I have had lots of covid dreams since this started, but I think I really started to crack after restrictions got lifted a bit and we started having more outbreaks in Melbourne. Now I just have really weird dreams like losing my pet budgies and not being able to catch one again because she she had become tiny and remembering when I woke up that that budgie died a few years ago. The creepiest was the one where I woke at 2 am after dreaming I had to comfort a class of kids (in Australia) because they were devastated that Mike Pence had committed suicide! While I obviously wouldn't wish for Pence's death and would be shocked if that actually happened, I would hardly be particularly upset so where on earth did that come from?
It's got a little scary here again with a couple of housing commission (public housing) estates being locked down as the residents live in small flats with two shared lifts and one laundry per nine flats. The flats I volunteer at (only online tutoring at the moment) are ok, but I used to volunteer at one of the estates that is in hard lock down. It is upsetting and scary as they locked down with no notice and surrounded the places with police. Thankfully the government, social services and concerned members of the public are all helping or offering help now, which makes me feel a bit more positive, but praying no more cases occur there.
As to the test. I have had two now, as we have to get tested for any slight symptoms to prevent spread and get an all clear for work -although it's all voluntary. I only found them very mildly uncomfortable, so either had good nurses or just didn't find a few seconds of being poked with swabs nearly as bad as a trip to the dentist (and I have dentist phobia).
During this morning's online service, it was suggested we look at the photos we had taken in lockdown to focus on the happy highlights of the past three months, as our photos tend to focus on the good times.
I have been working on a wee project to photograph all the gravestones in our kirkyard. I have taken over a hundred photos of gravestones during lockdown.
I suspect my photo stream is not quite what the minister had in mind. (I do also have lots of photos of Elizabeth the cat)
My son has been entertaining himself by writing skits based on Father Ted in which there is an additional character, bizarre even by the standards of Craggy Island.
Farther Ted - Look at your phone! What happy photos do you have?
New bizarre character : Gravestones, Father. They're all photos of gravestones.
The worms crawl in, and the worms crawl out -
They crawl in thin, and they crawl out stout -
Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Where shall we be in a hundred years from now?
As you say @North East Quine, not perhaps quite what your minister had in mind, but a useful historical record - and I bet some of the dear souls now a-mouldering 'neath the sod had some good, and happy, stories to tell in their time...
Back to Covid-19, has anyone (I've asked this before) yet been to a pub or restaurant?
Reports seem to indicate that patronage was patchy, and that quite a few places are deferring re-opening for a while, for various very good reasons. My 'local' (more of a restaurant than a pub these days) has, on a beautifully-written board outside, a list of Covid-19 rules resembling The Law Of The Medes And The Persians, so long and proscriptive as it is...
Restaurants here can reopen at 50% capacity, plus outdoor seating, properly spaced. Masks are required except when seated at the table. We’ve eaten outside, though it’s really too hot for that here now. I’ve eaten inside a few times, but only when the there haven’t been many others in the restaurant.
Our son in college was supposed to be doing an archeology field study this summer, but that was another casualty of the pandemic, so he found a part-time job waiting tables. He says business is steady, but not heavy.
I suspect that the various restrictions may well simply put many people off, despite the best endeavours of the beleaguered publicans and restaurateurs.
It's all very well for the *government* (well, here on Boris Island) to bang on about our 'patriotic duty', but, to me, a pub is the place you pop into, on the spur of the moment, to have a half-pint (cos I'm driving), and a pie 'n chips, or a sanwidge.
I simply can't be doing with all this TOSH about ordering food online, or on an App (whatever that is), when I might decide I don't actually WANT pie 'n chips, or a sanwidge, once I get there...
(BTW - I'm old enough to remember the pub on the ground floor of the office block in which I had my first Proper Job. Pie 'n chips cost 2/5d in Proper Money - a penny change from Arf-a-Crahn - 2/6d! For those who know Sarf Lunnon, this was in the Old Father Thames PH on Albert Embankment SE1, about 50 years ago... )
Our two local cafes are both selling food to go during very restricted hours, and I've bought from both because I know both owners and want to support them. I've worn a mask to collect the food.
Even if they were allowed to open, I would have no desire to sit in, though.
Back to Covid-19, has anyone (I've asked this before) yet been to a pub or restaurant?
I'm not in any hurry to do that. To my mind, the risk of transmission is high, and the incidence of the virus too high in the area, so I can't assume that there are no asymptomatic carriers likely to be in the restaurant.
We have plenty of evidence of viral transmission following the airflow indoors, for timescales consistent with eating a meal. To my mind, being indoors in a 50% full restaurant for the duration of a meal presents too much risk.
Our local restaurant does curb order pick up, they also opened outside dinning and limited seating inside week-end dinning by reservation only. After one week trial they closed down outside dinning, not enough interest. They posted that you should call early in the day for dinner reservations as their phones are jammed by people wanting curb pick up in the evening. That tells me I am not alone in not wanting to dine in any time soon. I try to do one take out meal curb pick a week to support our local restaurants. We are a small community and I know and trust all of the owners to be taking care in preparations.
And the City? A couple of years ago we were staying in a hotel round the back of Cannon St station and the thing we noticed about the area was that virtually all the food outlets catered for daytime eating, and all the pubs were raucous, crowded inside and six deep on the pavements outside.
It very much looked as if the typical day for the central London office worker was - in to work, Pret-a-Manger sarnie at lunchtime, 5 o'clock down the pub with everyone else, late evening tube to distant suburb, microwave the ready meal, bed, rinse and repeat.
Went shopping yesterday at a well-known bargain chain to pick up some things for the house. All staff wearing masks except one who walked behind the counter as I was checking out. The checkout clerk told her "Mask!" and she put hers on.
Sign conspicuously posted on the door: "All customers must wear facial covering." What few customers there were all had masks on except one party -- husband, wife, little girl. I told the checkout clerk how upset I was at that, and he replied, "I hear you, but we can't say anything to them."
Possibly wise, on the part of the store chain. Many stories of customers having meltdowns--or even getting violent--when told to mask. Some restaurants have closed down (some permanently) because it was just too dangerous for their staff.
The government has said they'll put in a legal requirement to wear face coverings in shops and we should all do so even before the regulations change. It seems a bit late after months of no requirement to wear a mask in shops when the infection rate, and hence usefulness of a mask, has declined significantly. So, I put my mask on in Sainsbury's for my shop on the way home - as usual, there were no other face coverings evident among the dozen or so shoppers or the more numerous staff. I don't know when busy times are, there have only been a couple of times they've had a queue to get in and usually manage a minimum of 5m from others without difficulty, but presumably there are times when it's busy enough that a face covering has a bigger benefit. Will there be a massive rush to buy groceries when we have to wear a face covering?
For the first time today the Co-op staff were wearing masks and so were most of the shoppers. I no longer am the o lay one. It becomes mandatory on Thursday in Scotland, and I can see sense in it, now that the travel ban is lifted and we will be seeing more visitors.
Many stories of customers having meltdowns--or even getting violent--when told to mask.
True enough. I wrote to the store today recounting my experience and saying I didn't feel safe shopping there. If this keeps up then the only people visiting the shops will be those refusing to wear masks.
Saturday afternoon, I was at my local (we are allowed to sit on patios at 2m distance - no inside seating yet). A friend of mine who owns a pet shop (insects, reptiles, and fish, plus pet supplies) came in wearing his mask - small black button nose with whiskers - it made him look like a racoon! All the staff have different animal masks. He's going to look into getting one for me (they're in understandably short supply, being so snazzy and all).
As well, as of tomorrow, masks will be mandatory in all public interiors. I'm sure some will grumble, but I'm much in favour.
The results of a poll conducted 25 June - 2 July showed that 81% of Canadians favoured keeping the border with the US shut to all but vital traffic (e.g. transport trucks). For Canadians, that is shockingly close to unanimity. It shocked even the pollster (Nik Nanos) who has a very good track record.
Today in a nearby town I came across a sign in someone’s window (facing straight into the pavement) complaining about the injustice of wearing face masks.
Then I saw another one....
This business of wearing face masks is certainly upsetting people.
In a supermarket car park I overheard a person say they were prepared to go to prison, if challenged for Not wearing.
And
To be perfectly honest I was momentarily too shocked to even think about saying anything.... then the moment and the people passed.
Everyone's free to not wear a face covering. No one's forcing anyone to leave their home. But, if people choose to leave their home and enter a building or get on public transport with other people then they've made a decision that also includes putting on a face covering.
Wearing masks has been mandatory here in North Carolina for a few weeks now, and was mandatory in the town where I live for a week or two before that. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that after the first weekend, which was probably the “getting used to it” period, the vast majority of people are wearing them. I had to go to Target today, and there were a number of people there, I didn’t see anyone without a mask.
That makes no sense, unless they all got liquored up somewhere else and then went to Soho. The common sense was lacking when they packed themselves in like sardines and then started drinking.
Masks are not common here as there is no community transfer and flights here are restricted to returning citizens who have a compulsory 14 day isolation, I will get one before I visit my brother in a care home though,
Next town over McDonald's manager came down with the virus as did several people working there. It is now closed. Just two days prior friend reported stopping at drive up window for coffee and person at the window was not wearing a mask. Unfortunately I have been told that their coffee is good and they have a senior discount on it, so it is popular with the older crowd. Prayers and crossed fingers.
That makes no sense, unless they all got liquored up somewhere else and then went to Soho. The common sense was lacking when they packed themselves in like sardines and then started drinking.
The pictures I've seen from London were lots of people on the street, ie: outside the pubs having left.
The common sense was absent when someone decided that cutting the social distancing requirements inside buildings to 1m was a good idea. I'm not sure about where common sense was when it was decided that it's acceptable to be in a crowded enclosed space without face coverings (because, you can't exactly eat and drink while wearing a face covering). It also disappeared when senior members of the government decided to just tell the world that the rules can be broken at will by driving to his parents property after he and his wife had developed symptoms (and, his boss was in hospital with covid). When the government acts with such stupidity fully evident, is it any surprise that many people ignore their calls to show common sense?
I'd say I'm in the mid-point here - I put my mask on before I go into a shop, but I don't wear it in the queue on the pavement when everyone is 2m apart. About 50% of people aren't wearing them at all (yet), and 50% are putting theirs on before getting out of their cars.
Link with the conspiracy theory thread: Covid-19 doesn't exist, it is all fake news, part of the plan to impose a vaccine on everyone so they are controlled by the New World Order, promulgated by Bill Gates*. So refusing masks is standing up for the freedom of the individual not to be taken in.
*I did not make this up. Any of it. I did leave out the 5G masts, though, that are producing the symptoms.
I feel like different places have very different ideas of health and safety. My anxiety has lifted a bit because Melbourne has just been put down into strict lock down for another six weeks and kids apart from those in the two final years of school are back home schooling. But I feel bad for everyone who is out of work again or having to juggle kids and work again. I also now don't have to tell my teaching agency I'm unavailable for casual relief/supply teaching as I won't be needed, which I was feeling conflicted about, but the choice has been taken out of my hands for now. We had about 200 cases today, which is huge for here, particularly as the rest of Australia has barely a case outside of hotel quarantine. But those numbers seem low compared to countries overseas that are reopening. Political, medical and science heads would roll if we had the deaths we are seeing overseas, but perhaps attitudes would be different if it hadn't been caught early here the first time round and had had a lot more cases nation wide before the first lock down.
I had to take public transport to my vacation care job for a few shifts so wore masks there and have been wearing in shops too - I bought black reusable ones, as the Melbourne fashion is to wear a lot of black in winter. (Really that was the easiest colour to get, but I prefer it to medical white or blue).
Now I read school holidays are extended for a week, but no decision made on whether it will be remote learning after that. Ah, well, just taking things week by week!
So refusing masks is standing up for the freedom of the individual not to be taken in.
While demonstrating that they've been taken in by an Icke-esque conspiracy theory.
Cognitive dissonance par excellence ?
But what is this I hear about windmills? Those little plastic toy windmills, which you get in cheapo shops as children's toys, are popular decorations on graves in our local cemetery.
Are they responsible for Covid-19? Or is it the really big wind-farm thingies, that the French (IIRC) call éoliennes ?
All this ridiculous behavior makes me sooo embarrassed to be an American! Go to prison rather than wear a mask- jeez! Giant summer parties. I feel like too many people are jonesing for a Darwin Award.
And Canada (and everywhere else) keep your borders locked against the crazy Americans until there is a vaccine. Then get it for yourselves as you no doubt will. And don't let any American in unless they have proof that they have gotten the vac before arriving.
We're required to wear masks here in California. You go outside, you wear a mask. There are possible legal penalties, if you don't. I think there's been a little flexibility if people are out running, hiking, etc.--as long as they stay 6 ft. from everyone else, and put on their masks if there are people around.
But the virus is resurging, so some rules are becoming strict again. I feel sorry for everyone financially affected.
:votive:
Comments
It's got a little scary here again with a couple of housing commission (public housing) estates being locked down as the residents live in small flats with two shared lifts and one laundry per nine flats. The flats I volunteer at (only online tutoring at the moment) are ok, but I used to volunteer at one of the estates that is in hard lock down. It is upsetting and scary as they locked down with no notice and surrounded the places with police. Thankfully the government, social services and concerned members of the public are all helping or offering help now, which makes me feel a bit more positive, but praying no more cases occur there.
As to the test. I have had two now, as we have to get tested for any slight symptoms to prevent spread and get an all clear for work -although it's all voluntary. I only found them very mildly uncomfortable, so either had good nurses or just didn't find a few seconds of being poked with swabs nearly as bad as a trip to the dentist (and I have dentist phobia).
Yes, and would require post-nightmare counselling.
Or large quantities of GIN.
I have been working on a wee project to photograph all the gravestones in our kirkyard. I have taken over a hundred photos of gravestones during lockdown.
I suspect my photo stream is not quite what the minister had in mind. (I do also have lots of photos of Elizabeth the cat)
My son has been entertaining himself by writing skits based on Father Ted in which there is an additional character, bizarre even by the standards of Craggy Island.
Farther Ted - Look at your phone! What happy photos do you have?
New bizarre character : Gravestones, Father. They're all photos of gravestones.
The worms crawl in, and the worms crawl out -
They crawl in thin, and they crawl out stout -
Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Where shall we be in a hundred years from now?
As you say @North East Quine, not perhaps quite what your minister had in mind, but a useful historical record - and I bet some of the dear souls now a-mouldering 'neath the sod had some good, and happy, stories to tell in their time...
Sounds like one of Thomas Hardy's less cheery novels (they usually include fornication and tragedy). I wonder what he would have made of Covid-19?
Here lies a girl who found
One sure way to get around.
Now goes to bed beneath this stone
Early, sober and alone.
*ahem*
Back to Covid-19, has anyone (I've asked this before) yet been to a pub or restaurant?
Reports seem to indicate that patronage was patchy, and that quite a few places are deferring re-opening for a while, for various very good reasons. My 'local' (more of a restaurant than a pub these days) has, on a beautifully-written board outside, a list of Covid-19 rules resembling The Law Of The Medes And The Persians, so long and proscriptive as it is...
Our son in college was supposed to be doing an archeology field study this summer, but that was another casualty of the pandemic, so he found a part-time job waiting tables. He says business is steady, but not heavy.
It's all very well for the *government* (well, here on Boris Island) to bang on about our 'patriotic duty', but, to me, a pub is the place you pop into, on the spur of the moment, to have a half-pint (cos I'm driving), and a pie 'n chips, or a sanwidge.
I simply can't be doing with all this TOSH about ordering food online, or on an App (whatever that is), when I might decide I don't actually WANT pie 'n chips, or a sanwidge, once I get there...
(BTW - I'm old enough to remember the pub on the ground floor of the office block in which I had my first Proper Job. Pie 'n chips cost 2/5d in Proper Money - a penny change from Arf-a-Crahn - 2/6d! For those who know Sarf Lunnon, this was in the Old Father Thames PH on Albert Embankment SE1, about 50 years ago...
Even if they were allowed to open, I would have no desire to sit in, though.
I'm not in any hurry to do that. To my mind, the risk of transmission is high, and the incidence of the virus too high in the area, so I can't assume that there are no asymptomatic carriers likely to be in the restaurant.
We have plenty of evidence of viral transmission following the airflow indoors, for timescales consistent with eating a meal. To my mind, being indoors in a 50% full restaurant for the duration of a meal presents too much risk.
Although I sympathise with the owners/licensees of pubs, cafes, etc., whose livelihood must be somewhere under the floorboards by now...
"Use your common sense", indeed!
What @Alan Cresswell said.
It very much looked as if the typical day for the central London office worker was - in to work, Pret-a-Manger sarnie at lunchtime, 5 o'clock down the pub with everyone else, late evening tube to distant suburb, microwave the ready meal, bed, rinse and repeat.
Sign conspicuously posted on the door: "All customers must wear facial covering." What few customers there were all had masks on except one party -- husband, wife, little girl. I told the checkout clerk how upset I was at that, and he replied, "I hear you, but we can't say anything to them."
As well, as of tomorrow, masks will be mandatory in all public interiors. I'm sure some will grumble, but I'm much in favour.
The results of a poll conducted 25 June - 2 July showed that 81% of Canadians favoured keeping the border with the US shut to all but vital traffic (e.g. transport trucks). For Canadians, that is shockingly close to unanimity. It shocked even the pollster (Nik Nanos) who has a very good track record.
Then I saw another one....
This business of wearing face masks is certainly upsetting people.
In a supermarket car park I overheard a person say they were prepared to go to prison, if challenged for Not wearing.
And
To be perfectly honest I was momentarily too shocked to even think about saying anything.... then the moment and the people passed.
Something somewhere is not getting through.....
I've been saying this for years
That makes no sense, unless they all got liquored up somewhere else and then went to Soho. The common sense was lacking when they packed themselves in like sardines and then started drinking.
The common sense was absent when someone decided that cutting the social distancing requirements inside buildings to 1m was a good idea. I'm not sure about where common sense was when it was decided that it's acceptable to be in a crowded enclosed space without face coverings (because, you can't exactly eat and drink while wearing a face covering). It also disappeared when senior members of the government decided to just tell the world that the rules can be broken at will by driving to his parents property after he and his wife had developed symptoms (and, his boss was in hospital with covid). When the government acts with such stupidity fully evident, is it any surprise that many people ignore their calls to show common sense?
I wonder if he/she is prepared to go to prison for not wearing a seat-belt while travelling in a car?
What are these people on???
*I did not make this up. Any of it. I did leave out the 5G masts, though, that are producing the symptoms.
You forgot the windmills ...
I had to take public transport to my vacation care job for a few shifts so wore masks there and have been wearing in shops too - I bought black reusable ones, as the Melbourne fashion is to wear a lot of black in winter. (Really that was the easiest colour to get, but I prefer it to medical white or blue).
Cognitive dissonance par excellence ?
But what is this I hear about windmills? Those little plastic toy windmills, which you get in cheapo shops as children's toys, are popular decorations on graves in our local cemetery.
Are they responsible for Covid-19? Or is it the really big wind-farm thingies, that the French (IIRC) call éoliennes ?
Enquiring minds need to know...
And Canada (and everywhere else) keep your borders locked against the crazy Americans until there is a vaccine. Then get it for yourselves as you no doubt will. And don't let any American in unless they have proof that they have gotten the vac before arriving.
..and who therefore get noticed/listened to...
Maybe Trump's Great Wall isn't so bad an idea - it would help keep the lunatics out of Mexico.
But the virus is resurging, so some rules are becoming strict again. I feel sorry for everyone financially affected.
:votive: