New Fred. It nearly ended in tiers.

[Cismyfatarse]

Sorry. Lost track of what was proposed. Hope this will do.

My two still doing school work but glad to be off tomorrow and two days next week. Peppafrig fun in the snow though? Keeps them busy. No idea what mine will do next week once it's all gone.

@Peppafrig

So stressful today after the kids been off all week . Anyone struggling to get them back into working today ?

Yep! 100%.

I'm at uni, I'm hoping to switch to a course that was actually designed to be delivered online. I feel like that will give me some of my life back, not sure if that makes sense.

There was chat on here a few threads ago about dental checkups...

I was last at dentist around a year ago. Next checkup was booked in for August 2020, this was cancelled and rescheduled for Feb 2021.
Phone call yesterday to inform me that my appointment is cancelled again so can o rebook.

Anyone like to guess when the new appointment is now?! 🙄

Dentists are never going to recover from this backlog are they. And they check for things like cancer now as well don’t they so I wonder how much of that will have been missed.

We have all had dental appts, im getting a broken crown fixed so I've had two, with one more to come. Seems weve been lucky.

Our dentist were doing normal appointments for a while but I phoned this week as DS filling fell out and they're not doing them again.

Today's briefing - don't count on a foreign or Scottish vacation and we urge you not to book. We don't want you being too hopeful.

@anon444877 what book no holidays ever ? Or do they mean for Summer ?

We missed one dental appt, but have had 1 dentist check up and 2 hygienist appt since October (one of the hygienist appointments was a catch up from July which was cancelled).

www.scotsman.com/health/coronavirus/nicola-sturgeon-says-i-cant-guarantee-youll-be-able-go-holiday-summer-even-scotland-3131728

It seems at least this summer - of course it's not definitive, it's more depressing waffle about new variants and much as she'd like to support tourism she just can't, so please don't book yet as you may be disappointed.

So no change from 2020 then?!

Last summer we could go on holiday in Scotland . She's saying the same as Johnson and I think it's probably due to upcoming vaccine supply issues / impact of re opening schools. I don't know why there's any question of whether we want a holiday abroad in place of opening up at home.

That's not really the choice here though is it, that is saying there are no holidays to be booked anywhere as yet.

And the specific reason given is new variant risk rather than vaccine supply.

what are the odds that rUK will be allowed to have a holiday in England but Scottish people are not allowed to go anywhere

We don't want you being too hopeful. Oh ffs.

How can an election in May go ahead when it sounds like we might not be able to do very much at all even by then? Just feels wrong to say we don't know if you'll even be able to have a domestic holiday or go to the pub for a drink but please turn up to vote...that possibly doesn't even make sense but it's frustrating me today.

Clutching at straws here, but maybe both governments are trying to keep a lid on those who've had one jag, then believing they can get back to normal now? While the majority - the younger, economically active majority plus students and school children - are still in strict lockdown. If people do that it would enrage me (even though DH has had his first, and we'd love to book a holiday just like everybody else).

@fluffyugg

How can an election in May go ahead when it sounds like we might not be able to do very much at all even by then? Just feels wrong to say we don't know if you'll even be able to have a domestic holiday or go to the pub for a drink but please turn up to vote...that possibly doesn't even make sense but it's frustrating me today.

Can you imagine if the election didn't go ahead? It would be 'Nitler Denies Democracy in Cynical Pandemic Power Grab' headline time.

I mean, I do think they should be considering how we vote - give us three days instead of one for example, or send mail-in votes to everyone on the electoral register, etc.

But we still need to be given a choice of how governs us. That's the foundation of our democracy.

I think that's my biggest issue if we are going hard with borders then everything here should be opened by the summer. Yes I accept there might be limitations on numbers etc but why can't we go to a caravan or a hotel? Have dinner or a few drinks.

I've broken my own rule and looked at depressing media coverage. Let's hope it's wrong - it's worse than 2020 if we are stuck in our own council areas this summer.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel yeah I know, I'm just feeling annoyed that we're not getting to do anything but will be encouraged to go and vote. I don't understand one bit how come this summer is going to be worse than last summer? Very strict controls over international borders surely should mean we can move around within our own country and also as so many will be vaccinated by then??

I'm sorry to hear that even final year students won't be going back to St A, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Strathclyde. You'd think they could make an exception for atudents in their final year. A lot of the positive cases are transmitted in halls: where most final year students don't live. I appreciate that unis would have massive revenue issues if they received no student fees or income from uni accommodation but a blanket online policy? They encouraged students to take up their places in accommodation with the promise of some in person teaching before too long.

DS ' GF is a fine art student. If they offer an online degree show instead of the usual she'll be bitterly disappointed. I don't get why the unis are so inflexible. Couldn't they push back the start of the summer term and defer some of the in person stuff they normally do now until then?

And while I'm on a rant How disgraceful that residents of blocks of flats with unsafe cladding should be saddled with a monthly debt to pay, for god knows how long. Also, why is the CE of the SNP allowed to be married to its parliamentary leader?

[quote fluffyugg]@IncludeWomenInTheSequel yeah I know, I'm just feeling annoyed that we're not getting to do anything but will be encouraged to go and vote. I don't understand one bit how come this summer is going to be worse than last summer? Very strict controls over international borders surely should mean we can move around within our own country and also as so many will be vaccinated by then?? [/quote]
Yes, I believe that's their intention - Devi Sridhar was on the news last night saying exactly that - but I think they're thoroughly in the business of lowering expectations right now.

The closing of borders is the right thing to do but it has to be matched by driving community transmission right down, otherwise what's the point? So they'll stick with restrictions as far into the vaccination programme as they can, I guess. Once we've got cases low like last summer then I think we'll rapidly see things change.

They cannot justify in person voting if they claim to be worried about us mixing and causing vaccine escape.

I agree it'd be deeply problematic to postpone elections.

Im not sure I agree with this whole under promise over deliver strategy, it's getting old. Under promise, lockdown some more, under promise.

You just wonder how they will get numbers that low. I know things are really improving but actual case numbers still high, where are people getting it? Although I suppose vaccinations will hopefully have an impact on that fairly soon 🤞