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Sasha came home on Sunday. She's an absolute dream. She is an 8 year old Husky. Such a softy

People need to get some perspective on what ‘new strain’ means. It’s the same virus with over a certain amount of mutations, this was always going to happen. It happens every year with the flu and other illnesses. There is no evidence the vaccine won’t work against them.

That's a great idea, the chilli looks good too!

Just to clarify - I'm not getting into the debate whether or not the UK government is using the information about the new variants as some sort of a political tool to keep people in check during the festive period; I have no clue about that nor is it a discussion I'm particularly interested in, haha. But it's probably worth noting that the new UK and South Africa variants didn't happen in a week - they've been catalogued in late September/early October, and it's very likely it's already spread throughout the world anyway. The UK is doing a fantastic job with sequencing, so it's no wonder they were the first one to find it; if other countries would be doing as much of it as the UK does, I bet it would have already been documented in more places around the world too. Regarding other more potent variants, there was one with the D614G mutation that suddenly started rising in March and became the most dominant one in Europe and then globally by the end of June. That variant also had a significantly higher transmissibility, but no change in pathogenicity; these two new variants appear to be very similar to the D614G one in that aspect. Interestingly enough, the mutations in that variant also made it more succeptible to neutralisation by antibodies, so there's hoping it will be the same case with the new ones as well.

It’s your last paragraph I’m talking about and I’m not trying to judge people. We live in a society which means we have no time, family is looked as peripheral rather than central to our lives. I think we should try and reverse this.

It was good! I burnt one of the cards in those pictures when cooking the noodles the other day I’d only had a few beers

I just had Chille for dinner funny enough..

Yes it’s like that. You choose your meal plans and what you want. So much to choose from and then they deliver all the ingredients. Probably works out at like £5 per meal but you’re feeding 2 for that. I won’t have it every week but I’ll definitely keep using it every few weeks. More as a way to improve my knowledge of what makes certain dishes tick and improve my cooking skills. I had a simple chilli earlier. And here are a few of the cards each meal comes with.

To add to that, technically it's also not even a new strain, it's just another new variant - there's quite a big difference, and it's so annoying to see even some experts use the two terms indiscriminately. These two new variants have been catalogued in September/October already, and while it's definitely worth keeping an eye on them as they appear to have more mutations than usual so it's unknown what effect the combination of these mutations might have, at this point there's nothing to suggest that it has increased pathogenicity, and even the increased transmissibility is a speculation until there's proper data analysis; the 70% figure quoted in some sources is very likely to be an overestimation. As for vaccines, they are very likely to be effective, for numerous reasons. For starters, the vaccines target numerous epitopes of the spike protein, and that's extremely unlikely that mutations in a single variant of the virus would alter ALL of these epitopes, rendering the vaccine useless. Also, the vaccines were created based on the original genome of the virus after it was first sequenced and made public in January, but the clinical trials data shows that it provided effective protection against variants of the virus that ocurred later this year. And even if there happened to be a new variant some day in the future that somehow rendered the existing vaccines completely useless, it's not that much of a big deal anyway - the biggest advantage of mRNA vaccines is the fact that they can be created extremely fast, so you'd need just a few days to modify the existing ones to target the new variant instead of the original one.

The cynic in me says it's all a bit timely these new strains come in ready for a lockdown in Jan, ready made excuses for further restrictions as well from Boxing Day

It looks UKIP have gained a lot of areas, labour taking back Midlands and Northern areas. Tory blue nowhere to be seen which is great

Carnt weet t' gerr'ar fish back from fook'n Pierre like, 'longs t'us dunnit? Simple as like, gorra luv bulldog bozza sennin' are navy lads in, sort vose bloodeh shirteh continennuls owt, put 'em in veir place like gerrum t' pipe down, 'e dunt bloodeh muck around! Luv me captain bullseye fishfingurs me, an'now wiv ate Brexit get 'em cheeper at Iceland like, propa pukka tha', carnt weet t' sit on sofa wotchin' t' norf la's giv' vem soufers good fook'n bel'in' on Sky Sports on t' noo tele wiv me fish finger barm, fook'n 'appeh dehs Fumin'

Nice landing animation...

Use to watch it but now it's just too long. Saw it shambolic, Cricket is one sport that has massively benefited from technology this shouldn't be happening in this day and age

Meanwhile at Newcastle....

I bought all three tomes of 1Q84 today... That will be my next one after I finish the Wernher von Braun biography. Thanks for bringing me back to Murakami's world

As much as I hate the blitz spirit thing and the shit attitude to personal health in the UK, there are huge cultural differences that you can't ignore. The measures taken by some of the Eastern countries to contain the virus simply aren't viable in Western countries. Some of them would laugh at what we call a "lockdown" compared to, say, the original Wuhan lockdown and there's no way you can get a South Korean style test and trace system running in a country like the UK where people think that their personal liberty and privacy come above a public health crisis - and to be fair, we don't have massive trust in governance in the West, often with good reason, so can you blame people for having this attitude? What I will say is that the UK has become a country that feeds off of conflict and "otherism". Whether it be Muslims, immigrants, the EU, the public sector, the media in the UK has made it an art form turning the public against each other. Readers of the Mail and the Sun always have something to be angry at, someone to blame their lives on, and its never rich white men who inherited their wealth, have never genuinely worked for their position in life, pay their taxes overseas and get elected to run the country because of their posh accents and because they more or less look and sound like the ones that came before them and because of their upbringing, genuinely don't see why they should use their massive advantages to make other peoples' lives better at little or no cost to themselves. But I'm going to stop there before I go off on one properly.

Might be controversial but I'll put this out there: the multi million business of care homes is a moral stain on this country. Only the most exceptional circumstances should an elderly person go to a car home, the family should take care of them. They looked after us as kids and we should look after them when they are old. It is the absolute epitome of Thatcherism that they are seen as annoying, dispensable people who we can lump off. I sincerely hope that if I have any children they love me enough not not to put me in a home, the most cruel fate for anyone.

Let's just say that as someone coming from a small country that has been screwed by many "great powers" throughout the history, I'm not particularly fond of any of them.

Luv me Brexit. Luv me Strictly. 'ate Lockdown. 'ate Remoaners. Simple as.

Sorry for the delay people. I was going to let you know how my 'injection' went, but I gave been put on a lower list - mainly due to a blood test that shows a high level of antibodies and that somewhere between March and now I have had the virus, lived with and beaten it - not sure how, never had any indication that it was there and my 'bubble' of 3 of us are all tested positive with antibodies so we are somewhat safe for the moment. The nurse told me that there are more old people like me and that if it is easy for you to get a blood test then do it as there are quite a few of us feeling happier today! Don't ask why or how or anything - I just feel that my years in the RAF when they pumped all sorts into me in the Far East - including a visit to Christmas Island in 1957 seems to have strengthened my immune system somewhat. Watch this space (if you want)

This probably won't mean much to anyone else on here but @Dan, but we just unveiled our new training ground complex today and it looks fucking sensational if I may say so myself. Considering 10 years ago we'd only just come out of League One, nearly another 10 years before that we'd nearly gone in to administration, and just within the last 5 years we got promoted to PL for first time since 2004, won it, played in Europe twice. Our club has been elevated an absolutely huge amount and of course a massive part of that has been down to our owners. It's hard to put in to words just how much our club has grown in stature in the last decade, or even less.

It's good news. Thank fuck.

Kewell,