Coronavirus

[Swervin_Mervin]

Otherwise I'm off to the Smokehouse for some artisan sourdough at £20/loaf

Hoorah for the Smokehouse. Artisan loaf for £1.15, along with a pile of smoked bacon, salmon, and various other cured meats.

[Mito Man]

Lucky I was home as a valve coming off the boiler let go, shut off the water supply and called the plumber who arrived promptly wearing a full on mask. It’s funny really, a bit like seeing an animal in the wild you’re not sure who is fearing who more you’re both equally worried about the other.

My dad called and said he couldn’t find goat feed and pigeon corn was down to 2 bags from his supplier - it’s just not coming through from Belgium. Found an online website with stock in the U.K. but delivery is likely to be a week plus already.
Farmer next door has left us straw and hay but he’s already out and usually has 6 months stock. Let’s hope the weather is good for growing this year otherwise it’s going to get really bad.

[Simon]

Went out to plant a few shrubs this morning. No fucker about, was quite pleasant apart from the drizzle.

BiL is medical director in a large hospital that until now has only done pre-planned operations which have now all been scrapped and his building are taking on all the A&E cases from 3 other other hospitals which have been cleared to cope only with virus patients. Apparently it's absolute mayhem and not going well.
His mrs is a GP and seeing an endless stream of patients with symptoms. She started at 7am yesterday and finished at 10pm absolutely burned out with it all.
I feel very sorry for the pair of them. Their jobs were stressful enough before all this shit hit the fan.

I've been temporarily laid off from one contract, health and safety grounds allegedly but I suspect it's budget related, other than that no problems work wise so far. I just hope that they let me keep going about my business and don't order me back home from the turret of a Challenger tank.

Despite 111, the media, the government and others all saying DO NOT GO TO A HOSPITAL OR GP IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS.

Dickheads.

[duncs500]

Otherwise I'm off to the Smokehouse for some artisan sourdough at £20/loaf

Hoorah for the Smokehouse. Artisan loaf for £1.15, along with a pile of smoked bacon, salmon, and various other cured meats.

That's what's known as winning.

[Broccers]

We were down to our last bog roll today, walked to the shop and they've a pallet of 9 packs at the door. Less than 3 quid. Only see panicking of thick people to be honest.

[Swervin_Mervin]

We were down to our last bog roll today, walked to the shop and they've a pallet of 9 packs at the door. Less than 3 quid. Only see panicking of thick people to be honest.

Yep.. They had one of those local hero groups on NW news. Said they were now getting donations of bog roll to give away to folks in need, from people that had panic bought last week and realised they had too many...

[Mito Man]

Idiotic people happy that pollution is down and are now already worrying that there will be a sharp increase once life restarts

[Sundayjumper]

Because we're all WFH, starting tomorrow we have a daily team "virtual coffee morning" to specifically talk about non-work things.

It's like "spontaneous fun is now mandatory, at 11am every day".

[Simon]

Because we're all WFH, starting tomorrow we have a daily team "virtual coffee morning" to specifically talk about non-work things.

It's like "spontaneous fun is now mandatory, at 11am every day".

We had one this morning before work. It was called exactly that (maybe our managers read the same blog post?)

It was alright. Told a few jokes, shared some customer anecdotes and ideas. Discussed some opportunities.

[RobYob]

Because we're all WFH, starting tomorrow we have a daily team "virtual coffee morning" to specifically talk about non-work things.

It's like "spontaneous fun is now mandatory, at 11am every day".

We had one this morning before work. It was called exactly that (maybe our managers read the same blog post?)

It was alright. Told a few jokes, shared some customer anecdotes and ideas. Discussed some opportunities.

We've started doing this too, ten minutes to talk crap with everyone you're used to talking crap with. Keeps some semblance of sanity.

[Matty]

My folks want me to go and visit at the weekend, as much as it sounds like I'm avoiding them I really dont feel like I should.

Are others keeping away from their family, regardless?

[Orange Cola]

Idiotic people happy that pollution is down and are now already worrying that there will be a sharp increase once life restarts

Christ alive!

I’m doing my bit by keeping the Mustang at around 20mpg

[evostick]

My folks want me to go and visit at the weekend, as much as it sounds like I'm avoiding them I really dont feel like I should.

Are others keeping away from their family, regardless?

I'm keeping clear of everyone except for those family members I live with.

Some I'll miss a bit, some not so much

[RobYob]

Re IR35, if the employer has decided you fall within it and pay you in that respect (IE on books, off books, etc), the implementation of it being 'next year' doesn't make any functional difference, surely?

Also, now that the CEOs sister and nephew are showing symptoms - both of whom work here - suddenly WFH is being considered.

Oh. What. A. Shock.

"There’s locking the stable door after the horse has bolted and then there’s locking the stable door after the horse has bolted, died of old age and long since been turned into glue."

Talk about 11th hour. I've little confidence HR can react quickly enough withdraw their SDS and reinstate my old contract in the next twelve days. I imagine the thousands of contractors forced into umbrellas or permie or out of work over the last six months will be ready to riot this morning.

For me it'll give HR another 12months to correctly categorise my work if and continue the other backups I've already doing (without much success, see my "Automotive industry is FUBAR" post earlier)

What a fucking debarcle.

So the CoronavIR3u5 went full farce today. HR bulk emailed contractors that the terminations and status declarations of two weeks ago are now defunct and everyone to carry on "as normal".

So good news delivered in the rudest way by the most incompetent bunch of twats you'd ever wish to cough on.

[Gwaredd]

My eldest (Year 11) has unexpectedly had her last day at School today as they've closed the School as from now due to staff shortages. She's gutted as they didn't find out until they got home, so no way of saying goodbye to everyone now. What a shitty way to end it.

She did sign her name on the English room wall in sharpie under the tag 'CoronaKids 2020', so I'm immensely proud of that.

[Broccers]

When I went to skoll the teachers were on strike half the time. Noone starved to death although I ended up a thicko.

Apparently USA have found a cure. I do not think so.

[Nefarious]

Reasonable convoy of troop transports (maybe a dozen trucks) heading south on the M74 last night

EbHpXKr.jpg

No implication intended, just a statement of fact.

As an aside, I do think there's fair reason for a decent dose of pessimism.

[DeskJockey]

Because we're all WFH, starting tomorrow we have a daily team "virtual coffee morning" to specifically talk about non-work things.

It's like "spontaneous fun is now mandatory, at 11am every day".

We did that yesterday and it was brilliant. An hour to just chat with people across the BU. A really positive (not Corona) experience.

[Ascender]

Reasonable convoy of troop transports (maybe a dozen trucks) heading south on the M74 last night

EbHpXKr.jpg

No implication intended, just a statement of fact.

As an aside, I do think there's fair reason for a decent dose of pessimism.

Oh I know, it wasn't aimed at you in any way

[evostick]

Article about the bogus nature of reported death rates and potential for gross overreaction from a professor of epidemiology.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-f ... able-data/