Coronavirus

[jil]

A short full shutdown like Germany is doing sounds like a good idea. Wales is going for that option.

I'm in English tier 3 which has similar restrictions to Scottish tier 3 although not quite as strict. I'm not sure if it's going to be enough, the 2 neighbouring local authorities to mine have been under increased restrictions for some weeks now and their numbers are still going up.

[AvastMH]

The feeling I have, jil, is that someone must know more about the root cause of the current increases. There needs to better systems for nipping things in the bud.
Oddly Cherwell District Council (which covers all the way from Kidlington to Banbury) has a worse rate than Oxford. Oxford goes into tier 2 ('High') tomorrow. I'm sure that the higher numbers in Cherwell must be coming from Banbury so it will be interesting to see how things go over next week. The rate in Kidlington is teeny.

[Randi]

The very British story of Kevin, the pandemic peacock

Seven months on, the bird — since christened Kevin — is still calling the Chingford neighborhood in this northeast section of London home and the Yardley school his home base. For locals who use Facebook to document his travels, Kevin has become a source of joy and solace, a symbol of freedom in this age of lockdowns and a new means of connecting with neighbors at a time when many have never felt so isolated.
...
But Kevin did introduce some challenges. As social distancing rules were relaxed in June, Yardley staff worried that Kevin may flee as children returned. The worries were unfounded: Kevin periodically waltzed into the building, once even interrupting a spelling test by repeatedly banging his beak on the door.
...
To honor Kevin’s decision to set down roots in Chingford, the school decided to name its sports teams the Yardley Peacocks and held a competition that asked students to design a logo for its sports attire.
The winning entry features the school’s initials and a drawing of Kevin in the middle.
“I like that in 30 years’ time, people may ask why we have a peacock on our shirts,” Evans said. “The story can live on about a pandemic peacock that brightened our days.”

[AvastMH]

That's a lovely story. Seems that we are noticing the world around us much more than we have dome so in recent years. Rock on Kevin

[Hanibal94]

German government videos humorously praise couch potatoes

Perhaps we can all become heroes by staying home and doing OW all day long!!

[Michael]

Great video! It made me think of you, Chris, except you would have been doing OW, not playing video games.

[Randi]

[AvastMH]

Inspired -brilliant! Each and every OW addict can rest easy in the knowledge that they are beating cocona virus even before the vaccines are available.

[Hanibal94]

Great video! It made me think of you, Chris, except you would have been doing OW, not playing video games.

Actually, I'm alternating between one and the other.

Currently doing a game with a interesting premise: You salvage old spaceships for useful materials!
It's quite fun, but the fact that it's still in development can be annoying at times. I can't do the latest ship type at all because of a bug where you do the first step to turn off the reactor ... and instead, the reactor goes BOOM and destroys half the ship.
Apparently, this only happens to people with a certain graphics card

[AvastMH]

Great video! It made me think of you, Chris, except you would have been doing OW, not playing video games.

Actually, I'm alternating between one and the other.

Currently doing a game with a interesting premise: You salvage old spaceships for useful materials!
It's quite fun, but the fact that it's still in development can be annoying at times. I can't do the latest ship type at all because of a bug where you do the first step to turn off the reactor ... and instead, the reactor goes BOOM and destroys half the ship.
Apparently, this only happens to people with a certain graphics card

Well - the reactor does turn off then. Good luck with the graphics card

[Morgan]

The German videos are great! I am hoping the US will start a public service campaign soon. I had been on the look out for someone we could all put our trust in. Young, Old, regardless of politics or location. We have a couple comic strips with perennial couch potatoes. Mickey Mouse is not quite right- Maybe Elmo from our Children's programing. Or the National Basketball League.
Stay Well, All.

[studentforever]

Ah well, what I feared, we are heading for Scottish Tier 4 restrictions from Friday. We'll stay in there for at least 3 weeks with a carrot of some easing over Christmas. Don't think the 'easing' will help me very much apart from shopping, which I am keeping to essentials although I did drop in to M&S for some Christmas treats after I failed to find a pair of winter boots to replace my good old faithfuls whose soles have started to break up. I fear that with no family in Scotland I shall be having a solitary Christmas lunch so I just hope we don't get lots of 'isn't it great to see the family again' program slots over Christmas just to rub salt in.

I'll just have to hope that with better weather and vaccines (fingers crossed) I will be able to see my brother over Easter.

[Randi]

Sorry to hear that!

[Michael]

It isn't a fun time, for sure. I think a lot of us are in the same situation...

[Hanibal94]

I am very grateful to be one of the few who aren't, and very sorry for everyone who is!

[Thursday Next]

Ah well, what I feared, we are heading for Scottish Tier 4 restrictions from Friday. We'll stay in there for at least 3 weeks with a carrot of some easing over Christmas. Don't think the 'easing' will help me very much apart from shopping, which I am keeping to essentials although I did drop in to M&S for some Christmas treats after I failed to find a pair of winter boots to replace my good old faithfuls whose soles have started to break up. I fear that with no family in Scotland I shall be having a solitary Christmas lunch so I just hope we don't get lots of 'isn't it great to see the family again' program slots over Christmas just to rub salt in.

I'll just have to hope that with better weather and vaccines (fingers crossed) I will be able to see my brother over Easter.

I'm hopeful that the media will be very conscious this year that there will be a lot of people who are not having the Christmas they'd hoped for, and they won't be assuming that we are all having a happy, jolly, family Christmas. I find the adverts quite interesting - some of them seem to depict the traditional Christmas family get-togethers, while others seem to have taken on board that things will be very different this time.

A few weeks ago I was thinking I wouldn't bother with decorations this year, as what was the point. But I've now decided to buy some new ones and to go early with putting them up as I think they will cheer the place up. I think a lot of people will be doing the same.

And I've treated myself to a luxury chocolate advent calendar - I'm sure that's going to help keep my spirits up!

[Randi]

I've laid in a good supply of chocolate myself

[AvastMH]

Well I'll be logging in here on Christmas Day because my Xmas would not be complete without the good folk of OW. I'm lucky that I love a quiet Xmas day and my family live a long way off, but I know it will be very hard on many of us this year.

My brilliant neighbour Sarah has galvanised our 6 flats into Xmas light lunacy. We've got sets of solar lights for outside, though the low daylight lumens are proving to be a bit of a nightmare. And strings of lights for my windows because we've been signed up for a 'see the xmas lights' charity route around the village. I'm quite looking forward to it all. Can't get my tree up until mid Dec because my ancient self-dis-assembling kitchen is being replaced.
Hadn't thought about the Christmas chocolate situation.

[Morgan]

Sorry to the folks that, like us, will be missing most of our families. Here in the US we will have Thanksgiving next week before we make big moves toward Christmas. I expect to see LOTS of lights this year with folks driving around in their socially distant (we hope) cars. Hats off to the solar light users. I believe presents will be fewer and there may be an uptick in good old Christmas card writing. The people I write to has gotten smaller, and I get fewer each year; this may be the year it turns around. I would like to do some baking, and will break into the stash of chocolate as well.

[krwood]

Things are pretty gloomy here in Seattle - lots of rain and dark. We're closing up the family pod again, and returning to a single designated shopper for our three family units. But on the bright side we can be together for some of the traditional holiday stuff since we all live close by and inside the same covid-dome.