Forum menu
Very wise and thank you Graeme.
I’ll raise a glass too.
You'd have thought an Eton and Oxford educated man might have heard of King Canute (however apocryphal).
Shared that on faceboak too, we can but try.
Keep it coming Drac, a voice of sanity in this madhoose! 😊
Health sec like a rabbit in the headlights on Question Time.
We’ve decided to have a virtual drink via Facetime/Zoom instead.
Yip, my team is having virtual Friday drinks tomorrow at 4pm using some Microsoft video conferencing thing
We’ve decided to have a virtual drink
🍻
Good call.
We'll be in lockdown by Monday, get yer cycling in now.
We’ll be in lockdown by Monday, get yer cycling in now.
Hancock really is an odious little turd, isn't he?
Lol, no panic here Drac, I think it's our best course of action.
First time I’ve bothered to watch the press conference, Boris doesnt inspire confidence does he!
I've already given up watching or listening to it.
A few bullet points is way preferable to listening to that chuntering, waffling prat and having to see his ridiculous, stupid, bloated face.
We’ll be in lockdown by Monday
I already am.
By the sounds of it the Army are getting ready to deploy, trucks are being spotted all over the place.
We had a virtual webex coffee break with 20 of the team. Was good. We’ve set them up on a regular drop in basis. Points scored for home decor, bookshelf in the background and hand sanitizers in view. Seriously, it will help just chatting virtual face to face. And it means it’s worth getting out of the PJs
And then the kids fire up Netflix and it all goes a bit slow!
Up until now I was feeling quietly confident that all this would sort itself out eventually. Now I've read the last few pages I'm wondering whether it wouldn't just be quicker to go dig four graves in the back garden. My wife comes back from the hospital every night close to tears, and I'm doing my best to convince her it'll all blow over in a few weeks and that one or both of her elderly (and distant) parents definitely won't die. I like to believe that our leaders are genuinely doing the best they can in a completely unprecedented set of circumstances and that they will steer us through this mess. I try to spread positivity wherever I can. Truth be told it's not the virus that worries me, it's the aftermath, for the economy, my ability to pay the mortgage long term, and my kids education and future.
People need to believe that it will be OK if we all do as we're told.
Negativity serves no purpose other than pushing people further into despair in what is already a truly awful time for an awful lot of people.
It will be OK.
Probably.
Government have just nicked all our institutes QPCR machines for covid screening.
Good to know that they're finally moving forward on this, but surely they must have known weeks ago they didn't have enough testing facilities?
Meanwhile at a large london hospital, to which several colleagues have been recalled from research &.....
Boris at the press conferences looks increasingly like a child looking for his "grown ups" for help when he's asked a question.
We’ll be in lockdown by Monday, get yer cycling in now.
I panic bought a smart trainer this afternoon AND mrs anagallis managed to get 6 bog rolls, happy days, i can relax for a few days......
Boris at the press conferences looks increasingly like a child looking for his “grown ups” for help when he’s asked a question.
He did refer to it as an interrogation in his closing ramblings around the point.
It would be kinder for the questions to flash up on a tablet hidden behind the lectern rather than him having start writing things down mid flow.
I am wondering if invoking war spirit might be misinterpreted. A person interviewed on C4 news had an approach of carry as normal on as anything else was giving in.
Is there any info out there about how long the virus survives on card or paper? I've read its up to 3 days on hard/ metal surfaces.
An infected Postie could take out a whole postal round. Hope someone other than me has thought about this.
Any posties in the house getting a steer from their employer?
I might start quarantining the post for a day (high risk household).
Good to see that couriers are now signing their pad themselves.
A few bullet points is way preferable to listening to that chuntering, waffling prat and having to see his ridiculous, stupid, bloated face.
Yeh, I walked out half way through the first answer blustering waffle
But the government said there was zero chance of a lock down in London?
Hopefully people are starting to realize bj is incompetent.
Anyone managed to buy eggs? All three local supermarkets were out and there was nothing left in either of the local farms I ride past.
get with the war time spirit....
Is there any info out there about how long the virus survives on card or paper?
12 hours. But remember, the virus gets destroyed by soap so just wash your hands or quarantine your mail.
Anyone managed to buy eggs?
Got a dozen here. Blame the usual arse nuggets for your shortage.
Hopefully people are starting to realize bj is incompetent.
You would hope so, but.....
There is a woman at work who is exceptionally good at her job, extremely personable and very effective in her role as she just knows her stuff. I have never considered her daft in any way.
I was chatting with her the other day and she was relating a tale from the weekend when her and her fiance were in London (eek!).
She said how the tourists were all wearing masks whilst 'The Brits' were not bothering.
Assuming, naturally, that an intelligent person would be telling this in a "god, we are a thick lot aren't we?" way, I said "Yes, well lots of other countries experienced SARS and MERS and so are a lot more sensible and experienced in this sort of thing....."
She looked a bit put out and then I realised she was telling the story from a kind of "Us Brits don't worry about shit like this because we're well-hard" angle.
Don't underestimate how many outwardly sensible-seeming people really do think 'we' are somehow different from and better than the rest of the world.
You’d have thought an Eton and Oxford educated man might have heard of King Canute (however apocryphal).
Not apocryphal, AFAIK, it was ****’s way of showing that a man, no matter how powerful, was as nothing compared to the power of God; sitting on a throne, commanding the tide to go back being as clear an example as any.
Still, compared to the Leader of the Free World, BoJo really seems to have his finger on the pulse, (ha!)...
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/19/is-donald-trump-delusional-or-a-gaslighter-media-should-say-clearly-its-both/
The Brexit vote and following GEs have certainly shown that attitude.
I hope I am wrong but you might pay a heavy price for it.
Going back to the termination notice for the hotel staff
If you’re thinking of going to the Coylumbridge {or any other Britannia Hotel), take a gander at this…
How does the must vacate staff accommodation as employment has ended sit with no evictions by landlords? Is it a grey area? Is it another game of Boris Says where he just implied it's not cricket to rather than explicitly stating it. Admittedly I'm loosing track of what's said and what's inferred these days.
How does the must vacate staff accommodation as employment has ended sit with no evictions by landlords?
As I understand it, tied accommodation like that doesn't come under the usual landlord/tenant laws.
Further to the letter, three local businesses have already offered the affected staff temporary accommodation and there are a couple of other community-led initiatives kicked off to offer other assistance.
Scotroutes - that's good news for the staff.
Just a thought.. How is it that people are sufficiently concerned about the situation to panic buy & hoard. But not enough to listen to government advice about social distancing?
Just a thought.. How is it that people are sufficiently concerned about the situation to panic buy & hoard. But not enough to listen to government advice about social distancing?
Corrupted and half remembered British stoicism
It's all selfishness. They'll do what's good for them and screw everyone else. If anyone exposed to it dropped dead 8 minutes after you wouldn't see them for dust. But when they perceive it's like a bad cold unless you're an oldie, and they aren't an oldie....well crack on.
Or just good old fashioned stupidity.
Good programming by C5- a documentary currently playing on Josef Fritz just as we’re facing lockdown with the family!
Boris is a self-serving dick. I said this on the Brexit thread, we are bereft of political heavyweights currently. If only we had someone like Heseltine, Ken Clarke or Gordon Brown in charge now. You may laugh but compared to the current shower of "insert plural form of expletive here" they were deep thinking neoliberal politicians who were at least attempting to serve the people... FFS
It’s all selfishness
it’s brexit and climate change mentality all over again. Hubris, entitlement, ignorance and arrogance. No doubt I’ll be accused of spreading panic again, but this time they/we are not going to get away with it.
When the bodies start piling up and are disposed of in anonymous mass cremations and burials, and when we all know someone who has perished (as we will) it will hit home. And by then it will be too f****** late.
There's an article on the Guardian website today about the "lost generation" referring to the pensioners being wiped out and the lack of coffins, funeral services etc. It's an awfully sobering read
☹️
Post and letter boxes: mine is taped up to stop post. My offspring picked up letters from the mail box and I realised it's the one main transmission into the house.
I've got a box on Infront of the door that I empty and quarantine.
I'm having none of this virus .
Something positive on the vaccination development front:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/19/uk-drive-develop-coronavirus-vaccine-science
4 day weekend here. Warm and sunny, everyone stuck at home. At least going to work got me outside for a bit - without that excuse all I can do is go to the shop, which I did. Our barrio on a Thursday night is rammed, 'pintxo pote' ie a drink and a pintxo for a euro in the bars, loads of students out as no classes on Fridays. You could hear a pin drop. Really odd.
While I was paying in the shop a drunk wobbled in, stood right behind me and coughed everywhere. Excellent.
I read an interesting article that came up on Flipboard that gave a suggestion as to why certain sections of society are being affected, it seems connected to the body’s response to infections running amok, something called a cytokine storm:
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/12/21176783/coronavirus-covid-19-deaths-china-treatment-cytokine-storm-syndrome
Regarding the situation in Italy, a thought occurred to me the other day as to why it should be so bad there, and I wondered if it might be to do with Italian society and the family. This might be a bit of a generalisation, but Italians are often remarked on as having particularly close family networks, with large families, from the elderly to the youngest living close together, eating and socialising together, with close links to the greater extended families, especially at weddings, birthdays etc.
Now, if this is the case, then the ease with which C19 could spread would be much greater, especially among the elderly, than it is among other European societies like ours, where families are much more fractured, with the elderly tending to live alone or in homes, and families not sitting down to meals together, which often gets commented on as a failing.
Given these two differences, surely the spread of C19 should slow significantly once people stop gathering in large groups socially?
Here in Pennsylvania, the Governor ordered all "non-life sustaining business" to close. 😲
At this point, Pennsylvania has 185 cases and 1 death. Population 12.8 million.
We’ll be in lockdown by Monday, get yer cycling in now.
Where's that Geordi Laforge "out before the lock" gif gone? 😆
This might be a bit of a generalisation, but Italians are often remarked on as having particularly close family networks, with large families, from the elderly to the youngest living close together, eating and socialising together, with close links to the greater extended families, especially at weddings, birthdays etc.
Had this exact thought
China - lots of communal eating. Shared bowls of food, everyone double dipping with their own chopsticks. "Smashmouth" is a huge thing in China. coldsores are very common because of the food sharing
Italy, France, Spain - very tactile, lots of kissing and hugging when they meet. Big family units socialising
Brits - our rigid, emotionless cold nature may actually be our saviour!
Regarding the situation in Italy, a thought occurred to me the other day as to why it should be so bad there, and I wondered if it might be to do with Italian society and the family. This might be a bit of a generalisation, but Italians are often remarked on as having particularly close family networks, with large families, from the elderly to the youngest living close together, eating and socialising together, with close links to the greater extended families, especially at weddings, birthdays etc.
This has been suggested, it is truly sad one of the great strengths of their society may prove to be an achilles heel. My sister lives in Northern Italy, at present safe and well, but if her situation changes for the worse, she wont be put on a ventilator, she is 61.
Something else I’ve just read, about the lack of infection in children, or at least the lack of severity:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/we-simply-do-not-understand-why-coronavirus-sparing-children-puzzling-n1147951?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
Sorry for facecomic link but this is why we should probably consider being anti social for a bit! This is someone I know (this morning) in Frimley Park hospital.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157946561865449&id=700120448
China – lots of communal eating. Shared bowls of food, everyone double dipping with their own chopsticks. “Smashmouth” is a huge thing in China. coldsores are very common because of the food sharing
Generally there are separate cutlery for taking food from the shared plates/bowls etc and you then eat with your own chopsticks or spoons. There is a health scare out here every two years or so, bird flu, swine flu etc and that mixed with a tendency to eat and socialize(HKers tend to treat a restaurant like we treat a pub) means most Chinese have adapted over the years to minimize the risk.
Some updates from here, looks like my Shanghai and Beijing projects are starting to splutter back to life as the workers are slowly allowed back in. However we are now seeing a huge rise in infected cases now in HK as everyone returns back from Europe and the States.
The government have set up screening areas at the airport to test anyone with symptoms, if you have no symptoms you are still quarantined for 14 days and have to wear a tag to insure you stick to it. If you test positive straight to a local hospital.
There's plenty of toilet paper, apparently the big supermarket chains keep warehouses full of them as they get shipped in huge container loads and not individually as needed by the manufacturers.
Egg?
Fortunately we get ours from a local allotment guy. We’ve actually loads of them I should probably offer some out.
I’ve got a box on Infront of the door that I empty and quarantine.
We are doing the same with a lot of shopping. It sits in a box for a few days before we move it into the rest of the house. No reason to spread stuff around if we don't need to
The comments on the BBC threads regarding this being a "Chinese virus" and this being "their fault" and "they're going to have to pay" are really quite alarming/horrifying in equal measure. Is this really what we've become as a nation?
Information for surface here for those worried.
https://www.livescience.com/how-long-coronavirus-last-surfaces.html
Is this really what we’ve become as a nation?
Not just the U.K. there’s reports across other countries of racial hatred. Remember the BBC media is also available to many nations so they may not be from the U.K.
I am not sure if we have become a hot bed of rscial hatred or if it's just been simmering away under the surface waiting for any excuse to boil over
Trouser Trump feeds the fire by calling ot a nasty horrible Chinese virus and it perpetuates out from that
Brexit comments being a clue to this
Blame Trump and his dog whistling. He coined the term “Chinese virus” and now uses it all the time in press briefings and tweets, despite being called on it multiple times.
Morning folks it's time up on the seven days this morning. When it started I thought back to work a week Monday to much mickey taking from friends and colleagues. I have commented to people in proper life a couple of times this is all funny until it's not. There does still need to be some gallows humour and light relief but seven days everything seems a whole lot more serious to everyone. From a small village isolation has been a mix of nothings changed - the world outside the window ticks on with the same slow rhythm. Through the second hand lens of other peoples experiences, social and proper media. Through that lens it feels like I'm in a low rent version of 28days later done by a couple of enthusiastic 15year olds in the holidays.
That's me clocking on in the rabbit hole
And as I've posted elsewhere - the answers are usually kicking about the place if you look.
Be excellent to one another folks and have a good day.
Remember the BBC media is also available to many nations
Lots of BBC stuff people link on here can't be opened "in your (my) geographical zone"
Madame's cold is worse with horrible conjunctivitis in both eyes. She's awaiting a WhatsApp call from the doc.
Lots of BBC stuff people link on here can’t be opened “in your (my) geographical zone”
Facebook comments show on their web pages.
Any posties in the house getting a steer from their employer?
No clue but I wish they'd effing ban junk mail now, not just from the postal service but random leaflet stuffers as well.
Trouser Trump feeds the fire by calling ot a nasty horrible Chinese virus and it perpetuates out from that
He's done things on a couple of level here by shifting the name from C-19 to his new pet name. The question is has he done it for xenophobic reasons or has he done it to compartmentalise. All the no it's rubbish being C-19 but all the very serious always knew this was a pandemic being attached to the pet name. Suddenly he's blame free in his head and the world kicks off in an awful way.
I'm still hoping to wake up one day and discover that Trump checked out Elvis style on the loo.
I'm a postie..... There is a new procedure for delivering items requiring a signature. Basically, we place item on doorstep, knock on door, retire to a safe distance. We witness customer taking item into their premises, enter their name into our handheld device,and depart. No signature required.
I do understand that some customers do not currently want post through their letter box. If this us the case, a secure postbox is a suitable alternative.
Think about making it quick and easy for your postie to deliver. Volume is up about 50% in my area. We will no doubt be short staffed at times. Personally, I also think that it's really important that we have time to keep an eye on some of our vulnerable customers. For some of my customers, a chat with me (from a safe distance) is the only regular human contact that they have.
oldagedpredator
Be excellent to one another folks and have a good day.
You are Jerry Springer and I claim my £5. 😉
I've not been in since my Tuesday postie shift and I've since had to start the 14-day self-isolation clock because my better half developed a new continuous cough (and yesterday she was breathing heavily as if she had done some proper exercise, after simply walking from lounge to kitchen to lounge in a modest sized flat)... I now think she has the real deal cv19.
I've still yet to cough at all, but I've felt really fatigued since Wednesday; developed a new scratchy throat; dull headache that won't shift completely with paracetamol; that cold/flu "brain lag" including some mild dizziness when I get up and walk; really achy shoulders; dull ache just above sternum; muscle groups literally just above knee really aching yesterday when I got up to walk to another room in flat... Really put the mild manflu19 I had from 27th Feb until 17th March into perspective!
But from last Saturday, we had a new national protocol to not directly hand any mail to recipients, we were to place them on doorstep if they wouldn't post through letterbox and wait for someone to open door and collect said items (having stepped back from door ourselves). If they were signature items, we were to sign PDA for them once they opened door and picked up items from doorstep.
Our union (CWU), without consulting the members, have offered our services as acting as an extra emergency service in these times of need and implied we dial back the "junk mail" deliveries. The narrow "yes" vote for strike action, by a much lower turnout than around September last year (which got blocked by the courts due to the General Election and some OPGs posting Youtube clips of small groups voting "yes" on their ballots before posting), has been put in hold during this crisis... Again with no consultation of the members.
He’s done things on a couple of level here by shifting the name from C-19 to his new pet name. The question is has he done it for xenophobic reasons or has he done it to compartmentalise.
Reports from the US are that there’s an increase of disturbances featuring people of Asian origin most likely due to this. His sabre rattling and ethnic segregation of blame at this time is very disturbing, the guys a nut job.
There does need to be a serious look at practices in China though. The risk of live markets and types of animals were well known yet allowed to carry on. Now this has happened China needs to take a different approach. Yes it could happen in any country with bad practices but China have some form on it and it can't just be shrugged off with the impact globally.
"If only we had someone like Heseltine, Ken Clarke or Gordon Brown in charge now. You may laugh"
Laughing, not at all. Any other PM from the entire of history would be preferable to the chump change in charge now.
PS Trump should be removed, inciting hatred at this time, what a waste of oxygen he is.
On a more comforting note - one of our friends is a senior children's A&E nurse in a large hospital (won't say which). My wife was talking to her last night and she said they are very well prepared for the expected rise in admissions and in someways sat twiddling their thumbs a bit as no-one is bringing their little precious into A&E with a grazed knee!!
Is this really what we’ve become as a nation?
Have you missed the last few years in Brexit Britain.? Racism is the new black.
Cheers!
His sabre rattling and ethnic segregation of blame at this time is very disturbing, the guys a nut job
Diversion tactics. His racism goes down well with his fans on the right, more moderate republicans shrug shoulders and everybody forgets the ginger Fwit shut down the US pandemic response department and his idiocy at the outset
The comments on the BBC threads regarding this being a “Chinese virus” and this being “their fault” and “they’re going to have to pay” are really quite alarming/horrifying in equal measure. Is this really what we’ve become as a nation?
Doesn't surprise me sadly. Tune in any week to the BBC's Question Time and half the audience is full of muppets like this.
in someways sat twiddling their thumbs a bit as no-one is bringing their little precious into A&E with a grazed knee!!
Yes, there has been a noticeable drop in unnecessary calls a drop there’s still some.
There does need to be a serious look at practices in China though.
The SARS- COVID19 originally came from bats (probably) but the vector to humans could be anything, might have been a domestic cat for all we know. The mortality rate in China is high because typically 50% of Chinese men smoke, and smoking and SARS is a pretty deadly mixture.
Wash your hands, stay inside on your own as much as you can.
Back to coalface
He’s done things on a couple of level here by shifting the name from C-19 to his new pet name. The question is has he done it for xenophobic reasons or has he done it to compartmentalise.
He's done it to appeal to his racist fan-base. Pretty soon he'll be pulliing "slitty eye" faces when he talks about it.
in someways sat twiddling their thumbs a bit as no-one is bringing their little precious into A&E with a grazed knee!!
My wife, nurse on an HDU ward, was more than a bit worried about heading in this weekend but was reassured after a chat with her boss on the phone, apparently it's all a bit quiet as folks really do seem to be heeding the advice and staying away unless absolutely necessary.
So, Madame had a WhatsApp video consultation with the Doc, picked up a prescription dropped out of the window by the doctor - no use of credit card or health card (that can wait), went to the pharamcie where there were 2m lines to stand behind in the case of a queue. Meds dropped in bag by staff wearing masks, no contact payment but medical card taken and handed back - the only possible vector of transmission in the system.
You realise Trump's reference to the 'Chinese Virus' is because he can neither write or say 'coronavirus'? That, and because he's a nasty little ****
The Yanks gave the world swine flu so they need to STFU.