So Christmas is cancelled

Not so much mine, because I already wasn't planning to travel, but Boris just held a press-conference and they've just cut a five day national travel window (due to start in four days) and up to three households together for Christmas, to one day and two, and that only if you don't live in Kent (where I am), London and parts of the South East, which are back into full lockdown now christened Tier 4, with no set expiry.

The reason is a new Covid variant that seems to have evolved in Kent in September, and is already running at over 60% of cases in the South East due to increased transmissability, seemingly about 70% above the common strain. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be any more lethal, but it pushes R up by about .4 from what it was.

That short notice is going to be awkward for people who weren't planning on Christmas at home, but fortunately for me I'm well stocked, and I have another food delivery due on the 28th that I can tweak as needed.

But in better news, my mother just had the vaccination about an hour ago, and so did a whole bunch of her cronies. From her description, it was even less of an event than getting the flu vaccine, apart from needing to hang around for 15 minutes afterwards in case of allergic reaction. Boris mentioned that around 350,000 people have already had it, so they're definitely not hanging around.