Be Excellent To Each Other

Better to isolate than to potentially get an illness that could kill it have long lasting health effects though, right?

But back in on Monday because we just have to live with it?

I suppose it is an interesting time to be a submariner. You get the extra bonus navy pay, but that is balanced by the growing dread that someone on the sub is infected.

But you could seal the bulkhead. Or fire them from the torpedo tube (reliably informed the torpedo tubes are the best place to have a wank on a submarine).

Of course.. Just who would have thought a sports day after the euros final, would be a good idea..

I'm not really buying into the forced jollity the government's insisting we share today, more a sense of dread and déjà vu.

People might still be wearing masks this week, but as they see more and more people not bothering, the social pressure to have one will diminish.

Freedom day, being marked here, by my eldest son, who is a Teaching Assistant, having to self isolate because one of the children in his class has covid.

Yay! Freedom!

Also, at the nursing home where my wife works, about 3 members of staff are self isolating because they've been in contact with someone who has it too.

It's telling that all the agencies that they use, are struggling to fill these places due to lack of staff (I assume this is a mix of covid and brexit related reasons)

As soon as the government started calling it 'Freedom Day' I wanted to kick them in the nuts.

We're all still wearing masks indoors here in Wales, but use has dropped a fair bit out on the street. Be interesting to see how the cross-border rail connections will work, since masks on trains will still be mandatory. We did pass 61% fully vaccinated this morning, which is 75% of the adult population which is nice, and with 90% of the population having had at least one dose. We won't be opening up until a week into August though, with indoor masks still required in shops and on the busses etc.

By the way in London there's currently an anti-lockdown protest that has seen violent clashes. They seem to be protesting against...uh...well who knows really.

The way our PM talks about a change in regime, removing diktats and so on makes it looks like he’s taken over and freed us from someone else, rather than the reality of them being his rules. Do people fall for that?

Anyway…

No chance, there's no way that the Great British Public could be hoodwinked that easily.

To be fair, I’d be pretty pissed off if I was that stupid.
Having said that, it’s probably “rent a mob”, and yes, they are that stupid

Turns out that was just a brief website glitch.

I have better things to do than listen to Cummings on the television later, but the reports I've read today just all seem to confirm what we already knew: that Johnson has repeatedly fucked everything up and is generally an appalling person. Can't believe it took Megamind Dominic Cummings so long to work that out.

I'm surprised the tabloids aren't making more of the news that in mid-March 2020 he was desperate to visit an elderly lady in her mid-90s.

One of my colleagues currently has covid (mild symptoms thankfully) and I found out today that he went to the Euro 2020 final at Wembley and that everyone else who went with him also picked up the virus. Rather glad I'm 99% home-based or there would have been a fair chance of catching it from him.

Just been told I'm WFHing until January now. Will be nearly 21 months by the time I get back to the office.

Hope you didn't leave the iron on.

In theory I could visit the office but it's entirely optional and I expect I'll be largely home based forever

It's definitely put a dent in my "steal loo roll, coffee and printer paper" plan, that's for certain.

It's taken a while but the first person I actually know, for realsies, with a confirmed case of covid.... is my sister

Sorry to hear that. I hope she doesn’t fall very ill. Has she managed to have her vaccines?

Thanks Meems. She is mildly opposed to this vaccination so she hasn't had it, although I haven't really tried to dig in to why (my sister is quite fiery so I'm still considering how to approach it).

She did have quite bad asthma as a little kid so that's a concern but she doesn't seem too bothered at the moment so I think she's doing OK. Mum's pretty worried though, and also cross about the cavalier attitude.

Oh, that’s a shame. I hope she gets well soon and that it doesn’t spread to anyone she may be living with, because even if she’s coping well with it I can imagine the worry for your mum, and yourself. Keep an eye on the asthma, mine was awful as a kid but did notice as I got older, but any respiratory virus always makes it flare terribly.

If it helps, my sister (who is on here but probably won't mind me tell you this) caught covid after having hesitated re: the vaccine, fully recovered and has since gone on to get her first jab.

I hope she gets well soon!

Finally getting jab number 2 today. It's been a long old wait.

Hope she's feeling better soon Sir Taxalot, and that a stern finger-wagging from her mum will set her straight. My sister had it pre-vaccine last year in the summer, but she bounced back okay after a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed for you.

Has anyone used one of the drive through testing sites? If so, how long did it take to get your results back?

14 hours or so, certainly less than 24.

Both times we’ve used one, test was around 10.30am and results were back by 11.30pm.

Thanks both!

Fewer

Are you correcting yourself?

I'd go with less than for hours.

I'm showing both consistency, and humility.

reduced

That does sound better (and especially if you silently add "than that" after less), but it does imply smaller hours rather than a smaller number of hours, so I think fewer is still technically correct.

Well I've just done a drive through test. My appointment was for 9:30, we went straight in. So assume I had done it by 9:45 to be generous.

It looks like they are processing the tests on site, so fingers crossed for a quick turnaround.

Are you unwell, GJ?

I may have brought my son's cold to cottage (unintentionally, obviously) so if you have those sort of symptoms it might be my fault. He was PCR tested over the weekend and it came back negative though. Hope it's negative for you Jazzy

There's a drive-in testing site near me that I swear I have never seen anyone tested in. It's staffed, and there's about 6 people there sat down chatting or reading, but its been there for months, i've gone past it 100s of times and I've never seen a patient in it. My current theory is that someone cut it from the "being set up" spreadsheet but never pasted it to the "available for testing" spreadsheet.

TBF, if it's anything like the ones near us, unless you see someone turn off to drive into the site you wouldn't really be able to see anyone anyway - but they're definitely well used!

It’s worth remembering that the lack of person to person mingling we’ve been doing for the last 18 months or so, will have reset our immune systems to less effective anyway. We are all more susceptible to picking up minor infections now I understand.

To be honest, this is what I'm thinking.

I haven't been well since Tuesday night, mainly a really bad headache, but also feeling hot (no fever), tired and no appetite.

I'd put the tiredness down to cottage, and the headache s down to no proper sleep. The weather was warm too. I cancelled lunch with a friend at work on Wednesday as I didn't feel up to driving. She told me that the last three people picked up through the testing at work only had headache symptoms so it would be best to get PCR tested anyway (I'd tested negative using a LFT on Tuesday morning).

Unfortunately Joans was in work, so I ordered a postal one. It's still not here.

Nobody regrets the "lick the person to your left" round of the quiz

That was Miss Raw Sewage for me!

Harsh!

I feel rough today, but my LFT is negative..

Why?