TIG#2 appears to have devised an ideal tool to assist cafe owners and the like, attempting to serve food out of doors in the persistent rain. From his Lego Fabuland (halfway between Duplo and 'proper' Lego) he took an umbrella and instead of the handle, substituted a ladle.
A sign of changing times: I saw Lysol spray in the supermarket for the first time in over a year. I bought two.
Lysol: hell’s bells! Haven’t seen the stuff since my student nurse days in 1973. Smelt good but took the skin off your hands
(Ooops! Repeat post- my bad)
Lysol was of the few cleaners determined early on able to kill viruses, not just bacteria. It flew off the shelves and stayed flown. It was reported that its company couldn't produce enough to keep up with general demand. I assume they ended up selling most of what they produced to hospitals, yet they kept on advertising it on TV to the poor, longing public.
One benefit of it selling out so quickly, the idiots who believed him wouldn't have found it so easy to obtain and so didn't put the extra strain on the medical system of having to treat lots of people poisoning themselves.
One more day and I am good to go after my second shot two week waiting period. I do not plan to be out and about more than usual, but I must admit it is even more of a relief when I most go out than I had expected. I must have been more worried about the virus than I realized.
My Pilates lassie has just had her Jab the First (she's 40), and tells me that she became quite unwell about 12 hours after the jab - good ol' Astra-Zeneca - was administered.
She was so ill that her husband became concerned (she says), and this is Most Unusual for him (she says)...
Mine got me like that. I'm told that (at least with AZ) younger people seem to get stronger reactions to it - I'm 50. Feeling grim lasted most of a day only for me, no longer - maybe between 12-24ish hours after the injection.
My son is at the end of 24 hours of fatigue and body aches from Pfizer One (he had natural COVID in November). That puts his reaction intermediate to mine and my husband's. I wonder even more if it's a genetic thing.
My sister wot lives in Macronia France is quite envious of the way in which our NHS is rolling out the vaccine.
Meanwhile, there still seems to be no relaxation on the Ban On Congregational Singing, at least in the C of E.
This, I hope, will not last much longer - several people at Our Place have said they don't attend services any more, because they can't stand FatherInCharge's insistence on saying hymns...turning an already over-long, and wordy, service into a primary school recital of doggerel...
Saying the hymns would certainly keep me away!
They seem to be getting well down the age groups here; my nephew, who's 40, has his first jag booked for Saturday.
In our church the organist plays all the verses (3 hymns rather than the usual 5) and folks are invited to read the words projected on a screen (no hymn books at the mo) and use the time for a kid of silent prayer. I think that's a good compromise, myself, and a nice way to build in some 'silence' which is often missing in our services.
Just (hopefully) scheduled a jab here for the 12-year-old, who seems to be more scared of Covid than of needles, so willing (and indeed eager) to participate.
Local rates here still seem to be slowly falling, following what looked very much like a spring break bump.
We haven't been back to live services at Our Place but I spoke to someone who observed that as long as you don't do it too lustily no one can tell whether or not you're singing behind the mask. I believe the worship group do a bit of singing. Plans are afoot to livestream the services soon and then put the recordings online, rather than do a whole service specifically designed for online purposes.
I gather spaces last Sunday were oversubscribed so people are feeling a bit more confident about getting back together; I suspect quite a few have now had their second jabs. We have ours at the end of the month; son-in-law has already had both as he's asthmatic. The Nenlets are still waiting for their first.
I'm as covid proof as is currently possible having had my second vaccination over three weeks ago. I'm still pretty wary of dashing down the pub or to a restaurant on Monday and I wish Johnson had delayed the next stage of the easing of restrictions until they were a bit more on top of the Indian variant. As it is I could well see things going backwards rather rapidly.
I agree @Sarasa ; I feel very on edge about it. It reminds me of the uneasy feeling I had last September time when suddenly we were all eating out to help out, etc, and it was all too much too soon.
Just because you can, should you?
It is hard to know what is wise. We have both had both vaccinations, there are few cases of COVID in our area, so the time seems right to venture out more. We go to the local shops, I have been on the bus to the city, I sing in the church choir. We need to enjoy what we can whilst we are able.
And yet, there are risks. I am reluctant to embrace, literally or figuratively, my teenage grandchildren who are mixing much more than we are. Mr Puzzler is more vulnerable than I am, with various long term health conditions that restrict what he can do.
I have no choice but to take some risks (having to take public transport to work every day). I'm happy to continue with precautions like wearing a mask, much as I don't like it.
However, I'm rather inclined to think the mental health benefits of taking a little extra risk to do something enjoyable like having a meal in a pub with my nearest and dearest will be worth it.
We all have different risk ratios and vulnerabilities depending upon many different factors including health, age, relationships and personal need. I am very careful in every day life; I work from home and mask up if in contact with others, I seldom shop. Yet yesterday I went to Waitrose because I fell in love with a plant and on Monday I will be going to a restaurant. This is because in recent weeks I have felt the need to escape from lockdown to maintain my mental health. I guess I also know that my greatest risk is through my 16 year old, who gave me covid last time. There’s very little I can do about that.
We haven’t joined our in house church service yet and we will probably wait til after our second jabs but I have given up trying to do my yoga class online and can’t wait til we are back in the community centre.
I have no choice but to take some risks (having to take public transport to work every day). I'm happy to continue with precautions like wearing a mask, much as I don't like it.
However, I'm rather inclined to think the mental health benefits of taking a little extra risk to do something enjoyable like having a meal in a pub with my nearest and dearest will be worth it.
I agree.
But I will do it only when I’m fully vaccinated +3 weeks. My second jab is on Wednesday. So not too long to wait.
Germany are doing it differently. All the fully vaccinated are free to do everything, everyone else is still under a lot of restrictions. Much political debate there about this rule, as you can imagine.
The idea of the fully vaccinated having more freedom should cause debate as it would be a generational inequality. Younger people have given up a lot to protect older and more vulnerable people. Much as I can see that this policy encourages vaccination, I think it unfair to the young.
But in the UK we have less problem with vaccine resistance than other European countries. Germany has more need to encourage vaccination, I suspect.
The idea of the fully vaccinated having more freedom should cause debate as it would be a generational inequality. Younger people have given up a lot to protect older and more vulnerable people. Much as I can see it encourages vaccination, I think it unfair to the young.
It is.
My son and DIL are lucky to have been ‘done’ due to being health care workers. A lot of their friends are getting jabs by being phoned at the end of the day to use up spare doses that would otherwise be wasted.
In town today I was handed two home testing kits from a mobile unit and told that we should all be testing twice a week. Do other shipmates do this? Mr Nen and I (home based and not long before our second vaccines) don't. Our son-in-law (fully vaccinated as asthmatic) is a teacher and is supplied with tests to do on himself twice a week. I have friends who work in the health service who do the same. I can understand it if you have elderly or vulnerable people in the household, or visit to care for them. If people have to go into their workplace, rather than work from home, should the workplace be providing the tests?
I'm about to head for work. The headlines are full of the news that my employer will no longer require masks for vaccinated customers. It'll be on the honor system, I expect.
Here in my area, compliance has been nearly 100% - I rarely see people without masks inside the store or not. We'll have to see what happens now. I think there are a lot of people who have been shaking the champagne in anticipation of being able to open it. Hope the explosion isn't too messy.
If people have to go into their workplace, rather than work from home, should the workplace be providing the tests?
The government provides them for free if your workplace doesn’t have them https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests
I’m not testing twice a week as I work from home but if I was in a risk area and the government advised it I would. My 16 year old tests twice a week.
If/when I get back into face-to-face youth work I'll test twice a week, but when I'm mostly shielding, avoiding public transport and generally being careful in an area with few cases of Covid19, then twice weekly testing seems overkill.
@Nenya do you live in one of the areas where there are concerns about the incidence of the Indian Covid19 variant? So you've been caught up in the surge testing? As London is one of those areas, I can see that being another reason for testing twice a week.
@Nenya do you live in one of the areas where there are concerns about the incidence of the Indian Covid19 variant? So you've been caught up in the surge testing? As London is one of those areas, I can see that being another reason for testing twice a week.
No; I would have understood it better if I did. Unless they are saying the whole population of the UK should be testing themselves twice a week. Are they saying that?
A few weeks ago they announced in the evening briefing there would be free tests available throughout the UK to anyone who wants them and I did hear a few days ago that they would be handing out free ones on the streets to encourage people to test regularly. I suspect they aren’t promoting them heavily yet as they think there will be a backlash against it.
I test twice a week and I am provided with my test kits from work. (even if the current batch are not actually recognised on the Test and Trace system...wrong 3 letter code, apparently, for eduction. Work are accepting photos from me as proof I have done the test rather than waste the tests!!)
As I'm also resignedly sitting out the current spell of isolation, along with my utterly irate students and their parents/carers, I am continuing to test as if I were in the physical workplace.
Over the Easter fortnight, I compromised and tested just before church on Sundays! The workplace requirement was "a minimum of the day before returning to work" though the Government were advising maintaining the twice-weekly testing
When out for a walk today I saw a stall in the local high street encouraging people to have tests. I guess we'll see more of those about over the next few weeks and months.
Younger Son had his first vaccination today.
The local council (a London borough) had organised a pop-up clinic in the area, so he popped in there. His original appointment at the vaccination hub was not for another ten days, and as he is the last of the eligible members of the family to have the first vaccinations we are all pretty pleased to know he has finally had it.
Mr M was due his second jab on the 17th, but as with the first time, he got an unexpected call from the surgery a couple of weeks ago asking him in as they anticipated supply problems for the original date. Our main vaccination hub is closing in June and a smaller one has just opened in our main High Street chemist. My next appointment is in a couple of weeks. Paradoxically, I’ll be travelling 15 miles for mine, as I’m one of the ‘oldies’ who were sent out of town so that the original hub could focus on the huge Group 6 vulnerables. I don’t mind too much; it’ll be a day out at least. We take our pleasures where we can find them...😁
I'm wondering whether tests will become more and more a part of life as we open life up but restrictions need to remain. Might one have to show a negative test before attending a church service, for example?
My boss gave out Lateral Flow tests to everyone, and just told us to take them home and do them twice a week, so that's what I've been doing.
It's a bloody nuisance, but I don't mind doing it in the cause of the General Good.
I suffered the delights of a PCR test last week, prior to an outpatient proceedure, (negative, thank goodness.) and have just ordered some lateral flow tests ‘just in case’ before upcoming visit from son and gf. We’ve not seen them since last summer.
Oh, and have downloaded the NHS app. Feeling very cutting edge.😎
My boss gave out Lateral Flow tests to everyone, and just told us to take them home and do them twice a week, so that's what I've been doing.
It's a bloody nuisance, but I don't mind doing it in the cause of the General Good.
I get them through work, in the same way as @Piglet does, and have been doing them for a box full now (so somewhere between two and three months). We've had encouragement from on high to continue doing them and recording the results, as it was noticed that the number of recorded results appeared to be dropping off as the number of Prescotts (two Jags - local slang for the doubly vaccinated) has been rising.
The first one I did was at work - when my boss showed me how to do it - and I recorded it on my work computer under my NHS e-mail address.
When I took the box home and started recording the tests on my own laptop, it defaulted to my own e-mail address, and doesn't seem to be holding those details - I have to fill them in (or the auto-fill does) each time, and it refers to me as a "guest".
Am I doing it wrong, and should I try to register under my NHS e-mail on my home computer?
@Piglet - I do my test result recording using my education workplace e-mail on my home laptop and the only mishap has been the current box of 7 tests where the code isn't recognised as a valid one. We did have a couple of months whilst the only students on the premises had key worker parents (or other reasons to be prioritised for a place on campus) and during that time we got it all sussed out, (as well as we could), and got our accounts/details saved whilst we were on site.
We are also being strongly encouraged to continue testing regardless of our "Prescott" status or not. Not that the majority of my colleagues would get the 2 jags bit without me explaining. Luckily, they are used to me coming out with the occasional bit of Scottish vocabulary.
You can but try...as long as you can reverse the process instantly if it should indeed cause mayhem...
Jab The Second today - even quicker than before, as I was in and out of the vaccination centre in 10 minutes! They dragged it out first time round, and it took 12 minutes...
No ill-effects so far, but (on the basis of Jab The First) I might come over All Peculiar tomorrow lunch-time.
I'm wondering whether tests will become more and more a part of life as we open life up but restrictions need to remain. Might one have to show a negative test before attending a church service, for example?
I hope not - I'm *off* church quite enough as it is!
Hurrah! I lucked out and logged onto the booking app just as new vaccine slots came available for low priority people! Ten minutes later they would all have been gone. It's even close to home.
Comments
Ideal for serving soup in the rain, I think.
(Ooops! Repeat post- my bad)
Lysol was of the few cleaners determined early on able to kill viruses, not just bacteria. It flew off the shelves and stayed flown. It was reported that its company couldn't produce enough to keep up with general demand. I assume they ended up selling most of what they produced to hospitals, yet they kept on advertising it on TV to the poor, longing public.
Bastards.
Ah - thank you. I thought I'd maybe got it wrong...
She was so ill that her husband became concerned (she says), and this is Most Unusual for him (she says)...
Sorted! 🙂
Meanwhile, there still seems to be no relaxation on the Ban On Congregational Singing, at least in the C of E.
This, I hope, will not last much longer - several people at Our Place have said they don't attend services any more, because they can't stand FatherInCharge's insistence on saying hymns...turning an already over-long, and wordy, service into a primary school recital of doggerel...
They seem to be getting well down the age groups here; my nephew, who's 40, has his first jag booked for Saturday.
:hands over ears:
Just (hopefully) scheduled a jab here for the 12-year-old, who seems to be more scared of Covid than of needles, so willing (and indeed eager) to participate.
Local rates here still seem to be slowly falling, following what looked very much like a spring break bump.
I gather spaces last Sunday were oversubscribed so people are feeling a bit more confident about getting back together; I suspect quite a few have now had their second jabs. We have ours at the end of the month; son-in-law has already had both as he's asthmatic. The Nenlets are still waiting for their first.
It is hard to know what is wise. We have both had both vaccinations, there are few cases of COVID in our area, so the time seems right to venture out more. We go to the local shops, I have been on the bus to the city, I sing in the church choir. We need to enjoy what we can whilst we are able.
And yet, there are risks. I am reluctant to embrace, literally or figuratively, my teenage grandchildren who are mixing much more than we are. Mr Puzzler is more vulnerable than I am, with various long term health conditions that restrict what he can do.
I, too, will continue to be careful for a long time to come - the possibility of a Third Wave, due to the Indian variant, is indeed worrying.
However, I'm rather inclined to think the mental health benefits of taking a little extra risk to do something enjoyable like having a meal in a pub with my nearest and dearest will be worth it.
We haven’t joined our in house church service yet and we will probably wait til after our second jabs but I have given up trying to do my yoga class online and can’t wait til we are back in the community centre.
I agree.
But I will do it only when I’m fully vaccinated +3 weeks. My second jab is on Wednesday. So not too long to wait.
Germany are doing it differently. All the fully vaccinated are free to do everything, everyone else is still under a lot of restrictions. Much political debate there about this rule, as you can imagine.
But in the UK we have less problem with vaccine resistance than other European countries. Germany has more need to encourage vaccination, I suspect.
It is.
My son and DIL are lucky to have been ‘done’ due to being health care workers. A lot of their friends are getting jabs by being phoned at the end of the day to use up spare doses that would otherwise be wasted.
Here in my area, compliance has been nearly 100% - I rarely see people without masks inside the store or not. We'll have to see what happens now. I think there are a lot of people who have been shaking the champagne in anticipation of being able to open it. Hope the explosion isn't too messy.
I’m not testing twice a week as I work from home but if I was in a risk area and the government advised it I would. My 16 year old tests twice a week.
@Nenya do you live in one of the areas where there are concerns about the incidence of the Indian Covid19 variant? So you've been caught up in the surge testing? As London is one of those areas, I can see that being another reason for testing twice a week.
As I'm also resignedly sitting out the current spell of isolation, along with my utterly irate students and their parents/carers, I am continuing to test as if I were in the physical workplace.
Over the Easter fortnight, I compromised and tested just before church on Sundays! The workplace requirement was "a minimum of the day before returning to work" though the Government were advising maintaining the twice-weekly testing
The local council (a London borough) had organised a pop-up clinic in the area, so he popped in there. His original appointment at the vaccination hub was not for another ten days, and as he is the last of the eligible members of the family to have the first vaccinations we are all pretty pleased to know he has finally had it.
It's a bloody nuisance, but I don't mind doing it in the cause of the General Good.
I suffered the delights of a PCR test last week, prior to an outpatient proceedure, (negative, thank goodness.) and have just ordered some lateral flow tests ‘just in case’ before upcoming visit from son and gf. We’ve not seen them since last summer.
Oh, and have downloaded the NHS app. Feeling very cutting edge.😎
I get them through work, in the same way as @Piglet does, and have been doing them for a box full now (so somewhere between two and three months). We've had encouragement from on high to continue doing them and recording the results, as it was noticed that the number of recorded results appeared to be dropping off as the number of Prescotts (two Jags - local slang for the doubly vaccinated) has been rising.
Which reminds me, I should do mine today....
When I took the box home and started recording the tests on my own laptop, it defaulted to my own e-mail address, and doesn't seem to be holding those details - I have to fill them in (or the auto-fill does) each time, and it refers to me as a "guest".
Am I doing it wrong, and should I try to register under my NHS e-mail on my home computer?
eta: "Prescotts" - love it!
We are also being strongly encouraged to continue testing regardless of our "Prescott" status or not. Not that the majority of my colleagues would get the 2 jags bit without me explaining. Luckily, they are used to me coming out with the occasional bit of Scottish vocabulary.
Jab The Second today - even quicker than before, as I was in and out of the vaccination centre in 10 minutes! They dragged it out first time round, and it took 12 minutes...
No ill-effects so far, but (on the basis of Jab The First) I might come over All Peculiar tomorrow lunch-time.
I hope not - I'm *off* church quite enough as it is!
First shot 28 May.