I admit that giving up is not my style. But, I have had to in the last couple of days.
A week ago I finally seemed to feel better after Covid and in a burst of energy wrote Surviving 2023 last weekend.
Now the sinusitis has returned again, I am back on antibiotics and am flaked out once more.
The work does not go away though. But I have finally listened to those telling me I might need to do a little less.
Last December I noted ideas for a new book and by February I had a contract. It was meant to have a late summer delivery, and rather more than half is written, but I have now told the publisher I need to abandon it. There are three reasons. One is that events would now require that it be reframed, even if the original plan survived, and I do not have time to do that. Second, I think that another financial crisis changes the whole question to be asked to some degree. And third, I just have to listen to those telling me I must look after myself.
So, the book is off.
So is most blogging today, although there are some other tasks to do.
I have taken note. And perhaps what I have also decided is something I am a little surprised by, which is that the blog and Twitter are always going to have more impact than a book in situations like the one we are in. But further musing on that is for another day.
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Bet wishes, I hope this all clears up soon.
Look after yourself Richard, your health comes first.
Lemon water is good for general health, take it daily, it might help with the sinusitis. We have a jug of it in the fridge all the time, nice added to beetroot juice as well. Also vitamins especially vitamin D, almost everyone in the UK should be taking supplements. The older people are the harder it is for their body to get enough (metabolise?) vitamin D from the sun, not that you are old though! Definitely try taking supplements of vitD3.
Eucalyptus oil or Olbus oil in warm water might help sinus, and gently massage area under your cheek bones which might help.
Hope you feel much better soon.
I hope you’ll look after yourself Richard and give yourself the chance to fully recover. Infrared light treatment might help with your sinusitis.
I really appreciate the work you do. I was and am very ignorant about economics but I am learning a lot from your blog.
Thanks
Goodness me Richard – you do well to listen – rest well – enough to get rid of it once and for all.
Good luck for a speedy recovery Richard. Getting infected with this virus can have many implications – despite govt minimising. Your work rate has been extraordinary, but seems a good idea to set the book aside. Interesting that blog/tweets have more impact than book.
Look after yourself. Covid is no joke. The older you are, the worse it is, and recovery just takes longer.
I suspect Twitter have more immediate impact, but perhaps here today and gone tomorrow. Whereas the more thoughtful, slower burn mediums, with more space and time to develop ideas, might have more staying power. The blog can evolve over days and weeks. A book or an academic article may still be on the shelf and relevant in five or ten years time.
Maybe….
And thanks
Are you better now?
Thanks for asking. I think so, although I still experience weird phantom smells from time to time, as I have since my first infection last December.
Still around 100 Covid deaths every day, still mostly in the older age groups.
Nearly 1,000 excess deaths a week now….
What can I say. Both of my parents have Covid currently (both in their 70s, one in hospital already for other reasons). Both are full vaccinated, and seem to be doing well, but they are well in the vulnerable zone. My in-laws (slightly older, with their own medical problems) are almost house-bound for fear of exposure.
It’s grim
Good luck to your parents
FFP3s are vital for going out…and not hard to wear
Very sorry to read this about the book, Richard, but fully appreciate your reasons. A time will come for the book in due course. (If not sooner!) Your workload is prodigious now.
Get well soon, bonnie lad.
Plenty of rest, stay hydrated and continue to be kind to yourself for a while after you recover.
Best wishes. Simon
I just need the pressure off….
But I have heard the message
Please look after yourself first, Richard.
I don’t know what I’d do to keep myself sane if I couldn’t read this blog from you.
Nearly a year since I had covid and was in hospital for three weeks. I have just fallen asleep at the laptop and woken up to read this.
However, when I went into hospital it was for another reason, and I took in a Michael Rosen book, Many Different Kinds of Love, about his stay in hospital with covid. I am pleased to say I watched him this week with Mick Lynch at the EiE rally and he seemed quite as angry as normal.
I like Michael and am pleased to say the regard appears to be mutual
I was actually reading a collection of his work when unwinding last night
Go well…
Thanks.
He read his poem These are the Hands for Liz Truss to remind her it’s the hands of those workers she despises that will touch her last.
He also told us about his great grandfather saying that a union is like a box of matches – you can break one match, or two or three, but you can’t break the box.
Very good
With both Sunak and Truss threatening an even tougher regime for benefit claimants, you might want to consider applying for the non-means tested Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Not that I imagine you need it but you seem to have the ear of a lot of people at the moment and you could usefully expose the sheer relentless sadism claimants are subject to. Very important too there’s the economic aspect to consider as, of course, social security was introduced by Iron Chancellor Von Bismark as a means of turning the old, the sick and the unemployed into economic assets. In obstructing the distribution of these essential moneys, the govt are abandoning this important economic stabiliser to no good end. You could open a lot of taxpayers’ eyes to the sheer inhumanity of what’s being done in their name as people will say, well, if even he can’t get it, how are ordinary people supposed to manage? And you can highlight how if money can’t be claimed and then isn’t being spent into the economy as it’s supposed to be, then that’s only damaging it, and in now way represents laudable ‘savings’.
I really don’t think I qualify so it would be a waste of time
But a nice idea
I add my sentiments to those already submitted. Please do look after yourself as your ongoing contribution is vital to the fight against the current crisis and providing a viable alternative to the vile ideology which currently engulfs us all.
Rest, rest, rest, Richard.
A bit, a bit, a bit
Apropos Michael Rosen – you could listen to this Full Disclosure for an hour while drifting in and out of a restorative siesta. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsiXSlmjbcE
Thanks for that, Nicola.
The Windhover by Hopkins is my favourite poem, and I also like Lawrence’s poetry and short stories. Whenever I see a kestrel I start reciting the poem and my son used to tell me to shut up, they know that I know it. He doesn’t any more, as he knows how important trying to remember things is for people who’ve had covid.
I’d simply like to add my best wishes for your full recovery as soon as possible, however you intend to achieve it. As a great fan of your previous books, I am naturally saddened to hear that you will no longer be completing the current one, but much encouraged that you are abandoning it in the interests of getting better and also because you have identified that an updated perspective is required to address current problems. You retain the too-scarce ability to re-evaluate issues in the light of changing circumstances, which is what makes your daily blog so valuable.
To be perfectly honest, although I love to immerse myself in the narrative of a book, I would definitely miss your daily doses of clarity and positivity much more, if that was the price of producing a book. Keep on keeping so many of us sane and hopeful, but take care of yourself first.
Thanks
That is my trade off….
Best wishes for your full and speedy recovery. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body and take the time to heal. While I hope you do follow the advice given, I sneakily hope you’ll still be up for some Tweets
I just had to add my best wishes and concern to all the others that appear here.
As Simon so aptly put it, a couple of days ago, in the words of our fathers, “get well soon, Bonnie lad”
Alan
Day off, pretty much, today