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Between the Equator and the South Pole

A thread for all southerly shipmates to surf the Omicron wave.
Hopefully also some more enjoyable events in 2022.
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Comments

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks, WitG - now I can put the old thread to bed!

    Happy new year, one and all!

    Piglet, AS host
  • WormInTheGrassWormInTheGrass Shipmate
    edited January 2022
    I guess you will soon be following the thread to bed, @Piglet after your enjoyable afternoon.
  • A belated HNY to all antipodeans and those north of the Equator! Younger son is visiting from Adelaide for his brother's 40th birthday last week and his own 34th today, so we have been somewhat engaged by family events since Christmas Day.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Popping in from my corner of the southern hemisphere to wish everyone a good 2022!
  • MiliMili Shipmate
    Happy New Year everyone! At least we can't say things are boring. So far after the family Christmas my parents and most of the guests seemed to have dodged the dreaded lurgy, but I am superstitious so refuse to be sure in case any optimism causes an outbreak tomorrow. My youngest brother caught it, but had also been exposed at work the day before and my three year old niece caught it and gave it to her sister and parents. Brother has a sore throat, the children had very mild symptoms for a couple of days and sister and her husband felt pretty bad for a few days, but otherwise are fine and on the mend, thank God. I start back in vacation care tomorrow with masks for everyone 8 and over and plans to run the program outside as much as possible, weather permitting. So now begins the constant monitoring for symptoms. Keep safe everyone!
  • Yes indeed. Back to work tomorrow after 10 days off ( which included 2 days of forced closure after colleague tested positive). It will be a big day as all the patients I called on the Wed before Xmas to cancel have been rescheduled for tomorrow. At least there is aircon….
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    WorminTheGrass thanks for a brilliant, more inclusive thread title.

    The last few days have been really hot in some parts of the country with temperatures in the 30s, even Zappa may be thawing out, depending on where he is, Fortunately for me it's been a bit cooler here with 27C the hottest so far. Christchurch has a cool wind - referred to as The Beasterly Easterly in the winter, but in the summer I think it makes the place bearable, unlike the Nor' Wester which is a hot dry wind - a bit like the Mistral in France, I've been told.
  • WormInTheGrassWormInTheGrass Shipmate
    edited January 2022
    Hi @Huia, that’s OK. It’s been moderately hot here, up to 31C a couple of days ago, but as long as it doesn’t get humid, that’s OK. Also in A.C.T. and hereabouts it normally cools down overnight. In fact one of the stressful parts of the prolonged smoke pall two years ago, was that we couldn’t open the house up to let cool air in overnight.
    [Obviously, that’s not in the same stress league as having a house or farm damaged by the fires]
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    That's one of the good things about ACT and the southern ranges in general. A day can be stinking hot, but almost always nights are cool and allow a decent sleep.
  • LatchKeyKidLatchKeyKid Purgatory Host
    This is the coolest New Year I've had in the sub-tropics. Not the coolest Christmas as I remember needing a pullover in Melbourne for both 1971 and 1972.

    We are also hunkering down as we desperately want to go to the Stanthorpe funeral of LKKspouse's cousin on the 11th.
    It's back to grocery shopping at 0600 hours - and infrequently at that.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Keeping fingers crossed you get to that funeral, @LatchKeyKid.

    Only the 4th of January and I'm feeling as if I've had a month of 2022. Our Parliament buildings in Cape Town set alight in an arson attempt, the loss of 19th-century books and archives as well as artworks in the fire; great debates here about Archbishop Tutu's aquamation or 'green cremation' by alkaline hydrolysis; Omicron rates of infection slowing but still no booster injections available. Temperatures soaring and warnings of veld fires.

    I'd settle for un uneventful January after this.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    NZ has brought forward boosters so I am now eligible. I feel uncomfortable about this given world wide vaccine inequity, but refusing to accept it wouldn't actually change this inequity ( and my GP would possibly think I had gone off my head). Maybe a donation to the Red Cross, or Doctors without Borders ( I can't remember the French name). Any suggestions?

    I had a weird experience today searching on-line for a recipe I had lost (Rum and Raisin Muffins). I tracked it down in a post I had made myself at least 10 years ago on Trade Me (NZ's version of ebay). At that time the young entrepreneur who founded TM included a Community board with various subjects where people could ask questions, or discuss various things. or comment. My favourite was Recipes, because after my mother died there wasn't anyone I could ask those niggly questions that the actual recipe doesn't answer, but a more experienced cook can answer in two minutes. Someone else originally posted the recipe and I successfully baked it, so I added it to my Christmas baking list.

    Then Trade Me was sold and the new owners got rid of the Community boards and I lost the recipe. Today I decided to see if the recipe had been shared elsewhere, and it had. Parallel to TM someone had copied all the recipes that had been shared and I found it on their now defunct site. It was strange coming across the name I used on TM writing out a recipe I really wanted. I had searched before, but I may have been using Bing which is the most useless search engine in the entire Galaxy - at least for NZ info.
  • MaryLouise wrote: »
    Our Parliament buildings in Cape Town set alight in an arson attempt, the loss of 19th-century books and archives as well as artworks in the fire;
    .

    I thought of you immediately on hearing that news yesterday morning
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Huia wrote: »
    NZ has brought forward boosters so I am now eligible. I feel uncomfortable about this given world wide vaccine inequity, but refusing to accept it wouldn't actually change this inequity ( and my GP would possibly think I had gone off my head). Maybe a donation to the Red Cross, or Doctors without Borders ( I can't remember the French name). Any suggestions?

    Médicins sans Frontières (doctors without borders)
  • A worthy cause
  • Huia wrote: »
    NZ has brought forward boosters so I am now eligible. I feel uncomfortable about this given world wide vaccine inequity, but refusing to accept it wouldn't actually change this inequity ( and my GP would possibly think I had gone off my head).

    I was excoriated on the Covid thread here on the ship for getting a booster (third) vaccination back in October, despite being incurably ill and immuno-conpromised for the last 3 1 /2 years.
    Watch out for reactions, Huia

  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Galilit wrote: »
    Huia wrote: »
    NZ has brought forward boosters so I am now eligible. I feel uncomfortable about this given world wide vaccine inequity, but refusing to accept it wouldn't actually change this inequity ( and my GP would possibly think I had gone off my head).

    I was excoriated on the Covid thread here on the ship for getting a booster (third) vaccination back in October, despite being incurably ill and immuno-conpromised for the last 3 1 /2 years.
    Watch out for reactions, Huia

    I so hope there's no negativity of that kind again, @Galilit. Anyone (yourself , Huia and everyone else) able to get a booster must get one asap. The issue of Western governments or multinational companies sharing vaccines and boosters is another issue.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    We had our booster shots early in December, 6 months having elapsed since the second. Can't tell you just what it was but it was the one which the doctors' practice was using. If someone comes up with a 4th, and our doctor recommends it, we'll roll our sleeves up. It's certainly the best form of personal protection which we have available and still lead a reasonably normal life. And we're not just protecting ourselves, there is a benefit to the wider community as well.
  • Galilit wrote: »
    Huia wrote: »
    NZ has brought forward boosters so I am now eligible. I feel uncomfortable about this given world wide vaccine inequity, but refusing to accept it wouldn't actually change this inequity ( and my GP would possibly think I had gone off my head).

    I was excoriated on the Covid thread here on the ship for getting a booster (third) vaccination back in October, despite being incurably ill and immuno-conpromised for the last 3 1 /2 years.
    Watch out for reactions, Huia

    I'm surprised @Galilit - most of us Brits are fully vaccinated and boostered - my booster was early December and my daughter was squeezed in a couple of days before Christmas as part of the big drive to get everyone boostered by the end of the year. My booster was 6 months after my second vaccine, my daughter's was 4 months gap.
  • I had my booster vaccination today and feel ok apart from needing a new arm.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I'm sorry you received that response from Galilit. Thanks for the warning.

    I hope your arm is feeling better today rhubarb.

    I'm going to check whether my usual medical centre is amongst those offering the booster. Yesterday I had a bad experience at the supermarket because I had forgotten that particular chain offer a whopping 5% off groceries to people with a Gold card ( over 65) on the first Tuesday of the month. The place was absolutely seething with people. I found it incredibly stressful. I actually told a bloke in the checkout queue that I found his lack of social distancing unhelpful. For me it wasn't so much the COVID possibility ( though of course that factored in), but I found the lack of personal space intimidating. I want to avoid anywhere where there are a lot of people in a confined space.
  • Our medical centre has a Covid vaccination service that pops up and contacts us at the right times. We'd had a message that my lot would be offered boosters later this month; then it occurred to me this morning to phone and ask if I could be 'done' before going to our beach place up north ( where there has been a Covid case as all the Jafas* flocked there for their holidays) with my son and DiL. They were almost on the point of calling me as they're having a clinic tomorrow. Next thing was how to get there – rang Driving Miss Daisy and found they'd been short-handed and flat out all week so weren't doing Saturday. Never mind; Son can come. All worked out at the right moment. I should be okay; I had no reactions with the first two.
    *'Just Another +Friendly Aucklander' or +supply adjective of your choice.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    It may sound silly, but we were pleased to have the booster for a couple of reasons. It made us that bit safer, and at the same time probably reduced the risk of our passing on any nasties.
  • Likewise; 2 months on post booster very relieved to have not caught it from colleague a couple of weeks back.

    Still vigilant…
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Yes, you have to be vigilant - but what's to stop your catching it from someone else walking along the same street as you?
  • Keep distant, remain masked is the best I can do on the street. I’m more worried about being on the bus or in a shop.
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited January 2022
    MaryLouise wrote: »
    great debates here about Archbishop Tutu's aquamation or 'green cremation' by alkaline hydrolysis;

    Cool. I've heard of this, but never heard of anyone having it done. It would be hard for His Grace to go higher in my estimation than he already was, but he just managed it.
    Sojourner wrote: »
    Keep distant, remain masked is the best I can do on the street. I’m more worried about being on the bus or in a shop.

    Yeah - walking down the street is in general not really an issue (shoulder to shoulder in crowded high streets perhaps). You can reasonably think of Covid as any other pollutant, and the same responses are appropriate - minimize the time for which you are potentially exposed (don't hang about in the shops - get in and out), maximize the dilution (open the windows on the bus), maximize distance from the source (other people) and have everyone masked, which mostly reduces the source.

    Don't dwell too much on how long you've been exposed to any single individual - that doesn't really matter. It's total person-hour contact that matters. If there are some people with Covid in the community, and you don't know who they are, then your average risks are identical whether you spend one minute with each of 100 people, or 100 minutes with one person.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    There aren't many people on the bus at the moment because they changed the timing so it runs every 10 minutes during the week until 6pm and every 15 during the weekend, and most of those present are masked. I try to avoid travelling on hot, sunny days as there will be more people due to the route going to a very popular beach. I must get my bike checked because cycling is now even better for my health than it was before. :smile:

    I had my booster shot on Wednesday in a small pharmacy in town, so I have avoided queues and mass vaccination events (shudder).
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    Huia wrote: »

    The last few days have been really hot in some parts of the country with temperatures in the 30s, even Zappa may be thawing out, depending on where he is,

    We were in / on The Sides of the North (I didn't slip back to St. Triangles', which is a sad schemozzle these days) and I was thawing out with long (10+km) walks in the sun. Wew're back in frozen Te Wai Pounamu now :cry:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    What's the latitude of Te Wai Pounamu again? ;)
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island of NZ)stretches between 41degrees South and 46 degrees South.

    These are rough figures only as they are those for Picton and Bluff - so don't use them if you're intend circumnavigation or you could run aground at Farewell Spit.😯🙄
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited January 2022
    Not quite as far from the Equator as me then (currently about 56°N).

    Zappa and I have occasionally had genial discussions about the optimal degree of latitude; mine would be anything above about 55°, and his ... wouldn't. :mrgreen:
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    @Huia our temperatures here in the Cape (South Africa) are unseasonally high -- yesterday Capetonians rushed to swim in the oceans (the Atlantic rather than the Indian) and public swimming pools were crowded as we hit 35 degrees C (95degrees F). We're in renewed lockdown because of another Omicron surge here in my village so had to make do with cold showers and iced tea.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Seriously if the temperature here reached 35c I'm not sure I would survive it. The last couple of days have been a bit cooler and the drivers on the buses opened the emergency escape hatch in the roof which helped. The newer buses, which have air conditioning are the least comfortable because it doesn't seem to work, and they have no roof hatches. In other years I have got off the bus and caught the one following.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Catching buses in a heat wave sounds horrible, @Huia. We keep shutters closed all day and stay indoors (lockdown), but in the evenings people come out into the street and gardens to look at the starry Orion nebula overhead -- our Southern Cross constellations are very bright in summer and there's no light pollution out here because people are saving power and most street lights are out.
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    Not quite as far from the Equator as me then (currently about 56°N).

    Zappa and I have occasionally had genial discussions about the optimal degree of latitude; mine would be anything above about 55°, and his ... wouldn't. :mrgreen:

    I think I discovered that about 15 - 0 degrees from the equator is my optimum. Beyond 15 and you start getting into that silly winter nonsense. And those other seasons. Reprehensible.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Zappa wrote: »
    Piglet wrote: »
    Not quite as far from the Equator as me then (currently about 56°N).

    Zappa and I have occasionally had genial discussions about the optimal degree of latitude; mine would be anything above about 55°, and his ... wouldn't. :mrgreen:

    I think I discovered that about 15 - 0 degrees from the equator is my optimum. Beyond 15 and you start getting into that silly winter nonsense. And those other seasons. Reprehensible.

    Whereas I'd not want to be any nearer the equator than I am at 50 something North. I don't hold with hot weather (>24C)
  • It’s not hot in these parts till the mercury hits 30. The summer humidity is the killer.

    It’s nearly 8 am here and 24; pleasantly cool. Mind you 23 overnight requires a fan if no aircon.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Couldn't live there. Couldn't even visit, to tell the truth.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Sorry, shouldn't be piddling my environmental preferences on your thread. Forget where I am sometimes.
  • TukaiTukai Shipmate
    Any northern types not liking it hot should decline any invitation to visit Perth (the one in Western Australia) around Christmas. I've been there twice in that season, and each time we had a local "heat wave", with maximum temperature exceeding 40 degC for 4 or 5 consecutive days. The first time, a group of us visitors were gathered round a swimming pool (natch!) and being bone dry it didn't feel very hot until within the first 30 minutes 2 blokes keeled over with sunstroke!

    But further north in that state is worse, with the record held by a small mining town called Marble Bar, where they once had 180 consecutive days (i.e. 6 months) where the max exceeded 40 degrees. And that was in the days before air conditioning! The story goes that one old-timer died and went to Hell, where he promptly asked the Devil for an overcoat.
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    I gather there's a bit of a breeze blowing in Darwin at the moment, too

  • Zappa wrote: »
    Piglet wrote: »
    Not quite as far from the Equator as me then (currently about 56°N).

    Zappa and I have occasionally had genial discussions about the optimal degree of latitude; mine would be anything above about 55°, and his ... wouldn't. :mrgreen:

    I think I discovered that about 15 - 0 degrees from the equator is my optimum. Beyond 15 and you start getting into that silly winter nonsense. And those other seasons. Reprehensible.

    19 latitude does not have winter. Some locals might say otherwise, wrapped up in beanies and woollens at about 20 degrees in July (usually at around 5am) but all we have is summer, very summer and very very summer. I think you’d cope, Zappa.
  • My sister near Johannesburg received her Christmas card from us yesterday! We always send one (from Canada) in early December almost as a joke, hoping it will arrive for Easter - this was an all-time record.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I'm still waiting for mine from Chicago. Pre pandemic my brother could post a birthday present that actually arrived on my birthday.

    Lovely day here. Expected maximum temperature 20c.😍
  • TukaiTukai Shipmate
    Marama and I got our boosters yesterday, for which we became eligible when the required waiting time was reduced from 6 months to 4 months. By chance, on the previous day I had found a pharmacy that was offering walk-in vaccinations to adults, so we took them up.

    Meanwhile, 3 yo grandson has put his family in isolation, as everyone at his childcare centre has been deemed to be close contacts. They're still awaiting test results, so I delivered some key foodstuffs to their doorstep this morning.
  • COVID in the clinic again as of yesterday: one of our staff tested positive after birthday party of 6 yr old a little while back. Luckily minimal contact with said staff member. Rostered day off today so awaiting outcome of risk assessment ( low as assessed by nurse manager by phone today) by infectious diseases gurus. Am fully booked tomorrow so hoping to get to work tomorrow morn & be allowed to do my list along with my colleagues.

    We ( and our patients)need this like a hole in the head…
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    We've probably done well by not having grandchildren yet - none to load themselves up with germs and bring them home.
  • Likewise
  • @Zappa will be applying for a transfer to WA. Onslow has just equalled the hottest reliably-recorded temperature for Australia at 50.7degC. Nearby locations at Roebourne and Mardie reached 50.5degC. Just a pleasant summer afternoon in the Pilbara.
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