Dementors can dement but we'll keep it positive here

[hobnobsaremyfavourite]

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Dementor free zone

Caitlin Moran on face masks, made me laugh...

"....The unavoidable and fatal ambiguity of expression while wearing a face mask. As every cameraman charged with getting a “Darth Vader reaction shot” will have come to know over the years, covering nearly all of your face makes it difficult for others to register your emotions. When wearing a face mask, scarf or – as I saw last week – vest pulled up to cover your face, huge amounts of vital “vibe info” are concealed from those you interact with. This has been the era where we have finally learnt what a pile of old balls that homily “The eyes are the window to the soul” is.

This ignores just what a small window, in the end, the eyes are. They’re tiny. Basically just a Velux in the loft. Obviously two things the size of grapes will buckle under the task of conveying “tone” from a distance of two metres or more.

Consequently, while out on the One Daily Walk or queuing up at Tesco for your Single Egg, one often finds oneself in a situation where you are either smiling at someone politely or giving a Paddington Hard Stare as they cough all over the bananas – but the target of your expression is none the wiser as to your disposition behind your mask.

Therefore, in the future, for the avoidance of doubt, I suggest we bring in a system whereby it’s perfectly normal behaviour to shout things like, “BEHIND THIS VIRAL SHIELD I AM SMILING KINDLY AT YOU!” or, “I AM, IN FACT, GLARING AT YOU IN WILD DISAPPROVAL.” Those who are particularly emotionally literate will be able to do fancy stuff, like, “DESPITE THE FACT YOU HAVE PUSHED INTO THE QUEUE IN FRONT OF ME, I AM STILL ATTRACTED TO YOU,” or, “YOU COULD START A CONVERSATION WITH ME ABOUT TIGER KING AND I WOULD HAVE AN UNEXPECTED HOT TAKE ON THE MATTER.”

Side point: at least we’ve now realised why 16th-century dandy highwaymen – also wearing scarves over their faces – had to shout, “STAND AND DELIVER!” when holding up a coach. Without being able to read their expressions, passengers might have thought the dude on a horse with the pistols was asking for a lift or needing directions instead"

and a good way of dealing with dementors..

"..I went on Twitter to discuss the horror of this scenario, and Nigella Lawson replied, “I always just slam the laptop lid down instead.” Obviously, everything Nigella does is perfect and brilliant, but I fretted that she had not seen others use this technique in a meeting. I have. Closing the laptop lid broadcasts a mad, fast, descending shot from your face, over your tits and down to your crotch, before the screen goes dramatically blank.

Obviously, in many ways that’s a power move – particularly if you’re as hot as Nigella Lawson. No one else in the meeting’s going to be sad about watching that. Besides – as befits her gigantic brain – Nigella had thought it all through anyway: when I mooted my “Tit Shot Worry”, she replied, “I just jump sideways, out of shot, while I do it.”

"What’s so important in Homebase that it’s worth risking your life for?"*

So dramatic and dementor-y.

My sister has just shut down an entire thread on the village FB page. It was started by her neighbour and went something along the lines of

"My neighbour isn't a key worker, yet has been at work everyday since lockdown and doing overtime as well", and then went on a rant about how people were dying yet all she was interested in was money etc.etc.
My sisters response was one sentence..."I know people are dying, I make the body bags they're put in".

I love my sister.

People have no idea of others jobs / circumstances do they.

My sisters response was one sentence..."I know people are dying, I make the body bags they're put in"

Good for her for shutting that crap down. Did she respond at all? How embarrassing for the curtain twitcher - I hope she’s humiliated

Lots of drama on local next door site, most of it humourous....some chat about this which I thought you lot might enjoy

"Many residents in the Yeovil area are loving a new lockdown siren that is ringing across the town - but others have said the noise reminds them of a dystopian horror movie.

The Leonardo Helicopters factory is blasting its air raid siren every Thursday as part of the nationwide "clap for carers" initiative.

As locals stepped out of their front doors last Thursday to clap and show their appreciation for the UK's NHS and care heroes on the front line of the pandemic, the loud siren sounded across the area"

People wondering what the noise was...

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/people-love-yeovil-lockdown-siren-4081734

The entire post was deleted about 2 minutes after my sisters reply. The dementor did reply with "well how many have you made so far then?" Dementor was jumped on like a bouncy castle by a few people before the post mysteriously disappeared.

I’m going to Waitrose today with DH...going to take separate trollies and buy half our shopping list each. I expect I’ll be told I’m murdering people. Don’t care any more.

The entire post was deleted about 2 minutes after my sisters reply. The dementor did reply with "well how many have you made so far then?" Dementor was jumped on like a bouncy castle by a few people before the post mysteriously disappeared

Haha! Brilliant

Although from some of the comments on next-door, it's been scoring people as well, especially some older people stuck at home...'eerie'

People have no idea of others jobs / circumstances do they.

No, honestly they don't. These are all the people crowing "you wouldn't be saying that if you were working in a hospital!" to anyone saying anything negative or trivial or human about lockdown.

My job is WFH and it's currently all Covid stuff, all day. I do love getting told I CAN'T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE OUT THERE from people whose only experience is that their mum's friend's neighbour's is "on the front lines"

Sorry, the mad sirens have been scaring people. I know someone locally who is really scared by all the clapping and nose and stuff. The whole thing, the reaction mainly is totally overwhelming for some people with MH problems.

One of the things which makes me angry about the dementors is them scaring the vulnerable. I’ve got an elderly relative who had a fall recently and thinks he’s fractured his arm, however he’s too frightened to go to hospital or even call his GP or 111 because he thinks they’ll make him go to hospital. Short of forcibly dragging him out of his house there’s nothing we can do, but if the dementors hadn’t been so damn persistent in their fear spreading he might be persuaded to get help.

Orangeblossom78

We have a large quarry near us that sounds it's blast siren during the Thursday clap. It sounds like an air raid warning...the dementors want it stopped because it "reminds the elderly of being bombed". I'm not sure what they mean because we live in the rural West Country and the only bombing that ever took place was when my Grandad's shed accidentally blew up when he was making gin in the 1950's

Ah, a lockdown siren. Last Thursday I noticed someone started letting off something that sounded like a car alarm here (I don't live in Yeovil, and I'm now glad that businesses nearby probably don't have a siren). I preferred the other week's clapping when a load of ambulances and police cars let all their sirens off at once on the bypass near us, it sounded fucking mental. My favourite part of the proceedings is hearing everyone dog in the neighbourhood going beserk

@GoldenOmber my mum works frontline in a hospital, she asked to meet DS and I for a walk tomorrow staying 2m apart as she's missing us a lot. She suffers with depression and has a lot on her plate at the moment. So all those people saying "you wouldn't say that if you worked in a hospital" can shove it.

They can all shove it in a pastry case and glaze it as far as I'm concerned. So much competitive dramatising, doom-mongering and parroting whatever crap is currently top of social media news feeds.

That's bad about the broken arm. Not surprised they're scared. It can get very bruised if not put in plaster quickly

Some evacuees during WW2 had an horrendous time. My auntie went to a place to stay aged 5 and was tied to a bed and underfed. My nan went to visit her and brought her back home. Child abuse was sadly common. It wasn't all apple picking and friendly village folk.
The blitz spirt was fabricated as much as any media today fabricate things.
My parents both lived through the war years and their stories were different to most.
Rose tinted glasses are a dangerous thing.

I'm embarrassed to admit to anyone we have an Ocado delivery in case I'm accused of killing the vulnerable. It's got to the stage now that I hope no one sees the driver arrive!

I preferred the other week's clapping when a load of ambulances and police cars let all their sirens off at once on the bypass near us, it sounded fucking mental. My favourite part of the proceedings is hearing everyone dog in the neighbourhood going beserk grin

My dogs and a lot in the village howl at sirens, we're on a main road through the village and so anything beyond us that needs help and they go through, sadly often car accidents that need quite a few emergency vehicles. It's like a Mexican wave of howling and sirens🤣 the dog who catches it first will start long before humans can hear it and then gradually others join in, each dog is shushed by an owner to be replaced by another that's heard it and starts.
We're too far out with nothing here really to have a drive past with sirens but the clapping and pan banging gets the dogs excited and they join in barking.

Considering these days you can’t even come into contact with children in any kind of official capacity without a background check, the idea of very young children being sent to stay for prolonged periods of time with complete strangers is fairly horrific when you think about it. Undoubtedly some children suffered horribly.

I actually have a very good idea of what day to day life was like during ww2 for some people because I have hundreds, possibly thousands, of letters sent between my grandparents to one another and their parents from the period. I was saying to DH the other day that at least my grandmother and her friends could go out and do things, her (virtually daily, sometimes twice daily) letters to my grandfather almost always included details about what films she’d seen at the cinema.

he needed to be confined to one room which was sealed with duct tape

In all fairness, haven't most people felt this way about a spouse from time to time, Covid or no?

Bark, any kind of evacuation today would not be permitted. At all! Can you imagine it?
For some in 1940s it was probably a positive thing but for many more it wasn't.
There was a thread where someone suggested that safeguarding rules and regs was taken away for now!
Whatever your views , that wouldn't happen.