The ADs get ready to rumble then have a nice cuppa tea

[BogRollBOGOF]

Watch us wreck the mike, watch us wreck the mike, watch us wreck the mike.
Psych.

Now gather nicely in groups of no more than six...
Unless you're outdoors in Wales...

Oh well, come on in whatever the laws where you are. Plenty of space in this bubble of sanity

I think I’m kind of screwed now. Two minutes of the news headlines accidentally last night and I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever had - I sat in the kids room (the youngest was refusing to go to sleep and mucking on) shaking and wanting to vomit for a good couple of hours.

@DominaShantotto hugs to you. That sounds really fucking shit. I had one really bad panic attack and it felt like I was dying.

@DominaShantotto

I think I’m kind of screwed now. Two minutes of the news headlines accidentally last night and I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever had - I sat in the kids room (the youngest was refusing to go to sleep and mucking on) shaking and wanting to vomit for a good couple of hours.

Have a big Bogroll hug.

It's horrid. Drained after 6 months of this shit. No end in sight. Hope constantly crushed.

Pretty much every country has seen cases resurface during their autumn/ winter. It spring up out of apparently nowhere in the sealed off New Zealand/ Australia who thought they were on top of it and safely quarentined off. It took hold at that time in South America having had a lower exposure during Europe/ USA's first wave.

Why are we bothering to fight this? Is it really worth the economic and social costs???

I feel like it won't be worth the economic and social cost of constantly locking down/opening up again. I'm starting to feel like the whole things been a massive mistake. Then I wander onto threads where people mention long covid and feel slightly panicked. I'm on my own with DS and have no real outside/family support now. If I get sick we're done for.

Today, DS is having his hair cut. Usually we go out for breakfast afterwards. Today, I'm thinking we shouldn't because I don't want to get caught out by track&trace when things are so good at work and school. What a ridiculous situation to be in.

My mum is upset with me. I can have a 'bubble' with another household because of being a single parent. I've chosen my friend rather than my parents. This is because my mum is still on chemo (having just finished a strong lot) and has very low immunity. As we're back at school and work we're not going in the house anymore and I'm discouraging DS hugging them because the risk is too high. Under the local lockdown rules I don't think we're allowed round there unless we're taking shopping or they're in my bubble. Mum feels I should have picked them not my friend. I would've without question if this had happened pre-cancer. Now I feel the risks are too high. The only way she'd catch anything (not just covid) is through us but i feel terribly guilty for taking DS away.

omg, that was long. Sorry everyone!

for everyone feeling it this morning

What I really don't understand is that the purpose is to not overwhelm the NHS.
There are currently 1020 people in hospital with covid. Thats with not because of and 127 on ventilators.
In March new cases were doubling every other day (the exponential growth the cockpockets on the covid board think they're fucking experts on).
Given we were only testing those who needed hospital treatment then that means people getting seriously ill was doubling every couple of days.
Right now, cases are rising but at a steady rate. Same with people in hospital. So why all the screaming about locking down again? Screaming that it feels like March?
The only way it feels like March are the papers have gone mad and the covid board makes me want to scream.

The bubble thing is just messy.

I know being single is different and far more isolated than being a family with a partner, but it can still be lonely for a prolonged period with no external input. DH is still mostly sequestered away upstairs, but other than the occasional site visit every few weeks, he's barely leaving the house or neighbourhood Mon-Fri, so there's very little fresh input into his line of communication. As long as the DCs stay in school, and hopefully their couple of activities I have finally had some kind of structure and social variation, but 25 fucking weeks of just existing with very little external company was vile. My low point in June was from the clash of being simultaneously peopled out and lonely, and my cup of resilience has not been refilled.

Just the little things like small talk don't work like they did when I was lonely in the baby/ toddler years because of all the screens and masks impeeding communication.

I'm finding myself just sitting on park benches just being quiet and alone, because I can. It's not particularly a concious decision, but when I am out of the house, I want to linger while I'm out there.

Thanks for the info on the food industry Helena . Is it spreading there because they are unable to social distance / the employers haven't put social distancing measures in place?
A colleague commented last week about it spreading due to 'a selfish few'. I said that was a very divisive narrative and in reality the spreading was happening in overcrowded housing and sweatshops like in Leicester that the government had turned a blind eye to. Not VE day parties / BLM protests.

for everyone

Helena - you’ve got to be a self-absorbed thick cunt to not already know ALL of that. Then again with the demographic around these parts... 🙄

An article on BBC news this morning talking about high street shops are still really struggling.
What's interesting is back when they were opening, the majority of comments were about how they shouldn't open, its not safe, its too early. Now, the majority are "im not surprised, rubbish one way systems, queueing to get in, masks and not being able to try anything on or browse properly has sucked the joy out of it".
I think there has definitely been a shift in attitudes....

You can't just shut down and open up catering willy nilly.

The supermarket shelves were sparse in April and into May, not because there was a shortage of actual food but because about a third of it is normally catered outside the home away from supermarkets, and that got switched off overnight.

Part of the restricted menus was social distancing in the kitchens. Part of it was also guarenteeing regular supply lines rather than spreading the demand across a wider range risking wastage in the face of reduced demand (hence EOTHO). It's not just the cafes/ pubs/ restaurants. It's a major industry behind the scenes and you can not just shuffle 30% of the country's food off to the supermarket because you shut down for a fortnight. The supermarkets need space in their distribution centres. It needs to be packaged appropriately.

Farmers keep harvesting. Hens keep laying. It's got to go somewhere pronto or it goes to waste in days.

Very well said @HelenaDove.

I'm fucking sick of the dementors calling for big lockdown and harsher measures. Especially the ones who bleat on about how wonderful it is to slow down and spend quality family time etc etc. They don't give a fucking shit about the people who are still working day to day to keep their food coming and their constant parcels arriving while they live it up in their comfy little bubble.

@Ibake

Yep *@TrustTheGeneGenie and @justasking111*. You're right, it is offensive. We shared it on here ages ago because it was doing the rounds on smunt D posts re children not killing granny (plus utterly wank covid art too!) and was sold as being virtue signalling crap of the highest order. We all took one look and saw it slightly differently as they had just opened garden centres and golf courses but kids weren't allowed to go on playgrounds.

By reposting I did not mean to upset or offend, merely comment comment on the groundhog nature that means we still find ourselves here with the needs of children ignored. Maybe take out the garden centre reference and this time show a bunch of flabby, middle aged twats off to a grouse shoot!

Oh no don't worry you've in no way offended me I just think the artist is a knob end tbh!

Hens still laying reminds me of this www.thepoke.co.uk/2020/09/17/you-can-now-buy-sacks-of-wet-eggs-in-morrisons-9-shell-shocked-responses/

What happens when you aren't selling enough eggs on your salad bar due to people wfh.

DH works with the food industry and works with processing plants. On some lines people do work shoulder to shoulder. You can't avoid that unless you had a whole new line double or tripple the distance which obviously is not going to happen because it would take years, cost millions and bump food prices up for all long term.

It's crap for the workers and not exactly considered desirable employment. It doesn't even mean that they are bad employers. It just is. Turning Covid spread into a blame game does no one any favours. Solving the problem long term by putting prices up affects the poorest in society most. There isn't a simple solution and certainly not one on a Covid-friendly timescale.

I do think MN is not really that diverse when it comes to backgrounds. Not that you have to be working class or struggling to understand what it is like to be working class or struggling, obviously people with self awareness and empathy can grasp that. Unfortunately though many, many posters on here live in their own little privileged bubble where money isn't an issue, isolating isn't an issue, childcare isn't an issue and so on and so forth. They seem to think that's normal and the case for everyone and anyone who disagrees is just "making excuses" and for me that's just not the real world.

I think as well you there's a lot of minimising of mental health on here. It's a sign of weakness, you're not resilient enough bla bla. Which I really take an issue with to be honest.

It's like a parallel universe here sometimes. MN doesn't reflect my life at all really (apart from this thread!)

I've just had to detail all my mental health struggles with my line manager to try and get some office space a couple of days a week.

Really the least fun thing I've done in a long time. And that now means it's on HR radar and I'd tried to keep it from them as I don't want the stigma. There shouldn't be a stigma, but there is.

I’d like to think I have a very diverse “friend set” (I don’t have lots of friends - but I’ve met a lot of people) - from aristocracy to born and bred council. I can spot a mile off who is registered here.

In a nutshell, they are composed of - 25% smunt, 25% low independence (parents-uni-marriage - never travelled), 25% low self-esteem with a thin veneer of self-assurance (eg head-to-toe boden , “my husband would never cheat” and desperate not to stand out) and 25% desperately lonely.

Classic threads over the years which show just how naive so many are include (but are not limited to): discussions about rural living (when the town in question is on the tube...), can you be black outside London? (Stares at Bristol/Birmingham) and a million incarnations of “I’ve never met anyone who’d scam benefits” (because When Giles and I host dinner parties none of them have become pregnant to secure housing).

I feel crushed by all this impending doom of another lockdown. The school has heaped praise upon me for my kids being so “happy and well-adjusted” after lockdown. The cost has been my physical and mental health. I’m the heaviest I’ve been for 15 years and my MH has always been shaky.

Have a job interview on Tuesday which I’ll be unlikely to take (I am supremely qualified and without being a dick, they won’t get many applicants if my Calibre). It would have involved that glorious
Commute listening to a podcast or two and would’ve been cold, hard cash in the bank. I don’t believe a fucking word of it when they say schools won’t shut.

I was having a rant last night to my DH about, the unseen essential workers. That Ocado/Amazon shop doesn’t arrive my magic. Good job the sewage worker etc goes to work, eh. There always someone at the nearest telephone/broadband exchange. They can’t do their job from home.
My DP’s would give their life for their GC, they give my DM something to live for. My DM is just getting her mojo back. I’m scared her mental health is going down the toilet. I am using the vulnerable loophole to go into her house.
I’m also scared, I can see this being like this at Christmas. I might have to go on antidepressants, because all my coping strategies involve getting out and about, just pottering. I’m quite antisocial and only have a couple of friends. My OCD is getting bad again.
to everyone not happy.

Speaking from experience re the toilet roll issue, I've noticed lately people are buying a lot more all of a sudden. Our loo roll aisle is getting empty quite quickly, I've noticed. The really big packs are going like hot cakes. Bread flour has also been difficult to get in and goes very quickly.
I've been off work this week, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like next week.

PMT time has turned up with bad timing.
I need to be careful about what I click on today as my swear filter is set to RANT.

DS2 is cuddly.
DS1 is babbling on about weapons again

Sigh

I’ve done the kids homework with them and gone back to bed. DH has been vile with a man cold the last few days and I think realises he’s pushed it too far so is doing some actual parenting rather than whimpering on the sofa drinking tea and farting.

Ok, I've been lurking and reading these threads for ages and I'm going to take the plunge and join in because everything has really started getting to me.

I'm watching the quarantine list like a hawk at the moment because we're supposed to be off on our postponed holiday to Italy on October 3rd and their numbers are just ok at the moment but who knows what the Jokers have up their sleeves next.
Obviously this makes us potential mass granny murderers so I thought I'd better join with the rest of The Damned on this thread. I'm a granny so would that be suicide?

Sod's law that we are getting due for a Costco trip.

But the shops stayed open last time so there shouldn't be a need to buy in much extra. Then again we do have a reasonable level in. April and all the "essential shopping" type threads exposed the logistics of storage, budget and transport for bulk buying and the need to shop little and often. If you can, being prepared to be stuck in for a couple of weeks quarantine is wise, but we shouldn't logically be fearing access to buy food and supplies.