Day of Chaos 2: a.Covid-19 thread.

[paddykafka]

I've not been - my partner has been to a Tesco once for fresh fruit and veg (our Brexit stockpile has all else covered), and said she wants to avoid going again if she can possibly help it.

What you describe above was very similar to her experience, but also she saw big signs on the doors saying 'Anyone abusing our staff will not be served and will be removed from the store immediately'. So the mood there was tense, as clearly shit had already gone down in a noteable way.


She's actually a 'key worker' in all of this. As an Ops for a mental health charity in Wales she's been working incredibly hard procuring beds for the NHS. These have come from wards run by the charity normally taken by mental health patients, from ligature-free buildings and suchlike. She's been on Zoom calls with NHS managers day and night this last week or more. It's been tough for her.

She's also prepping for call-up to support the NHS at the frontline. I'm so incredibly proud of her, but I'm so scared for her also.

I'm 'high risk' due to my asthma, so when she goes I won't see her until it's over.

All the best to you and your partner, Shaolin. Herself and all those working at the frontline of this crisis are absolute heroes in my book. Take good care of yerselves!

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

I've not been - my partner has been to a Tesco once for fresh fruit and veg (our Brexit stockpile has all else covered), and said she wants to avoid going again if she can possibly help it.

What you describe above was very similar to her experience, but also she saw big signs on the doors saying 'Anyone abusing our staff will not be served and will be removed from the store immediately'. So the mood there was tense, as clearly shit had already gone down in a noteable way.


She's actually a 'key worker' in all of this. As an Ops for a mental health charity in Wales she's been working incredibly hard procuring beds for the NHS. These have come from wards run by the charity normally taken by mental health patients, from ligature-free buildings and suchlike. She's been on Zoom calls with NHS managers day and night this last week or more. It's been tough for her.

She's also prepping for call-up to support the NHS at the frontline. I'm so incredibly proud of her, but I'm so scared for her also.

I'm 'high risk' due to my asthma, so when she goes I won't see her until it's over.

All the best to you and your partner, Shaolin. Herself and all those working at the frontline of this crisis are absolute heroes in my book. Take good care of yerselves!

You said it right paddykafka. Keep safe Shaolin_ and a big thanks to all frontline Health and Emergency Service workers.

[Steve Green]

Only the small(ish) local co-op, which has been fine, although empties out of the fresh stuff pretty quickly.

Did sainsburys a couple of weeks back, when people were starting to panic buy, but didn't see any trouble - was just busy.

Whenever I've looked online it's been no chance of delivery...

All the best to you and the family Monkey.

[TordelBack]

Very best of good fortune to you guys, Shaolin Monkey.

Here's a very calm, informative (if slightly smug) interview from South Korea, which sets out facts from expert experience. Long, but you'll feel better informed, if possibly a bit angrier, by the end.

[paddykafka]

I think it is fair to say, that the following cautionary tale firmly belongs in the "Don't Try This At Home" category. But at least his heart was in the right place. (Even if the magnets were not).

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/man-gets-magnets-stuck-up-nose-while-trying-to-invent-device-that-stops-people-touching-their-faces-1.4215674

[Bolt-01]

as my youngest pointed out whilst looking out of the window over the weekend - "It's like Thanos won in the real world..."

[shaolin_monkey]

Twitter feed continuing to fill with death announcements. Latest is also the youngest - Ismail, wee 13 year old lad, London, no underlying conditions.

Social media might have to be turned off for a while.

[Funt Solo]

Terrible news, Shaolin.

I've had to limit my exposure to the news cycle: it's unremitting.

[TordelBack]

Couldn't bring myself to play any April Fools on the kids this morning, everything is so upside-down already that it didn't seem right. Instead reflected on past glories, and all the places we were when they were perpetrated that weren't inside these four walls.

Then looked at online media, and it turns out many of the usual suspects have had exactly the same idea.

[IndigoPrime]

Someone noted on Twitter to me that they very nearly did a "school's back" April Fool on their kid, but decided not to. I can only imagine doing that on mini-IP. She'd be in bits on finding out it wasn't the case. She loves school and misses her friends. I can only hope this period doesn't mess her up. (We're fortunate in that some of her friends' parents have similar concerns, and so have started doing virtual playdates via Skype. So that's at least something. I'm very grateful for being in that position regarding technology.)

[TordelBack]

Yep, Skype playdates for my 10yr old have been a lifesaver, although it causes one to update the WFH dresscode to include 'trousers compulsory' as she wanders about the bunker giving virtual tours of the squalor.

The 13yr old gets his socialisation in through online murder games with his friends, as usual, but has also reverted to deeply complex multiplayer Minecrafting of the redstone-heavy varieťy, so that's good. Never have I seen a computer game with such longevity: he's played it on and off for at least 5 years now.

[paddykafka]

So, for the third night in the last four days, I have been woken from my sleep by the drunken antics of the violent, psychotic, alcoholic girlfriend of the guy in the flat above me (and of whom I previously wrote about in another thread).

While most of the rest of society have rightly been adhering to the principals of Lockdown, he has had her and some of her equally scummy, feral, teenage offspring over to visit him, and join in their drunken lets-party-like-it's-the-end-of-the-world sessions.

I was awoken at 3AM on Sunday morning by the main muppet herself, physically beating the smack-head girlfriend of one of the other guys in the flat above, down the stairs and out the door of the house over some row or other.

The following night, at 12.30 AM, I was again disturbed by the same cretin. This time around, it was her own teenage daughter she was man-handling out the door. And I know this because I could hear her drunken, shit-head offspring screaming "I'm sorry, Ma! I'm sorry, Ma!" as she was being given the old heave-ho out the door.

And then at 2AM this morning, I was once again woken up by the same lunatic, shouting and roaring her head off in the flat upstairs for almost an hour-and-a-half.

There are simply no words to describe the utter contempt that I feel for these muppets. These sorry excuses for humanity would not even know how to spell the words "Social Distancing" and "Self Isolating", much less understand the concepts. The only thing that they care about is getting pissed out of their minds and, to use their own common-as-muck, gutter-trash parlance, "Havin' da buzz" and "Havin' da craic".

I am in no doubt that the last time that they saw a bar of soap was on a TV commercial. And, given their obvious carelessness, it is a fair bet to say that they are carrying the Covid19 virus, if not actively transmitting it.

By coming around to this house and leaving their vile trails on doors and walls, they are putting the lives of myself and everyone else here at serious risk of infection and death.

At this point in time, I honestly could not care less if the lot of them wind up being carted out in body-bags. Because for their stupidity, their ignorance, and above all, their utterly selfish disregard for anything or anyone but themselves, it is no more than what they deserve.

I hate them all.

[TordelBack]

Jovus, Paddy that's bloody awful. And I've been giving out about neighbours mowing their lawns for hours on end! 

I know no-one ever wants to be a grass, but the guards are coming the heavy on house parties this past week (I know that's not what this is), maybe a wee chat might sort the immediate issue, if not actually helping in the long term. There haven't been any rowdy sessions round our way since weekend before last, and there's almost always one loud one every week.

This horror story does remind me of one of the very few upsides of this nightmare: the house-alarm chorus that has carried on almost unbroken for the 15 years I've lived here has finally ceased.

[paddykafka]

Hi Tordels, you're right on the being a "grass" in theory, but aside from it going against the grain, as it were, with the kind of people - and I am using that term in the loosest possible sense - that I am talking about, I would be likely to have my windows put in at the very least, if not an actual petrol bomb thrown through them.

Trying to reason with them would be equally pointless, as that assumes some level of intellectual capacity on their part to understand what I would be talking about, and which is utterly lacking in their case.

So I have simply gone down the revenge route instead.

To that end, I am currently belting out The Fall's Last Night at the Palais at a sufficiently high volume through an open window, that should more than adequately serve to stir and disturb them from their hangover slumber. I will be following that with tunes from another Angry Young Man, to wit, Peter Hamill with the K Group, and their album The Margin, 'Live.

The icing on the cake will be any one of a number of Krzystof Penderecki CD's that, to their great misfortune, I am lucky to have and are perfect for moments such as this. I'm thinking of starting with Utrenja and after that, well, who knows.

And the beauty of it all is that, thanks to the couple of bottles of whiskey that I have just purchased and have started upon, regardless of what they get up to later I will be completely oblivious to it all.

Do I care?

Do I heck as like!

[Professor Bear]

Ironically, they'll probably call the cops on you.

Normal grassing rules don't apply during a pandemic, but if you're still worried, just tell the cops you don't wish to leave your name.