AD's say "well open the playgrounds and swimming pools then you Malaka"

[Ibake]

New thread!

Home from my first full day in an office. It was like a murder scene with all the yellow tape around desks and photocopiers etc. Most people were ADs with one or two full on dementors (the ones who had put the tape down).

I'd forgotten how noisy and distracting other people are. I'm used to sitting on my reclining sofa with the lap top on my knee and gentle background music. I wanted a mute button by 10am today!

Have been number crunching the Scottish stats.

4155 total deaths.
Under 25s - ZERO DEATHS
25-29 - 1 death, 0.02%
30-34 - 2 deaths, 0.04%
35-39 - 8 deaths, 0.19%
40-44 - 16 deaths, 0.38%
45-49 - 41 deaths, 0.98%
50-54 - 61 deaths, 1.47%
55-60 - 103 deaths 2.48%
60-64 - 138 deaths, 3.32%
65-69 - 200 deaths, 4.8%
70-74 - 397 deaths, 9.55%
75-79 - 588 deaths, 14.15%
80-84 - 797 deaths, 19.18%
85-89 - 885 deaths, 21.3%
90-94 - 645 deaths, 15.5%
95+ - 273 deaths, 6.57%

So by my maths, that makes 86.25% of all deaths in the over 70s. Only 11 deaths in total in those under 40.

Remind me why it's so dangerous for children?

@LethargicLumpOfLockdownLard My best fly solution is mesh on all the windows! You can get kits really cheaply. You get strips of narrow Velcro that go all the way round the windows, then netting which you cut to size and stick on. It really helps. We get lots of flies as we have chicken sheds quite close to us, but hardly any in the house since I put the mesh up.

@BarkandCheese
I’m quite happy to take one for the team..you know me..
I don’t give a flying fuck
I just can’t seem to fit everything in.

Been to the ( first) garden centre today.
Well we set off for cheste le street and it was foggy and a bit drizzly and after Saturdays drive from hell , I said to The normally lovely Mr Dowser ( except When he’s in the passenger seat) I’m not going to a place I don’t know in fog, so we’ll go to the garden centre.

So , several attempts to find it ( dowsing would have been quicker) and £60 later and lighter we had a damp drizzly afternoon but got some bargains.

He nearly had a stove in head 😂( I think it’s nerves but it’s time he learnt not to have a go at me when I’m in charge of a killing machine)

Anyway, we had a pleasant afternoon and I got a lovely lump of rose quartz for a bargain price of £12-79..so I was well chuffed.

I took no notice of the stupid tape on the floor. I’m quite capable of finding a gap and moving towards it..staff were lovely and I think I’ve found the third Mr Dowser.

Lovely staff member told me what to do with the plants we’ve bought , dig a big hole, put second mr Dowser inside and plants on top seemed to be the gist of it..

So now, I need to get some ericaceous soil/ compost...as the plants we’ve bought like that kind of soil.

Gawd , this gardening lark is blummin difficult..but Mr Dowser went and bought a nice sturdy trowel..so he’s safe for now ..and the other guy is married.😂

My bargain rose quartz..in the aquarium section 👍

My rose quartz

Our High St's been in a mess for years. Our big shopping centre opened in Oct 2007 and half the city shifted into it.
At one point before the credit crunch really kicked in we had the worst vacancies on the High St in the country.

We have the shopping centre up one end, the boutiques/ independents up the other, then a void where the chainstores were in between them.

There is too much retail capacity, even after diversifying into other leisure/ services. But converting needs to be done well.

Larger chain stores seem to be consistently floundering. 15 years ago, every High St was virtually identical, even in other places like Ireland.

The credit crunch/ austerity years dragged on, but a lot of companies have limped on along the precipice throughout. The value of retail land is just grossly inflated and hasn't reduced to generate new demand. Now the chain mid-price restaurants are suffering the same fate.

Vacancies in the shopping centre (an INTU) are growing over time. That's all based on debts of over inflated land value.

Aside from sectors that can't "safely" operate at present, a lot of casualties were either inevitable (Debenhams) or Coronavirus provides a cover to restructure earlier than might otherwise have happened long term.

It still sucks for those caught up in the crossfire.

I love rose quartz.
I have a rose quartz necklace that my dad bought on holiday one month before he died. It's one of my greatest treasures.

@BogRollBOGOF there have been do many times when people around here have been having a socially distanced conversation, on either side of the footpath. If they don't swing round so they're both on the same side, I just end up walking through the middle of them. These will be the same people who, for time immemorial, have stopped for a chat in the central aisle in sainsburys, with their various trolleys behind them, managing to block both that and 2 other aisles, in the process.

Dowser have you ever been to Melbourne in Florida? I think it’s in Brevard county rather than Kissimmee, it’s where my in-laws used to live, it’s a fab little town. A bit of a hippy, arty, surfer place with a winter population of snowbirds, but far enough from Orlando that it’s not really a tourist destination. DH and I got married on the beach there and it holds lots of happy memories.

Don’t get me started on changes to planning regs.

What happens if you put residential next to town centre uses is that the residents make noise complaints and try and get the uses closed down. So it is great in theory and rubbish in practice.

On R4 this morning Alok Sharma when pressed on what Boris Johnson had said about getting Britain building referred to office to resi conversions which were introduced in 2013. Seven years ago.

(And the accommodation they produce is invariably shit).

Also, business rates are collected by Local Authorities, but then go to the government and some is given back to the authority. Not all of it. Every few years, if Councils get more through business and investment growth there is something called a business rates reset where the government takes a bigger chunk, leaving the inevitable hole in the budget. So they would prefer the Council Tax.

ADs I need opinions!

Would I be mad to drive to France from Scotland by myself, take the tunnel and stay for a few nights in a hotel? If and when it's allowed?

@Cattermole

Basically - risks in the future will be far lower. We've been through the period of high risks, we will not see those sorts of death rates again. Numbers of infections seem to be a bit of a red herring: it's younger people moving about and mixing more who are increasingly becoming infected but they themselves are not having any significant effect on the declining death rate.

It's from about 20 minutes onwards on the podcast. Basically his take as a statistican is that the number of cases is not reflecting the level of risk to the community....he feels very sorry and sympathetic for young people who have sacrificed so much for a disease that does not affect them.
Direct quote.

I love More or Less but am a bit of a stats geek so it was always going to appeal to me.

We have two Intu shopping centres, here. Eldon Square had very few empty units, last time I was in, just before lockdown. The biggest gaps were in the Grey Quarter, where the likes of Giraffe had disappeared. Metrocentre is a different story, though and consistently has a empty units. That's going to be decimated. Already, the enormous Debenhams has closed down. Pret probably isn't going to be the last food outlet not to renew its lease. Whsmith moved to smaller premises, last year, Laura Ashley will disappear after its closing down sale and top shop and warehouse are in the same predicament. Game must surely be on the bones of their arse and I have no idea how boots will survive as they're still interrogating everyone who dares to shop there.

Just to make some of you jealous, I've attended a David Spiegelhalter lecture in person (quite some time ago). He was brilliant on this week's More Or Less. Young people are more likely to die in a car accident this year than to die of Covid. Every government minister should have that tatooed on the inside of their eyelids.

@Mascotte

ADs I need opinions!

Would I be mad to drive to France from Scotland by myself, take the tunnel and stay for a few nights in a hotel? If and when it's allowed?

I’d do it, I love a long drive and a bit of an adventure.

@BarkandCheese thanks, that's kind of how I'm feeling! Just worried I'll be too scared when it comes to it. I've done the tunnel loads in a former life but never alone. But I feel I need to get out there and do something!

What bit of France are you thinking of heading to?

I thought Lille? Nice looking town quite near tunnel.

Oh that brings back memories, used to go to the Metrocentre as a teen with a friend on a bus trip for Christmas from Scotland. Shopping in Boby shop and eating in pizza hut, the excitement of it all.

Might be a bit warmer, think it could work OK (trip to France) don;t let Nicola catch you though

Honfleur is meant to be nice. In the north

@Orangeblossom I'm planning late July so hopefully legal!!

I know I’ve been to Lille in the past but I can’t remember much about it. Growing up in Kent we used to go to France for the day a lot when I was a child because the ferry was super cheap in the winter. Lille was definitely somewhere we’d head to. We used to do our big supermarket shop on the way home because it was the days when the pound was fairly strong and it was cheaper than shopping at home.

I would, of course, stock up on wine 😃

I just need a change of scene. My DP won't come cos of the Covid and I'm stir crazy. I have two weeks child free while they're with their dad.