I think he's probably cold dead sober. Waiting in line for hours IS a problem, esp. if there's no way to sit (as around my house is usually the case). It can easily lead to blood pressure drops and collapse. Ask me how I know...
Well I certainly struggled in a 40 minute queue in the cold outside the vaccination centre for a booked booster appointment, but then I was only just getting over an unrelated bout of sickness and dizziness. I leaned against the wall whenever possible.
Once again I'm grateful that the procedure here is that everyone sits in their cars until one of the nurses waves / calls your name. Admittedly if you tried to have a queue outside her at this time of year folk would be halfway to Mull before they reached the front.
We had our booster shots on Monday, with zero problems that day. Yesterday saw us a bot sore across the shoulders and upper arms. Nothing serious, just how you feel after a day's gardening. It certainly did not stop our going to an excellent concert last night.
My daughter and future son-in-law are coming here for Christmas. While they are here, the quinie is being fitted for her wedding dress, she has a meeting with the wedding reception venue etc etc.
I am going to live like a hermit until they arrive - I would be heart broken if I caught it and ruined their visit.
I think he's probably cold dead sober. Waiting in line for hours IS a problem, esp. if there's no way to sit (as around my house is usually the case). It can easily lead to blood pressure drops and collapse. Ask me how I know...
It is an issue - lots of people standing for hours. I had my booster the other day, and after standing a while and realising it was going to be a lot longer, I asked one of the volunteers if it was possible to sit to wait, due to health conditions that make me go faint if I stand for a long time. I was directed to a chair, where I sat for a while, and then was taken right through, so I didn't have to wait. An elderly woman saw what I did and also asked, and was directed to a chair. So here it is possible to avoid standing for ages if it affects your health, but you need to ask.
Yes, and I apologise if I seemed to be making light of waiting for hours, which is an unpleasant thing to have to do at any time.
I arrived on time (just) for my booster, and there was a small queue outside the venue - just 2 or 3 ahead of me. I was given the long form to fill in, but found it hard to wrestle with that and my walking-stick, whilst standing, so asked for a chair. One was about to be brought, when they called me in, so I was able to sit down comfortably to do the paperwork.
On coming out after Jab and 15-minute Wait, I found there was quite a long queue - 30 or 40 people, maybe - but I guess some of them must have been walk-ins. This was a few weeks ago, long before the current rush.
Took #1 child to a pharmacist for a Covid booster appointment the other day. About half a dozen people in the queue ahead of us, but the pharmacy was understaffed, and was slotting in jabbing people around filling prescriptions, doing Covid tests in the parking lot, and so on. So we waited about 45 minutes after the time of our appointment to get ushered in to the room, 60 seconds to get stabbed, and then 15 minutes on a chair outside.
The mass inoculations earlier this year were much more efficient, because they had a streamlined process going.
On the fourth day in a row now of Covid nightmares . Think it might be getting to me now….
I don't expect you're by any means the only person having such dreams or nightmares. IIRC, we had a thread about this, some time ago, maybe in Plague Year 1?
Took #1 child to a pharmacist for a Covid booster appointment the other day. About half a dozen people in the queue ahead of us, but the pharmacy was understaffed, and was slotting in jabbing people around filling prescriptions, doing Covid tests in the parking lot, and so on. So we waited about 45 minutes after the time of our appointment to get ushered in to the room, 60 seconds to get stabbed, and then 15 minutes on a chair outside.
The mass inoculations earlier this year were much more efficient, because they had a streamlined process going.
The pharmacy at which I was Boosted was closed, as far as the shop and dispensary were concerned, as it was a Saturday afternoon. I got the impression that the pharmacist had press-ganged his teenage daughters and their friends to help out with the form-filling etc., as there was no shortage of willing volunteers. All-in-all, an impressive performance by a back-street pharmacy, I thought.
Scottish government has finally got there with the ventilation/open windows advice made prominent enough, so I've been able to have a much better conversation about this with parent and got some concessions which plus lateral flow tests should make us all safer. Thank goodness!
When does she think we are about to start dying? Is it going to be a bodies-in-the-streets scenario?
Well opinion on that is mixed - I heard 4 years from one conspiracy theorist and 3 from a note in my letterbox. I wish they would get their stories straight, I have a funeral to plan.
When I asked my youngest bro how come so many people had died, given that COVID was supposedly no worse than the flu, he said that the vaccine had killed them. had we been face to face rather than on a dodgy cell phone connection I may have pointed to the thousands who died before the vaccine was available.
Now I no longer challenge him over anything. I've loved him since I first saw him at 3 days old when I was 8years old, but nothing I say would change his mind. It breaks my heart.
Supposedly we're still going to Blighty for Christmas, but it's getting more and more complicated by the minute. We now need to have four tests in a the space of ten days, and quarantine for a couple of days both ends.
I think part of the aim is to make it so much trouble that people give up, and you have to really, really want to see your relatives to make it worth the effort. Once we get there, I don't think we're going to be going outside the house very much.
The French will now only allow let you in from the Plague Island if you have a "compelling reason". Fortunately for us, being a French citizen is considered to be one (they can't really ban us from entering our own country).
The French will now only allow let you in from the Plague Island if you have a "compelling reason". Fortunately for us, being a French citizen is considered to be one (they can't really ban us from entering our own country).
My French colleague is navigating the reverse journey - he and his (British wife) and their children are supposed to be going to France...
It's a named person in the plot - the one with pots of dough which he uses for good purposes, not the space equivalent of pissing up a wall. (Sorry for that. But..) I think he has, like others, suggested that the population of Earth could do with being limited a bit, which some are suggesting means, not limiting births, but increasing deaths. Unlike the other one with more money than anyone needs who wants every one to have more children, and is doing his best to live up to his plan. We do not need more of him. (Or Johnsons, or Rees-Moggs)
It's a named person in the plot - the one with pots of dough which he uses for good purposes, not the space equivalent of pissing up a wall. (Sorry for that. But..) I think he has, like others, suggested that the population of Earth could do with being limited a bit, which some are suggesting means, not limiting births, but increasing deaths. Unlike the other one with more money than anyone needs who wants every one to have more children, and is doing his best to live up to his plan. We do not need more of him. (Or Johnsons, or Rees-Moggs)
IIRC, there's a Dan Brown novel which features a Cunning Plan to release some sort of global syndrome which will limit the number of new births, rather than killing off the existing population.
That's good to know. I'm seriously considering ditching my plans. Travel involves public transport (trains on Christmas Eve are unlikely to be quiet) and I am meant to spend Christmas with my friend and her family inc elderly vulnerable parents and aunt.
I tried to tell her I feel uneasy and she told me she needs me. However vaccinated someone might be - they are still vulnerable and I really don't feel comfortable. It does feel like between a rock and a hard place this one - I don't want to let her down but equally, I don't want to show up to hers and making her parents sick.
You could try getting hold of FFP3 masks which protect you rather than just those around you and be scrupulous with mask hygiene (sanitise before putting mask on and off; don't touch your mask outwith that). Not perfect but might give you enough extra assurance.
Thank the holy flip for that! We've had an outbreak of Ping at work today (something my Dinophone does not support) which, confusingly, has picked apparently random members of the group to notify. Much stress, running round etc later, my LF is negative. And the edict has gone out that, given the time of year, don't come in unless there is something that *needs* to be (as opposed to could be) done. Phew
Now if I can just stay negative until I've got my pneumatic drill on Saturday and my booster on Sunday...
God alone knows what will happen if we go to Mum's for Christmas, though. I've been dreading it for weeks.
According to the Metro, Cambridge is currently a hotspot and the places in London with the highest rises are Hackney, Lewisham, Islington, Southwark and Lambeth. The maps I’ve seen elsewhere show South London as having a lot of cases. Basically, this is a highly infectious variant which spreads very quickly, and urban areas with lots of young people will probably be the first places to become hotspots.
According to the Metro, Cambridge is currently a hotspot and the places in London with the highest rises are Hackney, Lewisham, Islington, Southwark and Lambeth. The maps I’ve seen elsewhere show South London as having a lot of cases. Basically, this is a highly infectious variant which spreads very quickly, and urban areas with lots of young people will probably be the first places to become hotspots.
Rapidly followed by everywhere as students go home for Christmas.
Rapidly followed by everywhere as students go home for Christmas.
The age profile for infections in Bristol suggests that the major problem is with school-age children and their parents. Those of university student age have a somewhat lower infection rate (but not as low as the over 60s).
Covid rates here are back really high and have been for a while.
The local secondary school shut on Tuesday night, everyone except for year 7s, as the infection rate was too high. We've had weeks of a third or more Guides (aged 10-14) having to self-isolate as positive for Covid or having been in close contact. And the last Rainbows last week we had two girls test positive the next day.
We're hoping to keep providing face to face youth work in the new year, but are preparing to go online and quickly.
However, knowing that Essex is an Omicron hotspot might make me reconsider my travel options if Essex might be on the itinerary.
I'll out myself by replying, though. I'm OK with being outed, except on the cricket pitch, where I get a bit crabby.
Mum's miles from anywhere, and I doubt very much has been anywhere (we didn't get a Christmas present at all last year, because of lockdown that I don't think had quite happened when she told us...). So that's not the worry so much as her state of mind. If it ends up like last year with a one-day-only edict, we can dob my sister in to save the day, and we have our order in with the local butcher, so there is a reserve plan.
Hoping very hard here that the booster rollout (which the NHS seems to be delivering at a blinding pace, obviously plans were well in hand before you-know-who opened his big mouth) and what *so far* seem like relatively mild symptoms keep the wave from being to huge a crisis.
I haven't seen my sister (who lives in France) for over 2 years now, and I'm beginning - just beginning - to wonder if I'll ever see her again...
Her husband is quite convinced that either Ye Plague, or Ye Climate Change, or Ye Nuclear Waste will see us all off quite soon.
The wife of one of my cousins has an elderly widowed father, who lives in France, and I daresay her plans to visit him round about now have also been scuppered (or would visiting an Aged Parent, living alone, be permitted? It's the isolation etc. that might prove difficult, I suppose).
Nope. "Compelling motives" are things like going to a funeral, attending a court case, fetching children you have custody of, or visiting a family member with a terminal diagnosis. Visiting your family doesn't count, or I would have invoked it to go and see my 98 year old Grandad. I am also beginning to wonder if I'll ever see him alive again
I blame Boris Johnson. (And because I'm feeling gutted and grumpy, I also blame him for sinking the Titanic and shooting JFK. Everything is Boris's fault.)
One of the things that the Government hasn't changed is the symptom list to look out for with Covid19, when all the research is showing that it now looks like a cold - Zoe blog on the subject
Nope. "Compelling motives" are things like going to a funeral, attending a court case, fetching children you have custody of, or visiting a family member with a terminal diagnosis. Visiting your family doesn't count, or I would have invoked it to go and see my 98 year old Grandad. I am also beginning to wonder if I'll ever see him alive again
I blame Boris Johnson. (And because I'm feeling gutted and grumpy, I also blame him for sinking the Titanic and shooting JFK. Everything is Boris's fault.)
Yes, I see. My cousin's wife's dad is quite elderly (80s), and has cancer, but AFAIK is not in imminent danger of death. Still, he's quite tech-savvy (fortunately), so there's at least Zoom...not the same by any means, I know.
ION, I learnt today that, in spite of warnings from Prof Chris Whitty (about the only public figure worth listening to, given the English government's complete uselessness), and the example set by HM the Queen, Our Place is STILL going ahead with carol-singing in the pub, and the Christmas Market in the Hall after the church Carol Service.
Folly - dangerous folly - all for the sake of a few measly £££ which could (and should) be raised at some more propitious time.
The only sanction I could think of imposing is the immediate reduction of my monthly Standing Order to a merely nominal amount, with the £££ saved going to some other (non-religious) good cause...
Comments
The nurse was quite concerned that I might faint at the vaccination stage.
“ only if you ask me to stand still for over five minutes”
On average, one person dies in the UK per minute. How long are people queueing for, on average?
</bad_statistics>
I may be wrong, but I suspect @Alan Cresswell might be exercising a degree of irony...
@Puzzler please would you have a quick look at your pm inbox
[/tangent]
I am going to live like a hermit until they arrive - I would be heart broken if I caught it and ruined their visit.
We are supposed to be having 100 people attending - church, tea-and-biscuits, photographs, sit-down meal, ceilidh, supper and disco. In March.
When they got engaged, in Oct 2020, and we started booking things, we had no idea that we'd still be in the throes of restrictions in Dec 2021.
It is an issue - lots of people standing for hours. I had my booster the other day, and after standing a while and realising it was going to be a lot longer, I asked one of the volunteers if it was possible to sit to wait, due to health conditions that make me go faint if I stand for a long time. I was directed to a chair, where I sat for a while, and then was taken right through, so I didn't have to wait. An elderly woman saw what I did and also asked, and was directed to a chair. So here it is possible to avoid standing for ages if it affects your health, but you need to ask.
I arrived on time (just) for my booster, and there was a small queue outside the venue - just 2 or 3 ahead of me. I was given the long form to fill in, but found it hard to wrestle with that and my walking-stick, whilst standing, so asked for a chair. One was about to be brought, when they called me in, so I was able to sit down comfortably to do the paperwork.
On coming out after Jab and 15-minute Wait, I found there was quite a long queue - 30 or 40 people, maybe - but I guess some of them must have been walk-ins. This was a few weeks ago, long before the current rush.
The mass inoculations earlier this year were much more efficient, because they had a streamlined process going.
I don't expect you're by any means the only person having such dreams or nightmares. IIRC, we had a thread about this, some time ago, maybe in Plague Year 1?
Following Nicola's sage (or should that be Sage) advice?
The pharmacy at which I was Boosted was closed, as far as the shop and dispensary were concerned, as it was a Saturday afternoon. I got the impression that the pharmacist had press-ganged his teenage daughters and their friends to help out with the form-filling etc., as there was no shortage of willing volunteers. All-in-all, an impressive performance by a back-street pharmacy, I thought.
Well opinion on that is mixed - I heard 4 years from one conspiracy theorist and 3 from a note in my letterbox. I wish they would get their stories straight, I have a funeral to plan.
When I asked my youngest bro how come so many people had died, given that COVID was supposedly no worse than the flu, he said that the vaccine had killed them. had we been face to face rather than on a dodgy cell phone connection I may have pointed to the thousands who died before the vaccine was available.
Now I no longer challenge him over anything. I've loved him since I first saw him at 3 days old when I was 8years old, but nothing I say would change his mind. It breaks my heart.
Won't work. The virus itself was engineered in order to cull the population. According to the conspiracy.
https://theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/16/queen-cancels-pre-christmas-family-lunch
I think part of the aim is to make it so much trouble that people give up, and you have to really, really want to see your relatives to make it worth the effort. Once we get there, I don't think we're going to be going outside the house very much.
The French will now only allow let you in from the Plague Island if you have a "compelling reason". Fortunately for us, being a French citizen is considered to be one (they can't really ban us from entering our own country).
My French colleague is navigating the reverse journey - he and his (British wife) and their children are supposed to be going to France...
IIRC, there's a Dan Brown novel which features a Cunning Plan to release some sort of global syndrome which will limit the number of new births, rather than killing off the existing population.
That's good to know. I'm seriously considering ditching my plans. Travel involves public transport (trains on Christmas Eve are unlikely to be quiet) and I am meant to spend Christmas with my friend and her family inc elderly vulnerable parents and aunt.
I tried to tell her I feel uneasy and she told me she needs me. However vaccinated someone might be - they are still vulnerable and I really don't feel comfortable. It does feel like between a rock and a hard place this one - I don't want to let her down but equally, I don't want to show up to hers and making her parents sick.
Now if I can just stay negative until I've got my pneumatic drill on Saturday and my booster on Sunday...
God alone knows what will happen if we go to Mum's for Christmas, though. I've been dreading it for weeks.
However, knowing that Essex is an Omicron hotspot might make me reconsider my travel options if Essex might be on the itinerary.
Rapidly followed by everywhere as students go home for Christmas.
The age profile for infections in Bristol suggests that the major problem is with school-age children and their parents. Those of university student age have a somewhat lower infection rate (but not as low as the over 60s).
The local secondary school shut on Tuesday night, everyone except for year 7s, as the infection rate was too high. We've had weeks of a third or more Guides (aged 10-14) having to self-isolate as positive for Covid or having been in close contact. And the last Rainbows last week we had two girls test positive the next day.
We're hoping to keep providing face to face youth work in the new year, but are preparing to go online and quickly.
Bugger.
I'll out myself by replying, though. I'm OK with being outed, except on the cricket pitch, where I get a bit crabby.
Mum's miles from anywhere, and I doubt very much has been anywhere (we didn't get a Christmas present at all last year, because of lockdown that I don't think had quite happened when she told us...). So that's not the worry so much as her state of mind. If it ends up like last year with a one-day-only edict, we can dob my sister in to save the day, and we have our order in with the local butcher, so there is a reserve plan.
Hoping very hard here that the booster rollout (which the NHS seems to be delivering at a blinding pace, obviously plans were well in hand before you-know-who opened his big mouth) and what *so far* seem like relatively mild symptoms keep the wave from being to huge a crisis.
I'm so sorry, @la vie en rouge .
I haven't seen my sister (who lives in France) for over 2 years now, and I'm beginning - just beginning - to wonder if I'll ever see her again...
Her husband is quite convinced that either Ye Plague, or Ye Climate Change, or Ye Nuclear Waste will see us all off quite soon.
The wife of one of my cousins has an elderly widowed father, who lives in France, and I daresay her plans to visit him round about now have also been scuppered (or would visiting an Aged Parent, living alone, be permitted? It's the isolation etc. that might prove difficult, I suppose).
I blame Boris Johnson. (And because I'm feeling gutted and grumpy, I also blame him for sinking the Titanic and shooting JFK. Everything is Boris's fault.)
Yes, I see. My cousin's wife's dad is quite elderly (80s), and has cancer, but AFAIK is not in imminent danger of death. Still, he's quite tech-savvy (fortunately), so there's at least Zoom...not the same by any means, I know.
ION, I learnt today that, in spite of warnings from Prof Chris Whitty (about the only public figure worth listening to, given the English government's complete uselessness), and the example set by HM the Queen, Our Place is STILL going ahead with carol-singing in the pub, and the Christmas Market in the Hall after the church Carol Service.
Folly - dangerous folly - all for the sake of a few measly £££ which could (and should) be raised at some more propitious time.
The only sanction I could think of imposing is the immediate reduction of my monthly Standing Order to a merely nominal amount, with the £££ saved going to some other (non-religious) good cause...