What side effects have been reported with this vaccine?
The most common side effect is a sore arm, which happens to one out of two adults and one out of five children. Less common side effects include headache, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, or tiredness. When these problems happen, they usually start 3-5 days after vaccination and usually last for one or two days.
- so that explains it then. A pint or three tonight should sort me out.
This August bank holiday H., C. and I drove up to Carlisle. We drove up on the Thursday night to give us more time - a long drive which saw us rolling into my mum’s drive at around 1.30am.
The Friday saw us cleaning out the duck pond and sitting around beneath a large yellow hot thing that hung in the sky. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but I vaguely remember seeing something like it about three months ago… Friday night we went out for dinner with the sisters, their partners, and ‘the mad auntie’. The night quickly degenerated into the mad auntie and the mother howling and cackling loudly while the rest of us sat around in awkward silence. I’m not sure I had the chance to say more than a sentence to either of my sisters - which was a shame, bearing in mind I haven’t seen them for about six months.
On Saturday H. and I drove to the Samye Ling Buddhist Centre in Scotland, then on to Kielder Resevoir. We tend to visit the centre most times I’m up in Carlisle; but this time, after playing with the ’singling bowls in the shop for half an hour, we decided to stray from the beaten path through a small wood. In the wood we found several small temples and on the other side: a whole area of the centre which I’d never seen before. There was a lake, a large shrine surrounded by tourist offerings and a new temple srrounded by brass prayer wheels in constant rotation in which ‘wakes’ are held for the recently deceased. The temple building also holds the ashes of pets and humans alike. The butter-lamp building nearby holds approximately 1200 lamps (although all are lit only on special occassions). Returning to the car I discovered that I’d left the side lights on and the battery was flat; but luckily a handy monk with a tractor was around to give me a jump start. We headed off for Kielder, but ten minutes from our destination got the fear that the car wouldn’t start again - so just headed home instead; the drive across the moors between Langholm and Newcastleton had made the journey worthwhile.
On Sunday we drove to Beamish Museum in County Durham; a museum generally derided by young North Easterners - it is, a decent enough day out if the weather is fine (photos). After four hours of H. putting on her best Geordie accent for the benefit of the locals we headed back - missing out on some of the attractions, tempted back home by the promise of a BBQ back at the mother’s house.
It would appear that today, three is the magic number. This is the third time that pictures of mine have been included in Schmap, and this time around the photo is one I took of three figures standing near Beachy Head, a notorious suicide spot in East Sussex.
Word.
A fairly low-key weekend, this one. A gloriously sunny Saturday was spent driving to and from South London and buying vegetarian sausages in Beckenham. In the evening, we popped over to Clapton for a BBQ with D. & B. and listened to the music from the nearby Field Day Festival drifting over from Victoria Park.
On Sunday we went to an exhibition at The City Hall Gallery, it wasn’t great - but afterwards we popped up to Bar Italia in Soho for the weekly scooter club meet, a coffee and a fun six-bike ride-out to Putney and back. I looked out of the (westerly) window before going to bed, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Perseid Shower and saw a single shooting star almost immediately. Unfortunately a big tree obscures my North eastern view from the flat, so that was my lot; and another ten minutes stood gazing out of the window until my eyes hurt produced no more sightings.
As you might know, I’ve started going to the gym a few times a week. In one of the rooms, everything is in the dark, save some UV lights and a huge video screen at the front. They play some very crappy stuff for the most part; but a few of the tracks are starting to sink into my brain. See what you think…
de Souza feat: Shena - ‘Guilty ‘:
Camille Jones - ‘Creeps’:
Mason vs. Princess Superstar - ‘Perfect’
WalkScore helps people find walkable places to live by calculating the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. I managed to get a kinda, sorta respectable score of 75%, better than my place of work with 73%, but a fraction behind the Queen, who gets 82% when staying in her Buckingham Palace pad. Living behind Selfridges on Oxford Street achieves ‘walker’s paradise’ status of 95%.
My mum got a crappy 4%. 
Friday night:
City stroll. On Friday night after a few drinks on the South Bank, H. and I decided to walk (most of the way) home through the city. Initially prompted by her comment that she had never walked across the ‘wobbly bridge‘, we continued on, past St. Paul’s, and through the City to Liverpool Street. We walked past Bow Church (from where the famous ‘Bow Bells’ ring out), past various architectural and historical marvels, argued about whether particular buildings were Art Nouveau or not, and stumbled into Guildhall Yard. A beautiful complex at night, lit by Victorian gas lamps and deadly quiet - you could almost hear the hooves of Victorian horse drawn carriages in the streets around. I must go back there and take some pictures one day.
Saturday:
On Saturday afternoon, I met H. at Shoreditch Festival. Although the event was, arguably, for the kids - I was there to take pictures. It was a beautiful hot day with blue skies and the colors of the festival shone.
After the festival we took a walk up Broadway Market before deciding to give London Fields Lido a whirl. The Lido is a recently refurbished outdoor swimming pool in the park, 5 minutes walk from my flat. There’s secure lockers and changing facilities as well as plenty of room to throw down a towel, sunbathe and sit with an ice cream. I’ve only ever been to indoor swimming pools in this country before, so it was quite an eye-opener; a great experience that I will be repeating, soon.
Sunday:
On Sunday afternoon we took the tube to Great Portland Street and took a short walk into Regent’s Park for the Innocent Festival. Primarily, I went because I wanted to see Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis: a band I’d heard a lot of great things about. The band is composed of three teenagers, their mum, and their dad - and they are awesome. I took a few half-decent pictures; Lewis in particular is very photogenic, looking very much like a young Elvis Presley.
On the way home, we alighted at Old Street, and walked up through Hoxton to revisit Shoreditch Festival.
I’m going to finish this post tonight, I think - come back later. 
A few weird dreams last night that I thought I would document.
Firstly, it was explained to me (in a dream) where the term ‘for whom the bell tolls’ originates. Apparently it’s because when someone drowns, their last breath rises to the surface as a large air bubble, when this air breaks the surface of the water the ripples hit a large bell, causing it to ring. The person for ‘whom the bell tolls’ is the recently deceased person at the bottom of the lake.
Secondly, it appears that Sunderland was once a great empire on a par with Rome. This has been proven through the discovery of ancient coins bearing the heads of Asterix (The Gaul) and Obelix. Unfortunately, the empire was hit by a car and now stands at an angle of forty five degrees making it very difficult to stay on a bar stool in Sunderland.
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