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

@DominaShantotto

For me Boris now feels like the teacher who has completely lost control of a class and is just racking up more and more playtime lost as they continue to talk instead of getting their coats on. That's what it feels like when his only real means of trying to achieve anything is to whack another zero on the fine amounts with the threat of sending us to the isolation booths if we carry on pinging elastic bands at Dominc's head

This had me chuckling!! Spot on.

Our local FB page put up a picture of our big Asda cleared of loo roll, which was shared 600 plus times, as someone said that makes you part of the problem.

Just had a chat with DS at uni. who have been bragging on instagram, fb etc. about all the freshers events. DS said that is a load of bollocks, there is nothing going on. Two flats in his building isolated covid positive, he said well they must have brought it in from away so not a Leeds lurgy. He reckons there will be more flats as time goes on, he is not worried about it. We reckon he had it back end of February had all the symptoms as did his flat mates and lots of others in his year.

I have asked our assembly member to clarify this 10pm alcohol thing for restaurants is it kick out time or no more booze time because if you are in the middle of dessert or have ordered a coffee do you have to abandon your table when the clock strikes. I asked because restaurants on my FB page are cancelling tables left right and centre in panic. Which to me seemed bloody daft.

My daughter is at a university where there is a college on site as well. All accommodation is on site for College is U18s, plus first year Uni (obviously over 18s). They are treating each accommodation 'block' as a separate household so for one suspected Covid, the block is shut down and food delivered to their door by Warden's. This works Ok for the college students as they have to fob in and out of the building so can be kept track of and steered back in if they 'escape'. Uni students will have to be relied on to 'do their bit' as they can't be tracked as they are over 18! As the students are going down left right and centre with the usual colds and sniffles there are now 4/10 college blocks locked down already. Fortunately DD (year 3 uni) lives off campus but due to her course, sport and work spends most of her day sanitising, mask wearing temperature taking and generally being de-Covided!

My OH has had a stinker of a cold since last Friday - he would normally go to work and hide behind his masks (dentist) but has had to take the time off as it would panic his patients if he sneezed. he doesn't have any markers for Covid so hasn't had a test. I'm fine - no sniffles, no nothing but do have a much more robust immune system than he does!

I'm an introvert but I like the occasional party, & thrive off regular face-to-face interaction with people.

Now I'm just a lonely, miserable introvert, who feels more introverted with half my face hidden, & I can't hear what people are saying through the masks.

Can someone on here tell me what is happening in Scotland NS has said households banned from mixing does that mean that no family bubbles allowed or people outside the bubble are banned. Sorry but I cannot make it out at all.

In Wales we are still allowed our bubbles except in lock down zones.

I'm an introvert when I'm with company and an extrovert when I'm on my own

Basically I need both company and alone time. It was June when I hit sobbing mode from being peopled out and simultaneously lonely. An illicit evening on a friends' sofa with lots of gin was just the tonic. That was my biggest breach, but it had reached the point of mental health issue zone after nearly 3 months. I would have legally stayed outside but the risk of hypothermia from 12oC bucketing rain was far greater than the Covid risk of people WFH.

I have grand-ma meeting plans. I managed to phone her up shortly before she went off lunching with her fellow octogenarians and septagenarians.

I blame Rishi. They were lying low until they got their half price lunches and now local lockdown ain't stopping them. (They're off site, it's fine )

I'd much rather she gets out and has fun. 1) I think she had it in Feb/ March. 2) What's the point in staying in and accelerating old age and lonliness. 3) At 82, she's the average age for any kind of mortality anyway. 4) She's already lasted 28 years longer than her husband!

I’m a huge introvert (and am autistic) - and as such I really need a lot of down time ON MY OWN - and cannot cope being locked up with others. I fully accept that many extroverts are struggling.

But I really do fucking BRISTLE when I’m told I’m not ALLOWED to do
Something. 🤔 I’m ok turning down invitations and/or events. The absence of them disturbs me.

The way they’re fucking banging on about Scottish cases you’d think the big, bad C were on every street corner. Psssst it’s not.

@justasking111 I think you’re allowed to see your bubble, and non cohabiting partners are allowed to see each other.

[quote WouldBeGood]@justasking111 I think you’re allowed to see your bubble, and non cohabiting partners are allowed to see each other.[/quote]
Well that is good, we are still allowed to in Wales plus can pick up grand kids from schools and nurseries. So informal childcare still allowed phew...

I'm an introvert, but at the best of times I find that working from home and living by myself means I need a bit of human company to keep me sane, together with exposure to different places and activities. I'm incredibly cross about this whole strategy of blaming us - it is sowing division and there was enough in society anyway. And, it is quite clearly being done to divert people's attention from the failures in government responsibilities especially test and trace.

@Supermarketworker06

I'm waiting to hear what the plan is at work- do we have to wear masks if we're behind the till screens? Is it masks or are visors ok? Are they gonna start rationing stuff BEFORE the manic panic buying starts? Are the customers going to be a complete pain in the arse again re rationing? (Don't answer the last question, I reckon that's a given) So pissed off.

Our checkout staff don't need to wear masks behind screens but the rest of us do. Even cafe staff behind smaller screens! Nobody can hear a bloody thing unless you shout. But once you have paid for your order and gone to sit down you can whip em off! People passing you by? No matter, covid can't cross the invisible threshold.

Glad to see lots of introverts confirming that never interacting with anyone ever is not what you want. And I can understand how rough it must be wfh in a busy house.

I’m an extrovert myself and I really thrive on engagement with other people so this has been very hard. I think there’s a misconception that extroverts are just happy go lucky types but we’re just at the opposite end of the spectrum from introverts. As an introvert (like my DH) draws energy from time alone to recharge, I draw mine from connecting with other people. I had a wee cry this morning, please don’t let this last six months. Back in June I thought about jacking in my job if they were going to make us wfh until January. Now January feels hard but doable. Beyond that, I don’t know.

A serious question (not a rant this time): which sort of things are actually worth writing to an MP about?

I've written to my MP twice since March: once early on to voice my concern than lockdown will do more harm than good if it goes on too long, and another to voice my concern that face masks might become permanently compulsory by stealth. In both letters, I pointed out the nasty vigilantism which is happening by the public, possibly tacitly encouraged by the government. I received "sympathetic" but non-committal replies to both of these; the second one did contain words to the effect of "the rules on face coverings are temporary", but no comment on the government encouraging vigilantism.

I've no idea how effective my doing this really was, but I like to think that one reason that Boris faced so much opposition from his own MPs recently was because people have made their views clear: that's Parliament working as it should.

I suppose the things most worthy of contacting MPs about is what they have to vote on, such as repealing the Coronavirus act. One thing we're understandably furious about right now is the condescending tone Boris took yesterday, treating us like children, blaming the public for the whole fiasco, and the frequent underhand tactics: dropping hints to the press that something might happen, to test the public reaction, instead of asking us. I suppose that's one of the oldest political tricks in the book; as is pretending that they know the facts, and then U-turning when they turn out to be wrong, or not suiting the political agenda, such as the masks. While we're understandably angry about those, are they perhaps less worthy of us writing to our MPs about? If we do so, it shows that we're aware they're doing this, but they probably knew that anyway.

What do we think?

I did notice today at the supermarket the increasing rise of the "corporate design" face mask - from Tesco maintenance, to various company reps nipping in for a sandwich, to the Army having uniform colour and style ones now (fairly common we get the squaddies in in their uniform as it's over the road from the barracks).

It's on a slippery slope. I see on other threads they're gunning to ban face visors now. I tolerate the TA in DD2's class working in a visor, gloves and apron even though it makes my skin crawl to think of THAT being the human contact DD is getting during the day - I'd be very distressed if she was working in a face mask - especially with the kids with speech and language needs in that class (there are a few).

when i replied to a supermarket worker on Twitter yesterday I got some very nasty replies as did he.

Some copy and pastes.

"Then retail staff should suck it up, wear one and be grateful they have their jobs as another lockdown will mean thousands will lose their job"

"I was clapping for the NHS, not for Karen who’s been sat behind a Perspex screen scanning my groceries at the till"

"Do you suggest that anyone who wants shouldn't follow the rules? Because if you are a disabled person with a condition that means you can't wear a mask for a limited time in a shop; well...........who is the most likely to die from allowing more spread of the virus"

"Article makes about as much sense as the average TRA spiel. We're all having to make massive sacrifices. The tiny minority of disabled people who actually can't wear a mask can carry a letter from their doctors to explain the situation. Life is hard; particularly in a pandemic"

"Then I think for their own protection, they need a scarlet letter. Because 'winter is coming'. And the measures announced earlier are a joke. No way will it counter kids in school, and students in uni. Two demos not known for their maturity. Sink or swim is govt. message"

@wanderings Andrew Neil urging everyone to write re the Coronavirus act as it's probably the most urgent - due to be voted on next week.

@helenadove it angers me how rude people are about retail workers. A few months ago they were praised for working through the pandemic. Now the public have turned sneery and dismissive.

FFS. Stuffy head cold has now moved to my chest (as it always does).

Can I get a test? Can I fuck. Theoretically as NHS I should get priority testing? (Even though I'm not a Covid Angel, soz). Tried to see if there was a route to get one through the trust and it sent me to the Gov.uk site. Gah!

Me & a colleague said yesterday we'd write to our MPs if they hadn't made a decision about how they will assess the GCSE & A level students by after half term. I think the kids & teachers need to know whether they're aiming for exams or another rubbish algorithm so they can prepare accordingly. I also want to know if they will make them stay on at school until July, which has been threatened and will ruin my holiday plans although I shouldn't be surprised by that

Trying to register my weekly covid test for vaccine trial online & it seems the site has crashed. I've missed the deadline for the post now.

(For what it's worth, I think it's a cold, as that's what DH/snotmonster has) but I can't exactly work whilst coughing all over the place)

HelenaDove people are so horrible about and to retail workers. My years in retail showed me just what gritty wee pricks some people truly are. Those are nasty responses on Twitter. One thing I really resent about all this is that it has made stupid, nasty people feel that they are intelligent and highly moral because they like shouting at people.

DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND EXPONENTIAL GROWTH??

Probably not, mate, but you definitely don’t.

@AgentCooper

HelenaDove people are so horrible about and to retail workers. My years in retail showed me just what gritty wee pricks some people truly are. Those are nasty responses on Twitter. One thing I really resent about all this is that it has made stupid, nasty people feel that they are intelligent and highly moral because they like shouting at people.

DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND EXPONENTIAL GROWTH??

Probably not, mate, but you definitely don’t.

I keep thinking exactly that even I see that shouted 😂

When

"All those doctors and nurses having issues with depth perception when using sharp objects like scalpels or syringes and the amount of times they end up ended up hurting themselves or others..

Oh wait, that never happens because it’s a crock of shit"

Another one...................above

If there is an accident in a supermarket i hope some of those cunts are on the business end of it.

I bet they wouldnt accept it as a consequence of Covid mask wear and just shrug their shoulders either.

Bet the lawyer would be on speed dial.