Flower Friday

Just a photo of one of the little flowers in my garden for Flower Friday. I've had a busy day. I was in Norwich for 8:45 to do the first part of my new car transaction, getting my old car re-valued, doing most of the paperwork, selling them my car and paying the balance, then my dash cam will be transferred to the new car tomorrow and it will be delivered on Monday. When I did the deal 5 months ago, it felt a very vague contract as in response to my queries I was told the new car value could go up (it didn't) and the part exchange price could go down (it did). I'd asked for the revaluation to be several weeks before the new car was available - in the end it was the same day as the sale. Obviously you know what's coming next - they valued it at 16% less than they did in Nov, and I negotiated to 9% less (actually an extra discount on the new car). Partly this is just the market being all over the place (I did get online valuations each time), but I know they initially overvalued it against a quote I got in Nov, so I expected a bit of wiggle room on the revised quote which was close to the online valuation I got yesterday. What annoys me most is I guessed what tactics would be tried and am willing to push back, no doubt a lot of people wouldn't. The other thing that surprised me is that I was able to pay with my debit card just using my pin - no call back, no text with an authorisation code - just bizarre. Very kindly, G drove all the way to Norwich to give me a lift home. A beautiful sunny day today with lovely blue sky. 

Day 766 / Day 57 of no Legal Covid Requirements in England (for my record only)
The weekly ONS infection survey of private households to 16th Apr showed 3.8m across the UK had the virus (down but still very high); that's 1 in 17 in England (down - the NE still has the highest levels); 1 in 19 in Scotland (down); 1 in 15 in Wales (down) and 1 in 30 (down materially). For the first time the survey attempted to calculate the cumulative number of people who've had the virus between 27/4/20 and 11th Feb 2022 in England, which was 70.7% (interestingly the vast majority of people I know haven't had the virus yet, so presumably that's most younger people). In Scotland it's 51.5% between 22/9/20 and 11/2/22; Wales was 56% of the population between 30/6/20 and 11/2/22; and in NI it was 72.2% of the population between 27/7/20 and 11/2/22. A third of people over 75 in England have now had their Spring booster. A longer interval between primary Covid vaccine doses has been found to boost antibody production by up to 9 times. Researchers have found the virus in people's intestinal tract for months after it has cleared from the lungs, with some patients having ongoing gastro intestinal symptoms. In the UK, the longest Covid infection lasted 16 months despite being given anti virals (tests showed it was the same genetic signature), unfortunately the patient who had a weakened immune system died. The share of online sales has now returned to pre-pandemic levels.