Pride Month 2025 Watch Strap

Bought the new 2025 #pridemonth2025 watch band from Apple. A brilliant design that showcases the individuality of everyone in the #lgbtq community.

What I really like about the strap, is that each strap is assembled by hand from individual strips of vibrant colour, thus making each strap unique as none of the bands, have the strips of colour in exactly the same place. 

It is brilliant to see Apple support Pride Month by creating a new Apple Watch band each year, along with iPhone and iPad wallpapers, when more and more companies are stopping their support of Pride Month & the LGBTQ community thanks to Donal Trump dismantling Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies. 

What I would like to see Apple do next year for pride, is create a new sport loop band along with a Nike pride band & watch face as well, as they have not had new designs for either of these since 2022.  It is also good  to see that Apple are still selling the last versions of the pride Sport Loop  and the Braided Solo Loop bands, giving their customers chance to have a pride strap in their favourite type of watch band, as not everyone likes to wear the fluoroelastomer sport bands.

Keep up the good work Apple, and keep supporting the LGBT Community, it's appreciated!

 

I'm a Gay Asthmatic

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am a gay male who is an out & proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. What you will likely not know is that I am an asthmatic. I am writing this blog entry, to highlight something that really annoys me as an asthmatic - NHS prescription charges.

In England where I live, anyone who is over the age of 18, has to pay for their prescriptions, unless they are exempt, for example they are claiming benefits, they are over 65, they are on job seekers allowance etc. In England you pay for your prescriptions when you go an collect them from your nominated pharmacy. This costs £9.90 per medication and it can soon add up, especially if your an asthmatic who needs 2-3 inhalers per month, as this would end up costing you £200 plus a year. You can get an NHS pre-payment card for your prescriptions, but even though that will save you money, your still paying for your prescriptions

Whilst I don't have a problem paying for my prescriptions, I find it unfair that Asthmatics, who need inhalers to keep them healthy, have to pay for their prescriptions, yet people who have diabetes, get their prescriptions for diabetes medication that, like Asthmatics, they need to take every day completely free.  This I feel is very unfair for Asthmatics, as like diabetics we need to take inhales regularly to keep our lungs healthy, and where people have really bad Asthma, stay alive etc.

Asthmatics need to be given free prescriptions, for several reasons, including:

• Some can't afford the prescription charges
• Some  don't use their inhalers as prescribed to try and make them last longer
• It's unfair that people with other long term conditions get free prescriptions

 What do you think?