sohfree

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Thank you, modern science. mRNA vaccine technology has been ~20yrs in the making; it’s been developed and tested for human use, for things like the flu, but the Covid-19 vaccine is the first of its kind to be licensed. I feel grateful that we as a species have had the brain power and agency to produce something that materially aids our ability to fight a pandemic. Surely, this will not be our last pandemic, and aside from smallpox and rinderpest we’ve never managed to eradicate diseases; but there is something tangibly comforting in that small sting in my arm: the idea (even if proven wrong down the line) that we can come up with the means to fight, in such a short span of time. The quickest development time - albeit for a vector vaccine - was four years, for mumps, so under 12 months is a remarkable achievement. For an interesting podcast on vaccines, check out “The Great Vaccinator” on @radiolab #vaccine https://www.instagram.com/p/CPqb0gRHVBGk_piHpRDEFOfymGcSJXEEaa0r2Q0/?utm_medium=tumblr

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My turn on the @wahoofitnessofficial Kickr Core @livcyclinguk #livthrive2 @psyclelondon #psycleathome https://www.instagram.com/p/CKJeVHMnJ4p0vql3PhYUvhI0ob29zqOPJQhJDY0/?igshid=yiyus1ju5mpq

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Think this will be one for the history books. #2020part2 https://www.instagram.com/p/CJt2ZBYHw2ud0GT3DjEdSBS30YzaXbizY7FFpU0/?igshid=1bojojzd080b2

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+3 from 2019 for a total of 12 reads in 2020. Looking back I feel like I could’ve carved out more reading time but it was 2020 so I think we all deserve a break. Speaking of breaks, t’was a more fiction-leaning year. Was I trying to escape reality? Maybe figuratively, but not to any more pleasant ones, apparently: I finished one trilogy (Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem) while starting two others (Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall; Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights) meaning my preferred alternate reality includes alien invasions, royal beheadings, and adults out to harm children who have lifelong pets. Moving on - I was definitely inspired to include BLM literature mid-year and they were so good I wondered why I’d never picked up these books before (Girl, Woman, Other and Citizen). Thank you sister-in-law for an excellent late-summer recommendation of Colm Toibin’s House of Names, which unexpectedly (not sure what I was expecting from the author of Brooklyn) was a re-telling of the tragedy of Agamemnon, Clymenestra, and their children. On the non-fiction front, hubby gifted me John Kay/Mervyn King’s new book which reiterated how bad we are (I am) at understanding the science of statistics; Minsky’s Stabilising an Unstable Economy took all year to get thru but is so applicable to today that it’s hard to believe it was originally written in 1986. I then saw Adele (yes, the singer) rave about Jenkins’ travelogue, and took that up thinking perhaps it was the next new Shantaram (remember when that book was all the rage?), and finally closed the year out with a tribute to RBG, because how can you not. I still think I bought more books this year than I’ve read... hope to do better in 2021. Well, I hope the year as a whole will be better in 2021. So long, 2020 - can’t say I’ll miss ya much. #reading #bookworm https://www.instagram.com/p/CJduI3Lnd9SXoeI7xHx1g7jaiZZrfq9ju2rfSw0/?igshid=1v3sixwdnbh4r

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Our 2021 race calendar with @maverickrace 3 deferred from 2020 and 5 additional ones for a total of 8! #trailrunning #running https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTS40LHLRlsnhxU2LbfHSDl59eKSIvRBedYG80/?igshid=1pfat7wahineo

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Our 2021 @maverickrace schedule! 3 races deferred from 2020, and 5 new ones #trailrunning #running https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTPbWAHY2vChWR1FZs8lv7j_uSz2h1fO4-2Ms0/?igshid=1jvk520mdoc2m

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Here’s Christmas in 2020. Lots to be grateful for - our health, our jobs, our home, our friends and family, and most importantly all the essential workers who have toiled and out their lives at risk so the rest of case can live 🌈. But also lots to be sad about. For me, notably - we’ve been on walks a few times the course of the year - and been dismayed many times over by the number of people who weren’t wearing masks 😷 or not wearing them properly, when there were clearly lots of people around. “A violation of my rights,” “It’s a faff,” “It fogs up my glasses,” “I don’t have covid,” etc, the excuses are endless. You know, the mask-wearing emoji existed BEFORE this pandemic, and the reason why is because all of Asia (where emoji’s were born) wears masks every year in flu season, to keep the virus from spreading. Everyone from preschool-attending kids to centenarian grandparents understand the benefits of wearing a mask. Regardless of what’s dictated by the govt and what’s not, the science and evidence was clear from Lockdown 1: Covid-19 travels through the air, and gets into your system. A mask (and washing hands, and social distancing, for that matter) helps prevent the virus from spreading, both from you, and to you. But not everyone here understood or accepted that, and it continues to baffle me. Well, whether or not we like it, this Christmas in this country, this is the price we have collectively agreed to pay: in the face of a new viral variant (inevitable) we are now spending each household on their own, in their own unit; and make no mistake, those civil liberties are intact, our glasses crystal clear, and nothing and no one to care about except our own selves - this is what we wanted, right? The irony that it is Christmas we’re talking about, is not lost (and as a side note: the Muslim community went thru something similar for Eid so we don’t really have legs to stand on whining about what’s happening to Christmas). Something like this would call for what the Japanese call 反省 - “hansei” - the act of self-reflection, acknowledgement of mistakes made, and a pledge for improvement. We as a country should have plenty of time to do that this year-end. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEE8Runim3SLbnY-SwJeBBdxNKn9bb73VOayk0/?igshid=rjq5pcjvj2kr

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Couch to 15km? Up hills and through the mud? Yeah, why not! @maverickrace final race of the year in East Sussex. Wow I am sore.... #running (at University of Sussex) https://www.instagram.com/p/CItXb6_HI8nQZ0zrkYM1XnQDL47WomJR588UlE0/?igshid=8bs4l3ypwqfc

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And here she is! Welcome to my playroom/home office: a Yamaha P515 digital piano! The last time I had a piano was maybe..2002, when I left Tokyo. I acquired the instrument in the early 90s, when I first started piano lessons, something I begged my parents for. The cheapest one we could afford, and accompanied by parental threats of “you’ll never be allowed to quit this” and their unsubtle judgment that there was no way I deserved such a thing. I took lessons for 10 years as I switched gears to percussion in high school. Having not touched a piano since 2002, a couple weeks ago I had an urge to play. A bit of research pointed to this beauty - Yamaha’s most recent rendition of a real piano, digitised. So stoked. Thank you husband @benwmorgan for making my small dreams come true, unconditionally and with no judgment, everyday. #birthday #lockdownbirthday #lockdownleisure https://www.instagram.com/p/CIIs1tTna5pfeKA2IEudWLNo2mprGlYJJOLKho0/?igshid=np74crovlp3p

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And then there was light... #birthday https://www.instagram.com/p/CIBynFqnTGpnOQ6cmbBCO0Sgh8Y3PLU1VgOQWU0/?igshid=r7g951l0nqpi

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There’s absolutely nothing here. https://www.instagram.com/p/CH-UbIEnvlPs9WNVtcSEZjq_RIrUVkpOuy2r5k0/?igshid=1azin6fktxjq2

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Rearranged my office to make room for a new member of my playroom... watch this space #lockdownleisure #birthday https://www.instagram.com/p/CH3IcdKHESQUko5EoEFS1mxWlZce6Q6EkcyxxI0/?igshid=dcf08e5q5bmi

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Weeknight quick pickling: radishes, yellow carrots, orange carrots. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHquibnn1DbiJSWD8wagQ3Mqpjo1skmwEKKCr80/?igshid=jqqbika06k7v

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There’s a lot of bad things happening across the world over for many decades, and some are not dissimilar to this - so this is not to negate all of that. And there are many things about Trump and his administration that I don’t agree with, but if there’s ONE thing I will never forgive nor forget this US administration for, is this. The forceful splitting of children from family members, guardians - this was unnecessary. And then to be unable to reunite them... I just can’t. I will never forgive you. https://www.instagram.com/p/CGn9F5mHSb-4G3x5w4VVnd4Op1FmOUJmnsUcIw0/?igshid=99n4mb8wdake

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Lockdown major purchase number 2: Wahoo Kicker Core @wahoofitnessofficial. (Whats was number 1? The @kamadojoeuk Kamado Joe Jr, lest we forget). I hope we use it as we go into winter and it gets wetter out - the bike on-and-off thing is a bit finicky. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFh-_l1HISpO-VDTdZ19tHhwS_AB3ZzvulY8cM0/?igshid=exbsgm4atvg5

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Home office 2.0 ahead of a potential second lockdown (?). @ikeauk has really upped their game lately with their newer designs. @madedotcom desk and chair. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFSj-odnPtQkABueHh8NYrOdz2kHxuy04j0LtA0/?igshid=zvgylpwe5xqq

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Some new flowers for the window box. #gardening https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhF5kUHBH_d4X744AqDLTBxqdmilHd-dbQRgU0/?igshid=1p3pjkw7kj88x