I can see the headlines now....."Argyle fan hides on remote Scottish Isle".....that is taking it to extremes ....
Third of December and I need to admit that Christmas is on the way....or something as near as possible this year.....by that I mean the postman has now delivered four Christmas Cards and we haven't even thought of this so called festive season so far....there are those that have been planning for months and pop their cards in the post box on the very first day of the month.....oh to be so organized.....there probably planning for Easter now.....I haven't looked to see if it's in March or April yet.
I despair at the pictures of Regent Street and Nottingham Christmas Market yesterday....teeming with people...not many wearing face covering. Nottingham have held up the market for today because of the mass crowds....I can just about visualize Regent Street and Oxford Street for the next 18 days....plus five days of Christmas added on....and come January we could well be in lock-down again.
What did you expect to happen if not this then? The relaxed rules or rather allowing shops to open is all about money and definitely nothing to do with health. The same applies to the Christmas 5 day amnesty. That is all about Boris not being the Grinch and stealing Christmas. Again nothing to do with what should happen or health. Our very own Donald Trump.
A competition to find the best topical Christmas cracker joke was run by television channel Gold. The winning joke was written by Craig Rogers who won £1,500 for this joke.....Q...What is Dominic Cummings favourite Christmas song ?...A...Driving home for Christmas. Other jokes...mostly Covid related were. Q...Why are Santa's reindeer allowed to travel on Christmas Eve ?...A...They have herd immunity. Q...Did you hear that production was down at Santa's workshop ?...A...Many of his workers have had to elf-isolate. Q...Why did the pirates have to go into lockdown ?...A...Because the 'Arrr ! rate has risen. Q...Why didn't Mary and Joseph make it to Bethlehem ?...A...All Virgin flights were cancelled. Q...Why couldn't Mary and Joseph join their work conference call ?...A...Because there was no Zoom at the inn. Surprised about the winning joke....I preferred the Zoom joke. ....and it's not even Christmas cracker time.....you might be surprised to know that cracker jokes might not feature this year after the festive season.......I know you'll all be disappointed.......because we have a four household situation it might mean we break up into two groups of two households....involves ten of us and three are 78 plus....many will ignore those rules but we will stick to the rules.....I know i'd like to see next Christmas as well...............
Went out for a meal on Sunday. My daughter and family also went to the same place. We sat at one table and they occupied the next one over so we were all but in a family group but were separate if that makes sense. We were about one and a bit meters away. We did not break any rules. However, if we had gone to her house and sat 2 meters or even 4 meters apart we would have been infringing protocol' How stupid are the rules...................
All this talk of five days over Christmas is one thing.....but what about New Years Eve.....and Hogmanay in Scotland will put 50% of the country in Hospital.
The rules aren't there for those who are being careful and/or obeying the rules whichever is greater, it's for those who couldn't care less. God knows there are enough of them. I see London is on the verge of going into Tier 3 so the Tier 2 rules haven't achieved much there. The bit that's missing is enforcement. But then, as the D&C Chief Constable said, the police aren't in the business of enforcement .
Police must be a little short on overtime at the moment.....no footie to supervise until this weekend....and that can't be too stressful at present. Maybe we should bring back the 'Press Gang ' way of rounding up a crew as they did years back....round up all these couldn't care less types....and get them working in the Covid wards.....six months of that might change their opinion of how a pandemic can destroy families with premature deaths. Just a thought.
...........CHRISTMAS LOCKDOWN........... Germany announce a Hard Lockdown between...16th Dec until 10th Jan because of increasing Covid-19 infection....They're deaths are only a THIRD of our level...will Germans obey these new rules ?....Merkel blames the level of Covid-19 is because of mass Christmas shopping. I doubt if we could achieve a lockdown over Christmas and the New Year....too many selfish..." I'll do it my way types here"......So I feel... come mid to late January we will see a third spike....assuming you can notice the end of a second spike of course.....and hopefully a vaccine jab will be by then start to help those over 70 see another Christmas. I was doubting the wisdom of five days of Christmas mayhem....and with no talk of what might happen on New Years Eve....other than carnage.
Well the inevitable has happened we're in Tier 3 (Bromley Borough) from Wednesday 16th. Not in the slightest bit surprised.... Example....a few months back a trip to Sainsbury meant.... 1.....Wearing a face covering. 2.....Staff on the entrance controlling how many entering store...trolley handle already sanotized for you...sanotizing table in side entrance to do your hands....plenty of check-outs open to keep queues small. Recently 1.....No staff on door checking if people had face covering...no sanotized trolley handles...in fact very few trollies available...suggesting that it was crowded in the store. 2.....Sanotizing table messy and the containers were empty...asked if there was another container which there was under the table....no supervision obviously going on. 3.....Check-out....less of them available and large queues....so crowded...with other shoppers trying to get past the queues to shop of course. So were does that leave the 5 days of Christmas....with so many plans made by people....they won't be able to reverse that decision. It looks like battening down the hatches....spare milk in the freezer etc.....and stay at home to keep the whole family safe over Christmas....one grandson self isolating from school for the second time....because one class mate has been in contact with someone with Covid-19....so every one is sent home. And then there is New years eve....which hasn't really been mentioned yet.
Have to ask did you complain about their lax working practice plym? If not why not. You say the lack of trolleys signified a full store yet you still went in making it even fuller. We have a system of traffic light style entry in Plymouth in most large stores. Have to wait till the light goes from Red to Green before the door will open. If Stores are not playing by the rules then don't shop there and make sure you tell them why. Kids back at school when they are the worst carriers of this pandemic of all the categories. That's your mate Boris that is. Same as most of the cockups that have been made and there have been a lot of them. Kids were sent back to school to try to cut out the compo they were having to pay workers not to go to work. In other words for economic reasons not medical needs. Most schools have classes out now. Some schools have had to close altogether. Brainless. As for people and their plans for the festivities well it shouldn't make a difference which category they are in. The rules are being thrown out of the window for 5 days and anyone who made plans outside the rules set down for the amnesty only have themselves to blame and shouldn't have. If they kept within the rules then there isn't an issue. There are no special rules for New Year so they shouldn't have planned any mixing anyway should they. Fancy people ignoring the rules though, I wonder where they got the idea for that then.
Standing at the sink this morning...washing up last nights dishes.....(one of my daily chores...bit of a martyr....but a cross I carry well...) And out of the kitchen window appeared a magnificent rainbow....you had the impression that it started nearby and just rose into the sky and arc'd towards London....really strong colours .....and to be honest it cheered me up a bit after the news of Christmas Lockdown stopping us from going around to my son and family for Christmas day dinner.....and also stopping us seeing my daughter and family as well. It lasted for about ten minutes and the damp and dull morning had turned into clear skies and full-on sun....I then moved on to my next martyrism job making the bed.....
Winter Solstice today....shortest day of the year (daylight that is)....summer on the way..........just a little light at the end of the tunnel.
There is a fair division of labour in our house. I make out the daily list of chores and tick them off as she does them. It's called supervision.
DO AS I SAY.....NOT AS I DO.....MOMENT. Prue Leith, the 80 yr old Great British Bake-Off judge.....has said that people of her age should not be prioritised for the Covid vaccine.....and that her generation should be left to "take our chance"......(like in the Care Homes Prue) Leith who was photographed receiving her Covid-19 vaccine last week, said..."I was delighted and rather thrilled to be asked to have a vaccine so early on the first day.....I've never felt vulnerable....and in fact...to be honest.....although I was very glad to get the vaccine and grateful for it.....I think it's the wrong priorities. Well...well...fancy that....Prue...YOU COULD HAVE STUCK TO YOUR BELIEFs.....AND REFUSED TO JUMP THE QUEUE....and....TAKE YOUR CHANCE LATER.....like the rest of us. She might be a good cook and judge but she should never be allowed to open her mouth without supervision.....This is the women who destroyed the "Great Bake Off-Final" a couple of years back...by congratulating the winner whilst she was in Japan....forgetting the time lapse between Japan and the UK......and telling all the Bake-Off fans the winner before the final TV show had been aired......and she didn't get sacked unbelievable. PS.....She has angered thousands of people who are concerned for their elderly parents at the moment.
It seems the UK has won a tremendous victory over the EU by winning a trade deal with concessions for the £0.9 billion UK fishing industry. Shame the £132 billion financial services sector is likely to be the main loser.
"but she should never be allowed to open her mouth without supervision" Says the man who voted for Boris who is the man who never fails to feck up every time he opens his. Remember she is entitled to an opinion even if it is controversial to some.
