Husband of a collegue of mine also got the shot i think on friday, he felt really miserable the whole weekend. No underlying conditions, think there's always a chance to get pretty sick from it.

Yeah seems the vaccine is just as unpredictable as the infection.

Shiny go her shot 3 weeks ago. I got mine about 9 days ago with my mom. This being America, it's a drive through... they've set up a parking lot that you just drive your car through, get your paperwork verified, then get a shot through the car window. In this country where everyone has a car it's pretty genious... social distancing built in. Shiny got covid rash.. after her shot, she got a rash, it went away after a week, then came back. She just today got her appointment for the 2nd shot.... 2 weeks after that and she's officially done. For me, my arm got really sore for 2 days, but that was it. My mom had no negative impact at all. *shrug* I believe we all got Moderna.

Anyway, here's hoping to the vaccines being effective and becoming easily available. I'm tired of quarantining. Going out to a restaurant and a movie is going to be so awesome.

So an inverted drive-by

LOL that does make sense but it is SO American Glad to hear you guys have been jabbed though, hopefully keep you safe especially if Shiny is still having to go into work. I saw an article the other day on BBC about the side effects. Supposedly there are a few factors at play. Age is one; the older you are the less likely it will knock you about. Most over 70s have had none (not sure if this just applies to one or all of the covid vaccines). The other is that if you've had covid it does give you worse side effects because your body reacts quickly and violently to it. And then the third was just people who tend to get strong reactions (i.e. if you tend to get "man-flu" from a cold) you'll probably get strong side effects. Regardless though they say the number of antibodies tends to be about the same so none of us are better protected.

Peltz I was thinking exactly the same thing, great minds think alike!

Lol, yea, reverse drive-by. It's all good... I'm so looking forward to finally being immune and being able to go out. It's been a really long time. I'm not the most social of animals, but damn, I think I've had enough isolation for a while. And yea, Shiny still has to go into work at least once a week, and quite often it's 2 or even 3 times. Sucks. I'm so glad I quit my last job. I've been pretty much 100% remote since (other than going in to pick up a badge, which was totally optional).

At this point, Shiny is fully immunized and I'll be as well on April 20th. I'm so stoked. I want to go out to a restaurant... and a bar... and a movie.

Yay! Go you guys

I still have another 6 weeks before I can chase for my second dose. Niall still hasn't had either. I think they're working on 40 - 49 here now so he'll be in the next batch when they open up 30 - 39. I think it's about mid-May we can finally visit people indoors again so we'll be able to visit Niall's friend on a Saturday night. I should have had my second dose by then and it'd be nice if Niall and his friend have had their first doses too.

Friend's son is in hospital for the last 6 weeks with covid. She's been updating me daily. He's 33 and although I think not the healthiest, not unhealthy enough to qualify for a vaccine before the 30 age group. He's been on and off ventilators, they've had to go in and say goodbye, refused to put a DNR on his records... hearing everything first hand from her really makes it hit home just how horrible it is for all involved. Such a rollercoaster. I'd seen it from people in my support group before as well, people seem to be getting better and stronger than 2 days later they're dead. It does seem positive for him right now though. (Edit: 2 hours after I posted this he passed away.)

On a more positive note though I think over half the population has had their first dose in the UK now. It'll be interesting to see how much it has helped since this week we have opened up non-essential retail and pubs/restaurants provided you can sit outside again. Of course on Monday there were huge queues from midnight to get into shops opening at 8am So on the one hand in theory it shouldn't be too huge a wave of Covid that spikes from it due to so many vaccinated but on the other hand a good chunk who've been going out probably aren't vaccinated yet.

Was discussing with my parents about whenever I will finally get to visit them and just how much it's gonna cost. I usually fly budget since it's only just over an hours flight. I can get there and back for less than £100 normally. Apparently due to all the tests you'll need to have even for a 'green' tier country it's probably going to cost £350 before even buying tickets! Of course nothing is certain about travel yet and the absolute earliest I can see it being possible would be October and more likely next year. Not helped right now by France going back into a tighter lockdown though as they've had another spike.

Chatting with Pev on Steam made me check in to post again.

I'm fully vaccinated now, so Shiny and I are done (as is my mom). The day I was officially safe, I took her out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant we used to go all the time pre-Covid. It was nice...and odd. Today I went to the grocery store for the first time in close to 14 months. We're making gumbo and doing a shrimp boil for family tonight... everyone but my sister and brother in law are fully vaccinated, so it's safe. It's really nice to be getting partially back to normal.

Jeez... sorry to hear about your friend's son, Pevil. That sounds terrible. Things are generally getting better, I think, but people are still dying from this thing. At least most of the world appears to be improving. India is in a really bad place... their daily infections have now surpassed the US's highest with no signs of slowing down. Unless there's some miracle, that's likely to become a humanitarian nightmare. Brazil's not exactly doing great either. Ugh.

Err... so yea, anyway, stay safe everyone! Get vaccinated!

Thanks Satis. I was never close to him but had known him almost 20 years so it's a bit of an eye opener. I wasn't exactly taking the whole thing lightly anyway but this drives it home. Speaking of which, Ox needs to check in. Had no emails since before Christmas, nothing on here for ages, not logged into Steam in about 100 days.

As I mentioned to Satis on steam, I actually went out the other day for the first time in ages. I'd briefly popped to the supermarket half a mile down the road from us back in September when first lockdown had lifted which felt weird then have been inside again since. I've kind of been in lockdown since March 2019 really thanks to the Cushing's so outside is just weird to me anyway. But on Monday I managed to break a teeth so Thursday meant an emergency dentist appointment. I hate dentists at the best of times. I'd rather have brain surgery again. So headed down there and haven't been that far into town probably since before March 2019. I was early so we killed time in a nearby shop which was pretty quiet. It felt a little weird though as it was a book shop and felt like I shouldn't really touch anything.

It shows how desperate people are for normality, they're fighting to book places to eat outside at restaurants. Any other year if you suggested sitting outside in the UK at 8pm to eat a meal you'd be accused of losing your mind!

I'm fully vaccinated now, hooray! Just had an achy arm for 2 days after, no other side effects. Still waiting to hear about Niall getting his first one. Mum has had her first one (also AZ) and has her second booked in July.

I'm currently praying our neighbour catches it, might stop him playing his loud music

Well, Shiny and I are still doing well. Last Friday I met up with some of my coworkers and we went out to a restaurant for lunch. It's only the second time I've gone out to eat since covid, but the place was pretty full. Since I'm vaccinated I'm ok with it, and most of my coworkers were fully vaccinated as well. Shiny and I are taking a vacation starting tomorrow... going to a beach house we rented. Should be nice... I haven't actually taken time off work since I started, with the exception of a few hours off to get covid shots and then the day I called in sick recovering.

Unfortunately India is being ravaged. Several of my coworkers are of Indian descent and they all have lots of family that've gotten sick, along with a few deaths. Hopefully that situation improves soon.

It's awful seeing the situation in India. We have a lot of Asian families around here so there must be loads with family out there who are worried sick. The day I went for my second vaccine the taxi driver was chatting about it; it was that situation where you don't want to just assume because he's Asian that he must have family there and ask about them but odds are he does. We've got a couple of areas with the Indian variant over here actually so they're doing surge testing and opening vaccinations up to everyone 18 or over in those places to try and stop it getting a foothold.

Shiny and I got Covid boosters yesterday. Ugh, we both feel like total butt, but it's better than the alternative. Once Delta hit we both went back into isolation again... about the only thing I would do every once in a while was go to the store, though we usually just order for pickup. In two weeks I may start going out again. It's sneaking up on 2 years since I've been to a movie. With all the morons around us, it's unlikely Covid will ever go away, and I don't want to be a hermit forever.

Yeah I totally get it! I've only gotten my second shot in August so I'm pretty confident about my situation right now, but in another 3-4 months I'll likely get the booster shot too. At least 6 months seems to be the point where the vaccine's protection starts to wane considerably.

Hope you'll feel better soon! And hey, go to the movies in a week or two! What's the point of getting the shot if you're not even going to be able to do that. But it does seems like parts of the US are worse than others when it comes to this stuff....

Most of Europe is now in the throes of another big post-summer wave despite high vaccination rates. Sigh. I guess it's gonna be another lockdown winter. And a booster shot or a better vaccine, hopefully. We'll see. In any case this shit is getting old and I hate it.