Type what you're thinking about right now (11)

[Mellie]

for stress, just been mentally drained.

[Toxic]

@Nanuq

Honestly I think we all got a bit complacent with masks at work, you'd start talking to someone and it would be..oh shit yeah *pulls mask up* ..so Yes & No , we do have hand sanitizer plastered all over the place though!

I'm not really sure all the ins and out of when you become contagious/not, how long you need to be in close proximately of someone, if its from the air or touching them or which is worse! etc.

I mean he would have infected us on Monday or Tuesday - someone else said him and his family had a temperature (someone else who spent more time with him than I did) and he went for a test which was negative ..so maybe were ok, its a bit uneventful here on symptoms - nothing of note.

Not a problem on the insult, its one I'd forgot about too

[Mellie]

I'm thinking I have got to buy paint for my bedroom before shops close. Another national lockdown. well at least will be less people out.

[Professor Willow]

I wonder how many assholes will be having an early firework night before lockdown 2 kicks in on Thursday.

[Azalea]

There's a few here

[Dougella]

Some here too, it's Halloween not fireworks night people!

[choirgirl]

Yeah, some going off here, but it's fair enough I suppose.

[Dougella]

^ I'm not sure to be honest I also think of it as bonfire night and Guy Faulks night.

[genovese]

Love me a fire.
If I could get paid as a 'firefighter trainer' by going round setting fires to random shit for the firefighters to put out I'd give it a good shot.
I'd happily watch a fire over anything on Netflix.
Fire!

[Professor Willow]

During BoJo's speech last night the graphs quite clearly showed that cases of Coronavirus really started to rocket after schools and universities went back, so how does keeping schools open during another lockdown actually help?

[Dougella]

^ That is the question and I don't think it does. Certainly it seems sensible to me for universities to go back to online teaching, but they made all the students move into halls etc so I guess they can't necessarily have them all returning home en masse now.

[choirgirl]

Universities opening was a terrible idea. I know that sounds hypocritical because I've just been rhapsodising about going away to university, but there wasn't a pandemic at the time!

[choirgirl]

Just realised I self-sabotaged after reaching my bare minimum savings goal by a)drastically cutting down on work and b)going on a consumerist bender after years of grumpy, no fun, drudgery and saving. Ah well, time to build it back up I suppose. If only I'd done the work and saving and realised the patterns ten years earlier blah blah.

[choirgirl]

I should just leave, ask for all my posts deleted, and ideally, wipe everyone's memories. I'd only come back if I ever do get my shit together and get my own place to announce, change is possible. I won't leave, will I? I am currently suppressing a housing rant.

[Professor Willow]

Originally Posted by Dougella

^ That is the question and I don't think it does. Certainly it seems sensible to me for universities to go back to online teaching, but they made all the students move into halls etc so I guess they can't necessarily have them all returning home en masse now.

I can understand allowing uni students to stay at uni, obviously online lecturing would be a safer option but I just don't think schools remaining open is a remotely good idea, you don't have to be a qualified virologist to know that kids are exceptional bug spreaders.

And now Mr Wetherspoons has responsibly decided to have a 99p pint sale until Wednesday

[choirgirl]

^^Yes, I've seen them all. Prices were depressed in the mid 90s, but even if you compare 2000 to 2007, let alone 2020, the difference is staggering. My last favourite was some Tory report about how we don't need as much new housing as predicted because young people are choosing to form their own households at later ages. I wonder why that could be? And do not get me started on NIMBY boomers (including my dad, he just will not see reason on this subject). I used to work with a nice older lady who gave me a long lecture on how important it was we didn't ruin the village with new houses. When I was living with my dad in my late 30s! Think about your target audience, woman! This is someone who bought a council house for a song. It's true, you don't want the developers taking the best land, but they need to be built.

[Tonkin]

Originally Posted by Professor Willow

During BoJo's speech last night the graphs quite clearly showed that cases of Coronavirus really started to rocket after schools and universities went back, so how does keeping schools open during another lockdown actually help?

Risk vs reward I think.

Close everything else and the impact of schools will be minimal compared to the damage done to kids and families of closing them.

[Mo34]

Just had my virtual appointment with ATS service.

She asked me if I'd ever heard of imposter syndrome. I was like err no not really...

Imposter syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. 'Imposters' suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence.

Yep def sounds like me Although I don't think I have the external proof of their compentance/success bit. There is none lol.

[Tonkin]

Originally Posted by Nanuq

Schools were set up to work online and a huge number of parents don't want their kids at risk everyday. There's no social distancing in schools, it can't be done.

I think they might have set them up to work online in theory.

In practice, it was very hard to deliver a proper learning experience at home.

Lack of good learning content, lack of access to equipment, lack of parents being able to support the home learning. Some of the reasons I've heard.

Also, children probably aren't that self motivated compared to adults, when it comes to home learning.

Not to mention the vulnerable children that aren't on the school's official lists of vulnerable children who were still allowed to go on.

Plus parents need somewhere for their kids to go while they're at work.

Combine all that with the fact that kids don't get/spread it as much as adults and there isn't really a case for closing school.

[Dougella]

^ The last point is the main one I think, kids need to be at school for the parents to go to work in a lot of cases. That's the government's main priority anyway.

Also a lot of kids in certain areas don't have computers at home and they've announced that the numbers of laptops available for schools will be much less than they had promised before.

[choirgirl]

^^^^^^At least you'll be done eventually, but it does sound like a grind. The nightmare neighbour situation worries me for when I buy. That's something that is just out of your control. I remember the money chucking years. I'm just old enough that if I'd kept sight of my own priorities and got my act together quickly, instead of being mired in anxiety and depression, I could probably have got in under the wire. And that might have changed everything.

I would think the schools thing is mostly about parents being able to work, plus maybe kids not getting much done at home. Although I agree the once a week thing makes more sense from a safety and mental health perspective.

[Tonkin]

Yep, people need to work to earn money and not have to worry about having to leave their kids at home to fend for/educate themselves.

The reasons for keeping schools open outweigh any reasons for shutting them wholesale.

[Dougella]

^^ They were supposed to be but now many schools are being told that laptops they were promised are going to be available in much smaller numbers. Right before we go into another lockdown.

[Mo34]

^ yeah

[Dougella]

Originally Posted by Kooky Monster

^ An article from 23rd October

Yes that's it.

[Dougella]

^ Yes.

[Deer]

Wondering how Biscuits and Hesse are doing :/

Wherever they are, hope they're alright.

[Mellie]

hope they are okay too.

[Dougella]

Originally Posted by Deer

Wondering how Biscuits and Hesse are doing :/

Wherever they are, hope they're alright.

HermannHesse is still around just under a different username, so keep an eye out

[choirgirl]

^^Does your doctor know all this? What do they say?