Be Excellent To Each Other

<I removed this because it was maudlin and I know loads of people are all ‘woo, pubs!’ At the moment and I just can’t, so...>

It's OK to still be struggling, even when people are 'woo pubs'

A new description of people who are celebrating early, like the groups hanging around in Stansted Abbots high street. "The woopubs were out in force today"

I've definitely noticed step changes in people's behaviour for better or worse.
In the first couple of weeks of the year a lot were carrying on like nothing was happening, but when we got to well over 1k deaths a day and there was footage of totally overwhelmed hospitals then all of sudden they went back to giving people a wide berth in the street and so on.

Since Monday when Boris has outlined the earliest dates for reopening, it's obvious that a lot of the good behaviours have gone again. There have been large groups meeting in the parks, and more chin-hammock muppets in the shops.

Yeah, I'm in the 'just because we can, doesn't mean we should' group.

Got my first vaccine booked in this week, so that's something at least.

My next door neighbour texted me yesterday to say her dad had passed away, and she didn’t get to see him, and had to try to say goodbye over the phone when he was in a coma. I’m just really struggling with the celebrations when 500 people a day are still dying in those conditions.

We are in the old flat, giving a last tidy and clean before we hand the keys back at 4pm, and the other neighbour, downstairs, is being taken in an ambulance right now, whilst I am cleaning the sink and the ambulance crew are radioing back to prepare for covid positive, in need of respirator. I’ve come into the living room to hide from the reality of it, but I also feel trapped here with Darwin, not wanting to go through the shared spaces as they are dealing with the patient, which feels awful, like selfish without being to the detriment of someone. I don’t know if any of that makes sense.

Back home. Feeling better to just be out of there. The whole place just makes me feel tense.

I am in the camp of not overly fussed with pubs. I will be happy to see friends again.

This is exactly where I am. I want my friends and family on the west coast to be able to meet my daughter.

It’s a sad time, isn’t it? I spoke with my neighbour over the fence for the first time yesterday. I could hear myself talking far too much and too quickly, and I was trying to get myself to stay calm. It was only for five minutes, but afterwards I was really jumpy and exhausted (really sleepy) and I realised it had been my first face-to-face (even at about 15 metres away) conversation with someone other than Russell or Darwin in a whole year, and it was sheer adrenaline.

It's awful, such a weird thing to be living through. I'm so glad I have my family. I like my own company and enjoy being home alone but I couldn't imagine being forced to be alone for this length of time.

I've got my jag in half an hour. I used to have a terrible needle phobia and I've worked on trying to be calmer and better. I had to give myself injections during IVF and that was really hard but I was able to do it so I'm hoping I can keep myself calm today but I can already feel myself getting a bit shaky and clammy. Such a stupid thing to be scared of, I hate that about me. It won't even hurt, I don't know where the fear comes from. During both my wife's C-sections I had to focus all my attention on grounding myself by thinking about what I could hear, what I could see, what I could feel etc to stop me from passing out. I wish I could just be an adult about it!

It’s a fully adult response and you should not berate yourself for it. Russell is entirely the same. It’s a good marker of self preservation to want all of your blood on the inside of your body and all foreign objects outside. I hope it all goes well x x

Thank you
I almost started crying when I sat down but the person who administered it was so sweet and nice. She reminded me I’d brought my headphones because I was in a full on panic and shaking by that point and I counted the lines on the wall to distract myself.

For anyone else who’s nervous about jags, it was the quickest one I’ve ever had and probably also the one I felt least if that helps calm you. I hope that knowing that I can be calmer for my second dose although probably not.

You definitely deserve your lollipop and sticker! It’s done now. You may feel a bit icky a day or two, but hopefully not. Give yourself a big roundy hug, then get one from the rest of the gang. I’m glad it’s over and that the person giving the shot head kind. They will be dealing with ma y, many needlephobic people every day

Mimi, it sounds like you had a rough day - your experience at the flat must have been difficult, especially with the significance of you saying goodbye etc too. Such a relief in one way but hard in others. I hope you're ok.

It is a tough time, but you are all awesome.

We are doing our best, which is all we can do xx

big hugs Mimi, it's all a lot
I had to get blood drawn yesterday, it was the fist time I'd worn shoes since november (for getting a flue jab) and the first time driving the car since august - ridiculous
I hope being in the new house and garden is healing and I hope your new neighbor is nice

sdg well done you!

I went to the dentist on Tuesday. I thought I was seeing the hygenist, but it turns out I was there to have a filling. My diary issues aside, I absolutely hate the dentist's (not her, personally, as she's an absolutely genius, and a proper top tier human). Anyways, straight off the bat she commented on how I had changed my hair, style icon that I am, and offered up two options. First was just putting the filling in. Just like that. Boom. Done. Second was getting numbed up. I generally down with needles but needles in my gums can get to high hell. "Enough that is legally possible, plus ten percent" I replied, confidently, "for an elephant". She patted me in the arm and advised to close my eyes. Done in a second. Point is, it's OK to dislike needles, and she remembered my hair.

“Stay at home until it’s grown out or wear a hat”?

This is much more direct than the rest of us have managed to be.

(I love it.)

Excuse me, I have agreed it’s MaliCool every step of the way. Can’t get more direct than that

The injections are always by far the worst part of the dentist experience for me, and if I ever feel nervous about it all I have to do is remind myself that it's precisely because of the injections that they're the worst part of the dentist experience.

I had a root canal the other day... I was a big brave boy and didn't feel a thing!

Yes indeed they are the worst bit, and you're quite right.

I never used to be at all bothered about dentists or pain as a youngster but as I get older I get a bit more worked up and I'm also a bit more squeamish too.

got my vaccine booked on Saturday.

One year WFH anniversary today

Not until the 23rd for me. We really hung on in there

Absolute troopers

*stands outside clapping for DavPaz*

Hmmm, no 1st dose appointments for vaccines in April
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56435549

Yeah, I've got that "oh, but I was next!" feeling. But so long as it just means they get people's second doses done, perhaps with a side-order of humility as the US rockets past (though without feting the private sector), it's still going well.

Same here. I was looking forward to being called in.

Lateral flow tests available here if required (T&C's appear to be honesty based).

https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-ra ... flow-tests

D’s school sent this link out in a newsletter to encourage parents to take them (household members of school pupils is one of the categories covered). We have because it’s a small thing that may help.

One whole year since Johnson's original lockdown announcement.

I think I'll wait until we celebrate Cummings Day as the weather will be nicer then.

I thinnk it would be more appropriate to commemorate lockdown in another two weeks when it's already too late.

Bravo

Superb!

Just had a call to book me in for my vaccination. I was expecting to be held until may so this is a pleasant surprise.

Idiots aren't taking their vaccine round here but that means I've now had Pfizer number 2 as the various GPs ring round to try and minimise what gets tipped down the sink at 5

AZ here, and all very rapidly done. Fingers crossed for no side effects.

Fingers crossed! If you start to feel ill, take some paracetamol, take a bottle of water to keep by your bed and sleep it off.

Run through the streets shouting "I'm changing".

Naked

Never have I been more relieved to have no side effects.

Didn’t fancy recreating American Werewolf....

AZ? then round two will most likely suck ass.

Me two weeks back - Man. That covid jab is f*****g gnarly.

Saturday night was one of the worst nights of my life. At one point I just curled up in a ball and resigned myself to my fate. I couldn't even stand up.

Starting to fade a bit now, but still feel very hot.

To which someone replied.

One of my wifes PHd supervisors was saying that her husband, who is a doctor, noticed that people who have had covid get a worse reaction on the first dose and those who have not had covid get a worse reaction on the second dose. This is of course purely anecdotal so take with a pinch of salt.


Then I read this.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02- ... worse.html

And then out of the blue this popped up on the news the other day.

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/strong-react ... 25129.html

And then it all made sense. I was certain I caught Covid last January, just after my birthday. So ooo, maybe around the 30th? I came home in a taxi from my mother's and the driver looked like he was dying. Apparently he'd been on a few airport runs and soton dock runs. The weird thing is that the prior November I had gotten a flu jab. Any way, about a week later I lost all sense of taste and smell. Which was really strange, being autistic, given I rely very heavily on those senses. I felt rough for about a week (nothing severe) and then it seemed to go away. Phew. Two days later I had the worst cough and shortness of breath I have had since I packed up smoking in 2012, and spent three days in bed.

The jab however? dear god.

As soon as I had it I felt really hot. I celebrated by walking home the long way along the beach, but was so hot I ended up coming home. I took off all of my clothes apart from my boxers and opened all of the windows. It wasn't warm out, it was really cold. I figured maybe I was so excited that I had gotten myself into a state, but it turns out not.

Figured I would get an early night, so took my sleeping pills around 10pm. Within 30 mins I was out of it, so I went to bed. I woke up at midnight. My breath out of my nose felt like it was actually burning my top lip. I felt so hot that I threw off the bed covers and went back to sleep. 3am I awoke again, only this time I was shaking so hard that my teeth were clattering. So I pulled the covers back over me. Then I started burning up again, and had the worst migraine I think I have ever had. I could feel and hear my pulse in both my head and ears whooshing away. I tried to get up but fell back onto the bed. That was when I realised how dizzy I was. I felt so rotten I literally curled into a ball and thought I was going to die there. About 30 mins later I felt slightly less dizzy and managed to get to the sink, where I drank two pints of water. I tried to lie on the sofa, but even that was too much as it made my head throb. So I took some para with codeine in and basically sat there in my dressing gown with either it tightly wrapped around me whilst I shook, or, me opening it up because I was so hot. I couldn't watch the TV even, so I literally just sat there until 10am. I guess by that time the para and codeine and worked enough for me to get back to sleep, so I went back to bed and woke up at 1pm. Feeling like death warmed up.

It's really uncommon of me to miss a gaming sesh with my friends, but I felt so bad I couldn't even move my arms enough to game so a friend linked me a stream so I could watch. Ten minutes later I went back to bed.

The next day? much better. Then the stomach cramps and trots started, but that could have been an IBS flare. Exhaustion lasted about four days after the jab, now I am pretty much back to normal two weeks after.

As said, get on the paras ASAP. Especially if the first jab just gave you a sore arm. Two of my gaming buddys and one of their wives really got it bad and like me spent three days unable to do anything. One of those (and his wife) suspected they had Covid last year and isolated for two weeks. The other? works in a betting shop down in Bournemouth, so probably had it last year also.

I found the source.