Anti dementors visit the zombie beach

[BarkandCheese]

New thread! Hope the title is acceptable.

Sorry if this has been said before, but I've been musing about all the negative, dementor-ish press coverage, and how it always gets worse before a weekend (especially a holiday one) or decent weather, or anything that might make us all. think 'Fuck it, I'm off out to do something that's not really allowed'.

And I wondered if press freedom had been curtailed in some way, and started to look into what it means to put the country on a 'war footing', which the government kept banging on about back in March. And I found a description of what that actually means. It includes this little gem:

Press reporting restrictions are imposed

1. To control the flow and content of information
2. Keep up morale on home front (OK that one, not so much)
3. So that official information gets through clearly

And then I thought

I really understand the instinct of 'if there was a house price crash it would benefit some as more people could afford a house' but unfortunately it just doesn't work like that. It just causes a lot of people a lot of pain. I do agree houses are far too expensive but we are overcrowded and on a small island with not enough houses and sadly that doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.

What we could really do with is a pandemic maybe coming along and wiping out a lot of humans. Hmm. Not likely, though, I don't think That's the stuff of novels.

Totally agree with Lionel Shriver. This is all absolute fucking bullshit.

I'm still loving Karol Sikora's Twitter feed. He says in particular how Austria came out of lockdown 2 months ago and they had just 12 new cases yesterday. That is really amazing. I wish I could go back 10 weeks and tell myself that - it always seemed like as soon as anyone came out of lockdown there would be dead bodies piling up on the streets. It is a bit bizarre though! The virus is supposed to be so highly contagious and lethal after all.

I have taken to binge watching comfort TV. I haven't watched daytime telly in years (not a stealth boast, I have a short attention span and just get bored by it) and it's lovely settling down on the sofa with a coffee and losing hours to it. I feel like a teenager again.

This is all absolute fucking bullshit.

Amen

@AllFlightsCancelled not just me that's noticed that then :-) I thought it was just me having a conspiracy theory moment!

Yay! Nursery have called me and they are re opening on the 15th to all children! I know it's almost irrelevant now I've got a "keyworker" job but I'm so happy they've made that decision

I think they'll desperately look and look and change how the figures are calculated yet again if it looks like we're getting out of this.

@catermole No, definitely not just you. I'm not big into conspiracy theories usually, but I definitely think the media is getting pressure from on high.

And it's all utter bollocks.

In Austria it did work when they lifted lockdown despite lockdown here the bodies continued to pile up. Where did we go wrong I ask myself.

@DominaShantotto
There is a brilliant piece in this week's Spectator by Dr John Lee called 'Count for Nothing'. One comment is this:

We like to beat ourselves up for having the worst Covid death toll in Europe - but we will never know, because we decided not to count properly.

10 weeks of lockdown how on earth can we still be infecting each other. Cannot be supermarkets or the staff would have died. There has been nothing else open so how on earth is it still infecting people. Oh I know the dementors will say people who disobeyed things but the overwhelming majority did not.

There must surely be children coming out of this with anxiety and OCD practically foisted upon them because they have no access to anyone beyond their parents.
It was so important to me from the start to get out pretty much every day to keep that normality. DS1 is has a high potential to catastrophise and get anxious so we've been factual about the low risk of a low risk that affects us and him.

Childhood obesity rates can't be doing well with all this enforced sedentary loitering around the house. PE with Joe doesn't really replace walking to school, break, lunch, daily mile, sports clubs, getting lugged around a supermarket etc. My DCs are the annoying beanpole until 30 types, but it's taking its toll on me between boredom eating for a bit of sensory stimulation and not charging here there and everywhere.

Had a better day here. Got the DCs out "early" and drove past laps of people queuing around a McDrive Thru by 11:10, and within 20 mins we were tucking in to our greasy industrial estate burgers Played football in the drizzle on an empty sports court, then went for a walk. The park was busier than usual, but few groups sitting around compared to when the sun was out. Not long been back in and heard the chimes of an icecream van so ushered DS2 out and he was literally bouncing with excitement at going out to the van and choosing a double flake with sprinkles. An absolute picture of childhood joy.

I'm feeling a bit more grounded with the real world today, but there's just so few options that haven't been exhausted in nearly 11 weeks.

Hello you lovely sane people!

I've hit an absolute wall today (not helped by raging hormones). I am full of anxiety and rage and so fucking sick of this shit now!

I've have disagreed with lockdown from day one but have gone along with it for the supposed greater good but I have had enough.

I have been tipped over the edge by the announcement this week that having someone stay in my private residence overnight is now fucking actually illegal, just how fucking dare they.

My yr 10 dd is now really struggling with a total loss of motivation and has just been told they will only go back in for 1 day in v small groups for a total of 4 hrs from the 15th. Yet her head has just told them in no uncertain terms that they must continue to keep up with their work. I am so worried, scared and angry about how this affecting her mental health.

I have just had enough, we need to sod the social distancing, take a long hard look at the actual stats and get back to normal.

My kids future is being massively affected and this needs to stop now!!!

Sorry for the long rant but I really needed to vent, I am just so angry at our total loss of liberty and the current and future implications & damage this is causing.

I loved that Lionel Shriver article, thanks for posting. It is absolutely how I feel.

@Nihiloxica

A house price crash would be bad for most people (although there are always beneficiaries).

A gradual decline in price would be good for the economy. Far too much money is tied up in property.

I'm sort of enjoying how people are using "socially distanced" as a meaningless redundant prefix.

I think it's less virtue signalling than an attempt to deflect dementors. The more it is used, the less meaning it has.

The power of the Dementors is weakening if people are posting on social media about socialising, even if they do feel the need to use the Socially Distanced spell

I agree with that about "Socially Distanced" being used extensively to ward off Dementors like a silvery whisp of a newbie's patronus

I found when sharing my beauty spot photos that I didn't want to blatantly state where it was as it's one of the places doing the rounds each weekend. The photos speak for themselves about how quiet that time slot is, but I didn't want to use those potentially triggering words

Kids in school and McDonald's drive through for lunch. Just for a second, life was normal.

I have a lot of hope that this will continue to get better

@Therulerofmyhouse

I have been tipped over the edge by the announcement this week that having someone stay in my private residence overnight is now fucking actually illegal, just how fucking dare they

I totally agree with you, it is enraging. See also where they said shielded people are now "allowed" in their own gardens. And it is "prohibited" for me and my daughter to enter my mother's house if it's raining.

Needless to say I have now been into my mother's house, just because they said I couldn't. I await the arrest warrant with interest

I have been tipped over the edge by the announcement this week that having someone stay in my private residence overnight is now fucking actually illegal, just how fucking dare they

That was the final straw for me too, in terms of reaching my ‘fuck this shit’ line.

Really it is illegal for someone to stay in your home not just guidelines, I missed that one being in Wales. Cripes my neighbour has her family arriving tonight. After so many weeks apart.

DD1 came out of school absolutely beaming. She said ‘it was a bit weird, but more good than it was weird’ . Feel so happy for her. She’s come home with tales of all the sleepovers her and her friends are apparently going to have (as soon as it’s no longer illegal 🙄)

I have been tipped over the edge by the announcement this week that having someone stay in my private residence overnight is now fucking actually illegal, just how fucking dare they.

It scares me that this law was passed without a whimper from parliament.

It's such an incredible intrusion into our private lives by the state.

Where is the Leader of the Opposition on this? Where are the Tory backbenchers?

It’s so lovely hearing about kids enjoying being back at school!

To be fair though, what the fuck can they actually do about it? They're on a hiding to nothing, for sure.

Sadly, I'm quite antisocial and I can't think of anyone who I actually want to have staying here. Otherwise I'd be sending out the invitation without delay.

Sorry, yes, hooray for the kinds who are enjoying a return to school. I'm very happy for them.