At last! 6 people can meet in a garden!

[BruceAndNosh]

WE can meet family

@ZaZathecat I hope you're right, as my income dried up in February (which is always a crap month anyway). Don't go via Air BnB, though - HomeAway and TripAdvisor are better, if you want a reasonable guarantee of cleanliness etc.

'An Air BnB' has become a generic term for a holiday let (a bit like all vacuum cleaners being known as Hoovers, even when they're not made by Hoover).

However, people with Air BnBs are often (not all) amateurs/people letting spare rooms on the side, rather than people who are running a proper business and have all the proper cleaning/insurances etc. I certainly wouldn't want to be staying in someone else's home at the moment, but I'd be reasonably sure that a professional serviced/holiday let would be spotless. It's not in an owner's interests for it not to be.

Agree that HomeAway have offered a brilliant service, we’re in a free cancellation offer which is important to me at the mo

Holiday letter, yes I was using Airbnb as shorthand for holiday let's. I have used them and others too and have found all very good if you choose carefully and check the reviews.

We'd be a seven if we meet up with my parents, but I'm sure my teenager would be happy to skip the family reunion so that we can keep to the rules and meet up with 5 of his mates instead

It's funny that Air BnB has become a shorthand for holiday lets. I'm glad you have found some good ones, via whichever channels, @ZaZathecat

I can't see people really following it, it's a bit of a specific number

On the face of this it seems great, and I doubt if it's 5 or 7 people matters.

As for bbq and walking through the house..going to the loo, I think you will have to judge for yourself.. because you are on your own! That's the message I'm getting. This W obviously Boris going off message and Whitty and Valance trying damage limitation.

Any shiny new thing to get people's focus off Dominic Cummings and Boris. They would throw you in front of a bus if they could.

As a scientist, I am sure they have manipulated the R rate and until we are seeing NO cases this will go on and on.. we will be locked down all summer and the finger of blame will be on us for not doing 'our civic duty'....... I hope I'm proved wrong...

meh most people have been doing this already
No they haven't.
Most people aren't stupid.

"The 4 hour journey is probably the main issue, as you can't use the toilet at your family's home.'
You can use the toilet at your family's home. This was a specific question in the Daily Briefing and the answer was that you can. However, Chris Whitty said the toilet has to be properly cleaned after use and hands washed thoroughly.

This is good and step in right direction agree 6 is weird number 8 would def be better but again still no plan to show what he intends going forward don't even need dates but would be good to know I. E if this goes ok we will let you meet more outside or we will then move it to 6 inside etc etc .
Seems like we don't have a plan on social side of things

@IndiaMay same as at my parents and my house plus worst case I have 2 toilets so I could always quarantine the downstairs if someone used it ,but I always have anti bac wipes etc in there so if someone came and was desperate for loo I would just use my common sense and clean after plus your washing your hands

@randomer yes people in flats can meet up in a public space or if visiting a friend who has a garden
Unfortunately outside is safer for now so yes it's better for those who have a garden but it can't be helped

@1forsorrow we visited a localish beach this evening after 5 when we knew it would be quieter and there wasn't many ok the beach but clearly was one large group of about 18-20 having a large picnic and no sign of social distancing between them and sharing all food etc
Also several groups of 4 teenagers
Everyone else seemed to be following the rules and keeping distances though and beach was all clean etc
I think the majority are me being careful and responsible

@Devlesko what do you suggest we do then stay in until there a vaccine which may be never
You have to ease lockdown at sometime and by realeasing measured slowly if there is an increase then they will tighten again but we can't stay locked in forever

"just can't see DP's eldest wanting to be at the BBQ.
I can see this getting tricky for us as DP has his siblings, I have my family and DP has 4 kids, 3 of whom with different mums and all eother live apart from him (adults) or spend 50/50 between their mum's houses and ours.
There will be a lot of mixing of people which I feel bad about but we are desperate to see different people."

You're desperate to see all those people. All at once, some of whom don't want to be there?

Get a fucking grip people

@Pasghetti

Most people here have been doing this for a few weeks. It's an area where most people have gardens you can access without going through the house. I have around 5 friends who have called round and had coffee on different days.

The social distancing for children is very, very difficult.

So that’s 5 people in quick succession, who will also each have been seeing others, maybe 5 each, and you don’t think this represents a risk of virus transmission? No wonder the numbers are still so high really when you also add in the people who have to interact more for essential reasons. I despair of ever being able to go out or see anyone when people are so so selfish.

“”You're desperate to see all those people. All at once, some of whom don't want to be there?

Get a fucking grip people””

This

When will the shielding be lifted? I have my mum wanting to visit the grandchildren but my dad is shielding. How does this work??

But naturalbornwoman - under the meet one person at a time, outdoors, at a distance of 2m rule you were allowed to swap and change the friends you meet up with. Okay, until Monday it's supposed to be in a public place not a garden but we all knew the garden bit was daft anyway.

The government advisors themselves said it was fine to meet one person and then another one after another.

Jesus just gone on Facebook it never ceases to amaze me how difficult six can be as a concept, no you’re not trailing your family of 6+ to see others you’re going to split up to create a total of 6 at any one time yes inconvenient but better that a slap in the face

I wish we’d done a Sturgeon an made clear two households only

@poppy the virus is still extremely dangerous to anyone shielding. Nothing other that a vaccine or change to the virus itself can change this.

The risk to your dad is still just as high in terms of him becoming very unwell.

All that may have changed is the probability of him catching it as the infection rate is lower.

So the government is of course still going to request extreme caution from people who are shielding, and has asked that they continue.

Maybe for some people the benefits of going against this advice outweigh the safety of shielding. I guess that is up to each individual. I do think though that many people don't have a grasp of the facts in order to make an informed decision though- either through deliberately ignoring data and information, or not believing it.

@poppy1973 shielding will be lifted when it’s safe and your parents are not going to die in a hospital without you there. Get a grip and understand why we had lockdown and why 1000s of people are at risk of losing their homes.

[quote Coffeeandbeans]@poppy1973 shielding will be lifted when it’s safe and your parents are not going to die in a hospital without you there. Get a grip and understand why we had lockdown and why 1000s of people are at risk of losing their homes.[/quote]
Shielding can only be relaxed when the number of people with the virus is low and therefore the risk of transmission is minimal. Track and trace should help with this, but if the prevailing attitude on MN is indicative of the general population, many will not comply, either because they are intellectually incapable of understanding the rationale or because they put their own personal interests, wishes and desires first, irrespective of the impact on wider society. As per the quoted reply to your post @poppy1973 it’s a very sad and frightening situation.

I'm going to ask my friends round so I can get my toilet cleaned by someone else for a change.