Sheringham Park

G, H and I did a lovely long walk at Sheringham Park today. It was lovely to see flowers on the rhododendrons already, although not sure it's a good sign re global warming. There's been a lot of thinning out of woods locally and there was one tree being felled today. We assume it's to let more light in and maybe add more diversity. Is anyone else finding activity like this in their area?

This afternoon I spent about an hour trying to sort out a banking error I found out from my bank statement received today. The credit card company set up a new DD at my bank which failed 8 days ago - but neither company thought it worth telling me. The CC company blames my bank and my bank blames the CC company. I've asked the CC company to set up a new mandate at my bank and they've waived the charge and interest, but having told them they've now blocked my card for 2 days even though I paid by debit card when I rang them. They also can't tell me if it will affect my credit file. Why are companies so rubbish these days?

Day 689 / Day 8 Post Plan B (for my record only)
The Novavak vaccine Nuvaxovid has been approved by the MHRA for use in the UK - the Company is working on a tweaked version for Omicron. It is a new type of vaccine which is based on the virus protein and not it's genetic material, the UK ordered 60m doses in 2020 and it will be interesting to see how it is best used. 1 in 33 NHS staff in England were off sick with Covid or self isolating in the last week of Jan. SKY is reporting sources as saying that up to 3.5m vaccine doses that are 'sitting in fridges' are likely to be binned - another waste of money. The post-Covid global cost of living crunch is really hitting hard, particularly on energy costs, with the Ofgem price cap on default tariffs increasing on average by an astonishing £693 p.a. which is 54%. The Chancellor is offering support via a £200 loan to all households repayable over 5 years via energy suppliers, a £150 council house rebate for those in lower bands A to D, and a local authority discretionary fund of £50m. The gap between interest rates of about 0.25% and inflation of 4.8% as at Dec (forecast 7% by April) is as big a problem for pensioners relying on savings.