Bonny lasses assemble for the North East support thread 2!

[PennyDreadfuI]

Shiny new thread for all your north east needs.

Hello 👋

There were more new cases in Stockton than Middlesbrough and Hartlepool combined. I think the prevalence of covid here has been masked by the excel cock up. I wonder how long they are going to let the disparity between restrictions play out?

I work in town and have already been to the Christmas department in Fenwick's.

It's actually a bit depressing to be honest, it was so so quiet. Felt a bit surreal.

Also I am so disoriented about what time of the year it is, I feel like I've gone from spring to January!

Tonight my grandson got the suitcases from the loft
Tomorrow, they will be going back up there.
☹️

My Dad was in the Aletaster when my mum went in to labour with my brother ..she had to ring the bar to send home home as was way before mobiles...he has always called it the 'alley tast er'so it isn't just you don't worry!

@clareykb yay I don’t feel so daft knowing there are at least two of us in the alley taster club not that I’ve ever been inside.

Listening to Nicola sturgeon's speech has got me really anxious.

I think we should also have a 2 week circuit breaker lockdown considering how ridiculously high our numbers are.

I'm worried that instead they're going to put us in a half arsed, not very thought out pseudo lockdown and then forget about us.

I'd much rather have a stricter time limited one.

I have to travel by public transport every day into the city centre to do a customer facing role. I can't say I'm feeling very reassured.

A longer half arsed lockdown will just squeeze the life out of my business

Really feeling it today.

& the blues have moved in on the map for County Durham. Durham is now dark but but all the rest have gone the next shade darker - cases have more than doubled where I am.

Really struggling with lockdown this week after having to go and say a final goodbye to my grandmother who is in a care home with dementia (I realise I broke the lockdown laws but I couldn't not). I am furious that she may die alone due to the rules for care homes stating one hour visit a day yet I can go and sit through a two hour film in the cinema with people I don't know.

That's really tough sugar

For some reason I think this week has been the hardest week so far and I haven't even had that kind of pressure.

Thanks @Snoringferret.

Even before I'd received the call today I did think this had been one of the hardest week. I wonder if it's because it feels like it's heading back to where we were at the start of the pandemic?

@Snoringferret I totally agree.

@Someaddedsugar that's really tough. More and for you.

This is now the time that is is hitting us like a sledgehammer. We felt we could / would do the first month, 12 weeks, whatever. But now it is really taking it's toll.

Oh @Someaddedsugar Put like that the rules seem even more nonsensical than they already do. Lots of love to you.

You're right - this has been a very strange, tough week (though much harder for you, of course). Yes, it feels like March again, but in some ways worse because we know what happened last time. The 'experts' tell us that we're better equipped this time, that this wave may not be so bad, but a) that's not much comfort to those in situations like yours and b) so far pretty much everything the 'experts' have said has turned out to be rubbish.

DD starts work at her grotto in just a few weeks time and I have to admit I'm getting nervous. Back in the summer when she applied for it things were looking good, I think we were on about 2 cases a week or something. Now the idea of her spending all day every day with hundreds of children (and their families/other staff) is more worrying. So far we've been in our own little bubble with DH wfh and just going to supermarkets/pub once back in August. She was hoping to find a job she could do from home after she graduated but there's absolutely nothing out there.

In some ways though it's lovely that the grotto is going ahead (touch wood) - a little bit of normality and fun. And maybe by the time she starts things will have improved anyway!

@Someaddedsugar

I would have done the same & you're right, that rules about 1 hour a day is wrong on everyone

@PennyDreadfuI
There's hope then that some Grottos might go ahead? I've been preparing my DC for maybe not seeing Santa this year just in case!

I'm so sorry, @Someaddedsugar you're not breaking the rules for those circumstances, btw.

@Shitfuckoh Dobbies grottos in Gosforth and Ponteland are still going ahead, as is the Fenwick's one. Mind you that's as it stands now - who knows what will happen before they open! The Dobbies ones are set to open the first week in November but I see talk on the BBC of new restrictions for lockdown areas from Monday (just saw the link on another thread). If they go the same way as Scotland's I'm not sure how that will affect Breakfast With Santa at Dobbies.

I think it's probably a good idea to keep preparing your DC for the worst, then if the best happens it'll be extra special!

@FrolickingLemon, @PennyDreadfuI and @Shitfuckoh thank you... Just pleased I did get the hour I had. My heart goes out to those who've lost loved ones but haven't been able to get there due to lockdown.

Fingers crossed the grotto does go ahead for your DD. Our DS is at the stage where he's starting to believe and it'd be lovely for him to have his first Santa visit.

Thanks @PickAChew

Dh has just told me the NE is moving to tier 3 (no bars and restaurants/hospitality) as of Monday. Worrying.

Do you know where she heard that qwonzo?

It's in the Daily Mail.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/uk-news/pubs-across-north-could-closed-19068690#ICID=Android_ChronicleNewsApp_AppShare

Ah fuck.

I know it's probably for the best but it's going to be so hard shutting my business down again.

@Someaddedsugar I’m very sorry you are experiencing this with your grandma.

My niece works in a care home and says it is so distressing for the families and residents, she said it is sad to see the people she cares for so isolated. She does point out that staff are allowed to go wherever they want when not in work so although they are repeatedly tested and wear PPE, it doesn’t sit right that we can’t visit a loved one for an hour but a staff member could spend all days off in the pub with many people and then spend 12 hours working in the home.

The home she is in have been Covid free for months, they stopped using agency staff and follow strict rules, yet had a constant battle with visiting as some families continuously broke the rules of numbers, social distancing and contact.

It’s tragic that our elderly and vulnerable are being treated this way.

@Qwenzo do you have a link?

I have just recovered from a bad flare up of my Emphysema.Last one being four weeks ago so I rang my GP on Monday to ask if I could start taking my emergency medications so soon. I was told by receptionist that the doctor would ring me back as not having patients in the surgery.
Four hours later, and me getting desperately short of breath by then, I managed to ring back to be told that there were twenty patients waiting before me.I sad I am going to the hospital then and put the phone down.
Somehow I made it to the RVI by then I was starting to struggle to breathe.I was seen straight away by a wonderful nurse who took my temperature, then gave me a nebuliser with steroid in. Started to ease my breathing but still wheezy.After two hours and a chest X ray was seen by a doctor, department very busy.Given another nebuliser and some oral steroids. Doctor told me I could carry on with my emergency drugs for a week, all this could have been avoided if my GP could have spoken to me sooner.Given permission to go home, I rang my son to pick me up but had to go back into big waiting area as he would not be allowed in.My DS said he would ring me as soon as he drove into the grounds so I could go outside and get straight into his vehicle as he knows parking is terrible there.
Pleased I did not have Covid as it will probably be curtains for me.People with my condition are wasting a ventilator, and also not likely to get off one.
Sick sick sick of all this but we are all in the same boat.Today I have put a formal complaint to my local Iceland.My granddaughter who lives with me had gone into there and noticed there has a big price hike from last week. When she asked the staff why, she was told the management had got rid of security guards because of spreading the virus and so the thieves are having a field day, hence the prices going up!. I have made my feelings known and said I will not be shopping in there again.I await a reply.

Dc school (primary) now has 3 yeargroups (of 7) self isolating and another on standby as the TA is home awaiting test.

Ffs.