Okay I'm not - necessarily - making a Mandela out of this, but....Lyme disease.
Whaaa!?
Apparently it's quite a big problem in the UK right now:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-48606826
Since when has Lyme disease existed in the UK and how come that it is only now starting to filter into my consciousness?
So, apparently, if you get bitten by certaini ticks - mostly found in wooded areas - you can contracxt Lyme disease - and the symptoms can be very debilitating.
Now when I was a lad my grandparents lived near a forested area and my sister, brother and me would spend hour upon hour explroring that environment - even on some occcasions camping out in it*. We were warned about swamps, about wild horses,about treesapassing, about dodgy strangers, - but never was there any concern about, or mention of, Lyme disease and nor had I heard about any one else getting it.
Nowadays forested parks in Europe (and even Russia) feature scary signposts showing dangerous ticks - warning you not to sit down too long in certain areas - and generally to keep an eye out for them - for fear of getting Lyme disease. But this is all new to me!
In fact I can't think of a time when this ailment has featured in English Literature (which I have studied to higher degree level). You might have thought that a realistic, somewhat gloomy, rural writer like Thomas Hardy would have mentioned Lynme disease somehwere if it had been a reaL problem then (perhaps by another name) - but I can't recall anything like that.
As far as I knew dangerous insect bites were the province of hotter, southerly climes. Of course, one would get bitten by something out in the sticks...but it was an annoyance and never an issue in the UK, or northern Europe.
Which brings me onto my next question: i
s this spread of Lyme disease related to climate change at all? And if so, why aren't I hearing people say this?
No doubt I'll now be deluged by indignant answers from `Lyme disease survivors` who will tell me to cover myself in cellophane whenver I go to the woods or, I'll be the next victim....
* Then we got the tram home for thruppence and had kippers for supper.