Sorry to hear your news Suits and hopefully he'll get well soon.

One of our shops landlords has told us not to pay the rent this month which is great. We have a full diary of people wanting to visit the shop tomorrow so we've limited it to one guest per person. We want to close really but this could potentially be the last income for a while so we can't as we haven't been told to. The free business rates doesn't benefit us as ours are low. The one off grant would cover a months wages.

We are fortunate as we have just completed a massive streamlining operation at work that we shouldn't have to make any redundancies. One of the pregnant staff is fine with the SSP, the other hit the roof saying they couldn't manage on it. They need to announce full pay for pregnant people till maternity leave kicks in.

Business wise they need to announce a two week closure for all retail etc.

It's also my 2 sons last day at nursery till further notice today so I'll be having them both full time from Monday. If what Nicola Sturgeon said was true and it could be September I'd be gutted for my 3 year old as today would be his last day at nursery as September is him starting primary school.

On nursery they've requested parents pay 50% of the fees till further notice which isn't really possible on any level. They are doing this because as of right now theirs no clear idea on the help businesses get. Great people who myself and kids think the world of will be out of work. It's so sad.

Oh and my therapist has just emailed to say all work till further notice will be via Skype or phone.

Also my copy of Animal Crossing hasn't arrived.

Apart from all that I'm fine

I'm no fan of the tories but these are pretty impressive measures being implemented here.

People are relieved and gobsmacked in equal measure.

Good news short term, let's hope it doesn't come back to bite us with another decade of austerity further down the road.

chase210 wrote: ↑March 20th, 2020, 5:37 pm I'm no fan of the tories but these are pretty impressive measures being implemented here.

I can see how it could be viewed that way. Personally, I think they're doing exactly what is expected of them, and probably too late.

A more than reasonable way of looking at it, Alex.

Here in Poland lockdown started over a week ago. Mad panic buying started in my town on the first day but people calmed down the day after. Quite strange it was. Toilet rolls, hand wash, pasta and tinned foods were soon gone. The same as most places during this time.

Now the shop shelves look normal. Hand washes are still short but other that it's mostly normal now. Barriers at tills and distancing notices though. Shop assistants wear gloves too. All cinemas, shopping centres, electrical stores, shoe shops, phone shops etc. are closed too. Only supermarkets are open.

Our language school had to close so now I'm working at home doing online lessons. It's a very confusing time.

I was following the UK newspapers but recently stopped due to all the scare stories and non-news. I'm worried about family there. Britain is doing too little too late in my opinion. I really think the government should have been well planned and fully prepared for this scenario.

We got finished our move. Our friend who was going to drive our truck cancels two days before his flight over understandably fear of getting sick and losing work. We had my wife’s uncle fly up the next day. He said the plane had a passenger for every six rows.

I drove 11 hours with three dogs in the car and Made it to North Carolina alive.

My stress level has been through the roof and I’m not even experiencing much beyond the move and, now, the isolation. I can’t imagine how people being directly effected (losing work, getting sick) are feeling. I’m stressed about finding new work but my wife has her job still. I feel lucky, and a bit guilty because of that.

Also, I can’t stop reading the news. It’s worse than late 2001-early 2002...at least I didn’t have Twitter back then!

Glad to hear it all went OK. Time to de-stress at least a tiny bit! You all sorted for WiFi and stuff? Doesn't sound so important, but I'd feel lost without it!

Alex79uk wrote: ↑March 22nd, 2020, 4:30 pm Glad to hear it all went OK. Time to de-stress at least a tiny bit! You all sorted for WiFi and stuff? Doesn't sound so important, but I'd feel lost without it!

Internet comes tomorrow (hopefully!)

Luckily, I never stopped getting movies that I love physically over the years, so were not hurting for the comfort distractions.

Suits wrote: ↑March 20th, 2020, 11:26 am In other COVID-19 related news, my father suffered a number of seizures on Wednesday evening and is currently in Neurocritical Care in Queen's Hospital Romford.

My father re-gained consciousness today and is mildly talking.

Doesn’t believe anyone that’s he’s been out for five days and thinks we’re lying about pubs, restaurants, etc.. being closed .

The blood has also cleared from his lungs, so hopefully he’ll be out soon as the Hospital is going to be one of the main hubs for East London’s COVID-19 operation apparently.

So the quicker he can recover at home the better !!

Suits wrote: ↑March 22nd, 2020, 10:21 pm My father re-gained consciousness today and is mildly talking.

Doesn’t believe anyone that’s he’s been out for five days and thinks we’re lying about pubs, restaurants, etc.. being closed .

Parents staunchly refusing to believe their own kids when they are telling them the cold hard truth has to be one of life's greatest frustrations, hasn't it?

Very happy to hear your old man is on his way to recovery, however! Hope he makes it home okay!

Such positive news, Suits mate. Fingers crossed for a continued and full recovery.

RE the virus, McDonald’s announcement has angered me somewhat. Just say it’s fucking done, don’t give idiots a deadline to get to a McDonald’s for their last Big Mac. I despair.

I hope everyone here is taking this as seriously as it is and is self isolating, and social distancing as a minimum. The government need to enforce a lockdown and tomorrow at the latest, I feel. The sheer idiocy of people going to remote and tourist destinations is insane. We will end up worse than Italy with many loved ones perishing at this rate. Lockdown is the only way.

hazeredmist wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2020, 12:07 am RE the virus, McDonald’s announcement has angered me somewhat. Just say it’s fucking done, don’t give idiots a deadline to get to a McDonald’s for their last Big Mac. I despair.

This post is hilarious. Like, mate, it sounds like you were expecting McDonald's to do the right thing.


Regarding lockdown / curfew, things aren't quite as dire over here for now. When some of the southern states were implementing stricter measures a few days ago, my state's president simply posted an official statement saying he wanted to avoid locking everything down and politely urged everybody to follow the official recommendations. "Do not disappoint me!" Next thing you know the streets were empty, most non-essential shops were closed, all the tourists spots were deserted, all the toilet paper in the state had evaporated, everybody was respecting the minimum distancing rules and folks were playing musical instruments out of their windows. They're absolutely adorable.

Now there's a nationwide two weeks "contact ban", which is fair enough. Let's see how it works out. I've been Doom Eternal-ing and homemade goulash-ing my way through the situation. Could be worse.

Hope everybody here is staying healthy and social distancing like Haze said.

I'm convincing myself I've got symptoms, when statistically it's unlikely I have. I've never been a hypochondriac in my life. I've always been someone who drags themself in to work barely upright and being told to go home all day, for me to reply I'm fine, it's just a bit of a cold or something, but over the last couple of days I've managed to talk myself in to thinking I'm infected. I don't know why, I'm sure I'm probably not if I'm being logical, but my brain is rebelling. I've become obsessed with reading the news, having to know the current death toll and infection numbers, it's not healthy but I can't stop it. This isn't like me at all.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2020, 6:59 am I'm convincing myself I've got symptoms, when statistically it's unlikely I have. I've never been a hypochondriac in my life. I've always been someone who drags themself in to work barely upright and being told to go home all day, for me to reply I'm fine, it's just a bit of a cold or something, but over the last couple of days I've managed to talk myself in to thinking I'm infected. I don't know why, I'm sure I'm probably not if I'm being logical, but my brain is rebelling. I've become obsessed with reading the news, having to know the current death toll and infection numbers, it's not healthy but I can't stop it. This isn't like me at all.

I had a bit of cold over the weekend. I was pretty sure it wasn't Corona as the symptoms didn't match up but of course it maybe could have been the start of it. I was barely leaving the house and wasn't seeing anyone anyway so it didn't really make a difference. But today I feel fine so very likely was just a cold. I can see why anyone would start to worry though at the moment.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2020, 6:59 am I'm convincing myself I've got symptoms, when statistically it's unlikely I have. I've never been a hypochondriac in my life. I've always been someone who drags themself in to work barely upright and being told to go home all day, for me to reply I'm fine, it's just a bit of a cold or something, but over the last couple of days I've managed to talk myself in to thinking I'm infected. I don't know why, I'm sure I'm probably not if I'm being logical, but my brain is rebelling. I've become obsessed with reading the news, having to know the current death toll and infection numbers, it's not healthy but I can't stop it. This isn't like me at all.

I sympathise, mate. I was off for about ten days with gastric flu a couple of weeks ago just as all this was cranking up and I was barely sleeping, reading round the clock and worrying about it.

The reality is that we now know what it will involve to get through this, from looking at China and countries who have dealt with it with some success. I just hope we don't follow in Italy's footsteps but the reality is that we can only control our own behaviour and we'll come through the other side one way or another. There will be a spike and then a steady decline.

There's not going to be much point in watching graphs over the next three weeks or so so just focus on the good distancing practices as much as possible and hopefully have some good family time. All the best.

Well said. Our government is doing the least it possibly can but I’m sure full and enforced lockdown is imminent to save us from ourselves.

I trust everyone here is aware of the gravity of the situation and is properly observing guidelines and protocols.

It could make the difference between thousands of lives and tens or hundreds of thousands of lives. Real humans; people’s mums, dads, sons and daughters.

Please process this and act accordingly if you aren’t already.

Not sure what everyone’s situation is, but here’s a link to Amazon’s job portal. They’re hiring a lot of work-from-home jobs. A few in the UK, as well.

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/location/vir ... y_options=&

Here's a little something to lighten the mood if that's okay with you guys.