ADs teach twisted lyrics to their pet tortoise

[BogRollBOGOF]

Crawling back to normality slightly slower than a tortoise taking the scenic route...

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4173705-ADs-picnic-in-the-park-with-Twinkle-the-Tortoise

I should add

The puppy eyes and random chat ups were pre mask!

God, this has been such a long process.

Currently have a chatty 10 yo on the bed who's been talking about it being a 10th of his life, and he's all bored with it.
I've just been reassuring him that a lot of difference will happen from 12th April (shops, sports, outdoor eating out) plus being able to see another family outside.
Plus the state of the vaccines, how we're on to 55+ and they're helping to cut transmission and make vulnerable people less poorly. And how 89 yo Granny got hers last week (slow hand clap for the EU) and several UK family members in their 50s have had theirs.

(He's moved on to DH and pokemon now...)

Interesting about the birth rates. If there's a boom in a couple of years god knows how the system will cope...

DS now has minecraft on the kids section. I had to give it additional permissions to work so I'm now nervous this will allow for purchasing although I don't think it will. Fingers crossed. Got to get him off it for home school shortly.

Re the blood clots from Oxford vaccine, the risk is less then the pill (contraceptive). I can’t wait for mine.
On the news this morning they were talking about putting in extra street light etc. Our council have just removed streets light. Plus Newcastle city centre have just issued plans. Loads of outside seating and eating outside, you wouldn’t think it was the north east and cold!

@MrsEWeatherwax

Re the blood clots from Oxford vaccine, the risk is less then the pill (contraceptive). I can’t wait for mine. On the news this morning they were talking about putting in extra street light etc. Our council have just removed streets light. Plus Newcastle city centre have just issued plans. Loads of outside seating and eating outside, you wouldn’t think it was the north east and cold!

Mystified by the comparison. The contraceptive pill has two vital benefits/uses. Even if it's just one for the woman using it, it's a godsend.

I am struck by the irony of the comparison of risk with the contraceptive pill.
Scientists think people worried about getting a blood clot from the AZ vaccine are “crazy” when the risk is even lower than the 0.6 failure rate of the widely used and accepted contraceptive pill.
but hang on....what’s the risk of dying from covid for pretty much the whole of the population under 80? Wasn’t it 99.6% chance of survival? Meaning that the risk of covid is even lower than the failure of the contraceptive pill for most people. However, the whole world shut down everything and locked up their citizens for that risk

I suppose I think covid is a risk and getting a blood clot is even less of a risk, so if you are worried about covid then you should just get the vaccine because that’s even less of a risk.
Re the contraceptive pill, I was always told that being pregnant and giving birth are two of the most dangerous things a woman can do, so if you don’t want pregnancy then take the very small risk of blood clot.
I’m quite happy to have vaccine because I want my life back. But I’m not worried about covid and would be happy to open up every thing anyway.
People seem to have lost the ability to risk assess, every thing is life is a risk, people break bones falling out of bed. The only certainty is death.

And taxes .

I risk-assessed today & decided, on the basis that the Covid Enforcer of our work building was out, to remove some hazard tape from a desk, and I sat at it!

I figured it was better than not doing any work at all because the only free, ungaffered desk was broken.

The irony was that the taped up desks don't get wiped down because no one is using them. But because I'd sat there, I gave it a good clean at home time, so it's better than it was.

You rebel!

I had a nap today... I'm blaming hayfever. It did co-incide with the sun coming out after lunch.

It's a bit weird at the moment. Great to have the DCs back in school, but some mornings one or the other is struggling. DS1 two mornings in a row... I suppose in September it was the "normality" of a new class, whereas now we've had 2.5 months of randomly existing and going back halfway through the school year which is more odd to adapt back to.

Wow - can't believe this thread was languishing on page 2!

I also can't believe its a whole year since this sage kicked off - I wonder how historians in the future will look back on the past year?

Collective madness and wtf was wrong with those people?

A good article about the shock some people seem to have that having banned protests, they weren't allowed to protest: www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/14/assembly-for-me-but-not-for-thee/

It's sad, but clear now I think that all of this has shown that many, probably most, people's commitment to freedom, or even bodily autonomy, is very shallow.

(This is probably at least partly because most of us don't have any idea what it's like to live under a repressive regime.)

And what a genuine privilege that actually is.

@110APiccadilly

It's sad, but clear now I think that all of this has shown that many, probably most, people's commitment to freedom, or even bodily autonomy, is very shallow.

(This is probably at least partly because most of us don't have any idea what it's like to live under a repressive regime.)

I think there's a lot in this. We take it for granted because it seems u thinkable that the state will really act against us. We are too trusting, I think. Me included. I can register the threat to freedom of speech, political protest etc on an intellectual level but it doesn't really spark much of an emotional response - I am too accustomed to being safe.

*unthinkable

Shit was getting real on my timehop from a year ago. I've got 3 posts, one about some daffodils looking cheerful (I was beyond fed up about 6+ months of relentless grey/ wet weather anyway), one joking about an empty looroll holder (we'd stashed up in Costco in Feb before it was trendy) and one about sewing Guiding and Scouting badges because it was the first week that they were all cancelled. The only productive evening I've had in their absence

The 16th, I went into to town buying DS's birthday presents a month early just-in-case and was the last time I went in a swimming pool. The DCs are fortunate to have had some months of lessons, but the only swimming I've done since then was a wild swim in the river last July which was lovely. I like to just rock up to a public session when I'm free and feeling creaky, so the Covid rules don't work well for that.

I miss spontenaity!

I remember that week so clearly, what I did each day. It was the uncertainty that was awful. I really didn't think that the parkrun box would be in my house for 13m. I thought I'd be getting it back out soon after Easter, maybe a couple of months. The actual lockdown announcement was a relief in that we were allowed out informally for exercise compared to measures in Spain or France.

I'm just clining on to 12th April when more structure comes back into my life, although school returning has helped a lot. No clinging/ sobbing/ screaming children today either!

I've been to Hong Kong and spent time in China. Hong Kong is a good cautionary tale that democracy and free speech is not a one way journey of permanence.

I've read too many distopias too. The Handmaid's Tale always scared me most because the world was far too close to ours, and based on combinations of events that have occurred. Far too possible.

I'm probably a hypocrite. I went on an NUS march as a student, all nicely organised and a nice cheap jolly to London. But the reality is I'm not great in crowds, don't want to get tangled up in a rent-a-mob element and at a stage in life where I have responsibilities and need DBS checks, there's rarely opportunities to protest at a practical distance.

I need to find a way to turn off the timehop type things on my phone and Facebook. I was thinking about Easter yesterday, just idly reminding myself to stock up on cheap eggs at Aldi for a hunt in the garden. Then I remembered doing it last year in lockdown and it was a horrible, specific reminder of how long this has been going on for. My youngest is two and a half - this is almost half her life. My eldest will have had two of the four years of her school life disrupted and remote learning, and that's assuming that from September this year there are no more closures / bubbles / lockdowns. It's sickening.

@BogRollBOGOF, I think people protest in different ways. There's no one right way to do it. I went on protest marches at uni but I am not good with crowds. This year, I have signed petitions and written letters and quietly gone about my business as normally as possible. I did write something in pencil once on the sign on a closed playground.

@ISaySteadyOn

Collective madness and wtf was wrong with those people?

Exactly my thoughts! I've been astounded at how meekly people have followed The Roolz. Normal, healthy, open minded people who have crumbled at the first sign of a totalitarian regime. Now they are all banging on about 'everyone must have the vaccine'.

What I've really really hated is all the talk of 'is this allowed'. h 'stay safe' and 'allowed' are my most hated words in the English Language.

How about 'Covid safe'?

I've signed online petitions. Actually my MP is more anti-lockdown which is a pleasant surprise. We're an odd constituency, our suburb is cleaved off from the rest of the city and the rest of it is rural/ small towns that have had generally low rates throughout. Some peaks, but they've come and gone quite quickly relatively speaking.

I really just hope that it can be all done with by the end of June. I can't see what realistic measures would be aherred to in the autumn if rates go back. I can't see the masses going back to avoiding family and friends. Businesses can't thrive with more social distancing. And lets face it, the vaccine is far, far more useful than the average pocket face rag. Most people really do want an end to it and to rebuild a real normality.

I want to look at random faces again. As I was staring at the ground in the playground this morning, some parents have better fabric penetrating voices than others and it reminded me of The Fast Show sketch where the old guy waffles on incoherently, ocasionally had a lucid moment then finishes with "I was very...very... drunk at the time. That's what trying to follow conversation is like at the moment, and this tends to be the social highlight of my day!