The ADs seek joy and aubergines

[BogRollBOGOF]

We got a bit cut off there didn't we? Thread 15 now.

Yeah I know I am finding it all confusing with the GCSE stuff too, getting emails from music and DT about keeping up the practical work and keeping to deadlines etc but they need to be doing that in school really (argh) Mine is being given some assessed stuff online the past couple of weeks which seems time consuming and not sure exactly what is going on with it- they seem to speak on headphones to each other completing it. And then going into school for 2 hrs where they don't do much at all. I hope it will be Ok for them

We do love Seaham, @Dowser

Unsurprisingly, Tommy is one of many pokestops, there!

@Orangeblossom78 @NannyPhlegm I really struggled with my mental health when DS was a baby. I remember crossing a swing bridge in the car - I have never, ever seen it opened, there are traffic lights and there are no road markings to stop you queuing on the bridge (it’s in our local city). I had all the windows wound right down and my hand on my seatbelt buckle as I was convinced that it was going to open and plunge us into the river, and I was going to have to swim us out of the sinking car. I knew exactly how it would happen and everything. This would have tipped me right over the edge, I think.

Hi all. Checking in. We've had a lovely long walk around the grounds of a local stately home. Car park was rammed but the grounds were so big at times we felt completely alone. The DDs were good company and mostly lovely together. I think we might have been #makingmemories but to me it felt like a bit of real life.

I think I was exposed to Covid before lockdown but god knows if I had it. Certainly no conclusive symptoms and there were a lot of other viruses around. I am interested in an antibody test but not paying for it. I am assuming not and being careful (lots of handwashing and respecting peoples space) but I am doing everything allowed within the rules and restarting our lives.

There is a really brilliant thread for those that aren't even looking on the other side. The C word isn't even mentioned

How to make it feel like you're on holiday when you can't go. Some really good ideas - and some that have really made me laugh.

My favourite is to get up early and put towels on your garden chairs.

I had the terror inducing intrusive thoughts when both mine were babies. Awful. I was absolutely convinced they were going to die, many many times. I felt isolated and lonely enough on maternity leave, something like this would definitely have pushed me over the edge.

As it is I need to do something for my current mental health. I am coping on the surface but I am irritable, quick to anger, constantly ruminating and thoroughly miserable.

I really feel for new mums/ mums of toddlers posting. It can be such an isolated time where you fall out of synch with previous relationships anyway. It's easy to be cynical about rhymetime and baby sensory etc, but they are a social lifeline to mums and a variation of scenery for babies.

It's easy to be cynical about rhymetime and baby sensory etc, but they are a social lifeline to mums and a variation of scenery for babies.

Totally.

tot groups, playgroups are so important when you have a new baby imo.

Well DH and DC snuck over the border collected DS girlfriend and snuck back in. So we have her safely here now. Not a policeman in sight anywhere on the welsh side.

She has family in NHS in Halifax they only have one patient in ICU in Bradford there are 10 she said. We have one in icu in our hospital so things are looking up every day.

Yes, I really feel for anyone with really small kids at the moment. I didn't really do baby groups as DH was at home while I was on mat leave, but we spent loads of time in cafes and restaurants with DD when she was a baby, the change of scene was good for all of us. She was miserable and grumpy if she only saw the inside of our house.

I'm still baffled at why people are insistent there will be an even harsher lockdown. Do they want to get welded into their houses or something because they are certainly acting like it.

I have to admit to a bit of a wobble over the R rate in Germany. It's all going to be a massive palaver until there's a vaccine, isn't it?

With all the masks, gloves, sanitisers, hand washing etc. the flu rate should be down this winter if nothing else. I have always been a germophobe in the winter re: flu, gloves on, supermarket trolleys are germ ridden imo. xmas parties another germ spreader. Norovirus, vomiting, trots they say has risen two thirds in two decades down to eating out, so the kitchens should be cleaner this winter.

We really need to demand restaurant kitchens are cleaner and I expect the council here employed to lay down the law are firmer and just shut down places until they are satisfied instead of a tap on the hand and a lower rating.

@AnxiousElephant77

I have to admit to a bit of a wobble over the R rate in Germany. It's all going to be a massive palaver until there's a vaccine, isn't it?

Try not to worry about it. It was an outbreak in an abattoir, and a couple of others that did it I believe. It is all seemingly under control now. The R rate is a pain in the arse because when you're on so few cases, an outbreak like this pushes it right up but it's not really relative to the situation in the whole country iyswim?

This is what track and trace is for. Find it and shut it down, and they've done that someone on that thread has said whilst they're in "local lockdown" as it were she is still going to work and the shops are still open...so it's probably not going to be as bad as you might imagine

Calling Christmas parties a germ spreader? Jesus. There really is going to be no fun to be had at all.

Maybe we should just postpone our wedding now. It's hopeless.

@AnxiousElephant77

Maybe we should just postpone our wedding now. It's hopeless.

No no no no no! Stop it right now. You have MONTHS until December. As someone who has postponed their own wedding do not do it unless you absolutely have to.

Honestly it might be totally completely fine by then. If it's not, then postpone it.

If you postpone it now and December is fine you'll be kicking yourself.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

We went for a walk in DH’s childhood village today, the third time we’ve done so since lockdown started. The first time was pretty grim, nothing apart from the Co-Op open and the feeling the locals were giving us the side eye. The second time was a bit better, the Italian deli was open as was one of the coffee shops so we got coffees and sat on the green with them. Today was a world apart from that first visit, most of the cafes and shops had reopened, and the pub on the green was doing takeaway food and drink from a table at the door. The green was buzzing and full of happy people with pints, some had even bought camping chairs, and the pub was bringing out food to people and taking away empties. They had even put signs up to make sure people knew the public toilets up the road were open. As we’d already eaten we just got drinks, but we’re going to go back next week and have a pub lunch on the green.

I know I'm being horribly melodramatic, thank you for not telling me to get a grip @TrustTheGeneGenie

@SummerHouse

Thank God you are here. I have been lost in Mumsnet like father Ted in the lingerie section.

It's the UK's largest Dementor department, I believe.

Anxious Elephant, it's completely normal to have a wobble considering the appalling scaremongering and goalpost-moving that's been going on.
Just remember that the R number is occasionally going to look worse as cases decrease. Wales is going to have a worse R number now I presume because of the chicken packaging plant outbreak. But that doesn't in reality mean much unless you actually work in said plant, don't distance, have underlying conditions or any one of a myriad of 'ifs and buts'.
It's so hard to keep calm but honestly things will be OK, and you're not alone - I think everyone has ups and downs. Hang in there.

What would we do without this thread?! Proud to be an OG!

@AnxiousElephant77

I know I'm being horribly melodramatic, thank you for not telling me to get a grip *@TrustTheGeneGenie*

You're welcome I was horribly dramatic about it too don't worry. I think this is one of the times in your life where it's totally allowed

@AnxiousElephant77

I have to admit to a bit of a wobble over the R rate in Germany. It's all going to be a massive palaver until there's a vaccine, isn't it?

I think it’s going to become a less of a palaver as time passes and we get more efficient at dealing with localised outbreaks. One of the reasons South Korea have come out of all this quite well is because they have previous experience from SARS outbreaks, whereas we’ve been like a bunch of headless chickens trying blindly to find a way through.

The thing about the R rate is that at low levels of infection it’s bollocks. So if one person infects 20 the R rate is 20. The important thing is to stop transmission from the 20.