20-10-09 Friday Covid-19 Day 211 - Six Month Anniversary

We've been doing this for over six months now. Doesn't the time fly when you're having fun?

I've been staying at home much more than I ever did before this whole thing started; I could probably count on the fingers of one hand how many times I leave the house on a weekly basis. However, my three kids are going to school each day and mixing with more than 700 other children, who also have brothers and sisters at other schools. 

Numbers started going up at about the same time that schools restarted, and I think there is a link. I *know* that children aren't affected as much by the virus, and they're not as symptomatic, but I think that school is a massive vector through which the virus can spread, even if the carriers are not affected themselves.

The number of infections in those areas in the North in lockdown have increased tenfold despite the lockdown measures, so the lockdowns are clearly ineffective. But what isn't included in those lockdown measures? School closures. 

The number of new covid cases was in excess of 17,000 yesterday. Reports say that hospital admissions are reaching the same kind of levels that we saw prior to the first national lockdown in March. How long will it be before calls for a second national lockdown start to get louder?

I see Allegra Stratton has been selected to lead the govt.'s daily press briefings. She is well-placed to communicate their policies and progress, being Rishi Sunak's spin doctor and also married to James Forsyth, the editor of the Spectator. She's obviously very well-connected within Conservative circles. But I hope she has bags of stamina as she will have to be explaining the govt.'s incompetence and ineptitude on a daily basis. She'll be well-paid, fair enough, but I don't envy what she'll have to be doing.

TTFN.

#nowreading: How To Be A Liberal - Ian Dunt

20-09-21 Monday - Covid-19 Day 193 - It's Interminable, Isn't It?

I did consider dropping the Covid day numbering on these posts, but events this week have discouraged me from doing so. Now that the rules have changed - again - and we are going to be restricted to meetings of no more than six, it seems that this is still relevant.

Because of the ongoing loosening of restrictions, however cautious or well-intentioned they might have been, we have all become a bit lax in our approach to Covid-19. But unfortunately, the virus hasn't changed. It is still out there, waiting to infect us. It's my suspicion that the precautions we have been advised to take probably aren't enough; if we're confronted with someone with Covid-19, a cloth mask might not be enough to prevent spread and infection. But, those are the rules we've been advised to follow, and so those are the rules I am going to follow. 

I do feel, though, that we are almost back at the start again. We slowly loosened the lockdown restrictions, we had "eat out to help out" and "get back to your offices" (we didn't obey that one). The kids are now back at school, and students will be back at university shortly, but the numbers of new cases are now higher than they were before we locked down first time around, and they don't show any signs of slowing.

From my family's perspective, we were in quarantine last week because the kids showed individual symptoms, and so we were advised to get tested. The kids were, eventually, but we couldn't get a drive-through test for love nor money. My assumption is that a lot of the tests are repeat tests for care workers and key workers, so although there are a lot of tests being processed, it is difficult to get one now if you are a member of the public with symptoms. On Saturday we received the tests and they were negative, so we were released from our self-isolation, and we celebrated with a long walk on Saturday afternoon in the West Sussex countryside. 

I think we are heading back into a national lockdown of a sort, due to the increase in cases and the increased level of warnings we are receiving from the scientists. It will look slightly different to the first lockdown, so that those in charge can demonstrate that we're "making progress", but the effect will be the same. So it was interesting to get a taste of lockdown, albeit a short one. 

In my view, if the "circuit breaker" is aimed at hospitality, i.e., restaurants and pubs, it will be aimed at the wrong target. Pubs and restaurants have been open since early July without case numbers going up. What has happened recently is the start of the autumn term in schools. It's all very well to tell us to socially distance from other members of the public, but if our kids are all congregating in schools and then coming home with whatever bugs and viruses, including Covid, that they've exchanged with their classmates during the day, then that is a massive open channel through which the virus can travel. I know that they don't want to close schools, but I don't see how they can't. Anyway, time will tell, I suppose. 

TTFN.

20-08-08 Saturday - Covid-19 Day #150 - Masks and Shops

I was in Tesco last weekend, doing a shop. It's still much less busy than it ever used to be, so I quite enjoy it - it's quite relaxing. Don't tell TW though.

I noticed two men, separately and not together, wearing their masks wrongly. They had their mouths covered but not their noses. 

I don't understand the point of that. Either it's reasonable to wear a mask, in which case wear it properly, covering both nose and mouth. Or it's not reasonable to wear a mask, in which case don't wear one. It's not like anyone is going to stop you. There were big articles on the news about how it was going to be impossible to enforce the wearing of masks. 

It's not like they were wearing glasses, either. So they didn't have that excuse - that their glasses might steam up. I wear glasses for reading, and actually this has been a good thing for me because it means I have to only wear them when I'm reading a label or looking for a specific item in a shop. Normally (is there a "normally", any more?) I might leave my glasses on, and after a minute or two I would realise that I was still wearing them. Now, if I don't take them off, I can't see what I'm doing or where I'm going, because my specs are all fogged up. 

Of course I didn't say anything; I didn't accost them or harangue them for not following the rules. I'm British; I don't do that sort of thing.

I guess I can't figure out why somebody might go at this half-arsed. There is still a killer virus out there, and although it probably won't kill me, there are steps I am following to reduce the risk. Why others aren't doing the same is, and will probably remain, a mystery. 

TTFN.

20-05-30 - Covid-19 Day #75 - I - Easing of Lockdown Restrictions

I’m losing track now. One thing that has been a big help is routine. I have been working through most of the lockdown so far, and it keeps things straight; I know what day of the week it is, and what meetings I have scheduled, and what work I’ve got to do. On the long weekends and over the Easter holiday, I managed to lose complete track of the days, and where I should be. Even now, once I go into weekend mode, it is much easier to relax than it was before the lockdown. I rarely think about work on Saturdays and Sundays. Is this how other people lived normally?
It looks like the lockdown as we know it is coming to an end. Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still out there, I don’t think the death rate and the new infection rate is as low as those in charge were hoping it would be. I for one am not looking forward to being released from these restrictions, and potentially facing a higher chance of catching the virus. No matter the change in guidance, it was important enough to lock down the economy and restrict us all to our homes (except Dominic Cummings, of course); that virus hasn’t gone away – people are still catching it and dying from it. So I don’t want to take advantage of any loosening of the lockdown restrictions, I will be more than happy to stay at home and not go out. I hope that cases don’t increase, and I will be keeping an eye on the daily briefing figures optimistically.
I’ve got a Pop Will Eat Itself gig to go to in October, and that will probably be the first time I properly leave the house – if I go. But live music concerts are not the sort of environment that supports social distancing – if anything, social distancing is positively frowned upon. I’m not sure it will go ahead.


TTFN.

20-05-24 - Covid-19 Day #69 - I - Bank Holiday Weekend

I’ve started watching “How To Get Away With Murder”, which was a big hit a few years ago. Everyone seems very unlikeable though, so I’m not sure I’ll watch another series. Having said that, I’m only two thirds of the way through, and it may improve. I suppose it’ll end in a court case. I’d rather watch something like “The Good Wife” though, I think.
I watched “Jackie Brown” as well, finally. TW & I tried to watch it a number of years ago, when we had a weekend away in Tunbridge Wells, but unfortunately the DVD player in the room couldn’t play the DVD so we never saw it. TW was on the phone to friends, and I didn’t want to watch something else that we were watching together, so I started JB and quite enjoyed it. I didn’t realise how long the film was – 2 hours and 40 minutes! That’s a proper blockbuster…
Apart from that, I went to Tesco yesterday for the first time since the lockdown started, in order to do a big shop. With so few people in the store, it was quite a mellow experience. I spent quite a lot, but didn’t actually come home with much – except some houmous and Haribo. And some very nice non-alcoholic beers for me :-)
One thing I have noticed about this lockdown and working from home is that it is much easier to slip into relaxed “what day is it?” mode at the weekends and especially on long weekends. And this morning TY came down to breakfast thinking it was Monday, so it’s not just me – which is reassuring. With tomorrow being a bank holiday in the UK, I am looking forward to a completely structure-free day.
TTFN.

20-05-16 - Covid-19 Day #61 - I - Government Twitter

I noticed a thing yesterday – that the government, or the civil service, have descended into the fray on Twitter to dispute claims about the way the Covid-19 debacle has been handled.

I think the fact that the govt. have decided to issue rebuttals and publish them on Twitter is a bad thing for a couple of reasons:

• By publishing a rebuttal to a news article in which the DHSC had a right of response, the govt. are starting a precedent. In the future, if they don’t publish a rebuttal, can we take it that the article is correct?
• Twitter is an egalitarian platform – meaning that if someone puts across a point of view, anyone can dispute that. Occasionally people quote their sources, but not always, and Twitter can be a very argumentative place where it is difficult to establish veracity
• The rebuttals that the DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care, under the Twitter handle @DHSC) have not really rebutted the articles; in fact, they have confirmed that the main claims are indeed true.

The first “rebuttal” I saw from @DHSC linked to this press release. Unfortunately, the release confirms most of the claims that the article in the Guardian made, i.e., that the army did help distribute stocks of PPE; that Movianto did store PPE temporarily in a smoke-damaged warehouse containing asbestos dust; that stock was stored in the aisles (albeit temporarily).
To my mind, publishing a link to this rebuttal on Twitter is almost inviting jeering and questioning, especially when the rebuttal is of such a questionable quality.

The second “rebuttal” was in response to an article in The Mirror which claimed that the NHS app collected care workers’ data for marketing and ads.
The DHSC, from the same Twitter account (@DHSC) responded that this claim was “factually wrong”, but of course this gave the right of reply to the Mirror journalists who responded: “The story is not factually wrong. The firm changed their privacy policy today, after we approached them for comment. Also, users of the app have been sent marketing materials over email. I enclose a screenshot.”

There is a third story involving Jen Williams and the Manchester Evening News here, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (tweeting from the account @mhclg), where it seems that someone in an official capacity has yet again taken umbrage at what journalists are reporting.

Because of the way Twitter is set up, this looks like a discussion among equals, and each participant in the conversation can be given the same levels of respect and credibility. But it does seem that the rebuttals issued by the government either don’t rebut the claims they are intended to, or they can be quickly disproven.

From my perspective, it seems as though the government have indulged in a pointless attempt to steer the narrative around to their benefit, and it seems as though they have failed utterly. There is a phenomenon known as the Streisand Effect, where attempting to censor something can ensure it is discussed more widely. The govt. could have kept quiet in all three of these areas and attempted to appear above it all, but they chose instead to get down and dirty, and have thereby contaminated themselves.

Currently it seems the score is 3-0 to the journalists. Still, tomorrow’s another day, eh?

TTFN.

20-05-02 - Covid-19 Day #47 - Where Did The Week Go?

It seems only yesterday that I was sitting in the living room enjoying Teen Wolf, the 1985 comedy
starring Michael J. Fox. Actually, though, that was last Sunday. Last weekend was a time for going back to my youth, as on Saturday afternoon I watched Brewster’s Millions starring Richard Pryor, also from 1985.

I did enjoy hiding away in the gloom of the living room with the curtains drawn while the sun blazed down outside. TW spent the weekend luxuriating in the garden, which was fine, as she is always so busy during the week. If she gets an idea into her head, she’s normally busy at the weekend as well.

On Thursday night I think it was, I nearly caused an electrical fire. I knocked the glass of water which normally sits on my bedside table over, and of course there are a few chargers also sitting on that table. I dried them off and plugged them back in, but after a few minutes I noticed my phone wasn’t charging. When I felt the charging pad it was really hot, as was the USB lead plugged into it. I quickly unplugged it, and I had the feeling that if I hadn’t done so, we could have ended up with a fire, which wouldn’t have been fun. I was a bit fretful after the event and ended up not getting to sleep until 12:30, but all’s well that ends well, as they say. And it means I can indulge my habit of buying consumer electronics, as I need to replace the charger now. The USB connector looked rusty, and the female connection on the charger looks a bit melty, so I’m not planning to use it again.

TTFN.

20-04-13 - Monday I - Covid-19 Day #28 - A Walk Along The Beach

Today we were up early(-ish) and took the dog down to the beach for a longer stretch of exercise. She’s been to the park, which is closer, a few times, but it’s a bit dull there, to be fair, and the tide was out, so it was ideal.

The weather had completely changed from yesterday; where it was sunny and warm yesterday – to the extent that we were out in the garden playing Yahtzee – today it was cold and grey and windy. I was wrapped up in a hoodie, a gilet and a woolly hat, and that still wasn’t really enough.

Anyway, the dog enjoyed it, and it was good to get some fresh air - literally. She was all wet and sandy by the time we were done, and she had performed her role as Chief Ball Retriever with aplomb. We stopped at the Co-Op on the way home for some essential supplies (sugar, milk, no hot cross buns!) and then had a cup of tea when we got home.

Since then, I’ve not done much. I’ve read a few pages of The Secret Barrister’s book: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, which I’ve been meaning to continue with for a few days / weeks now. I really am enjoying it, but it’s so easy to get distracted with other crap. I’ve got three issues of Private Eye to plough through, as well as a bookcase full of comics which I’ve accumulated over a period of years, and over 100 hours of podcasts to listen to. And that’s before I get to my Netflix playlist and whatever I’ve got recorded on the Sky box (Madam Secretary, mostly, if I’m honest).

I’m trying out a new bluetooth keyboard I bought off of eBay, and to be fair, I’m not that impressed. It certainly looks nice but I think maybe I prefer my previous no-brand keyboard. This is my current set-up:



I do like to miniaturise things where it makes sense, and a keyboard / tablet combo is a good example of that. The keyboard is USB rechargeable, so it doesn’t use AA batteries for example. The keys on this Sandstrom keyboard are a bit soft and sticky, but it might just be the case that I need to get used to it. Let’s see.

Anyway, here are some pics of Worthing beach from earlier this morning – enjoy.

TTFN.

20-04-12 Sunday - Covid-19 Day #27 - Happy Easter

So, Happy Easter. I’ve celebrated by not doing very much. SimCity Buildit on my tablet is keeping me occupied – to the extent that I’m not reading books or comics. But a challenge that I’m involved in draws to a conclusion tomorrow, and so I am hoping to get more concentration time then. We’ve played Scrabble today, and of course TW won again, mostly by getting a seven-letter word on her first go. Never mind.

I’ve been thinking about how we get out of this scenario, and currently I’m not sure there is a way. Of course, we will have to wait for the number of new cases, hospitalisations and deaths to decrease, but once that happens, do we go back to our previous ways of life? Surely if we did that with no protection, the number of cases of Covid-19 would start ramping up again. I wouldn’t want to jump on a busy train into Brighton if there weren’t a vaccine or some protection from this virus. Even if the current restrictions are relaxed somewhat, I may continue to work from home, or maybe look to get a lift with someone and shadow their work pattern, i.e., if they work from home, I would work from home...? That might work, I would be able to reduce my exposure to potential risk.

Of course, that is all stuff to be worked out in the future. Who knows what things might look like when restrictions are lifted. I guess decisions will have to be made then. We’ll see.

TTFN.

20-04-07 Tuesday - Covid-19 Day #22 - Johnson in Hospital

Well, this is weird. Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital and in Intensive Care, “just in case”. We heard the news on Sunday evening, halfway through the film we were watching (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2). I didn’t sleep well at all on Sunday night, I think the news affected me more than I expected. I’m no fan of Boris Johnson, but no-one should be in hospital suffering from this awful disease.

The prior event which drove home what a big event this is was the news that U.S. comics weren’t going to be imported into the UK for a while. That impressed on me the scale of the issue at the time. Now this is another instance which has thrown me off-balance.

It can sometimes be difficult to separate the man from the politics, but if you asked me if I wanted anyone to be in hospital suffering from Covid-19 and finding it hard to breathe, I would say no immediately. No-one deserves that. Hopefully he’ll recover, but it may take some time – possibly weeks.

Time to pivot to another leader, Donald Trump. I did see he averred that he wouldn’t wear a mask, despite the fact that this was now recommended. Trump is well-known to be a germophobe and I reckon he would be the first to wear a mask, given the chance. It’s not like he’s going to be meeting other heads of state either; surely they’re all in lockdown as well?

Anyway, that’s enough for now.

TTFN.

20-04-05 Sunday - Covid-19 Day #20 - Days Blur

We really are living through unprecedented times. It’s worth reminding ourselves of that every once in a while. We have never been restricted to our homes before in such a way, and never have people’s livelihoods been so disrupted as they have been over the last few weeks.

I’ve worked from home for three weeks now. The week before that I worked two days from home and was ill for a day and a half. Monday to Friday are okay, because they have a semblance of order. I attempt to work between 9am – 5pm; my laptop is on and I’m monitoring emails. But to be honest, email traffic is dwindling to a non-existent trickle. So work is much quieter than it would have been if we’d been in the office under normal conditions.

The weekends are a bit more difficult. Luckily there are five of us, so we have to get dressed and eat at normal times, and converse with each other. If I were self-employed and living on my own, I’d have fallen into a completely different rhythm by now, I’m sure.

One thing that is becoming a mainstay is a Marvel film in the evening. We’ve elected to watch the films in chronological order and last night we watched Guardians of The Galaxy Vol 2. They really are quite well done, all of them. We’ve watched 12 of the 23 which have been released so far. Black Widow was supposed to be released in May but that has been pushed back to November, which is probably a sensible move.

I spent today reordering my CD shelves, with the help of TMO. It’s been a job that needed to be done since TW moved them into the living room without paying attention to the order they were in – that was a while ago. And TMO’s help was much appreciated.



Tonight we’re looking forward to Avengers: Age of Ultron.

TTFN.

20-03-27 Friday - Covid-19 Day #11 - Marvel Films Will Save Us

Things have settled into a routine now. I am working downstairs in the dining room, along with TW. Occasionally we are joined by TE, but TMO works up in her bedroom. She’s on Facetime with a group of girls as they do their work, so that’s okay. TY doesn’t really have much to do; she’s in Year 6 and would normally be doing SATS now, which means revising what they’ve already learned and practising for the exams, so they don’t really learn much new stuff. She’s got a few bits to do, but not as much as the older two.

In effect, the girls are busy for the morning, but less so in the afternoon. That can be a bit distracting, but I think I’ve got a bit of rhythm going. It’s a shame it’s the weekend; now I’ll have to start again on Monday. At least the weather has been good – we made the right decision (or TW did) when she mowed the lawn last weekend.

It occurs to me occasionally that these really are unprecedented times that we’re living through. I’ve never before been told to stay at home as much as possible, and never before has the government had to pay the workforce in the way they have decided to now. TW & I are both in good positions, as we are employed by larger companies and we can both perform our roles at home. I don’t know how I’d cope if I’d been furloughed, and all I had to keep me busy was watching the news. I’m anxious enough as it is, and I’ve got work stuff to focus on. Not that the news doesn’t get in the way.

Luckily though, Disney+ has launched this week, and so we have agreed as a family that we are going to watch all the Marvel films in chronological order. We started with Captain America on Tuesday night, then Captain Marvel, then Iron Man I & II. We saw Avengers Assemble last weekend, but TE didn’t, so I’m not quite sure how we’ll navigate that, but we’ll find a way…

TW did say the other night that she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather be in lockdown with, which I thought was rather sweet, and I feel the same way about her. Not bad for 16 years of marriage. We make a pretty good team. Probably not as awesome as The Avengers, but up there somewhere.

TTFN.

20-03-23 Monday I - Covid-19 Day #7 - All At Home

Today was the first day of the new regime, with the children at home as well. We all set up in the dining room, and were quite busy for the morning. TW had a conference call at 10am, so she booked the living room and closed the door.

Email traffic for my job was much reduced compared to normal, and my expectation is that it will slow even further. I personally think that things will slowly grind to a halt. The next thing I expect to see is more stringent conditions on leaving the house, and we will virtually -if not actually- be on lockdown. On occasion in the past I have suggested that Nature is self-correcting, and possibly we could be hit with an epidemic that would affect us so quickly that we wouldn’t be able to react to it. When the news programmes first started discussing the novel coronavirus, they advised a vaccine wouldn’t be available for 12 to 18 months, and that fits with a doomsday scenario like the one I’ve outlined. With the fast infection rates and exponential growth in the number of those affected, I don’t think we can wait that long, but if we were to go on virtually total lockdown, we could break the chain of transmission. And then maybe, just maybe, it could die out.

I’ve read a few descriptions of how the severely affected have suffered or could suffer, and I’m more than happy to stay at home. The issue is supplies. We need to get food. I went out twice today; both times to the Post Office to post some comics I’d sold and one of those times I visited the Co-Op. I was able to get humus and butter, but not able to get pasta, tomatoes or ketchup. TW will have to brave the supermarket tomorrow to get a bigger haul of food. Hopefully the shelves may be back to some semblance of normal. I don’t think that most people are stockpiling; as others have pointed out, now that most of us are housebound, we’re eating at home rather than snacking out. In addition, if we are going to have to quarantine, we need food in the house. It seems that we’ve all changed our shopping patterns at the same time, and it’s just screwed the supermarkets; although they might be the only winners out of this whole sorry episode – especially if they get their supply issues resolved.

TTFN.

Our home office, previously known as the dining room.

20-03-22 Sunday I - Covid-19 Day #6 The Weekend

Another day under lockdown. We’re not under lockdown as such, but that has to be the approach we take. We’ve only left the house when necessary. Having said that, we did go into town first thing because TY needed to pick up her new glasses, and we wanted to buy some hair dye from Superdrug. Now that the girls aren’t going to school for the foreseeable, we thought it would be fun to dye their hair.

The weirdest thing I saw was a queue outside Savers; TY’s appointment at Specsavers was at 10:10, and Savers wasn’t due to open until 11am, but there was already a queue outside Savers. God knows what they were queuing for.

We visited our local butchers yesterday morning; we don’t normally except at Christmas, to get ham and a turkey, but it seems that local shops are the ones which currently have stock. We got sausages and eggs, and then went to another local shop where they had bread and veg. So we had what we needed.

Last night we watched Avengers Assemble together, except TMO fell asleep at the climax. It was a nice evening.

Things are very weird at the moment. I think we’re all waiting for things to get worse; currently the virus is something that is happening to other people and we’ve not been affected by it personally yet – other than working from home and staying away from others, of course. We’ve battened down the hatches, but the storm hasn’t arrived yet. Let’s see how things pan out over the next few days and weeks, and if there are more announcements making life more restrictive.

TTFN.