Another here to say thank you for this thread - it's taken me a few days to read the whole thing, but some of the fabulous wit on here has made me laugh out loud even though my Mum died of her cancer at home with us on Monday and I have been riding the rollercoaster of grief - in other words drinking too much and railing at the world in general.
So thank you for the "light" relief.
To the subject at hand, I have been more scared of being accused of rule breaking by curtain twitchers and SM Stasi than the damn virus itself...... my approach from the start has been follow the rules sensibly and hope everyone else does the same, but if they're not it's not down to me to police it, and anyhow, how can I possibly know?
I didn't even post on FB about my Mum coming to live with us four weeks ago for safeguarding because the Macmillan Unit balked at it as being against the rules - the GP and hospital OTs were very much in favour however and felt our shielding was up to scratch. Macmillan have since sort of said it was a misunderstanding and I know they are under pressure and have had to cut staff and relocate so I can easily forgive their knee jerk response now - but it did upset my Mum which rankled a bit.
Today I had to go into town to sort out some bank stuff relating to Mum and my crap admin skills - out town centre was quite busy but there are about three, maybe four banks in the same vicinity only open between 10 and 2 - all customers were orderly, queuing outside 2m apart, no bad atmosphere just resigned patience, so it makes sense that there would be more people in the area. And I have to say the bank staff were absolutely lovely, sympathetic, patient and sorted everything in record time which was amazing as I am very used to bureaucratic fubars - not this time though hurrah.
There is a saying that misery loves company which I think is true for some - I'm more of the slink away to lick my wounds quietly type due to intense conditioning from family and some dickish partners that one does not impose one's own suffering on others. Which makes it hard for people around me at the moment because I don't know what to do with sympathy other than thank them nicely and over-compensate with coping and apologies for disruption..... think I may need to work on a few things emptionally because otherwise vodka might end up being more than my friend......
The wonderfully named "Dementors" remind me of another personality type - those who are volunteers at events etc and are issued a Hi-Viz and a walkie talkie - and I speak from experience because years ago I was a marshall at the Bulldog Bash on the disabled campsite and was probably guilty of somewhat enjoying the little surge of power I was given while guarding campsite and its occupants from those who should not be there. I hope I was as polite as I was officious, but very drunk bikers can be tricky to wrangle lol - good times, though, good times.
I think there is a clear correlation between people who feel powerless to a degree in their own lives and when given a cause to get behind use it as a substitute in some way. I feel they need to demonstrate their worthiness and this is a great outlet:
"I have not left the house since before time began and never will again unless I am vaccinated and everyone else should be the same because otherwise we will all be murderers and die!"
I have read some really bizarre things on MN - I think freezing milk in ice cube trays is my favourite though.......
Fun times eh, fun times?