Still alive over here!

But things are really going to shit though. Belgium and France are both recording record numbers of infections every day, and I'm pretty much sitting on the border between them. Lordy lord. No lockdowns yet but they have been ratcheting up measures here in France over the past few weeks.

- 2 weeks ago I was in the supermarket and they announce 'dear customers, due to the new governmental regulations we can no longer sell any alcohol after 20h. Thank you for your understanding'.
- As of yesterday evening, all bars have to close for at least 2 weeks here in the city. Restaurants are still open but with a lot of restrictions

Let me tell you, when they stop selling alcohol and close down bars for 2 weeks in France, shit is getting serious. I understand why they did it though, as per my previous posts no one seems to really mind corona much here and bars have been packed every time I've walked past them. I live in an apartment block that is built around a courtyard and as I expected there was already a rowdy party yesterday until 3 AM somewhere in the block. And that was on day 1 of the bar closures.

And of course this is when my two week holiday starts. All the bars are closed, can't really go anywhere for travel (not allowed/too risky), can't buy booze after 20h, can't visit my family. So yeah, this will be the most uninteresting holiday ever haha. Not that I mind too much. I haven't had a real holiday in 4 years give or take, the previous ones were all overtime that I was working back. So I really needed this just to take myself out of the work stress for a while. I'm not there yet though, will probably take another few days to get relaxed. I'll likely buy a bicycle and go for a few trips on that, and I'm considering taking a train to the coast for a day. It's only a 1 hour trip and if I travel outside of rush hour I guess it should be safe enough. We'll see. Got enough games and books to keep me busy or things to plan and think about!

Have fun on your holiday Satis!! Also Pev, keeping my fingers crossed for Niall's application. Is it a bit clearer already how much he will get now or not really?

Nah still nothing to make it clear. It doesn't kick in until November so I doubt we'll hear any info regarding it until then. I mean the first 3 months that covered March - June, I think it was only in June that he could apply! He popped into his workshop the other day actually; one of those odd moments where the day before he'd been saying to me he might go in to get his tools (just in case anyone tries to break in plus I keep asking him to do jobs around the flat) then the next day his boss actually rang. They've been going in as they also have a training side of the business that can be done remotely so they've been keeping that going and randomly their keys stopped working, so Niall living closest, they rang him to ask if they could come and collect them. He just went to see them and get his tools and when chatting they reckon the earliest the shows will start up again is May.

Wow yeah you really know it's serious when France curbs alcohol :O I'm sure every house is fully stocked with wine and... can't remember what that weird one is they tend to have at lunchtime. So they'll be ok Scotland has done something like that, they've closed bars and restaurants for 10 - 14 days. England hasn't yet done anything similar but I can see it coming. Sounds like you really need to find plenty of things to watch and play! I've taken every Weds off in Oct/Nov plus a week at the end of Oct and mid-way through Nov as I have loads of hol left. I took the last week of Oct off because the WoW expansion was out then but it's been delayed. So my hols will be just as exciting as yours.

Haha yeah I'm only 2 days in and I'm already bored out of my skull, I've just gotten on top of all the administration backlog stuff I still had to, so I guess from here on out it will just be drinking, gaming and having personal chat/emails. What a waste.

Good to hear Niall got his tools, now you can nag him to do all those chores around the house and he won't even have an excuse not to do them.

We had our lockdown tiers announced and as of tomorrow we go into the middle one (High). Means we can still have one other household in our 'support bubble' but we're now fully down to the rule of 6 if we go out, or we can have a gathering of 6 at our house provided it's outside. I have no clue if it changes anything else.

Over here I am in one of the French cities with a curfew now. You can't be on the street after 21h unless you have a reason. Not like it will affect me much but still not exactly amazing news. It'll last for at least 4 weeks they say. I wish 2021 would roll along already and bring its vaccines with it.

I saw that and did wonder if you were one! Have you leave your bum parties early (that sounds even more dodgy than I thought lol)

What the hell is a leave your bum party?

Went to the city centre today to buy a bicycle, turns out the whole fucking range I was interested in had sold out...like, globally. A waiting list of almost a year. They only had some second and third rate brands left in stock, and even those were getting low. Jesus christ. The guy said their sales have been insane ever since corona, and that the manufacturers can't keep up. Figures. Ended up having a long-ish conversation with him about my options during which he coughed, which was not very amusing. But it happened only once during 10 minutes so let's assume it wasn't covid.

Week 1 of my holiday is almost over. Ordered a crapload of new books as I finished everything I had here, played some games, stocked up on a few weeks' worth of beer (considering all the restrictions), tied up some loose ends with taxes and other admin, ordered some christmas gift early, got drunk, did a lot of food delivery and slept in. Already getting bored tho. So probably gonna take a train ride to the coast next week, because why not.

Corona-update: My father-in-law tested positive this week. Mother-in-law her test result will come in today, probably positive as well. He's still okay, mainly fever and the usual "cold"-symptoms. Let's up it stays that way.

Our whole family had to take a test now (they are our only close contacts), at least now i know how it feels to have someone tickle your brain with a stick. Can't say it really hurts, but annoying as hell, brought tears in my eyes.

Results should be in by Sunday, I'm in quarantine untill then, I'll keep you informed.

Crap! Fingers crossed for your in-laws and for you J!! Let us know when you get the results!

Ugh fingers crossed for you and your family J. I've heard that about the tests, doesn't sound much fun! There's even mild worry with people who've had the surgery I had that it could open up the surgical wound again (but unlikely if it was more than a month ago so I'll be ok), but that's how far back it goes, right to the skull :O

We've all tested negative. Great relief.

In-laws are doing relatively fine, they feel like crap at times, but they haven't been hospitalised. So let's up that they're getting better step by step.

Happy to hear that J!!

Hope your in-laws will be ok soon. Please keep us posted.

Great news J

Oh man, good to hear you and your nuclear family are in the clear, and hopefully your father/mother in law come out with no serious issues, J. Sorry to hear it's become an issue for you, but at least it doesn't appear to be particularly serious.

Shiny and I are still doing what we're doing. The vacation was awesome... camping didn't last quite as long as it was supposed to (blame Shiny), but that's ok. It was really nice to just chill out for that long. I don't feel any better about my job, though... in the US we're about at the same level of infections as we were in June/July, yet my company is acting like the stuff is over with. Typical for this country. Ugh. I do actually love my country, but this kind of crap makes me want to choke people.

Anywho... please keep me updated, all of you. It's nice to hear from my international friends.

Our government is making people hate them even more. They have a scheme where really poor families get free school dinners. Obviously that normally only applies when at school. Someone proposed they extend it to cover the school holidays until Easter, what with covid. If they include Easter, that's 8 weeks. If they don't, that's 6 weeks. Not a *huge* amount in the grand scheme of things. But they've said no, and not only said no, but said it in a ridiculous way. For example, I get that they can't bail everyone out for everything, and that it's only us tax payers doing the bailouts anyway (coz I'm pretty sure none of them are going to go on 80% furlough or anything...) but when someone says "oh no, we can't do that, we don't want them getting addicted." Errrr sorry but that sounds like you're telling poor people not to expect or desire food. I think they've increased the self employment money for the next 6 months as well, from 20% of your profits (up to a cap of course) to 40%. However that's still way less than anyone who's employed. They get 77% or more of their wages. Not sure how that's fair. Again, I get that they/we can't support everyone but at least make it fair. Make it so everyone gets 60% or something.

It's good to hear from international friends, if only to realise we're all in the same boat! A friend on one of my MMOs is complaining wildly about the German government at the moment. We've spent most of the pandemic going "look at Germany, they're doing great, we need to do what they're doing" so it's reassuring to think that not *every* country looks as stupid from the outside as it does from the inside. I'm not gonna comment on USA Then again maybe that still holds true, in which case wow that you guys deal with that haha.

Glad you got away for a vacation anyway Satis, even if Shiny shortened it. I'm sure she had good reasons.