I am trying to remain cheerful in this troubled times but it is not working out very well. I have a bladder infection, it is an injustice. During my London days, whenever I has sexI would get a bladder infection. So I was paying for my sins but at least there was some enjoyment. The NHS doctors prescribed penicillin but one builds up a tolerance for it. I discussed this with a doctor
Me: It seems a waste to using penicillin. I should be saving it for pneumonia or something serious; I think I will give up sex, or at least penis-vagina sex.
He: Well you will have the talk to the man about that.
Me: Talk to the man? Why?
He: Your husband.
Me: I am not married.
He: Oh!
What a notion? That I should not have any control over my own body in order to please some man. I returned to California saw my wonderful Internist of forty years and he had another solution, which worked. But this is a first, bladder infection without sex. I have medication which I picked up yesterday – soon all will be well.
CPI in an email;
She: Haven’t heard the term home shelter before, seems almost cozy. We’re still using self-quarantine or self-isolation. The last bastions of barber shops, nail salons and tattoo parlours have been ordered closed. I’m sorry you’re going crazy but am certainly interested in the alternatives you are weighing. Can you still use the roof at least?
Me: It is all ridiculous and really quite unnecessary
Here are some of the problems to this draconian scheme:
‘Home shelter’ requires a home. What about the homeless? And they are the ones that would be most vulnerable to the disease and have no medical care. I looked out my window to see a housecleaner get out of her car with her vacuum cleaner and other necessities. Now that is someone who is sure to spread the disease, cleaning bathrooms and toilets But there seems to be no regulations on them. God forbid I should say this but dogs can be a major source of transmission of the disease. They have to be walked in order to pee and shit but they can easily get droplets on their fur – there owners pet them and they get infected. A study must be made and questions asked about dog ownership. No one would want to deal with that situation as it could be that dogs would have to be euthanized. Euthanize:put (an animal) to death humanely. Dogs have no concept of mortality, so it would not be painful for them. But dog owners would not stand for it – better the infection spread and people die, better that than Spot die. Faithful readers will know that I am not fond of dogs. A funny and rather unbelievable thing is that I was contemplating a relationship with a man who has, probably, seventy dogs. But he has a big place and I do not think they are in the living quarters. Well, they would not be if I was living there – I will be the dictator on the home front.
But back to the virus. An excellent article in the New Yorker citing the success of Hong Kong and Singapore in containing the virus with his rather heartening news. “Those of us who must go out into the world and have contact with people don’t have to panic if we find out that someone with the coronavirus has been in the same room or stood closer than we wanted for a moment. Transmission seems to occur primarily through sustained exposure in the absence of basic protection or through the lack of hand hygiene after contact with secretions.” So it is sustained exposure, not brief exposure and lack of hand hygiene. Keep washing your hands. . Stop panicking just keep washing those hands and stop petting your dogs. I do occasionally say to those lurking behind face masks;
Me: Do you have the disease? That is who is supposed to be wearing face masks.
They: (No response as they scurry away.)
And the deaths from the virus occur only in the extremely vulnerable population. For some obscure reason I know of the two deaths in the UAE. On man actually died of a heart attack and the other death was of a woman with chronic problems and kidney disease, she probably could have died from the common cold.
But more upsetting news from the Middle East – upsetting to me anyway. March 21, 2020 is Mother’s Day in Dubai and Gulf News announced that Sheikh Mohammed shares a touching tweet to take care of mothers.
“In a tweet on his official account, @HHShkMohd, Sheikh Mohammed said: “On Mother’s Day, I would love to tell everyone: take care of your mothers, keep them healthy, follow medical instructions together. Be with them at home and spend beautiful times. Take care of them because they are the most valuable thing we have in this world. Every year we should see our mothers are healthy and happy.”
I became nauseated when reading this because of the hypocrisy, which is the practice of claiming to have a higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case. Its synonyms are:
sanctimony, pietism, piousness, affected piety, affected superiority, false virtue, cant, humbug, pretence, posturing, speciousness, empty talk; insincerity, falseness, falsity, deceptiveness, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, dishonesty, dissembling, dissimulation, duplicity, imposture, two-facedness, double-dealing; informal phoneyness; rare. ANTONYMS honesty; sincerity.
How is this tweet by the Ruler of Dubai falseness, insincere, deceitful, dishonest and dissembling? The High Court in London found a pattern of intimidation of hs sixth wife – the mother of two of his children. He is not honest and sincere but the antithesis.
Faithful readers will know that I was sexually and physically abused by my father from the age of six until the age of seventeen. I have not, nor will not forgive him but perhaps exercise Islamic forbearance. My father had a difficult life; he was one of eight sons, his mother died when he was eleven, his nurturing grandmother one year later. His schooling meagre, the ninth grade. Then at the age of twenty he became a soldier in World War Two and was sent to Holland to kill Germans, returning to abuse his daughter who he barely knew as he was off fighting in the war. He was married to a rather crazy woman, my mother, who actually encouraged his abuse.
Now that lifestyle is a bit different than that of the Ruler of Dubai. He is a graduate of Sandhurst, for example. His senior wife, whom I have met, is a lovely woman.
This from the March 5,2020 BBC News:
“A campaign of intimidation by Sheikh Mohammed’s agents began and the court heard that a gun was twice placed on her pillow with the safety catch off. A helicopter landed outside her house with a threat to remove her to a remote desert prison.
The judge ruled that “the father has therefore acted in a manner from the end of 2018 which has been aimed at intimidating and frightening the mother, and that he has encouraged others to do so on his behalf”.
In April 2019 Princess Haya fled to Britain, taking her two children with her. The court heard how veiled threats from Sheikh Mohammed had left her terrified for her own safety, as well as fears that her children could be abducted and forcibly returned to Dubai.
In May 2019 she said he told her: “You and the children will never be safe in England”. He published a poem entitled: “You lived, you died”.
The court heard how the Sheikh had used his media contacts to generate a series of negative articles about Princess Haya, many of which were “wholly inaccurate”.
This is hardly “taking care of her as she is the most valuable thing in the world.”
Perhaps he is being punished. Late breaking news: his precious Dubai 12 million World Cup race has been cancelled. Praise be to Allah.
But I did promise some more self quarantine tips from the cat.
Communicate with friends and family.
Start screaming at 6 a.m., for no reason, at anyone within hearing distance. Yowl at the birds. Walk across (or lie down on) a computer keyboard. Cry in front of the closed door to a room you’re not supposed to be in anyway. Bite a phone. Yell into your full bowl of food.
Stay hydrated.
Drink plenty of water, ideally directly from a running faucet.
Take on a project.
Hide all of your toys under the couch. Shred loose pieces of paper. Pull apart your roommate’s chair. Rub your hair on every article of clothing you can find. Shit in a box and then completely cover it up.
Meditate.
Stare at a spot on the wall or ceiling for six minutes.
Practice social distancing.
Stay away from humans. Hiss if you have to.
On that high note, I shall close.
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