It is a wet and thoroughly miserable day here in Umbria today. It seems that after a summer of intense heat, never-ending sunshine and balmy weather we are now receiving the rain in almost quantities experienced by many other countries. Recently there was bad flooding in parts of Umbria, fortunately Bellaugello Gay Guest House being situated half way up a hill was not flooded, just rather soggy. I seem to spend my time clearing ditches, cleaning the swimming pool of never ending quantities of fallen leaves, drying decidedly damp dogs and generally mopping up.
So it was in the barrage of rain that I headed off to my local town of Gubbio to do the mundane, get some shopping and pick up my repeat prescription from the doctor. My doctor is a great chap, not only a good medical man, but also highly versed in homeopathy, the sort of guy you can chat to and feel reassured.
Whilst checking online my prescription he remarked that the local area health board have me down as requiring a winter ‘flu jab. Now I am not a fan of the winter ‘flu jab. Many years ago I had friends in England who annually took the jab, and it was them that seemed to suffer the most from winter colds and ‘flu. Despite my asthma I have never succumbed to the jab, in common with almost everybody I get the odd winter cold but through time manage to shrug it off, and it was this sentiment I expressed to my doctor. He was in total agreement, citing research done in the USA into early causes of death on asthmatic patients which showed that 70% had taken the jab, not a good prognosis. His advice said with beaming smile was clear as day. He needs to administer it to keep his job, “consider it done!”