16 February 2021

Vaccination


Arrangements for mass-vaccination at The Sheffield Arena were impressively slick and efficient. Clint was shepherded into the car park by volunteers in day-glo tabards and then I entered the Arena itself.

There was very little waiting. I registered in the entrance lobby before I went into the vast concert space. There were twenty vaccination stations. Behind each screened area there was a vaccinator and a clerk sitting at a computer.

I was called into bay number 6. Details were checked and basic vaccination questions were asked. Then the needle went into my upper arm. Before I left the allocated station, I asked if I could have a sticker  (see top picture) telling the two women that that was the only reason I had agreed to have the vaccine. This made them chuckle.

Then I had to sit in a waiting area for fifteen minutes before returning to Clint.

"Have you had the jab then?" he asked in his curious South Korean accent.

"Yes I have thank you very much!" I replied.

There was a pregnant pause.

"When am I getting my shot then?" asked Clint.

"What?" I scowled in disbelief. "You are a motor car. They don't vaccinate motor cars."

"Well I want to be protected!" he yelled.

And before I could even strap myself into Clint's cockpit he had driven off in  a huff, leaving me in a cloud of exhaust fumes. I didn't have any money on me so I had to walk back home - almost five miles. Honestly, if Clint doesn't watch it I will have him scrapped. That will teach him!

By the way, I was given the AstraZeneca vaccine. I will get my second dose on May 3rd.  15.5 million  British citizens have now received their first shot - 29%.of the entire adult population.  The programme  is going really well and as I say, I was most impressed with yesterday's arrangements.

39 comments:

  1. I'll swop my (three-year-old) Mercedes-Benz E-Class for Clint, and I'll throw in my signed first editions (Kipling, Charlie Chaplin, Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Conrad, Dash Hammett, Auden, Frank O'Hara, Brando, TS Eliot, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Thomas Mann, Virginia Woolf, Tennessee Williams, Myles na gCopaleen, Truman Capote etc).

    All I want is to nominate Clint for the Turner Prize, and when he has won it, gift him to the Saatchi and Saatchi Collection.
    When you and I are long forgot, Clint will be make children happy.
    They can sit inside him and turn the wheel though he'll never run again.
    An audio tape will recount his travels in Yorkshire, as read by Benedict Cumberbatch, and taken from your many past posts.

    I shall die a happy Jock.

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    1. All those signed first editions! Amazing. But have you got my literary heroes - Russell Brand, Katie Price, David Cameron and Enid Blyton? There are the true giants of Literature with a capital L! Clint has often whispered to me that he would like to have a starring role in a porn film.

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    2. I can throw in an unsigned copy of Enid Blyton's Five Come To A Sticky End. It's set in Glasgow. The Five run foul of a Glasgow gang, The Tongs.

      As for X-rated movies, I went with a girl to see I Am A Curious Yellow, because Norman Mailer admired it. I was a 19-year-old Mailer fan, and the lassie was an 18-year-old convent girl. Now I find Mailer pretentious.

      The film was released in 1967, and is described by Wiki as an erotic Swedish drama, three and a half hours long.
      I remember that the cinema in Charing Cross was packed with men, who nearly all smoked. It was a dull road movie with dull nudity.

      The following week we saw Charlie Bubbles at The Cosmo, set in Manchester. Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Liza Minnelli, Colin Blakely, Diana Coupland and the great Yootha Joyce, who was in the TV sitcom, George and Mildred.
      I must have watched the DVD of Charlie Bubbles about 10 times.

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    3. Try as I might I can barely imagine The Famous Five in The Gorbals but I can imagine them meeting up with The Broons. That would be a moment of rich cultural interchange. They might also bump into Nicola Sturgeon and her Samson-like husband. They'd get a reet kickin' Jimmy!

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  2. Good that the shot went well. 29 % of the population! I'd be surprised if we had .29% of the population vaccinated..

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    1. Canada is way behind this figure Red.

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  3. Anonymous4:27 am

    After the COVID debacle by Johnston over the last year, it seems something is really going right now, as I have read elsewhere too. Btw, buy a female car next time. The are much less aggressive.

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    1. You are right on both counts. Scruffy Johnson is trying to win himself brownie points by hanging on to the coat tails of the National Health Service which is solely responsible for the excellent vaccination programme. I agree with you that a female car might be less aggressive but it would make a lot of noise and be prone to breaking down.

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  4. So far, I really have heard nothing but good things about the vaccination campaign in England. The opposite is true over here - even the first step, to make an appointment, resembles a quest worthy of a hero.
    In the meantime, I was pleased to read yesterday in my town's paper that the numbers of new infections in this area has been going down steadily and is now at a low we have not had in a long time. Hopefully, folks won't now start becoming careless again.
    And I hope Cliint has calmed down since yesterday, and you are feeling fine with no unpleasant side-effects from the jab.

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    1. No side effects and I gave Clint's back tyres a good kicking when I got home.

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  5. It seems to be a very slick operation almost everywhere.

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    1. At last - something to make us proud after so many mistakes.

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  6. We have our jab appointments this Friday. Luckily Paul managed to get the same time as me so he can hold my hand.

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    1. Ha-ha! You mean so that you can hold HIS hand!

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  7. I'm glad you've had it and that it went smoothiy. I took my dad mid December for his first and again at the beginning of January. Both times it went well. They were very organised.
    I hope it won't be many more weeks before we get ours.

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  8. I had a temperature and was shivery for a day. It showed it was working.

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    1. Are you sure you are a Yorkshireman Tasker?

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  9. I say nationalize the pharmaceutical industry and give everyone the opportunity to have the vaccine, Clint included.😊

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  10. It's not going so slick here. I'm still waiting, even though I'm an older nurse, no sign of the vaccine yet. Expletive!

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    1. No need to swear at me Lily! It's not my fault!

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  11. Hurray! So glad you got your first vaccine.

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    1. And I did not cry when the needle went in.

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  12. Think the percentage of vaccinations in the US is around 10-12%. So, yes, UK is doing much better. Not a well coordinated effort as each state does its own thing and supply is sketchy. However, I did manage to get one on Saturday by pure luck...even though I am well-qualified by age (e.g. old). I'd been told only the day before by the local health department it might be months before I would get one, but then got called about a cancellation at the only place in my county with any vaccine (grocery store pharmacy). Had less than hour to get there in time and I live 25 minutes away by car. Freezing rain was falling (under an ice storm warning), but managed to make it--there and back home without incident. Very grateful. Second jab due by March 13...Moderna vaccine.

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    1. That would be awful wouldn't it if someone crashed their car speeding along for a vaccine? Glad you have got it Mary.

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  13. Our vaccination schedule is still plodding along. My shot is due around May I think.

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    1. Lord Peregrine might shoot you before then - accidentally of course!

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  14. It was a very streamlined service when I was vaccinated. It was the NHS at its best. I bet you feel a bit more confident now that has been done.

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    1. I am still as shy as ever ADDY. Like a wallflower I am.

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  15. Glad you've had your jab! Still no word on ours, but hopefully soon!

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    1. Serves you right for being so young Steve!

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  16. Congratulations (except for having to walk home...) I will probably have to wait at least another month for my shot. Perhaps longer. On the other hand, hopefully the weather might be better for walking then! (I have no Clint to take me anywhere to begin with.)

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  17. I am so glad to read this. I feel like every vaccination is just one jab at this awful pandemic. I'm glad you didn't cry about the needle, and that you got your sticker.

    Clint is getting a little big for his tires, isn't he?

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    1. Every jab is one small step in the battle to suppress COVID-19. Clint can be exasperating but driving away like that was almost the final straw.

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  18. No-one is really mentioning vaccination here. I believe I could book one online then travel about 100 Kms to receive it, but otherwise the charming Macron says they don't work, and will do all he can to stop Brits getting them too.

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    1. Macron needs a special injection with an oversized syringe - somewhere where the sun don't shine.

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  19. YP. you really shouldn't have told Clint that he was taking you for your jab - some vehicles are very sensitive and demand more than the usual occasional oil change and fill up with petrol! Years ago I had a Japanese car, which didn't seem too bothered about where it was taken - perhaps South Korean cars are more picky?
    No sign of a vaccination on the horizon for me either, and being old, come into the "at risk" category. There isn't even any way to find out if, or when, I might be lucky enough to be called. Now the distressing news is that the latest batch of vaccine to arrive here is only being given to the under 55's. We are in danger of becoming continents (not just countries) where there will be a division of those who have been vaccinated and those who haven't. The latter will, I assume, still be expected to self isolate!

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    1. Clint can read so he spotted the give-away sign - "VACCINATION CENTRE".

      Sorry you still have little idea about when you will be vaccinated CG. Getting the first vaccine reduces some of the weight that has been pressing us all down.

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