ADs don't want the greater good, give us our crusty jugglers!

[ISaySteadyOn]

Here you go all, thought it might be my turn again.

I've lost track of the rules, largely because I really can't be bothered to keep track of nonsense.

Agree that most people are in the same boat and are just rolling their eyes and trying to get on with life without getting too depressed by it all.

I'm feeling a lot more worried about @wownasty123 right now. Don't understand what's going on there, but it does sound alarming. I can't imagine she's been targeted by an anti dementor as that's the while point of these threads; it's absolutely fine to express your own view and to disagree with other people's

So that's that then. No work for DH till a vaccine by the looks of it. Assuming the companies he works for are able to come back and open their doors again after this.
I can handle the masks, the rules, the tape on the floor.... I don't love it but I can cope. I can't cope with the thought of financial ruin.

Sorry to hear that wownasty123.

Very odd given that this is hardly a contentious thread.

MaxNormal Sorry to hear that. I think you've said so forgive me, but what does he do?

DH got made redundant quite near the start of all this and it's bloody scary. He earns (earned) the bulk of our income so we are casting around a bit too

@justasking111

The original plan herd immunity was simple and historically works, all the lockdown, masks, and hiding in the wings gloves, is just a sop.

Yip. Absolutely. And I say that as someone who might not be living my best life when I catch it.

On immunity, very positive new paper in Nature, 35% of healthy controls had an immune response, just out on Wednesday... something elsewhere about T cell response from previous colds etc and also varicella zoster which is chickenpox...

edition.cnn.com/2020/07/30/health/t-cells-coronavirus-study-wellness/index.html

Fuck, cinemas & museums. They really are desparate now aren' they.

Interesting about dentist - DH and I are private paying monthly for insurance and kids NHS - heard nothing yet.

Orthodontist did get in touch for DD1 - but later phone to delay by a week.

Spoke to an English dwelling relative - just had NHS appointment Septemeber appointment cancelled booked next avaliable March 2021.

Wondering into a covid thread by accident- again schools can't go back apparently despite what education secectary says and recongised some teachers as posters. Oddly in RL teachers we know are keen to get schools back.

I think I'm gald we're in Wales as figures are low so schools going back should be possible - and while things are progressing slowly they are still opening up.

@MH1111

The code name for the current plan to tackle corona virus is known as operation ‘pissing in the wind’

Not since the dinosaurs tried to stop a huge asteroid with ‘roaring’ has a plan been so poor.

Meanwhile the permanently offended are trying to get Covid-19s twitter account taken down fo being fatist, racist and ageist amongst others

This was really funny. I am going to steal the dinosaur line.

@Allflightscancelled I'm so sorry you're also in this horrible position, it's absolutely terrifying and all of those people shouting at us to do the right thing seem to be the last ones with any sympathy for the horrible financial position that millions must now be finding themselves in.

DH is freelance in the events industry. I'm long-term sick so can't really work much. It's such a mess.
He's been scraping fucking artex off ceilings and risking god knows what with asbestos dust as a casual labourer to keep us afloat.

What does your DH do? Apologies if you've said, I've got a memory like a sieve these days.

My sincere sympathies @MaxNormal.

My DH was employed at very senior level in a creative agency but I think the boss took the situation as an opportunity to level a few scores (DH is no yes man). It'll be that utter tosser's loss, as DH is an absolute grafter and the clients all loved him (they've told us so since), so the boss and his business will definitely lose out. It's a small company and the boss has kept people who are compliant and don't ask questions. Mad really, that's not the way to get really creative work, it's just easy until you get found out.

Unfortunately, we'll miss out too, at least short term. My DH is, like yours, doing a minimum wage job for half the week to keep himself sane and get a few spends in. He actually loves it, and the lack of major responsibility, but it won't keep the wolf from the door.

I'm a freelance creative and my work dried up for about three months but is now back at around about a normal level, at least for now. I feel uncertain that it'll continue, and I only earn about a third of what DH did anyway as I only work part time. I'd happily do more hours, but it'll take time to build up; I was struggling to build volume even before bloody Covid.

Just dropped the kids off to my mum's at a convenient service station. Giant screen outside reminding us to wear a mask and "don't make us have to ask" and the most dystopian tannoy recording playing on a loop (it sounded like it belonged in one of DH's dystopian shooter PC games) in the bogs - and the worst thought out distancing system going where going IN and to the loos you have to cross over and dodge anyone leaving.

Was despairing and bemused seeing a family with kids aged no more than about 8 (based upon comparing them with my own kids) trying to eat a Burger King with face masks ON all of them. They were literally posting chips around their masks.

We're similar I get some PIP for health condition and DH is self employed, has not had any invoices paid since the start of all this...got a small grant from the self employed scheme but big change in income and I can't work due to health...PIP does help but isn't much. They are even reviewing PIP for some people right now, thankfully have mine long term so don't have that hassle to contend with.

@Allflightscancelled it's just terrible timing, it sounds like your husband could easily have walked into something better had this whole thing not happened. I hope you manage to build up your levels of work in the meantime.

@Orangeblossom777 same, I get some PIP and not due for any reviews, can't imagine how stressful that would be at the moment.

It's the not knowing how long it's going to last that is the killer. Things were briefly looking up and I was genuinely hopeful and now I just feel like I've been sucker-punched.

I know I'm not the only one, I know that many of us on here have got strong reasons why were were hoping for an easing of lockdown, schools going back etc and are now going to be struggling badly.

It's why I keep getting into stupid arguments on other threads. I feel like even questioning things, or not being over the moon to comply with whatever we're told, leads to al sorts of accusations of being a selfish murderer, and when you're rapidly having everything taken from you due to this that is just utterly enraging.

I may have to change my user name. Depends on the response to the very positive changes announced in Wales today - still no masks mentioned so I'm really hoping they stay away!

It is enraging so as hard as it is, I really think it's worth trying not to engage at all on this threads.

The old adage 'you can't argue with stupid' sort of applies. People who want to ride roughshod over your anxieties are the ones for whom lockdown is comforting, or who imagine they're protecting people. They may be intellectually really smart in some cases but the emotional intelligence bit just seems to be lacking and that's the bit that's really most needed in this situation.

[quote HeIenaDove]Remember the cashless bakery i linked earlier this week?

Well get a load of this

www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/birds-bakery-manager-sacked-taking-4378325[/quote]
Oh my god that is hideous. This is all so wrong

Yes when you have health conditions doing things like home schooling can be hard, I struggled with that to be honest..

More dementing by people on the beach about people on the beach - but if you have a beach hut guess that makes it fine Side angle shots. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-53607907

Wales I await your name change with interest. I'm really pleased you've had some good news. It's been a long tine coming

It's funny about the cash thing because I have had the opposite, places huffing about taking the card (think due to it being under a certain amount) and asking for cash instead...

I would contact MN if any nastiness / messages etc, have not had anything like that but think they would be helpful

Yeah that woman with the beach hut sounds a right charmer. Also, the picture the beach behind her doesn't look exactly rammed to me.

We were on a Dorset beach on Wednesday, and although it was busy people were keeping space between each other. The Mail still managed to print a photo taken at an angle that made it look like we were all wedged in, because that's the narrative they've chosen.

"Boris should have made sure everyone stayed in their own counties". What a knob that woman is. Easy for you to say if you live at the beach, harder to sympathise with if you live in an inner city tenement and it's 30 degrees.

The bakery story is bonkers. For those not in the East Midlands, Birds is basically a bakery how Greggs used to be before it moved across into fast food - loads of shelves of different bread and the usual hot counter of pasties etc, breakfast cobs, sandwich cobs and the most heartbreaking cold meat counter (when you see all these elderly ladies buying a half-loaf and 2 slices of ham it breaks me every time).

Very much an ageing customer base who've been going there for decades and usually buying the same thing every single time - and very much a cash place (they only started taking card payments about a year ago and used to total the amount up on paper - loads of the staff still do).

They're also getting seriously fucked by Greggs expanding - Greggs opened two doors down from our Birds and took the bulk of the breakfast cob and "nice sandwich" trade - so the elderly is really most of what they have left (they do some lovely cakes though but the service is generally so slow it's more aggro than its worth going in).

The shop worker who did this was just trying to help out her regulars so they could buy the tiny quantities they always have done for their single-person households on a tiny income and not able to get to the big supermarkets by car. In our local high street you've either got a Sainsburys local... or somewhere like Birds and anywhere else needs a car or a bus really to get to if you're less mobile.

We've been asked for cash, too. We booked a restaurant meal at a place where they know us and they asked us to bring cash when we came because no one was using it, they were putting even staff tips on their cards, so the managers couldn't pay the staff their tips on the night. They liked to do that because the staff are kids who like their spends and don't want to wait for payday.

Ooh, I might have a name change too. I have an excellent one lined up (although I shall be sad to see this one go)