Almost too late

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Why did I wait so long to do this? It is so easy. Voting by post means that I could sit at the kitchen table and take my time. I posted the voting slip a week early, but if you do that you cannot change your mind.

Mind you, there are lots of people who do not vote at all. Many of the people in Hull near where I was born do not vote. They had the lowest voter turnout in UK at the last general election. Shropshire fares better thank goodness. Some people think that it should be compulsory to vote, I have a friend with dual nationality and she has to post her vote abroad at their election time otherwise she will get a fine.

Another thing that some people have stopped doing is getting their Covid jab. Some relatives have had Covid again, so I booked online for a jab, but then I was ill and had to postpone, then I was away and so it went on until I found that I was running out of time when the spring booster vaccine was available. Again, I went online to change the date. When you want to swap the time, the site holds your original date until you find a better one and then it asks if you still want to change.

My jab was at our local chemist and as I was in the last day or two, I thought that it would be quiet but not a bit of it, there was a queue and the chemist said that the phone had been ringing all day for people wanting to book at the last minute. As I left the shrill phone call rang into the street.

I have not seen or heard many swifts this year until yesterday. They used to scream around our house and you would look up startled and there they were cutting through the sky in flocks, but not this year. Then, when I had been to an evening conversation group and was heading back to my car in the dusk, I heard them suddenly whooshing out of the grey sky with that familiar scream. I saw them above some old buildings and then racing along the streets. They were here at after all.

‘Wish you were here’ is the tongue in cheek message that you were supposed to write on postcards. I got one the other day from a friend who is abroad, but we usually send emails now with photos attached. Do you remember when we used to stick postcards on fridges or on our kitchen cupboard doors?  They were trophies of how popular you were.

(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star - the day before the election)



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