For the biggest chunk of my working life I had a boss who pretty much expected you to come in to work unless your head was falling off; she regarded staying home for anything less as swinging the lead.
Having said that, after a couple of nasty colds (which I put down to moving to a new place and meeting new bugs), I hardly had a day's illness the rest of the time I was there.
In the county, we just moved from they had the lowest vaccination rates in the state. Now they have had another forest fire and have had to evacuate and are all crowded together in the evacuation center. Some who lost their homes lived in a senior park. I fear for them.
Granddaughter has an appointment for her first covid vaccination in 10 days time. She will be just 1 month past her thirteenth birthday. That is the entire family, including in-laws, for 3 generations, bar the 2 under-fives.
If it weren't for our local case numbers being up, I might give the Co-op a try. Sardines in sunflower oil are still available, and acceptable to the chief sardine eater. I have a hidden private stash in olive oil, which as he now prefers the sunflower, I don't have to feel guilty about.
Case numbers in the local parishes over 7 days have gone up from below 3 for weeks on end to the mid twenties. Delta presumably, so our jabbing may not keep us virus free.
I have lovely neighbours. I've had phone calls from over the road and next door checking that I'm OK with the lockdown, and that I'm OK for groceries etc as I don't have a car.
The family over the road have a 6 and a 7 year old whom their mother is trying to keep busy with crafts and they ran out of hot glue sticks to use with their glue gun. I found both my glue gun and sticks which I had used once many years ago and had not got around to decluttering and a phial of glitter. Today they sent a photo of the finished products to my phone.
Well done, Huia! Mind you, your neighbours might be cursing you in a few years' time when they're still picking bits of glitter* out of the carpet ...
* I know whereof I speak; when I was in my late teens, my mum was charged with making my costume for a school production. The material was a bright pink flocked Lurex (don't ask!), and she was still finding pink sparkly bits ten years later!
I keep banning glitter from Guides and it's definitely banned from youthwork. That ban has been in place for quite a long time, and I think I might be getting towards a glitter-free environment.
I keep banning glitter from Guides and it's definitely banned from youthwork. That ban has been in place for quite a long time, and I think I might be getting towards a glitter-free environment.
That's wishful thinking, I'm afraid. You'll think you've got it all, but then you'll find yourself lifting some little-used item down from a high shelf, and suddenly you have another attack of the sparkling herpes.
NZ is in lockdown until at least midnight Friday - apart from Auckland, which is in lockdown until the end of the month. There are no cases in the community in the South Island, but there are close contacts of known cases, so the govt decided to play it safe. I'm OK with that. Who knows I might even have a tidy house by then. (haha)
We in Sydney are in lockdown at least until the end of September. That means lockdown, no in-person church services, limited shopping, need to have a real reason to be out and about (fortunately, walking for exercise is ok), not crossing local government boundaries and so forth. I am not sure about the rest of the State.
This song by Robin Mann, "How long?" is inspiring at this time. It featured in our zoom service last Sunday. Key line:
"How long will this night last,
and when will we all be together?
Teach me to do what is right:
work in the darkness, trust in the light.
And may love be the path I walk upon."
I think Ye Plague must be affecting the checkout staff, as (most unusually) only 3 tills were open (long queues at each), and there was even a queue waiting to use the *self-service* tills.
The Nice Lady on duty there, who cheerfully helps me whenever I totter towards her, looking feeble, was fighting a losing battle, as everyone seemed to be having trouble with their till at the same time...
I must confess that I said a Sweary Word (not to the staff, I hasten to add), abandoned my trolley, and tottered out as quickly as possible. There's no way I could have stood for the length of time it would have taken for me to get to a till (staffed or otherwise).
One of the local Co-Ops, despite lots of gaps on the shelves, provided pretty well all that I needed, and was empty of customers save for one covidiot. I was able to keep well away from him.
The longer Ye Plague is among us, the more likely I am to frequent smaller shops.
Yes, I understand.
The problem is that our local Co-Ops are too small for comfort even without Ye Plague, whereas Tess Coe (albeit not one of the larger stores) has plenty of space. Today's queues were very unusual, and, as I say, possibly due to a large number of staff being *off*.
On reflection, the paucity of trollies in the car park trolley shelters might have warned me that most of them were still inside the store!
How to ensure that your congregation diminishes,. Thirty adults have been fined after travelling from COVID-19 hotspot suburbs to attend an illegal church gathering in Sydney’s west. The total of the fines was $35,000. All churches must to be closed at the moment, and the area where these offences occurred is in the centre of an outburst of covid, with over 800 new cases on a daily basis. The report was in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, but is only available to subscribers.
How to ensure that your congregation diminishes,. Thirty adults have been fined after travelling from COVID-19 hotspot suburbs to attend an illegal church gathering in Sydney’s west. The total of the fines was $35,000. All churches must to be closed at the moment, and the area where these offences occurred is in the centre of an outburst of covid, with over 800 new cases on a daily basis. The report was in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, but is only available to subscribers.
Yikes @KarlLB , hope it remains mild and unproblematic.
I'm away on retreat for a couple of days at the end of the week and have to take a lateral flow test before I go. I've never done one and feel a bit about it, having heard Mr Nen coughing and spluttering over the couple he's done.
Sorry to hear you've caught the lurgy @KarlLB - hope you're vaccinated enough for it to be a mild dose.
@Nenya - I've been testing myself with the LFT twice weekly for a bit, it's not that bad, promise. A bit uncomfortable at the back of the throat for that swipe, but the rest is fine. My worst irritations were that one box had a number of dud tests, so each time I found one that didn't react at all, I had to repeat the test immediately, and that makes reporting the test that much more complicated, as each test should be reported online, and you have to register the dud test first, then it will let you enter the test that worked.
Apparently, even the faintest second line is worth checking. I've seen people end up with positive PCRs after a really faint line. My negatives are all very shiny nothingness.
Our province FINALLY brought back a mask mandate today. I cried as I listened to the announcement. Such a relief. I know it's not the magic answer to stopping COVID, but it's definitely a simple and obvious solution.
Another one here about to start doing Those Tests and rather dreading it.
And hints n tips?
Just tell yourself 2 things: it's very quick, and that it's necessary. We've had a couple (after we'd been somewhere and thought it was a good idea to check). There may be some people who find it a turn-on, but we thought it was uncomfortable for a very brief time. A third thing to tell yourself has just come to mind - remember the person carrying out the test and don't eat garlic beforehand.
My lateral flow tests require I swab my tonsils (4 circles) and a nostril (10 circles) with the same swab, in that order. I don't enjoy the throat swab. Read the instructions, make sure you have a flat surface for the reader. It takes a bit of time. The test I use requires that you haven't eaten or drunk for half an hour before you do the test and it takes 30 minutes to run (although I've seen results come up faster online, I've only had negative results or dud tests). So making a mug of tea to drink while the test develops backfires if the test is a dud - does not develop a control line.
Back to Tess Coe this morning, after Monday's debacle, and I found the store fairly busy, although the self-service tills were not.
I therefore placed myself in the hands of the Nice Lady wot looks after them - she remembered my funny five minutes on Monday, and asked if I was OK, which I thought was kind of her. I duly apologised for having momentarily *lost it*...
She said that they had been very short of staff, and, with many on holiday (many schools are still closed in England), there were no *spare* persons on whom to call. They are also having some delivery problems, like all supermarkets, though it's hard to know if this is a consequence of Covid or that other dreaded Plague, Brexit. Perhaps both?
Most people - including (happy to relate) some younger customers - were duly masked.
Best wishes to all undertaking LFTs! Uncomfortable, maybe, but a Good Thing on the whole, I suppose.
I'm doing a weekly test; all negative so far, but the tonsil bit makes me gag and I'm not convinced I'm doing that bit properly.
Yes - I had to keep taking the swab out while I gagged and while I did my best I'm not convinced it didn't touch the back of my tongue. The instructions are so adamant it mustn't touch any other part of your mouth. Anyway - I persevered and the result is a very clear negative which means I'm able to attend my retreat.
Mr Nen picked up some tests recently which only requires the nose being swabbed (both nostrils, I think) and he was very glad to get his hands on them. I was determined to give the others a go but whether I'll persevere with them remains to be seen.
I have to do lateral flow tests prior to going to see my mother in her care home. Not at all sure I've been doing it right, but as the control strip goes red, I've assumed I have.
Just attempted to go and see her (signal failure meant I didn't get there). Very few people bothering with masks on the station platform or the train.
@Ethne Alba - we were supposed to test twice a week for the summer holiday youth work sessions and/or teaching, not daily. (The youthwork is attached to a school, a school for year 10 and 11 students who have fallen out of education.) Or I've been asked to test the day before or on the morning before attending medical appointments.
My husband does LFT tests regularly at work, including before and after meeting external colleagues/clients. Youngest son does them twice a week when at college. We also did them before visiting older relatives.
There might be a slew of silly questions coming up
And that test does one for That Day?
I guess so, but I don't know anyone who does daily tests. Twice a week for people who have to go to work, including in the NHS, seems to be the usual thing.
I got into a bit of a tizz about the result of mine, as if it had been positive or inconclusive I wouldn't have had time to get a PCR done before going away. I had to give myself a bit of a talking to while I waited for the 30 minute cooking time. My throat and nostril have been feeling weird all day so I trust it means I did it properly.
Comments
Having said that, after a couple of nasty colds (which I put down to moving to a new place and meeting new bugs), I hardly had a day's illness the rest of the time I was there.
Mind you, that was BC (Before Covid).
Case numbers in the local parishes over 7 days have gone up from below 3 for weeks on end to the mid twenties. Delta presumably, so our jabbing may not keep us virus free.
The family over the road have a 6 and a 7 year old whom their mother is trying to keep busy with crafts and they ran out of hot glue sticks to use with their glue gun. I found both my glue gun and sticks which I had used once many years ago and had not got around to decluttering and a phial of glitter. Today they sent a photo of the finished products to my phone.
* I know whereof I speak; when I was in my late teens, my mum was charged with making my costume for a school production. The material was a bright pink flocked Lurex (don't ask!), and she was still finding pink sparkly bits ten years later!
That's wishful thinking, I'm afraid. You'll think you've got it all, but then you'll find yourself lifting some little-used item down from a high shelf, and suddenly you have another attack of the sparkling herpes.
I definitely won't be buying any more, the stuff I had was about 10 years old.
"How long will this night last,
and when will we all be together?
Teach me to do what is right:
work in the darkness, trust in the light.
And may love be the path I walk upon."
A musical rendition is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEMhd1AHxaU.
I know I don't always live up to it though.
I think Ye Plague must be affecting the checkout staff, as (most unusually) only 3 tills were open (long queues at each), and there was even a queue waiting to use the *self-service* tills.
The Nice Lady on duty there, who cheerfully helps me whenever I totter towards her, looking feeble, was fighting a losing battle, as everyone seemed to be having trouble with their till at the same time...
I must confess that I said a Sweary Word (not to the staff, I hasten to add), abandoned my trolley, and tottered out as quickly as possible. There's no way I could have stood for the length of time it would have taken for me to get to a till (staffed or otherwise).
One of the local Co-Ops, despite lots of gaps on the shelves, provided pretty well all that I needed, and was empty of customers save for one covidiot. I was able to keep well away from him.
Yes, I understand.
The problem is that our local Co-Ops are too small for comfort even without Ye Plague, whereas Tess Coe (albeit not one of the larger stores) has plenty of space. Today's queues were very unusual, and, as I say, possibly due to a large number of staff being *off*.
On reflection, the paucity of trollies in the car park trolley shelters might have warned me that most of them were still inside the store!
Reports are available more widely:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/23/extraordinary-police-fine-dozens-of-churchgoers-after-service-in-western-sydney-covid-hotspot
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/covid-sceptic-church-fined-3-600-for-flouting-sydney-lockdown-2516572
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-more-than-30-fines-issued-after-sermon-at-christ-embassy-sydney-in-blacktown/UDCDJBCUVADRM6XFYTF63D25FQ/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-23/blacktown-churchgoers-fined-for-large-gathering-covid-breach/100398402
https://www.tnp.sg/news/world/sydney-church-fined-flouting-lockdown-holding-service
https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-nsw-update-police-break-up-blacktown-church-gathering/55e27187-190b-4a1d-8ce0-8a193875ce1a
https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/australia/sydney-church-hosts-service-near-pandemic-hotspot-fined-3600-for-flouting-covid-norms.html
and many others.
Not too badly affected, as luck would have it.
I'm away on retreat for a couple of days at the end of the week and have to take a lateral flow test before I go. I've never done one and feel a bit
Hope you and all the family are soon OK again, and that @Nenya's test is not too discombobulating...
Meanwhile, the End Times are upon us, and Armageddon is about to occur:
https://theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/24/mcdonalds-runs-out-of-milkshakes-due-to-supply-chain-issues
Nen - the LFT is a pain in the arse up the nose, but mercifully a short-lived one.
@Nenya - I've been testing myself with the LFT twice weekly for a bit, it's not that bad, promise. A bit uncomfortable at the back of the throat for that swipe, but the rest is fine. My worst irritations were that one box had a number of dud tests, so each time I found one that didn't react at all, I had to repeat the test immediately, and that makes reporting the test that much more complicated, as each test should be reported online, and you have to register the dud test first, then it will let you enter the test that worked.
Apparently, even the faintest second line is worth checking. I've seen people end up with positive PCRs after a really faint line. My negatives are all very shiny nothingness.
And hints n tips?
Our province FINALLY brought back a mask mandate today. I cried as I listened to the announcement. Such a relief. I know it's not the magic answer to stopping COVID, but it's definitely a simple and obvious solution.
Just tell yourself 2 things: it's very quick, and that it's necessary. We've had a couple (after we'd been somewhere and thought it was a good idea to check). There may be some people who find it a turn-on, but we thought it was uncomfortable for a very brief time. A third thing to tell yourself has just come to mind - remember the person carrying out the test and don't eat garlic beforehand.
I've been doing them twice a week for ages (get them through work). It's not a pleasant sensation, but as I said, short-lived.
I therefore placed myself in the hands of the Nice Lady wot looks after them - she remembered my funny five minutes on Monday, and asked if I was OK, which I thought was kind of her. I duly apologised for having momentarily *lost it*...
She said that they had been very short of staff, and, with many on holiday (many schools are still closed in England), there were no *spare* persons on whom to call. They are also having some delivery problems, like all supermarkets, though it's hard to know if this is a consequence of Covid or that other dreaded Plague, Brexit. Perhaps both?
Most people - including (happy to relate) some younger customers - were duly masked.
Best wishes to all undertaking LFTs! Uncomfortable, maybe, but a Good Thing on the whole, I suppose.
Mr Nen picked up some tests recently which only requires the nose being swabbed (both nostrils, I think) and he was very glad to get his hands on them. I was determined to give the others a go but whether I'll persevere with them remains to be seen.
And that test does one for That Day?
As I sneezed and spluttered after the nostril bit he turned to me and said 'I can't think why we don't do this more often!'
Just attempted to go and see her (signal failure meant I didn't get there). Very few people bothering with masks on the station platform or the train.
I guess so, but I don't know anyone who does daily tests. Twice a week for people who have to go to work, including in the NHS, seems to be the usual thing.
I got into a bit of a tizz about the result of mine, as if it had been positive or inconclusive I wouldn't have had time to get a PCR done before going away. I had to give myself a bit of a talking to while I waited for the 30 minute cooking time. My throat and nostril have been feeling weird all day so I trust it means I did it properly.