ADs trying to stay upright in a muddy park

[BogRollBOGOF]

Another thousand posts filled and we're ploughing on through another weekend of squelching through parks before we hit the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

The AD chat continues...

Tim Stanley in The Telegraph today.

"... fear of the disease has been replaced by fear of the state. The other day I found myself sitting in an empty train carriage with a mask on. Why? Not the danger of Covid but fear of the cops, who are everywhere on my commute, strolling about in twos and threes with an air of purpose one never knew they had. Rob a house and you can probably get away with it. Ride maskless on the Piccadilly Line and they call in the Swat team."

Quite.

Even if he's exaggerating, that's the way I feel things are. And how are they going to be tomorrow? Or next month? Or next year?

There's a good thread 'Over There' about having all the vaccines. But don't stray!

My butcher lives 4 train stops from his place of work in N Wales, the police are on the train every morning, now he is recognised it is easier he said. Before that he was interrogated every morning.

The police have been around but I’ve not been questioned once on my commute. Sometimes being a naice middle class middle aged woman has benefits.

Feeling sad today.
First time I've felt this hopeless during this. I've always believed a vaccine would be developed and we would get through it. But now I'm scared that this govt is still so petrified that even after the vulnerable have been vaccinated we will have to go through this bloody bs of constant lockdown. To get what is basically a flu to the majority of non vulnerable people, and children.

Dd2 has been sent home to isolate for 2 weeks from nursery. She was just settling in too; and she was so sad she wasn't allowed to go into nursery! It feels so unfair that she isn't getting the year her sister had and no opportunities to do the fun stuff of Xmas plays and nursery and swimming. Our kids are being punished, and will keep getting punished even when the elderly are vaccinated. So I feel flat.

I don't even care about my course anymore. I just want to have some sort of normality return but the govt will not let it happen even if everyone over 65 is vaccinated.

Incidentally it is a teacher (again) who tested positive in nursery and that's been the 4th one who has tested positive in school. Kids in primary - none!

I'm feeling bleak too, @Robinhobb. Most of the things I value will be gone by the time this is over. DD's music school is a charity, and it's been burning through its reserves since March. If they can't start in person again by April, they'll fold and we won't get them back. DH's choir has already folded. That's replicated all over the country for small community groups and charities. Not to mention theatres, restaurants, bars, cafés and shops. We'll get out of this to a joyless landscape of work and chores. But at least we'll be allowed to see other humans for a bit of respite from the grey prospect ahead.

@RobinHobb bleak here too.

I'm on my Monday morning walking with a friend boost. It gets me through to Wednesday anyway, and it's a little feeling of choice and personal control to get out over the county boundary to see her.
One more week then hopefully she's back at work and I'm back at my fitness class.

Just hoping our local cases peak and dip enough to keep us in tier 2, not 3. We had 5 days of tier 2 before lockdown? If we end up with 5 days of tier 2 plus 30 odd days of lockdown and end up in tier 3, it doesn't say much anout the efficacy of the measures!

Just going to leave this here

😂😂😂

Bleak here too. I took the car the long way out to fill up with diesel just to get out of the house.

And I have definitely not just nailed a pack of Mini Cheddars and three Boost bars for lunch, back to back. Not me, officer.

I've had the year's last big bit of work pushed back indefinitely 'because of covid' which is something between a nuisance and a disaster financially, depending on what else happens over the next week or so. (My work tends to dry up for the year from the start of December.)

There's absolutely no reason for this directly attributable to covid as far as I can see. I think they just want to save money. Which I get, I suppose. It's just tough when doing this is all I have to sell, and it seems to be so disposable at the altar of 'unprecedented times'.

Old news now but I'm still reeling over 'freedom passports'. I hate this idea. Loathe it. The idea that we'd have to prove our health status to partake in aspects of normal life is appalling at so many levels. What next, red triangles? A scarlet letter?

Having read certain things in another place, I honestly think there are people who seem almost supportive of covid, are enjoying the whole shebang and will be sighing with nostalgia when it's all over ("Oh, don't you remember what fun it was in lockdown? How lovely it was not to have to go to work? " Sigh).
Out of interest, I had a look to see where my nearest testing place is. Well, it's a 20 mile round trip, so not exactly handy. And no one has explained to me the logic of feeling poorly with covid so walking/driving/taking public transport to get a test. If I had a high temp and felt fluey, the last thing I should be doing is getting in my car and going for a drive, or taking a long walk in the November air.

I think/hope there'd be mass non-compliance to any rules once the vaccine has been rolled out to all the vulnerable groups - especially from the young. If you're a student who's already observed that the virus causes you/your mates no harm, because it surged through halls of residence in October, what possible reason is there for you to abide by the rules once your elderly granny has been vaccinated??

RobinHobb
You're not alone
ProfessorRadcliffe
The whole music thing for children has been so terrible. So many choirs, ensembles etc are run by volunteers on a shoestring, and I don't care what idiotic tripe of the 'well you can't enjoy music when you're dead' variety some idiots would come out with. Music has been with humanity since the dawn of time ffs.
And now it's yet another thing where children are being held back from all the positive things that come from playing music together.
To be fair, our school has carried on to the extent that it can (with spot checks from various officials) but that's probably because it's a swanky private school. I presume that none of the schools staffed by the people 'out there' will be doing anything of the sort.
God I just HATE this shit.

Well there have been threads about having nostalgia for the first lockdown etc haven't there. I've hated it, living in the city centre it feels like it is gloomy and sad, boarded up shops etc. The heart has gone out of the place and it needs to come back.

UNTIL FUCKING MARCH?????!!!!!!!

Im overweight. Having seen the way overweight ppl are being discussed on the dystopian thread i wonder why i bother complying at times

@MercyBooth I’d be less overweight soon if they’d let me go back to the bloody gym!!

Just ignore them Mercy.

Of course people will be nostalgic @Orangeblossom7777 @Reedwarbler.

Look at how people pretend ww2 was lovely, dress up for back to the 40's days, decorate their homes with posters that were war propaganda, or about rationing. Even the whole keep calm carry on thing.

Its rarely the adults that lived through it but theres always a trend for rose tinted glasses about the past

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/864696840/vintage-inspired-wii-gas-mask-poster?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=gas+mask+decor&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&organic_search_click=1&frs=1

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/674973204/keep-clear-unexploded-bomb-vintage?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=ww2+decor&ref=sr_gallery-1-5&organic_search_click=1&frs=1

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/553245677/ration-reproduction-ww-food-tin-cans?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=rationing+tins&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1

3 examples of things that are somehow nostalgic but actually pretty horrid for those that lived through it.

I'm angry & I feel sick. We came from a tier 3 & I suspect we'll be back there with knobs on. I'm really fearing for DD's job if that happens, & all the repercussions from that. But it's ok because Boris is "very sorry".

I wish they'd waited until they had worked out which areas are going into which tiers before announcing this. It means 3 days of worry & speculation.

@TooManyButtons
WTF is that picture? It took ages to work out that it wasn't (a)Jesus in a compromising position, or (b) Jesus giving birth. Apologies if that offends anyone. But my goodness, I thought I'd seen it all, but that is something else.

@TheOrchidKiller you actually made me - before that I was in need of a bucket re that picture! Frankly it’s an offensive picture whether you’re Christian or not, I would have thought.

So now we have to wait to see what tier we are in? And this what happens with the rule of six? FUCK THEM.

I'm so gobsmacked by the Jesus picture I had to look again- with glasses on this time.
No, doesn't get any better.

Also, He's in a hospital. Surely someone would've stopped Him & told Him off for (a) not wearing PPE & (b) wearing open-toed sandals in a clinical environment.
"I don't care if you are the Son of God, PPE on now, we can't have you off self-isolating if one of your close contacts goes down with it!"

(I promise I'll stop now. Although why are all these horror pictures in the form of line drawings/illustrations?)