
From John Jeremiah Mugisha, aged 8, son of Naggayi Angela, Trainee Mental Health Nurse and single mother of John and his sister, Annmarie, aged 12.
“Mummy was a nice caring person who loved me so much.”
From Via Salinasal to Kenneth Lambatan Cardiology Research Nurse, St. George’s Hospital, London.
“Our beloved friend, Kenneth Lambatan, lost his battle with COVID-19 last Monday… he was only 33 years old.
Ken was overjoyed when he found out his work visa to the UK had been approved. We remember the story his brother shared about this day, of Ken screaming with joy at the top of his lungs, when he heard the wonderful news. It was always his dream to work in the UK. When he finally saw Big Ben, he was overcome with emotion. He could not believe how blessed he was to see it in real life, after only having a picture of it as a screensaver on his computer screen.
Those who knew Ken remember him as an extraordinary person, son, brother, nurse, colleague and friend. He was larger than life and sparked joy wherever he went.
Sadly, Ken died without any of his family members close by, as they are all in the Philippines where Ken is from…”
You can also walk The National Covid Memorial Wall online.
My partner took this photo of a bee visiting our first open sunflower…
Things to watch
Short things
Inevitably, the brand police will take this pictogram opening ceremony video down soon (seriously, there is no other brand I have seen policed as heavily)…
Series
Mainstay recommendations are City of Ghosts and Waffles + Mochi. And We Are Lady Parts. We continue to watch Black-ish.
Films
This Saturday, on movie and homemade pizza night, we might watch Ant-man. My sister introduced it to me by saying “Paul Rudd shrinks to the size of an ant…” and I was like “woah, spoilers!” and she said, “I thought that was obvious?” And I said, “Does spiderman shrink to the size of a spider?”
Things to read
If you are an overthinker, read this article, Why I’m glad that I’m an ‘overthinker’, recommended by Jodi Ettenberg, who writes the fabulous newsletter Curious About Everything. I love, love, love the article as, if you hadn’t guessed, I am a big-time overthinker. There’s a list of things to help overthinkers at the end and Jodi also recommended this fantastic app CheckYourList for people with ADHD. I used it today to help me make sure I loaded the dishwasher etc.
“Just going with it” is not something I do. I have to really understand what I’m doing and then I think through almost every possibility and eventuality, like a mind map on steroids. And I plan. When people say things like: “Who could have imagined XYZ would happen?” about some entirely predictable outcome, my most common response is “I could”. — Annalisa Barbieri
Books
My middle sister said she was reading a really interesting one, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba.
Sadly it seems that Blackwell’s, where I have spent a lot of money during this pandemic, have put a toxic-looking anti-trans book at the top of their homepage. Blackwell’s is an independent Oxford-based bookshop chain beloved by academics.
I will need to find good new independent bookshops to spend my money with instead.
It is very interesting to me that the upper-middle classes are such purveyors of moral panic. I am quite done with elite institutions trying to push their moral panic on me.
Feel good
Nil to 48 in 20 years; Assam’s Manas sees amazing rise in tiger numbers
Greenland scraps plans for oil and gas exploration over climate fears
Things to listen to
Podcasts
Mainstay recommendation is this Blindboy podcast with Emma Dabiri. And more Blindboy - How to Solve the Housing Crisis. And a podcast about donut economics.
While we were being achy around the flat, I listened to some very moving podcasts. As a warning, the first features how to talk to children about death, including death by suicide.
And I listened to this episode…
Music
I was watching series two of Never Have I Ever and a Raja Kumari track, KARMA, was at the end so I went and checked her out. Her latest track, Firestarter, references a track that was out in India in 2012, Why This Kolaveri Di, which when I said I liked it (I didn’t know what it meant) to one great woman I met, she told me it was “gross”. I could also have put Lil Naz’s new track, Industry Baby feat. naked men in.
Join a union and find your local mutual aid
Millions of people who should have access to furlough do not.
You can join a union to help protect yourself and others. Another thing to join is your local Mutual Aid group. If the database is TMI, Google where you live + mutual aid and yours should pop up.
“Despite mounting evidence women have been disproportionately furloughed or made redundant while absorbing more of the unpaid work associated with the pandemic, we were concerned we weren’t seeing policy changes to reflect that, particularly ahead of the third lockdown,” said Clare Wenham, co-author of Why We need A Gender Advisor on Sage. — UK government ‘failed to consider gender’ in its response to Covid pandemic — Hannah Summers
Sustainable Suppression
Avoid the three Cs - Confined. Crowded. Close-contact settings. Mask up.
Here’s this week’s Independent SAGE briefing. And their vaccinations FAQ if you or people you know have vaccine questions. They have also put out a document about the continuing need for support measures.
A video on how to ventilate a room
After two million deaths, we must have redress for mishandling the pandemic
People to listen to
Things to do
Sign this petition: Add Sickle Cell to the Prescription Charge Exemption List
Make a Corsi cube to filter a room/ set up a crowdfund to make them for classrooms
Send me any fun things to do or look at you see so I can include them!