Anti-dementors are driving round the Arc de Triomphe

[SockYarn]

new thread :-)

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Good morning from sunny Edinburgh! I'm off on a day trip today, involving a train! This seems unspeakably exciting, and it means peeing in someone else's house.

Their husband is a clipboard wielding dementor though so I'm hoping he enjoys the opportunity to take a long walk.

Sandwiches in the sun! Yay! Actually this plays nicely into my hands. I prefer bringing my own sandwiches, always have. And now it's my civic duty.

@NannyPhlegm

New Zealand and Iceland bemuse me. Both are being held up as bastions of excellence in the media for stamping out the virus in their countries.

But they're both islands that are geographically naturally isolated, and with sparse population spread over vast tracts of land. Once borders are shut, it isn't an impossible task to eliminate the virus. But surely the long term effect depends on them remaining shut to the outside world until a vaccine is found. How is that economically viable?
UK and its nations may be tiptoeing a bit too cautiously out of lockdown, but I think on the whole I prefer our approach.

Correct me if I'm wring, I'm just thinking out loud and this has bugged me

It's a gamble that might succeed if a vaccine is found relatively quickly but the longer it takes the more dangerous it'll be to their economies. If New Zealand can establish air bridges with Australia it might buy them time but Iceland, I imagine, has a lot of tourism from Europe so is in a trickier position. I hope a vaccine is found quickly for everyone (or the virus dies out) and it pays out for them but they could find themselves in the position that they have to make a choice to open up and risk it.

Good morning. I agree about New Zealand, but I also don’t know how they could have done things any differently. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place now (or technically I suppose Australia and Antarctica), obviously they don’t want the virus in their country, but they can’t stay in splendid isolation forever either.

Ha,I said the same about NZ and was told I 'had no joy' for them (or something like that)

I find it hard to imagine that it wasn't here at least by January... just think of the numbers of Chinese students you have returning to university, quite apart from anything else!

Hope everyone is okay this morning! And that you have some nice plans for the weekend? As much as is possible at the moment!

My departure from the covid pit hospital may be delayed again! This is highly embarrassing, but for the past few days I have been having trouble peeing Like, I can feel I need to but... can't do it! Apparently it can be due to nerve damage, which can be an uncommon side effect of the chemo. Oh goody So I need to be able to pee to be able to go home. Lol, you have to laugh or you'd cry!

On the other hand, I'm feeling a lot better so definitely ready to get back home 👍

@Orangeblossom78

Ha,I said the same about NZ and was told I 'had no joy' for them (or something like that)

I find Jacinda Adern a bit joyless, tbh! She was soooo angry about those people who brought it back in!

Have any of you been to IKEA? How strict are they on the rules? We are moving house which means the kids will be getting their own rooms and are excited about picking stuff to go in. As they are living such a shitty existence right now, I want to take them this weekend to pick some bits for their rooms to cheer them up. The rules are only one person per household unless you've got to take a child or need special assistance. How judged will we be for me, DH, 2 dc and a baby in a sling be? I'm tempted to pretend me and DH aren't together and take one dc each....

Oh that's annoying Jourdain fingers crossed for you.

Just going in to work oh joy but after today am off for 5 whole days.

Catch up later.

I was told I was "simply disgusting" for finding Jacinda Arden a bit joyless. She's done a really good job, but going forward she has her work cut out. I really hope they crack this though.

DH wants to go and spoke to a friend who had been ... apparently it was quite chilled! This would be the Wembley one.

DH also been to the shops at Westfield this week and said it was VERY "ordinary".

It will be a fabulous success for New Zealand if they pull this off. They need a vaccine quickly. I suspect NS wishes she was Jacinda.

Oh no, Jourdain, how crap. Chemo is so tough. I hope you manage to pee to escape. 🤞

I quite like Ardern but I find the "look how well countries led by women are doing better" bollocks REALLY irritating when most of "doing better" in this context comes down to luck.

If they were talking about boring old Merkel whose country genuinely does seem to have dealt very well with the virus in terms of treatment, sensible messaging, and opening up again as quickly as possible, I'd be more interested.

@Drivingdownthe101

It will be a fabulous success for New Zealand if they pull this off. They need a vaccine quickly. I suspect NS wishes she was Jacinda.

NS wants to chop Scotland off Britain and move it to the Southern Hemisphere - she would if she could!! 😄

Im going to my dad’s house today to hang out in the garden. It’ll be nice to see him and my stepmum again, but we’re really going so DD can hang out with her cousins and just muck about and be a child, she doesn’t get enough of that these days.

Last night DH volunteered for a vaccine trial, I don’t know if they’ll take him, he doesn’t have any health conditions but he is in his fifties and a bit overweight.

NS wants to chop Scotland off Britain and move it to the Southern Hemisphere - she would if she could!!

Tbf that sounds quite tempting to me

Happy day here! Forest car parks have opened! We are going for a long walk today, both dds and 3 dogs also meeting my mum and dad for a walk and fish and chips for tea! Still no word from dds school regarding opening from June 29th (in Wales), only had an email saying they couldn't possibly take more than 3 keyworker children (mine are keyworker children but we haven't accessed the hubs so far). Hope you all have a good day

@Nihiloxica

Oh no, Jourdain, how crap. Chemo is so tough. I hope you manage to pee to escape. 🤞

I quite like Ardern but I find the "look how well countries led by women are doing better" bollocks REALLY irritating when most of "doing better" in this context comes down to luck.

If they were talking about boring old Merkel whose country genuinely does seem to have dealt very well with the virus in terms of treatment, sensible messaging, and opening up again as quickly as possible, I'd be more interested.

Thank you! I hope so too. It does feel a bit like I've regressed to the age of 3... "you won't be able to go unless you can go to the toilet by yourself" lol.

What has New Zealand done so well?

"Isolated country can isolate more easily" is hardly big news.

It's a gorgeous day today and we are off to swim again with friends. I think swimming might be what has tipped my mood back from a dangerous-feeling edge.

@Jourdain11 🤞🏻🙏

@CupCupGoose I saw lots of families in IKEA yesterday (Nottingham) Some were couples with walking children, I saw one with 3 kids and some couples with babies.

@Jourdain11 oh no I was hoping you'd be released today. Assume you are drinking lots? Good luck.

@NannyPhlegm my brother and his family live in NZ and agree with you. Interesting that Jacinda isn't nearly as popular at home as she is abroad. Yes she's handled some big crises very well but there are some big unaddressed issues and the economy is in trouble. They need a vaccine by the Sept / Oct their spring so they can reopen.

@Weedsnseeds1 reminding you to talk us through meat packing plants, there are a lot of covid outbreaks and I'd like to understand better why. Also chicken is a staple in our household should we be worried about a shortage? Or is it easy to switch production?

Good news is that Wales looks to be opening up for tourism so my mid-August caravan holiday should be on.

Re schools and the 30 bubble stuff dd2 has been put in a different class to her best friend which means if it works as now they won’t be allowed to see each other. I know in the grand scheme of things but she is going to be really upset about this if that is what happens. I had already commented on this to the school, but now it looks more likely

Also chicken is a staple in our household should we be worried about a shortage?

Please don’t say that people will start panic buying 🤦🏻‍♀️. Might as well get some bog roll at the same time....... 😂

Question - do we think the Perspex screens around checkouts are here to stay? I have to say, I don’t mind them too much really. Do we think shops will keep them now? It might make sense if it stops staff catching every bug going (supermarket checkout workers must surely get all sorts of nasties in the winter?)?