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ADs head off to The Three Bellends and discuss luxury duvets and stationery

999 replies

BogRollBOGOF · 23/10/2020 20:08

(Socially distanced of course and in strictest obedience of all localised lockdowns and 3 or 5 tiers and whatever illogic the powers that be can dream up next)

The original digital discussion continues...

OP posts:
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21
110APiccadilly · 24/10/2020 08:37

On medication...

My mum has passed on some of her skepticism about medication to me. It's not that we don't think it's brilliant stuff that saves lives, but it's far too easy for it to be the first thing you reach for (that's why people go to the doctors to ask for antibiotics for colds). As a society, we don't want to be ill and get over it, we want someone to give us a pill that magically makes us better.

Personally, I was on strong painkillers for a month or so, when what I needed was physio. (Earlier access to physio would have saved me grief and the NHS quite a bit of money.) Because it was easier for the doctor to prescribe me painkillers than to refer me to actually work out what was wrong.

Willow2017 · 24/10/2020 08:45

Signed the petition its just utter madness. How much did they pay a bunch of people to decide what was essential and what wasnt? Alcohol is essential but kids clothes and lightbulbs arent? Winter essentials arent but other things are? They have lost the plot.

WouldBeGood · 24/10/2020 08:52

Just to make it clear, alcohol is clearly essential and never give them ideas otherwise

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 08:55

Thing is areas of Wales have higher virus rates than Glos don't they? Doesn't make much sense. And why can Wales not send their own police out if that us what they want. It's all odd.

My Scottish friend who lives in Glasgow, says her husband will have to sleep on the sofa now as he has been to Manchester on a work trip. Went to the pub apparently.

WouldBeGood · 24/10/2020 08:57

@Orangeblossom7777 im not sure if that’s a joke? Or if she’s a dementor?

TabbyStar · 24/10/2020 09:04

My Scottish friend who lives in Glasgow, says her husband will have to sleep on the sofa now as he has been to Manchester on a work trip. Went to the pub apparently.

My DD's work have said she can't see her BF who has just gone to Manchester. It's a bit of a nightmare. On the one hand it's not unreasonable because I think it's illegal anyway for her to visit him, and they are a small business, very precarious at the moment and a staff member getting covid could be disastrous, but on the other stopping a teenager from seeing her BF is hideous and I know will affect her mental health, it's difficult to know how to advise her (advice welcome!)

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 09:14

It's true. I haven't spoken to her in a while since pre-covid so i was a little astonished at what she said. Didn't know what to say!

Because there's no virus in Glasgow, right?! It seems to be making people insane. She has fallen out with other family who had a go at her for letting they child go for a sleepover, saying they 'hoped she lived to regret it'. Unpleasant. I feel like I am living on a different planet, sometimes.

WouldBeGood · 24/10/2020 09:17

@Orangeblossom7777 oh dear..

Yes, things just seem to be getting worse and worse

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 09:20

Oh, I see, the BBC is saying more about the police, it makes more sense now. It's more about stopping people escaping Wales into Glos..(understandable)

"Meanwhile, Wales entered the first full day of a national lockdown amid border patrols to stop non-essential travel.
Gloucestershire Constabulary said it will patrol routes into the Forest of Dean area and pull over vehicles suspected of making unnecessary journeys out of Wales.
Drivers without a valid excuse will be advised to turn around and, if they do not, will be reported to police in Wales who can issue fines, the force added."

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 09:23

One thing I noticed speaking to my friend was this obsession with the rules over common sense. Like saying they are waiting for the Nicola show to see if can meet a friend with diabetes in a cafe. Not about whether they think themselves that is a good plan but it is all about if it is the 'rules'

Meantime, my friend with MS and I have arranged to just chat on the phone for now, no 'rules' saying we can't meet her, but it's what she and I think sensible.

I think these 'rules' get in the way of people thinking for themselves at times.

Taswama · 24/10/2020 09:24

I don't see how your employer can dictate what you get up to in your free time. During the period when meeting outside with one friend was ok but going inside was a no-no, we had a team meeting at short notice on Zoom and two colleagues were obviously both inside together. I think they got a telling off but I doubt they were reported to the police.

Re medication, I've just finished reading American Overdose: the opiod tragedy in three acts. All about how the American pharmaceutical industry (although the main player is owned by two Brits who have OBEs or similar for their philanthropy) increased demand for painkillers, leading to staggering levels of addiction and all the organisations who should have stopped it (DEA. FDA, Congress, doctors professional bodies) did nothing.

ISaySteadyOn · 24/10/2020 09:33

Would you recommend the book? I'm American by birth so interested.

Also, I have signed the petition Reedwarbler linked to. Not being able to buy children's clothes? Honestly.

TabbyStar · 24/10/2020 09:34

I don't see how your employer can dictate what you get up to in your free time

I guess it comes into putting the business at risk, there are only five staff and if they had to close for staff to self-isolate it could possibly mean the end of the business so I do understand it, and he's in a uni hall with definite outbreaks. She's worked there a year and a half, so no employment rights and they could just stop giving her shifts. Ironically we think she and her BF have had it recently (and possibly now passed it on to me) but neither were tested, she just isolated at home by swapping shifts with someone else.

AcornAutumn · 24/10/2020 09:36

I will look up that book

I’m interested for different reasons

I have wondered if the drive for opioids has been influenced by restrictions on other drugs

My previous GP - retired - expressed concern years ago that they were moving towards drugs that didn’t work so well as they could get people on them long term or just make more money from a different set of drugs.

maggienolia · 24/10/2020 09:43

Petition signed. Even though we're in England, Tier 1 and cases are falling here.
You have to nail your colours to the mast sometimes.

DD1 is off for a meal with her friends this afternoon in a local student city. I was contemplating quarantining her in the shed when she returns but I'd have to move the clothes airers first.
So spraying her with disinfectant will have to do.

Sorry about the trolling Helena.

In fact sorry for everyone who's having a bad time in this shitstorm.

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 09:45

Interesting. I'm on higher strength co-codamol for a pain condition and get 100 in each prescription. It's tricky to even speak to the GPs recently and they just keep doling them out (on repeat) I have a pre-payment card too - sure I am possibly getting addicted but nothing is said. I'm even using them to help with sleep sometimes (although pain can keep you awake)...not good really. Maybe in time I'll get to a plan clinic when this ever gets back to normal and can wean off them.

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 09:48

We've got rates quite high here now (mainly students) have previously mentioned it being quite non dementory in general...anyway people are moaning quite a bit about the reduced events which are going on such as the film festival and Christmas stuff...hoping to go to some of it as long as it continues. Oh and the students, who have got comedians etc and marquees up at the uni.

Makes sense I thought, as on the campus. Two suicides already sadly in the students.

www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/what-replace-bath-christmas-markets-4571051

www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/film/bath-pop-up-covid-secure-4601932

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/covid-compliant-venues-created-up-4621123

amicissimma · 24/10/2020 10:14

There's no legal restriction on travelling in England so what are the Gloucestershire Police doing stopping people in England? They haven't broken any English law.

Taswama · 24/10/2020 10:14

Yes I would definitely recommend it @ISaySteadyOn . It is very readable as well as being informative.

BogRollBOGOF · 24/10/2020 10:17

DM's at the stage in life of niggling problems. Condition 1, has spent years cycling around the GP, physio and gynae. She should have had surgery for it about this time last year but it was cancelled the evening before just after she'd got the cats into the cattery. She still hasn't had it as when she got a new date in early March, she was still recovering from another issue that had her in hopsital, plus that nasty "chest infection"...

It took years to get her knee replaced... too young (60s)... try physio... you're getting a bit old now (70s)

I had issues with the physio system in pregnancy. The GP said at 34 weeks that it was "pregnancy aches and pains" that I was rapidly losing the ability to walk and could no longer face the burning agony of getting around the supermarket and was pretty much housebound a few weeks later unless I was driven and dropped off door to door. Second time, I got the MW to refer me to physio at about 24 weeks as my pelvis was begining to creak again. About 31 weeks when I made it to "group physio" and about 36-37 weeks before I got a 1:1 appointment and able to get aids... I turned up on the crutches that I'd already aquired and as DH was away that day would have had to cancel with out those as I couldn't have walked from the car park without them to get to the appointment to get some Confused

I'm absolutely not against physio, used properly it's a valuable tool, but the NHS rarely uses it in a timely, efficient manner. Usually as a delaying tactic.

I'm pretty convinced that knowing about the SPD second time and knowing how to keep mobile saved me from a minefield of the extra niggles and complications that I had in DS1's birth. I kept a stone, mainly of fluids off and avoided carpal tunnel syndrome and was able to labour inna better condition. First time I ended up in HDU for 36 hours and I think the poor condition I was in, weighing 50% more than I had 5 months earlier and barely able to bear my own weight on my feet was a significant factor.

I wish the NHS would be more smooth and joined up in its processes rather than cycling patients around until only the drastic action is left.

I was working in a hospital when New Labour did overtime "initiative clinics" to work through the waiting lists. It was expensive paying everyone generous overtime to incentivise it, but for several years, it paid off long term by making treatment times more reasonable.

Capacity hasn't kept up with the population (and that's fed Brexit. That's a strategic error of managing population change, not an individual issue)

OP posts:
BogRollBOGOF · 24/10/2020 10:22

I haven't heard of any student Covid deaths, but have of several suicides here and there. Sad

I have a family member who's come tonthe UK for uni on her joint citizenship from Europe. What a time to change countries. Where she is is OK from a Covid point of view, but being a small contained place is why it's good for her to get into a wider world of opprtinities at this age.

OP posts:
Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 10:24

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-54567355

I have not heard of this but DH has. Starling murmurations. But not allowed due to the virus...

I think with Wales, they have been told they can't leave. Maybe as Wales has higher rates Glos are not keen for them to visit?

MaudesMum · 24/10/2020 10:37

@Orangeblossom7777 - Oh FFS - that's not a million miles away from me, and was on my ever-diminishing list of Things That You Can Still Do this winter. Obviously not.

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 10:46

It sounded pleasant, and outside, would have thought could have managed it with people staying apart.

Orangeblossom7777 · 24/10/2020 10:47

The last one here was a student from Sweden, Bogroll.