Another week, another school has been attacked. Currie Primary School in the Tiger’s Bay area of Belfast has been vandalised. Not yet two weeks ago I was there for the first time to cast my vote in the European Election. Today, the school is closed while a clean up operation starts. £300 was also stolen from the premises. Surely now is a time to wonder about keeping such somes of money on school premises over the weekend. Continue reading Currie Primary vandalised
Dating system Since I started this diary of events I have been using ‘days since diagnosis‘ as my dates. However it has come to me that this is actually turning into somewhat of a countdown (or rather count-up) to when things are worse than they are currently. For this reason, I have decided to revert to the actual date for posts from now on. There may be an alternative title on occasion but, in general, it will be the date. Life in general This morning I was awake very early. As I got up I heard the birds singing and … Continue reading June 11
Nearly eleven weeks on. And feeling not too bad, even after the counselling ‘incident’ on Monday. I have many good friends around from all over the country and I am getting through this with their support. Yesterday and today have such good weather – I may end up taking some of the afternoon off and going out into the sun – or if not, I may just do something nice this evening. Continue reading Day 77
It’s just over a week since Coronation Day and the Flag’s flying high over Stormont once more. It seems that to prevent the error of flying the Flag upside down, it wasn’t being flown at all at Dundonald House—until I pointed out the lack of Union Flag. The reason for the flying is, of course, the anniversary of the birth of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, Baron Greenwich, KG, KT, GBE, OM, AC, QSO, GCL, CD, PC, ADC, RSerafO, GCTE. His Royal Highness is the husband of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, and is … Continue reading Flags at Stormont again
Counselling Today I walked out of my counselling session. I really don’t see the point. I go in feeling happy, and during it we seem to get on to irrelevancies. It doesn’t help how I feel. And right now, it is money worries that are affecting me more than feelings about how I became infected. Continue reading Day 75
Euro Elections turnout are record low With the ongoing expenses saga at Westminster, and the long running inaction at Stormont, it is unsurprising that over nearly 60% of Northern Ireland’s electorate stayed away from the polling stations on Thursday. When touring some polling stations in North Belfast on Thursday evening looking for the totals at 9pm of how many people had voted, I realised it was going to be a low turnout. But only when I got into the second polling station did I realise just how low. Then I got to the Verification at the King’s Hall yesterday. And … Continue reading 60% stay away from voting
The fiftieth day since I was diagnosed and in some ways it feels like Day One was only yesterday: in other ways it feels like it was longer than fifty days ago. Counselling Yesterday I had my first counselling session at a local support centre. There are a number of issues that came out of that first session: but the one with the priority is ‘learning to cope with being HIV positive’. Anything else that is in the background can wait – if it has waited this long, it can wait a bit longer. Food Food is now becoming a bit … Continue reading Day 50 – Half a century of days
Well it happened on Day 43, I got new medication from the consultant. Basicaly the diarrhoea and tiredness were getting too much and so the Kaletra has been stopped. The replacement is Prezista® and is taken at the same time as Ritonavir. Hopefully this will make life a bit easier. Food is still a problem but I am getting there a bit better. Some days are easier than others as I have easy access to food in the staff canteen. Other days are more problematic as I am at home on my own. Continue reading Day 47 – New Meds
Six weeks since diagnosis: amazing how time flies when you are having fun! Or more properly when you are learning to cope and to live once again. Seriously though, life is now looking much better than it did prior to diagnosis. Now I know it is easier to know what to do to try and help me get through this. I have found many many new friends some of whom are also positive. The support that is around is great. But I still have the loneliness of sitting at home in the morning as I get up to take my … Continue reading Day 42
Well, what a week it has been! Life rather caught hold of me and I managed to not get around to posting to this blog for quite some time. I am still hating my tablets but I am still taking them. So good boy that I am. I have found a new friend – just when I had given up and wasn’t going to even attempt to find such a person. He happened to walk across a computer screen a few weeks ago, and then I met him last weekend. Met in reality that is. It was a bit of … Continue reading Day 39
Gyronny Herald 