An irregular diary of life in a lovely Covid bubble – Part 6

Anyone that has been reading my blog over the last couple of years will know that two of the things that I am most interested in are politics and tennis, so you can imagine how weirdly exciting all of the news is at the moment! Despite my New Year's resolution to keep away from ranting about Boris Johnson and his merry men, and another to not spend as much time on Twitter, I have broken them both big time in the last few days, and I am afraid that there is no hope of my restoring them any time soon.

As far as BJ is concerned, it does seem that he has spent the last two years partying and making babies (perish the thought), and it looks as if the partying may well be what will finally bring him down (which to anyone that doesn't follow the UK news in the same way as I do might seem strange in view of his complete uselessness in handling Covid, his ridiculous support of Brexit and pushing through his oven-ready deal, and all of his other demeanours). By the time I send this blog out, it may be that he has done the right thing and stepped down (although God knows who will then replace him) but it does seem to me that whatever he does, he gets away with it... so I suspect that nothing much will happen. We will know soon.

In the case of Djokovic, well, I am not a great supporter of him, as you probably know (although one of the other things that I am most interested in is my partner Jan, and he is one of 'Nole's' biggest (and possibly, now, only) fans, so you can imagine the atmosphere in our house at the moment), mainly as I don't much like his style of tennis and I have supported Roger (Federer) for the last hundred years. But this latest story is really incredible. An ardent anti-vaxxer (and that, in my view, is a good enough reason to dislike him) he has obviously spent a good part of the last few months figuring out a way to get into Australia to play in the Australian Open next month, since it has always been clear that only vaccinated players can take part. For 'some reason', he applied for an Australian visa at the beginning of December (just in case??), then on the 16th he had a positive Covid test (just by chance?), and then he was seen out in public on the 16th, 17th and 18th (unmasked and untroubled). But the positive test in the past six months meant that, in theory, he could now play in Australia.

What it didn't mean is that he could fly to Spain (we saw him in Marbella on 2nd January but not sure when he arrived.. and we know that if you come in by private plane, the customs don't take much notice of you...!) and then he turned up in Australia with a locator form that failed to mention that he had been anywhere except Belgrade in the past fourteen days.... hmmm. Which he blamed on his agent (haha - wouldn't like to be in his shoes if that was true, but since his agent was probably here too, you would think that one or other of them would realise that they had both been in Spain?). Knowing how things can be in the former Eastern Europe, my money is on a fake test certificate (which, at this point, would probably get him into less trouble than being seen out and about Covid positive!).

Shocking as it might sound, I hear on good authority that it is possible to get a fake vaccination certificate in the CR for about Euro 500, and I myself was offered blank antigen papers to fill in by a doctor (I joke not)... so it doesn't really stretch the imagination to think that Nole, in Belgrade, couldn't get anything he wanted within a very short amount of time. Just saying. My money, at the moment, is on him being deported soon. But, again, we will see. And, by the way, how much would I love to be his PR just now (or Johnson's for that matter - shallow? I know!).

Still on the subject of tennis, I note that the BBC Sportsperson of the Year and now OBE, Emma Raducanu, was knocked out in the first round of her warm-up tournament yesterday (0:6, 1:6) - sorry, I am not a bitch, and I don't have anything against her personally, but I just find it so ridiculous that she was given all of these awards for winning one tournament, when there are so many other great sportspeople (and people generally) out there that get no support at all. Hey ho. Life is not fair, as we all know.

I learned about life not being fair when I was very young and we always had it drummed into us that whatever you think you have, you have nothing if you don't have your health. I had a very good girlfriend when I was a teenager who was waiting for a kidney transplant and that was very gruelling, and we all carried 'kidney donor' cards because of it (something specific to the UK). I was reminded of that when I saw a piece of news on Twitter yesterday that I found rather fascinating. For the first time (and apparently they have been trying for a long time), surgeons in the US were able to transplant a heart from a pig (albeit genetically modified) into a human being (a man who would have died that day so this was a 'last resort' type of thing) and at this point it seems to have been a success. That seemed to me to be an incredible piece of news that should have been given a lot more coverage, since if it continues to be a success we might get to a point when there is an indefinite supply of hearts available for those that need it (and people will become, according to Jan, 'pig-hearted rather than pig-headed....sorry). But then I read a tweet by my favourite 'dragon' from Dragons Den, Deborah Meaden, who said she was appalled about this news as it raises all sorts of ethical issues and reminds of her of Frankenstein. Which I suppose it does. I will be interested to hear what other people think.

Phew. Sorry to go on. I really don't spend the whole day reading Twitter and watching the news, but with the rain falling in Marbella, I clearly have too much time on my hands! Added to that, I am now up to day 12 of my alcohol-free January which I am finding relatively easy - made all the more so as I was given a bottle of alcohol-free Cava by St Rostya (Ok but not great - the cava not Rostya) and found, having seen an advert for it, a bottle of alcohol-free gin (Tanqueray) which is pretty near to the real thing and which I am now guzzling like a lunatic. Fantastic.

So that's it for now. I'll be back when there is something interesting to report - which, the way things are going at the moment, is likely to be soon!