Despicable Anti Dementors

[Mascotte]

New thread

DS has messaged us this morning to ask if we can have two grand kids next week to give mum a break. They are so over social distancing in Wales, we will of course. We have all been locked up for 9 plus weeks now because they pulled kids out of school early and we deemed it sensible to batten down the hatches early.

Dementors are going nuts because figures in our town have surged, well in the last few days they did the nursing homes, one home of 40 residents all tested positive as did most of the staff. That is the truth of it in Wales.

Not rtft but the best quite I've seen that sums this all up was Jonathan Sumption writing in the Times: "If we hold politicians responsible for everything that goes wrong, they will take away out liberty so that nothing can go wrong". Former supreme court judge .

@Orangeblossom78 - I'm in Wales, we're not allowed to meet others or picnic (or smile). Honestly imagine a tighter lockdown than you had 3 weeks ago. That's where we are!

As for these parents with young children who are traumatised, turn off tv, stop scaring the pants off them.

We um... grew bacteria. Grew it from a cough, grew it from one of the kids' iPads, cultivated a smelly sock. The iPad was boggingest by far - the cough was nothing in comparison.

Then DD1 decided to try to hold it up to show her cub group on a Zoom meeting and spilt the entire culture all over my fucking expensive iPad Pro!

There is actually some brilliant TV out there explaining things in kid-appropriate ways... there's a Dr Ranj for the little ones (or puppet fetishists and people who enjoy songs about poo), there was an Operation Ouch one the other week which is very very good, and there was a Q+A from the Ouch twins right near the start of the outbreak all breaking it down very very simply for kids.

But that doesn't have DEATH and DOOM and the ability to terrify attached to it.

Mask wearing doesn't appeal to me. My auditory processing isn't great and masks are a double whammy of muffling the sound and removing lip reading and expression. I also get overwhelmed by humid air (at swimming pools it tips my claustrophobia theshold). Fortunately I can't see myself entering an environment where it would be strongly advised at present.

It really wouldn't go down well with DS1 who functions with a lot of masking. He struggles with fancy dress type stuff, especially Halloween because he can't manually read through social cues to cope. Plus there's the sensory side of it for a child who can't cope with trousers or even things like tucking his hair behind his ear.

You'll be able to spot some of the avid mask dementors if they're not hot on their suncream, they'll be the ones with tan lines over their noses and mouths by the end of the summer.

Wearing one in crowded places where social distancing is trickier, I see the logic. In a great park where everyone is well spaced, it is rather pointless and odd looking!

(And what is it with the car drivers? Some of those would be far safer to brush up on their driving skills from some of the ones I've encountered in recent weeks!)

That Claire Fox article reminded me of the attitude of the Aunts in The Handmaid's Tale:

"There are two types of freedom: freedom to and freedom from. You are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it."

(For the avoidance of confusion: the Aunts are the enforcers of a misogynist dystopia.)

I tried a mask albeit OH workshop one. Could not breathe in it, bit panicked. Have bought some on amazon in anticipation of Drakeford making them mandatory just to be different.

@Nihiloxica it was my drive out this morning that got me particularly frothy about the rainbows. They've even had that taken from them the poor kids - it's become some kind of corporate virtue signal - the same way that they jump on pink branding for breast cancer etc... Tesco have a huge one emblazoned over their windows, the local council have put them out for key workers all over on banners... totally taken away from the original meaning of it which was someone starting it off on FB and sharing it for something for the kids to spot on their daily walks - and it really helped DD2 near the start of lockdown to drive around the area near school and see how many she could spot and wonder which of her friends painted them. The whole of the last day of their school they had a rainbow day making them to go in windows to say hello to their friends and dressed in bright colours... seems so long ago now, and it's been stolen by the corona cult.

It's them telling everyone else they have to wear them which annoys me.

Yes I agree, I don't wear one for them because the vast majority of them are likely very low risk and shouldn't be too worried. But theres a large elderly population around here and if most people wore them it would make it safer for Betty popping to the shops, as she should continue to do so. If me wearing fabric around my face for 15 mins helps whilst I do some shopping not really arsed on the fuss about not wearing one to prove a point.

Lots of children locally have started playing together this weekend in small groups, must be doing them the world of good.

Yes, Haunted - it is the Aunt Lydia logic.

Of course.

@HauntedGoatFart I've just been reading Ben Elton's Identity Crisis - it's really about a mix of Brexit, Gender Identity politics and Russian fucking about social media opinion engineering - but it's soooooo bloody resonant of today - planting the seeds to send something viral and get the public demanding what you want them to demand. I started reading it on the train to and from uni before this all kicked off and finished it yesterday and it's taken on a whole new layer of meaning now.

Oh sorry Wales of course I forgot..fingers crossed things will change soon there. Moves to in Scotland this week it seems, so fingers crossed.

I've just ordered some completely non-essential wide legged cropped trousers from the Aspiga sale (DH thinks I'm doing the Tesco order).

I think that's a hamlet's worth don't you?

We've made our own masks - were quite suprise Wales decided against them - but can't see why there are needed on walks where everyone is apart and outside anyway.

I think shops buses trains - then yes to protect others that little bit.

Last weekend walk was to different location and we saw no masks at all.

The nurses do not like us wearing masks coz we do not follow guidelines, we fiddle with them touching our faces, pull them up and down because they are annoying thus defeating the object of wearing them. My passenger seat car well is littered with disposable gloves because folk kick off about them being discarded willy nilly in car parks. I bloody give up. Our figures are so low in N Wales the gestapo are panicking we may be lax, so tell us there is about to be a surge in numbers to keep us on our toes, they really think us stupid.

@Orangeblossom78 - don't worry. You gave me the opportunity to have a moan about the state of Wales at the moment. People almost seem gleeful when a child dies as it proves that schools should never reopen and wanting my child to have a social life proves I want to kill them. Honestly this thread has saved me a bit. I daren't talk to anyone IRL except my parents in case I'm accused of murder.

@justasking111 Me too! I've got my masks all ready for when the bloody WG decide to allow us some freedom. I used to be a Labour voter. I don't know where to go now

DominaShantotto me and DH have both read that before all this started and we said exactly the same thing - has even more resonance now.

We were also watching the James Bond film 'Tomorrow never Dies' last night - Jonathan Pryce played a media mogul who was hellbent on causing a conflict between China and Britain in the South China sea by manipulation of satellites, feeding out misinformation etc - again it really resonated with the way the media and social media have behaved over this pandemic.

Full on genocide here today. DS1 has arranged a socially distanced meeting with his girlfriend, they are both 30, live with parents and were just at the stage of planning moving in together. I pointed out that if one of them were to decide they had rowed with their parents and needed a few days elsewhere to cool off that would be within the guidelines. Her parents and DHs business have been closed, both of them have been furloughed and I've been working from home so hardly high risk.

I'm mildly pissed off with mum - she's bought the kids (and us) masks. Was an act of well intentioned kindness, and I've explained to the kids that mask wearing is basically the equivalent of walking around with a tissue to your face in case you sneeze, and I'll leave it to them if they choose to wear them... but she ordered them from Playmobil (who've set one of their production lines off moulding reusable ones you just line with a tissue and replace accordingly) so the kids think they're epic because they've got the little playmobil person on the front.

I'm not going to enforce them - particularly with the child with sensory issues - but I'm going to make it bloody clear that the kids understand they are for altruism and protecting others and not some kind of magical charm to prevent themselves getting the virus like most seem to do. DD1 thinks it's brilliant because she reckons she "looks like a plague doctor" or if she sticks it on her head she can pretend to be a traffic cone. School sending home the reading book The Plague right at the beginning of lockdown didn't half get us giggling (I think other parents took extreme offence - I found it bloody hilarious)

I made a load of masks the other day because I was bored and like sewing, I’ve sent some off to family members who requested them so probably killed several dozen posties. My feeling is I don’t want to wear one, but if doing certain things or going certain places becomes dependent on wearing one I’ll wear one. It’s not the hill I want to die on, I’ll save my battles for things which matter more to me.

And still Leicestershire Police are posting how they're patrolling local parks hassling people.

DO NOT BUY MASKS THEY ARE NEEDED FOR THE NHS.

So pray tell me why they are available on Amazon, E Bay and many online Med sites.

Yeah waiting to the answer to that one.

I won’t be wearing a mask. Severe claustrophobia and the thought makes me panic.
I just won’t go anywhere where one is required. I don’t use public transport, and if particular shops mandate them I won’t go in.

I got mine from Wowcher. They ae definitely not NHS standard as I wanted ones I could wash and reuse. I thought it could be a tiny gesture towards the environment and agree the professionals should be first in the queue for the medical ones

Can I ask if anyone has seen any sensible journalism or science articles about covid and asthma. There must be a large proportion of asthmatics mild and severe (I know lots) that are really worried but I’ve not heard of asthma being a risk factor since the very beginning. BAME, age, obesity and diabetes but nothing on that.