Yeah my company (the Paris office anyway) has been forcing people to come back in once or twice a week, just when the infections are reaching record levels again. It makes no sense. It's fairly clear to me that the people who are suffering the most from us not being in the office are those in higher management, who can't pull people into their offices or meetings anymore now like they used to. They want their power back haha. Some people told HR on the public slack channel "so uhm...are we still going into the office despite the government just imposing a strict curfew and strongly recommending again for everyone to only work from home when they can?" Response: "We'll delay it by a week and then we'll see". Haha what! This won't blow over in a week. Just fucking admit covid fucked up your plans, just like it blew up mine for my holiday. What a spineless response.

Anyway good to have you back bro. Got any pics from the camping trip? I have stayed home for 2 weeks and basically done nothing but drink alcohol and eat unhealthy food. And I did a few long walks on the days the weather was the nicest. It was all a huge waste of time. But I guess it's better than work! It's as good as November now anyway and I plan to spend most of December at my parents' place, so this shitty year will be over soon enough. Then we gotta sit out a few months of winter and hopefully there'll be some light at the end of the tunnel around spring. In the meantime I have fun checking out the numbers in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Finland etc. Life over there is pretty much going on like normal. And I'm on the border between the two most fucked up countries in Europe, France and Belgium. Such luck.

Sorry to hear that about the self-employed people Pev...hope you and Niall manage to get by.

France is back in full lockdown apparently, hope you're still staying safe with your gypsy friends Ox!

We're still ok here, carrying on exactly as we were and being careful. I've got a couple of medical appointments coming up but otherwise I'm staying hidden away still.

How's everyone else doing?

ok.

Still alive Honestly, the lockdown doesn't really change that much for me now...the bars were already closed, there was a curfew at 21h and no alcohol was being sold past 20h. The main difference is now that I need to download a document on my phone with the time I left my house, address and what my reason is for being outside. I go outside like 2 times a week these days, so I can deal with that. Let's just hope it actually stops this shit from going nuclear.

Belgium also in a lockdown, and I think this graph will explain why (see attached). Seriously, what the fuck are they doing over there?

Hope the rest is ok as well!

Sounds familiar, every time we leave on a holiday we (= the wife and I) argue about the fact that she's packing way too much stuff. She won't read this, so i can say 'fact'.
Long-term couple life.

Small update on the father-in-law: he's still in intensive care, think i mentioned that in another topic, since sunday. With ups and downs, but it hasn't been necessary to intubate him (and bring him in artificial coma). He's making very slow progress the last few days and seems stable, so let's hope that it won't be necessary at all.

And politics in Belgium is a mess, everyone pointing fingers, no strong command. And the average Belgian is stubborn, think he knows it all and is an expert in finding loopholes in laws/regulations. It annoys the hell out of me, you'd think they would learn from the first wave, but we're in a worse situation now. Schools will be closed an extra week (we have one week holiday now normally speaking), so I'm home for 2 weeks now. Not planning to go out more than necessary for grocery shopping etc.

Sorry to hear that J, really hope he pulls through completely soon. Must be hard on your wife and her mom. Keep us posted.

When I read the packing thing I was like....this is me and every ex ever. So I'm glad J brought it up and not me, as my experiences could be seen as less relevant as I clearly did not stay with these women. I think it may be one of those things...to give them a fair shake: sometimes when I'm on holiday I'll be like 'oh we didn't bring X' and she would be like 'nope, I brought it, it's in there'. And then give me a look and say 'AREN'T YOU HAPPY NOW I BROUGHT ALL THIS STUFF".

The answer is no, don't really think the stress and discussions were worth it for some minor item I might otherwise have missed. But I appreciate it.

Ah J, hopefully that's good news that he seems steady and hasn't been intubated but with this disease it could go either way at any time. Fingers are crossed here for him.

We're waiting on an announcement at 4pm today where it's expected Boris will put us back into lockdown from Weds until 1st Dec. I mean on the one hand yes, it is needed, and certainly more so than these pointless regional lockdowns but on the other hand I don't expect everyone will follow the rules so it probably won't help hugely. Ah well, only difference it will make to us is not visiting our friend every fortnight and Niall's mum won't be able to pop over once a month.

Y'all would love me then. I still pack like a child. Going away? I'll pack the morning we're leaving with the bare minimum needed. Then again most of my packing is to visit my parents so if I've left anything they'll have something I can borrow or they'll buy me it so... yeah. Easy street

WoW expansion has another release date now anyway so roll on 23rd Nov. Sucks I'm working again haha, need lots of nerding time.

Edit: England is back in lockdown from Thurs til 2nd Dec but schools/colleges stay open this time so not quite the same as back in March. Everything else non-essential to close though. Haven't seen any other details on things like support bubbles etc.

Hey J, any news on your father in law?

Pev, what's the situation like now in the UK? I haven't been following it, what kind of lockdown did you get?

Over here things are still locked down af. Not much to mention beyond spending a lot of food on decent takeaway/delivery and beer. Good news is that I'm expecting my desktop PC to arrive here next week though! Should improve a few things while being stuck inside over the winter.

That packing style sounds like heaven Pev...no more heated arguments every time you leave for a supposedly relaxing holiday!

UK is kind of back in full lockdown but not. It's essentially what we had back through March - June except schools/colleges/unis are staying open. Everyone has to work from home if possible. All non-essential shops are closed. Pubs and restaurants are closed. No visiting people in your own home (but you can meet 1 person from 1 household with another 1 person from another household outside) and you can go out to exercise.

Over 3000 cases in Walsall at the mo, about 350 new ones this week apparently. Found out after my hospital appointment on Weds that the one I went to is a hotspot for it so er.. let's see if I avoided it! Should have tbh, they were doing an ultrasound and they did it in a really out of the way corner of the hospital and I only saw maybe 3 other people plus the doctor and nurse doing my scan. Plus we all had masks on.

Parents said you're back to needing letters to go out shopping etc over there Ox? Fingers crossed your pc arrives soon, methinks you're gonna need it to stave off the boredom.

Oh that packing definitely is heaven! Though it does cause me "omg did I pack that?" issues whilst travelling. Not an issue when I go to my parents but a mild worry when we go to the Discworld Con. Next one is in Birmingham though so if I forget anything important it's only 30 mins away on the train. Plus for 3 nights I can probably live without whatever it is. The joys of not really travelling

Had a friend who's sister-in-laws family are German. The mum died the other week from covid in hospital and the family of course weren't allowed to travel to say goodbye. I think her sister is over there and was allowed to sit with her. The dad is still in hospital with it. That same friend tested negative as did her husband but their son who lives with them and is just starting college came down with it. She's got Cushing's so she's extremely vulnerable so it's a miracle she didn't catch it off him.

It's still going with ups and downs with my father-in-law, they moved him from 'real' intensive care to a new (improvised) intermediate intensive care, for people that only need extra oxygen. So it's a step in the right direction. He does have moments where his oxygen saturation still drops, sometimes he has a fever, all things that make him not recover as fast as we would like to see.

Almost 2 weeks in IC now, would love to see him move to a normal room early next week.

Ugh, sounds like things aren't so great on the covid front. Shiny and I are still fine, I'm still going to work regularly... we got changed from going in twice a week to three times a week, but then my boss apparently forgot so I'm just coming in twice again. I'd rather not come in at all, but I whatever. Shiny's had a handful of relatives comes down with it, but no new ones and none seriously. I think we've been lucky. I have people at work that are surprised I don't go out to eat and stuff. When I tell them I don't think it's safe, they seem at a loss for words. Ugh. I project very, very bad things in our future as far as this disease is concerned.

I'm probably going to out myself as being disgusting now but I wear most bras for around a week! Unless I get super sweaty or something of course. Well used to. I don't wear them often these days. And that was for the last 4 years. I was doing it before lockdown no bra was cool!

Sounds like he's headed the right way J so fingers crossed it continues. I can't imagine just waiting around for news one way or the other.

We saw the US figures today Satis, it's quite horrifying. But let's hope this new vaccine being reported today will be as good as it sounds. I think it's the one where you have to have 2 injections but of course they still don't know how long you're safe for. They do reckon it is effective in 90% of people though. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54873105

I'm glad Shiny's family have all been ok with it. We had an engineer at work who had it quite seriously but not hospital seriously at the start of the year. I was just chatting to someone else today whose brother had it over the summer and I think her sister also tested positive. She didn't get tested herself but had exactly the same symptoms as her brother which was a really bad cough (she felt like she was breaking her ribs with all the coughing) and not so much a loss of smell as everything smelt 'dead'. But they all got over it just fine. So maybe there's some genetic component that influences how you're affected too. Yay for your boss forgetting that extra day, here's hoping he forgets the others. Could you tell him you're going in on the 2 days he's off? I'm betting he isn't working 7 days a week like you.

Yea, that Pfizer vaccine looks promising, but without publishing the data and peer review I won't get too excited. Still, it looks very promising. On a possibly related note, Shiny's brother signed up for a covid trial... he actually has a degree in molecular biology (hate to admit this, but he may be smarter than me) and he volunteered. Not sure if he was part of this trial. Anyway, he'll find out soon if he's showing an immune response.

My boss may be many things, but he does actually work quite a bit. I doubt he'll forget we're supposed to come into the office, but here's hoping. He seems more and more distracted lately, so maybe he'll forget about us. Alternately, maybe I'll get a new job.