Estonia is at 69 deaths, 2 new cases in 24h and 3 people hospitalized, total count of infections from the start of covid is 1994 at the time of writing. I'd say come visit but you'd be staying for 2 weeks mandatory.

Seasonal laborers in Europe sound like seasonal laborers in the US... except yours go back to their source countries when the season is over. Shiny and I still well as far as we can tell. We've been continuing work on our garden... fall crops are starting to go in and our tomato plants are starting to produce. :p It's not anywhere near enough to live off yet, but it's kind of cool. Meanwhile things are looking more and more dire... nothing critical yet, but another round of raiding of food stuffs appear to be starting. We're stocked up enough that it shouldn't affect us. Shiny found a source of Eagle Rare bourbon sourced out of Virginia (of all places), so we've got a good stock of really good bourbon now. :p I'm heading in to work tomorrow. Bleh... life continues to be life. Stay safe everyone!

The pub stuff... oh jeez well us Brits don't exactly have a good rep with alcohol at the best of times (football hooligans anyone?) so why they thought it would go ok I don't know. The stuff put in place sounds fine; people are only to be allowed inside if they're eating, and then they have to book a table in advance for 2 hours (I presume so long in order to disinfect in between diners as well). You can go for a drink but have to sit outside, socially distanced and stay at your own table. No going to the bar, there are waiting staff instead.

Day 1 was Saturday. A friend in Nottingham posted saying their pubs had already been put back into lockdown by Saturday afternoon coz people were being such morons. I saw videos in Tamworth of the people outside the pub just dancing around in huge groups pretty much all over the street and road. I've heard tales from people working in pubs that although generally inside has been fine, as soon as you get a table of 'young men' near a table of 'young women', they instantly keep trying to merge. So nothing majorly stupid, just the same mild stupidity we keep seeing everytime the chance for more than 2 people to be in the same venue seems to happen.

I did make it up the full flight! God knows how, driven by irritation I think. It hurt. Oh well, needs must.

Looks like you haven't angered the gypsies then Ox! Hooray! Got a Cushing's friend in Leicester and just praying for her with it all; she was supposed to have her surgery in April so of course that had been cancelled. She got a new date of 1st July - the day the city went back into lockdown! It was actually still supposed to go ahead but she was last on the list for the day and so of course, someone else's overran and she got cancelled yet again. They're now saying it'll probably be August, she must be getting so frustrated.

Might take you up on that Peltz! I'll bring my laptop and can work from there indefinitely

Sounds like your garden is going well Satis. I've grown tomatoes most years on our balcony. It all helps even if you're just supplementing what you buy regularly. You just need to start making your own moonshine and you're all set!

Yeah small victory!

I think they're vaguely considering making masks mandatory here too, currently they only are on public transport but not out and about or in shops. Of course as soon as this was announced "omg I'm not doing that, it's ridiculous, you can't force us too!" Selfish wankers. Not happy staying in but won't make the small concession of wearing a mask to protect others? Who cares if their elderly mother feels she can't leave the house in case she risks the virus, as long as they get to go out and act as normal. Pricks. Anyone would think they're trying to force us into hazmat suits with decontamination chambers every time you enter or exit a building.

When they announced that it would be mandatory in stores and business I checked the readers' comments in my dad's newspaper...it was about a 50/50 split of people approving or disapproving but some of the comments of people who were against it were borderline hysterical and didn't make much sense. I particularly remember this one:

"Well if we needed any more proof that we are now living in a police state, there you have it! It feels like we're living in the DDR in the 1970s!"

Yes, the DDR, famously founded on public health principles. I think these people aren't clear on what a 'police state' really is...just because you don't like some measures (that are then loosely enforced by the police) doesn't mean you are living in one. By their logic the fact that you can be fined for jaywalking is also proof that we are living in a 'police state'.

Made another trip to Belgium this weekend and ended up getting sick yesterday evening, but I'm pretty sure it's just the common cold and not coronavirus. For one I helped take care of my 2-year old nephew on Saturday and he had snot dribbling from his nose, and the incubation period of the common cold is 1-2 days so that makes sense. I also don't have a fever and seems like the worst is over already. So fingers crossed, but I'm very likely ok.

Well it might be corona virus but not the Covid-19. As far as I can tell corona virus family has many 'interesting' members.

In the UK, practically only people over 50 years old have died due to covid, so why not lockdown only over 50's?

And if you were part of that group, how would you feel then?

The trouble with everything is people (and greed).

Take me for example. I'm under 50 but have underlying issues. I'm sensible. I'll stay in as much as I can and avoid everyone. I'll wear masks if I have to go out. I'm working from home. But not everyone will. Some are stupid and despite having underlying issues, if enforced lockdown is only on over 50s they'll think they need to go out, either through boredom or because of the "save the economy" messages we keep getting they'll feel they have to go to the shops. There'll also be some work places who'll say that, even though you've been working from home fine, you must now come into the office. If you argue you're at risk those places may take disciplinary action or force you to go on sick leave, so some people will feel bullied into working and risking their life, so they're not risking their home (they may foresee this even if their company would actually be sympathetic because we like to see the worst).

Or there are people like my parents. 74 and 76 this year. They're in the "extremely vulnerable" category because of their age but they probably wouldn't have it severely. Dad might, as he has diabetes but other than that neither of them have underlying issues and they're extremely fit and healthy for 50 year olds, let alone 70 year olds. Niall's mum would probably have it worse; she's only in her 60s but doesn't do very much (spends her day sitting around reading or listening to the radio) and is an ex-smoker (actually thinking of it, Mum is also an ex-smoker but she quit so long ago I always forget).

Then there's the latest studies which show *maybe* more of us have had it and been asymptomatic than we realise although it's not exactly a very accurate study yet. This is both good and bad in that it may not be as deadly as we realise but it also leads to everyone thinking they're fine but in actual fact spreading it around extra quick.

I've been reading a few patient recovery stories as it's great to have the positive stories instead of just the "x many died" but it's quite horrifying at the same time. So many people who had it badly in March (or even mild) who are still suffering symptoms now.

Either way we can't stay in lockdown forever but we need some sensible measures too. I wouldn't be surprised if it makes a come back over winter but we also don't know that it will or won't. Or will it mutate again into something even worse? We can hardly go into 3 months of lockdown or more every year. It's so unpredictable though it's insane. People in my blood clot group who've had clots in their lungs and therefore already have damaged lungs have had mild cases when you'd expect them to have major issues. Perfectly healthy people have lost their lives.

I've never wished I was a hermit more (and I've dreamed of that for 24 years lol). If everyone was sensible and took precautions like washing hands, wearing masks and not crowding shoulder to shoulder, we'd probably be ok to just get on with life as normal. Unfortunately, people are selfish and are only bothered by what affects them. Until someone in their family gets it they'll just whine they can't continue as they always have without that awful inconvenience of an extra bit of cloth over their faces.

That would be a great study J! Unfortunately I imagine that thanks to sods law it would still somehow be the ones with higher IQs getting infected thanks to the actions of those with lower IQs

I agree with Ox. Governments need to man up. People are going to hate them regardless. Too many restrictions? Nanny state. Not enough? They only care about their rich pals. They won't win so might as well do whatever they're gonna do and own up to it.

Well, my last post was on the day prior to me going to work. Shiny also went to work that day. While at work, she got within 6 feet of one of her engineers while they were riding an elevator. They both wore masks, but that counts as exposure. Her engineer, meanwhile had gotten within 6 feet of a vendor of their about 6 days prior. On the day that Shiny and her engineer had close contact, the engineer came up covid positive. So her engineer was exposed, Shiny was exposed, and of course I became exposed as soon as we both went home for the day. We went on voluntary quarantine and it'll be 2 weeks tomorrow. Nobody got sick, so that's good, but it's a bit of a reality check. At this point Shiny's had several cousins that have tested positive, so it's actually beginning to affect people we know directly. Nothing serious so far, thankfully.

Anyway, the stupidity train keeps on rolling. The governor of Georgia wants all the kids to go back to school in fall... he admits that they'll probably all get infected with covid as a result, but they'll "get over it". Just like the teachers, bus drivers, all the kids' families... ugh. Willful ignorance. Meanwhile some cities are instituting mandatory mask rules and then being overridden by their state governments. It's pretty sad.

We're rolling into fall, which means flu season (another coronavirus). There's fear that the normal seasonal flu hospitalizations are going to be the thing that bumps our healthcare system over the edge. Meanwhile we're storing dead bodies in refrigerator trucks and some hospitals are already reporting that they're out of space. So... yay. I'm not expecting things to get better any time soon.

My job has relocated to a smaller office. Apparently all the developers will be expected to sit on one long table with these tiny 3 inch partitions. How this maintains 6 foot social distancing I don't know. I'm also not sure how I can wear a mask for 8-10 hours straight. Here's hoping there's another mandatory lockdown before this happens. And for whoever mentioned it previously, yes, I have no choice. I could quit. That's about it. You're basically having to choose between having an income and risking your health, or quitting and risk not being able to find a job.

Shit Satis! Glad you guys are ok but yeah, must've been quite a scare there. I only know 2 people directly who've had it, one was someone in my team who just had the mild version for a couple of weeks, one was one of the engineers who had it pretty badly; not ventilator badly but it wiped him out for a couple of months.

Not having kids I haven't paid huge attention but I think in theory kids have been back at school for at least a month here in the UK (having said that it's probably summer holiday now). Some kids. They said reception and Year 1 (that's 5 and 6 year olds) plus Year 6 (10/11 year olds) could go back to school because they'd be unlikely to get it and I think Year 6 was because that's when they do SATs now before moving up to secondary school. But at the same time it was up to individual schools and councils. So one council could say they were happy with schools going back but then all the schools under them could turn around and say they weren't opening. I know most of my friend's kids are just off until September, no matter what.

Masks are mandatory in shops from Friday here. Ours turned up today. Tried mine on, tested for steaming of my glasses and was all ok. I'm still avoiding unnecessary going out other than the odd trip to our friend every other Saturday (to make sure any symptoms have time to manifest and call it off if needs be) or for medical appointments. Niall is only going out once a week for shopping. One week he does a proper shop of groceries and the next he goes to the nearer, more expensive supermarket to just get random snacking crap

There's a vaccine trial going on here. I opted in coz why not so we'll see if I hear anything. They've said even with trials starting now and it looking promising in the lab it's unlikely we'll know anything about it being fully safe until the end of the year.

That really, really does suck Satis. We had an email last week asking who would be interested in going into the office and for how many days so they could work out a rota so I just replied with "nope". I'm so grateful to have that option and knowing me if it wasn't so obviously an option, I'd feel forced into going there and risking myself. Start building yourself a mobile box to put around yourself so you're isolated! Or buy a huge bubble https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wicked-Body-Bu ... B07F23YYPP I'm sure you can make arm holes so you can still work. Added bonus, it'll muffle colleagues and the phone!

I realize I mis-typed in the previous post. Shiny's engineer did not turn up positive, the vendor did. So it was twice removed from Shiny. Didn't want to accidentally overstate the real risk we were in.

On the job front, my boss stated on a call that he plans on just working full time in the office. Yea... guess what kind of message he's trying to send to his employees? Ugh. Shiny's to the point where she's wondering if I should just quit. *shrug*

Here we actually get delivery groceries (and liqour and beer and soil for the garden etc etc). Do they have that over there? Other than work, Shiny and I have actually avoided going almost anywhere. We haven't been into a shop since March. We have occasionally done curbside pickup, where we pull into a space, pop the trunk, and an employee in a mask just throws our stuff in the back. I think the most exposed I get is getting gas, other than work of course.