A Self-Willed Robot in our Cupboard.

Within the last couple of days, a chilly blast of cold air blew across the country, and it's still blowing while I'm writing. In a meteorological sense, this chilly wind is caused by two atmospheric pressure circles, one area of low pressure out in the Atlantic, and the other, an area of high pressure sitting over the North Sea and over the Scandinavian Peninsula. And so these rotating masses of air act like two mechanical rotors, each spinning at opposite directions and thus, sucking cold polar air from the Arctic between them to chill the leafy South of England's semi-rural environment bang in between the two cyclones.

A typical BBC weather map showing rain.

The change in air temperature is made remarkable by its suddenness. On one day I can go out dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt, the very next day I'm dressed in long trousers and a rainproof jacket over my shirt. Not that it rained, nor that the jacket is rainproof either, despite its description, as it lets in rainwater as easily as a sieve. But it does protect from the chilly wind.

And it was a few months earlier when our landlord (not a private individual, thank goodness, but a housing association, or as it's called in America: public housing) decided to upgrade our gas central heating system from one which was easy and straightforward to manage - to one of those computerised types which I would require a four-year graduation course before I could get to grip on how it works.

Therefore those older central heating boilers which supply hot water on demand also heats up the radiators around the house simply by turning a dial fixed to the wall. Oh, so easy! Just turn the dial clockwise by a few degrees and the boiler ignites, emitting a gentle and reassuring purr as the radiators begin to warm up. And when the house is warm enough, just turn the dial anticlockwise and the whole system once again shuts down.

But not this recently-installed system, oh no! Probably taking for granted and wrongly concluding that both Alex and I are married graduates fresh out of university, this new system does not feature a dial but two wall-fixed mini-computers with its zillions of unlabelled buttons to punch and an array of screen displays which, in short, is all about having a mind of its own, knowing when to turn itself on, how long the gas burn will continue, and when it feels right to turn itself off. Indeed, the new system actually comes with a lengthy guidebook which was deemed totally unnecessary with the old manual system.

Even the guidebook itself I have found difficult to comprehend, with its jargon of technicalities which I struggle to get my head around. Even the engineer himself, who was involved with the system installation, sounded apologetic when he tried to explain the complex workings to us. Therefore, when it turned itself on just by punching a green button on one of the mini-computers, sure enough, the radiators warmed up and heated the whole house - until I began to sweat. But I wasn't able to turn the damn thing off properly until the following morning when I spotted the "Off" mode on the other wall gadget, tucked away in the boiler cupboard, and activated it. When the system shut down and the radiators started to cool, I felt immense relief.

Really, I'm beginning to wonder whether there's something going on between our landlords, the makers of this heating system and the energy supplier. A triangle of conspiracy to set up some kind of correlation in which the energy company will make the most profit while the other two receives some kind of reward or benefit - all on the customer's expense.

Which is totally pointless. When we first moved into our present home, although the wall-cavity insulation was already in place, the house had droughty single-pane windows. Almost straight away, I went up to the desk of our association office and asked whether we can have double-pane windows and doors installed which at the time would benefit our two young daughters. Amazingly, after several weeks, my request was granted. Since then, we already have two individual heaters of our own. One is a portable convection heater, which is used for upstairs if necessary. The other is a fan-booster which we use downstairs. Oh, they're so easy to use. A single turn of a dial and Wolla! The room is warm within minutes.

Our Glen fan heater is even simpler: just one dial.

All these mod-cons which makes homelife so wretchedly complicated, what is the whole purpose of this? What are they trying to prove? Why such needless complexity when simplicity is not only still available but has been thriving for so long, decades even?

And so the chills of Autumn begins to be felt, as the season personified, so each year, he rests his hand upon the shoulder of the balmy warmth of Summer and tells him to move on. Gone are the display of bare lower legs in the street, along with mere tee-shirts or even tank tops. In come long-legged trousers, ties, jackets, raincoats, all which defines our British temperate climate on our population with an annual cycle of warmth and cold.

Together with the threat of a second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. Alongside with Autumn claiming the throne for the next three months, there are theories passed around the academic community that the virus will thrive better in cooler weather. We see quite a massive rise in cases of new infections, at present over 6,000 per day. And these are all confirmed cases. With the numbers of untested cases, the statistics could be a lot higher. Yet, at the moment hospital admissions remain low, and the death rate from, or with, coronavirus, remain even lower, at this moment, averaging less than thirty per day.

Of course, the death rate could well shoot up to more than a thousand per day, as it was back in April here in the UK. Indeed, that could happen. Therefore our government-imposed national blanket restrictions of pubs, coffee bars and all restaurants to close by 22.00 hours, with all customers emptied from the premises before then. Which raises one or two eyebrows. I pretty much doubt that our PM coined this restriction from his own initiative. Rather, he has gotten this recommendation from advisors, both from scientists and political sources alike.

Already, I have seen the repercussions. Instead of a gradual, staggered emptying of pubs and restaurants as during normal times, there is a crowd gathering in the street, which tend to mingle freely before dispersion. Won't that encourage the rate of infection? And the wearing of facemasks under compulsion. Is this really working? Along with the rule that no more than six people are allowed to gather in our homes, gardens or any public venues. Here, I find this rather distressing, literally telling us what to do within the privacy of our own homes. Not to mention the threat of some snitch informing the police if there happens to be seven or more of us together. And there are areas in the UK when a fuller lockdown has been implemented, due to a sudden local spike of infections. Within these areas, even a home visit by a single friend is outlawed.

Many Christians will bow to such restrictions wholeheartedly, believing that they are fulfilling their duty. Others are also gripped by fear, and it's this fear which keeps close friends and even relatives away from each other. The Biblical principle of Christians sharing a meal and fellowship at another's home has all been made illegal, with heavy fines foisted on transgressors. And all this could happen in the area of the UK where I live. 

But isn't self-isolation to prevent a spread a Biblical principle? Here, history can be referred to. The Bubonic Plague of the 12th Century was ravaging out of control across Europe. People by the millions were dropping dead left, right and centre. Even the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring of Roses referred directly to this plague. The physicians of the day were totally at a loss of what to do. Therefore they turned desperately to the Church. Its leaders turned to the Bible, and have found in Leviticus 13:1-46, God giving the instruction on what to do if a patient has a contaminable skin disease or leprosy. Here, the one affected with the disease was to remain isolated from the community for seven days, with the possibility of another seven days if nothing had changed. If declared healed or making progress in recovery by the priest, he then must bathe and wash his clothes before rejoining the community.

Just one word here. Many modern versions of the Bible have the words ceremoniously clean embedded in the chapter. But the word ceremoniously does not appear in the KJV and I believe it's not in the original Hebrew either. If that is true, then the text indicates some invisible agent responsible for spreading the infection, which is true to modern science.

The Church then enforced isolation of all diseased persons from the community. It was through this method that the Bubonic plague was eventually brought under control. However, I have spotted a remarkable difference between what the Bible is instructing and how the 12th Century Church applied such principles - and the principles of isolation applied at present. That is, the instruction to restrict socialisation (including church worship) whether one is infected or not. In other words, at present, you must obey whether you have the virus or not. If only a small percentage are infected, then the Bible does not call for everyone to isolate. Therefore, what I have seen and partook in within this year, a total national lockdown seems to have been an ill wind which blows nobody any good.

Thus the inadequate testing system here in the UK, according to the media. In the Bible, everyone who had an infection had to report to a priest for a thorough examination and diagnosis. That was equivalent to a test at present. The priest was trained to be a medic in recognising a particular illness but without offering an effective cure, save to isolate. The modern test looks to be the same, a diagnosis without offering a cure. But oh, the complexities of today! For example, why aren't there far more tests carried out than at present? Why do people have to travel great distances just to get a test - and find that one isn't available after all, hence a wasted journey? And why, despite the high demand, many a test centre stands empty? And why was I refused a test when I asked for one back in the Spring?

Complications, complications - making testing for the viral infection far less effective. Exactly like the complexities in our new central heating system, making it far less useful to us than the simpler version it has replaced.