If ever you were going to be thankful to live in Scotland it’s surely when these deadly heatwaves hit Southern Europe.
Even though this time it’s going to miss the UK, we are set for temperatures to rise later in the month.
Scotland thankfully never seems to suffer in the same way as it does down south and although we may all like a bit of sunny weather, that heatwave we had last year was just too much.
Temperatures in Italy this week have reached 48 degrees.
My friend Mandy is on holiday on the Isle of Lewis at the moment and it looks just perfect. I have other friends who are in Rome and struggling with the heat.
Scotland really is going to be one of the holiday hotspots in years to come. We just need to get rid of those midges!
Last weekend I went to Amsterdam to visit Ollie and it was just what I needed. We went to the Botanic Gardens, we walked around the canals, we sat chatting in cafes and had no agenda really.
Sometimes a weekend with no particular plans is so nice. I really miss hanging out with him and I’m so proud of how he now speaks fluent Dutch and has made a life for himself over there.
It’s tough as parents to let them go but we also do get great pleasure in seeing them build a life independently of us.
I also enjoyed the weekend because all the worries of last week have passed. Gordon got good stable results from his scans and life suddenly feels so much brighter again.
So, it seems like I’m not alone in my diagnosis of pre-diabetes and I was really interested to hear your differing views on it.
One lady who had gestational diabetes in pregnancy explained that pre-diabetes can then be a problem afterwards. A few people told me how it runs in their family and it’s always been something they knew was likely.
So much for my guilt at having caused mine. Many people are unlucky enough to get it or indeed actual type-two diabetes without having piled on the pounds like me or overindulged on the sweet stuff.
So, I still stand by the fact that mine is self-inflicted and I can do something about it.
There is an NHS help group that I have automatically been enrolled on so it will be interesting to go along to meetings every two weeks which my family have affectionately named ‘Mum’s Fat Club’.
BBC presenter
So, after a lengthy period of speculation during which several TV presenters have been forced to come forward to say it’s not them, an announcement came from Huw Edwards’s wife that he is the presenter behind the whole saga playing out in the media.
The Sun alleged that the presenter paid a young person, now aged 20, for photographs and suggested this started when the person was 17 years old.
This seems so out of character for the extremely professional man we see on our screens, who appeared to embody family values and was the public figure chosen to broadcast at many state occasions.
However, perhaps this is the problem. As I sadly know from my job, there is a huge pressure on people who portray a perfect image in public. If people put you on a pedestal, that can be an impossible way to live your life.
On Thursday, I heard the only interview on the matter I needed to hear. Jon Sopel, a former colleague of Edwards who knows him well, spoke of how out of proportion this media circus has been.
Sopel said Edwards has a messy and complex private life but that’s not a crime. As far as we know, as I write this, nothing illegal has taken place, and even though further accusations have come out, they seem to be about him making people feel uncomfortable or being flirtatious.
Not a good thing, but it hardly merits the headline news on so many outlets.
Mental health crisis
The overriding fact is that as a public figure, the scale of the reports on this story have been so widespread and scandalous that Edwards is now in hospital following a serious mental heath crisis.
We know he has previously spoken about his battles with depression.
Men’s mental health can be extremely delicate, and it is well documented that men tend to bottle things up more.
I just wish Huw Edwards well and hope the media will give him the privacy and time with his family to recover.
Have a good week,
Yvie x
