Guilt Free Railing 16

[WouldBeGood]

The festive special!

As always, all railing welcome, along with good things or humorous asides. No resilience wankery. This is the safe place to let out anything that’s doing your head in.

@Lockdownbear

If 1 in 10 had it in London and London hasn't turned into the City of the Dying. What do we think will happen if when the rest of the country have 1 in 10 with covid?

I mean really has anyone ever analysised what percentage of people have common cold / flu / norovirus / tummy bug at any given point in time?
I bet there are times it's more than 1 in 10!

Absolutely this. 10% of London had COVID and still hospitals aren't that stretched. I'd say that's really positive!

I don't know about estimating prevalence of disease, but there was a study a few years ago that looked at how many people had flu in a season by looking at immune markers before and after the season. The majority (around 3/4 I think) of those with flu hadn't noticed, because they had either no symptoms at all or thought it was a cold. Sounds familiar? I'd bet at peak times of year these viruses are all really prevalent but largely under the radar. COVID seems to be moving into that niche too - serious for some, but mostly causing pretty mild illness that would otherwise go unnoticed.

@ecceromani

Probably *@StarryEyeSurprise* as Jason Leitch saying we're few weeks away from the peak yet. Although I think we have much higher vaccination rates than London so that should stand us in good stead against serious illness

I agree that we've probably got enough immunity in the community to prevent the bulk of serious illness, but don't make the mistake of assuming that immunity only comes from vaccination. London has lower vacc rates but has also had some large waves of infection previously, which will have given the population protection against serious illness too. There are some suggestions that natural immunity may actually be better with omicron because of the broader immunity it gives, while this variant has drifted fairly far from the original vaccine strain. Either way, I think it will turn out much more positive for both nations than the doomsayers are predicting.

Well it would go unnoticed if the govt weren't encouraging the population to keep testing themselves.

This may not be the right thread for it, but a bit despondent about the ongoing uncertainty of it all.

Usually by this stage I have holidays all lined up for the year, for 2022 I give you France half term skiing (80% likely to be cancelled I reckon) and a week in Buxton. Oh and a weekend in the Lake District when DS may or may not be away on a school trip - DH had suggested we book abroad but I told him to behave himself.

Thinking it was a mistake to buy a week's extra holiday for next year.

It just seems impossible to look forward to anything very much. I'm not even sad about it any more, just resigned.

I think when it turns around things will get better very quickly. And I'm a born pessimist.

I'm the same @rookiemere. 2021 was meant to be a big holiday year, we had a number of significant birthday and anniversaries. I've nothing booked yet for 2022 and no inclination anymore. I don't want to spend thousands to go abroad and still have restrictions and masks and testing.

I'm isolating until the 3rd, will be out on the 4th then I have our inservice day on teams on the 5th. Not due back in nursery until the 10th. I'm terrified I get ill on the 3rd or 4th.

Dd due her jaw surgery from 2020 this summer. I'm awaiting cataract surgery. I've been told it's so severe it needs done by mid March.

Covid travel has bought out the diehard optimist in me - found amazingly good deals for florence in feb and bloody well going to book it. I do have comprehensive covid cover on travel insurance.

Something we failed to get to this holiday rebooked for Easter.

Agree though usually main summer holidays is booked in October. Hmmmmm....

I have to say I'm looking at meetups in the UK.
Summer seems a long way off.

grovee got my fingers crossed for no more positive tests and surgeries going ahead.

I railed myself into looking for a wee local break at Easter and I remember why looking is such a pain. I'd prefer a lodge or cottage or something and there is 5 of us. DH and I, DS2 and GF and DS1. We need 3 bedrooms, I hate when someone needs to sleep in the livingroom on a sofa bed. Fine for a night but no longer. Trying to get a suitable bed combination is pretty difficult. I wouldn't care if all the rooms were twins (with divans) and not doubles but you generally get 1 or 2 doubles and a single or 1 double, a twin and a single or a bunk bed room. The issue is that they end up having beds with ends on and we are all tall so unless the bed is a king which is a bit longer, we have to curl up a bit. DS1 ends up the problem as he is 6'3. He can sleep diagonally if he has a double with a bed end, or is happy enough sticking his feet off the end of a single but he just doesn't fit in a bunk bed or a day bed.

I've looked at about a dozen somewhere we wouldn't mind going, in budget and available but DS1 would end up sleeping on the floor in all of them. He's not even that tall.

@rookiemere we have found as long as you are flexible with booking and happy doing stuff within a week then actually travel is pretty OK!

DH and his friends bought their return lft before they had booked a ski holiday! They waited til yesterday to book to make sure no new restrictions (most countries are weekly or fortnight reviews)

Depending on age of DCs will depend where you can get to currently. We found having country A, B and C was the best approach!

@Scottishskifun we're at the tricky age as DS15 is not yet double jabbed, but it looks as if he might be allowed to get it so hoping to take him to a drop in tomorrow.
I'm just not very good at doing things last minute. I really enjoy researching and planning a holiday, I find last minute adjustments quite stressful ( as evidenced in mini breakdown in Barcelona when Boris changed the travel rules ).
Also as he's doing exams this year it's really only Feb holidays that we have to play with, but I know it's all first world problems really.

@ElephantOfRisk have you looked at Forest Holidays? Pricey bit the Strathyre site is lovely and no ends on the beds.

@rookiemere I’m with you. Too depressing to book. Can’t look forward to it anyway.

thanks rookie - we've done Forest Holidays a few times in various places but not Strathyre as it's only 20 odd miles away .

DS2 and GF will be coming from Aberdeen and as it's only a few days I was thinking Aviemore or Fife, we'd normally do the Lakes at Easter time but it's just quite a long way for them for a few nights.

Don't want to shell out megabucks as we'll no doubt be eating out and it's all on the bank of mum and dad. Still hoping we might get an abroad holiday in the summer but again we'd be paying for 5 so it all adds up.

@rookiemere if he can get a second jab then check out Andorra as you can fly into Spain still relatively easily in comparison.

We still had to be booked off work a certain week but just researched 3 different country options.
I think it's made me really stubborn I'm determined to get a break but flexible to where that is!

We will be booking a trip in early summer and Dec but so far Dec booking ranges from the Caribbean, South Asia or ski trip! 😂

@elephantofrisk check out Moray or the Black Isle.

Thanks @Scottishskifun we're tied into Easyjet flights that have been changed 7 times I think now so I'm reluctant to pay for new ones.

TBH I'm actually hoping they just cancel the flights and we can get our money back or put it towards 2023 flight < surely to goodness it will be sorted by then >.

It's a shame as DS is of an age where he only really wants to go away with just the 3 of us if there are fun activities, and he looked vaguely enthusiastic about skiing.

Thanks @Scottishskifun, that's a good shout. I've also found a couple in St Andrews that were a little over what I wanted to pay but not horrendously expensive.

Where is your DH flying to @Scottishskifun
Is there anywhere that will have us at the moment?

@ElephantOfRisk. We stayed at these cottages in Northumberland just before Christmas. This cottage is available over Easter and has beds that should work for you. They are not the cheapest but have a lovely pool/sauna/steam room on site which you can have to your self or one other family. It was a very chilled out place to stay and we were surprised how much we liked Northumberland in the bleak winter weather
www.beaconhill.co.uk/north-granary-cottage/

Thanks @Icannever, those look lovely and right up our street. They will only do a full week booking from April onwards and we were really just looking for a midweek break. They aren't overly expensive though for the week so I guess we could just not stay the full week. Definitely on the list if DS2 and GF can get away for longer and stop off overnight in both directions.

@ElephantOfRisk I saw this today which is quite near me. It's close to St Andrews and Dundee, good for a few different days out. Don't know if it would suit but worth a look maybe.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/53508265?location=Tayport%2C+United+Kingdom&sourceimpressionnid=p316407310899Uje2mYo0GQUoGyeG&guests=1&adults=1

Railing against Gregor smith on the telly calling it “oh- micron”

Ffs. It’s the Greek for the short o sound

That's very stylish @BlameItOnTheBlackStar, it's quite dear for the 4 nights we are looking for but very interesting. And yes, nicely placed for a couple of days out and a few walks and a few nice meals is ideal.

I've been looking at those Northumberland ones as potential for a staycation in the summer but I think our 2nd week might be English half term as the prices rocket then. We have a very early holiday this year as DS1 is supposed to be doing a summer placement for Uni.