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The slow crawl out of self distancing
- Thread starter c0tt0nt0p
- Start date
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
In my exile location, I am lucky enough to have an excellent builder's merchant/hardware store just half a mile away.
When I've needed stuff, I ring them, give them the gist of what I'm after, then I get a call back in a few minutes from an appropriate staff member, we discuss my requirements briefly, agree on the items to be supplied, then I pop down on the bike and hang around in the spacious yard, within chatting distance of a few other blokes, who are waiting for their stuff, and then my stuff appears out through the door, payment is made and I set off back to The Chalet.
It's a similar arrangement with the chemist, the prescription is dropped into them direct from the GP (last night for the next one), I ring them and get an idea of when I should turn up. This limits the number of people hanging around in the street. When it's my turn, the stuff is handed out via the cat flap they've fitted into the door and I set off back here with it.
Raven
Well-Known Forumite
Sorry now edited
Mikinton
Well-Known Forumite
I agree. Maybe the facepalm emoji is the most appropriate at the moment.
I think, as a nation, we're playing at this at the moment. We sort-of think, in a couple of months, we'll be all back to normal. Supermarkets should be redesigning themselves to promote social distancing rather than just tweaking things as they are at the moment. There should be more self checkout and minimal intervention by staff (if you want to buy booze, there's a separate section of the store where, if necessary, they check your age on the way in).
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Perrier
Banned
I agree. Maybe the facepalm emoji is the most appropriate at the moment.
I think, as a nation, we're playing at this at the moment. We sort-of think, in a couple of months, we'll be all back to normal. Supermarkets should be redesigning themselves to promote social distancing rather than just tweaking things as they are at the moment. There should be more self checkout and minimal intervention by staff (if you want to buy booze, there's a separate section of the store where, if necessary, they check your age on the way in).
i agree
I reckon this will be coming in the near future , the age of the ' customer experience ' is at its end and this social attacking virus is going to be the last straw. Once the supermarkets have the tools in place then will come the redundancies .
c0tt0nt0p
Well-Known Forumite
I always liked that in the Australian supermarkets...
Thehooperman
Well-Known Forumite
I saw that car or a car on a similar activity when I had to take Bee to the vets by the Hough this afternoon and I thought exactly the same. How is that in any way buying "essential" shopping?
c0tt0nt0p
Well-Known Forumite
Well its not is it, but BoJo and the government haven't got the bollocks to enforce anything stricter despite there being a need...
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
I feel that if you had told us from the beginning that you were an epidemiologist, a more significant weight could have been given to your contributions.
I'm also trying to get support for an idea that, for me, has no discernible downside whatsoever - given that we seem to be quite open to the idea of allowing Economists to make important Public Health decisions.
Perhaps we could, in parallel, pluck a Surgeon from the nearest hospital to Westminster - if in the middle of a procedure all's the better - to become the new Governor of the Bank of England, then give them free range to direct monetary policy for the next three months? Obviously the current Governor would be expected to fully replace the Surgeon immediately, finish and close up - let's hope it's not something too complicated!
Sounds good, what?
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Just playing devil's advocate for a minute here but...
Maybe, just maybe, these people might be buying plants for somebody else who is unable to get out for whatever reason. Maybe, just maybe, this person lives alone and only has the garden as a way of trying to make sense and maintain their sanity during these strange times. As long as the shops are selling these goods, people are permitted to buy whatever they have for sale.
Nonetheless, whether these plants were for somebody else or the couple themselves, we have no idea of their background and / or their intentions. They may have had other DIY goods in the car that they needed for their house and saw the plants for sale (on the website) and thought, "You know what, this covid thing's a bit sh1t and we feel like sh1t. How about buying some plants to cheers us while we're here?"
As it happens, I will be doing my weekly shop in the coming days. I shall be buying my food shopping at Aldi and whilst I'm at it, I shall go into B&M and (hopefully) buy some canes. Now they may not seem essential items to anybody else, but it is to the peas and beans I'm currently growing in my garden so I can be more self sufficient and not have to leave the house so often for food shopping.
c0tt0nt0p
Well-Known Forumite
You're right, but in some cases it's blatantly not essential travel. I was on the motorway 2 weeks taking the wife to Birmingham for an operation and we passed a chap in a range rover towing a brand new hot tub on a trailer.
Some examples are ambiguous and others are plain obvious.
c0tt0nt0p
Well-Known Forumite
I don't doubt anyone would argue someone buying canes to facilitate home food production.....
Perrier
Banned
ive noticed quite a few essential workers complaining on what others are doing on social media then quite obviously skewing the guidance to suit themselves.
Those people that do tend to be in and out all day relentlessly are more likely to exposure to the virus as it is , they are not immune , and more importantly , could be infecting more people around them.
if they are going to carry on regardless , maybe its best they dont advertise themselves online .
Mikinton
Well-Known Forumite
We go most days for our hour's daily walk around the estate, usually alongside the Cannock or Lichfield roads, and have noticed the increase in traffic over the last 6 weeks. And often with two people in the car rather than one. (TBF We've been guilty of the latter, though one of us has always been along for the ride while the other does the shopping.)
And we also need some canes, and bags of compost. I can see us making a trip to a garden centre next week assuming the restrictions come off.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
I'm about as isolated as it's possible to be. I had an interaction through the chemist's cat flap yesterday, I went shopping in a virtually deserted supermarket on Tuesday evening - before that, my previous outside interaction was the same shopping trip on the Tuesday of the week before.
Despite this, I have managed to catch a cold, which is now wearing off after a day. Colds do seem to rely on the same sort of mechanism as the Corona thingy and it is hard to see how I obtained this.
The potential to have 'another go' at containing this does seem quite large.
It struck me that some of the people celebrating VE75 might have had more concern about reducing the spread of a disease with a high propensity to kill the remaining WW2 survivors.
Despite this, I have managed to catch a cold, which is now wearing off after a day. Colds do seem to rely on the same sort of mechanism as the Corona thingy and it is hard to see how I obtained this.
The potential to have 'another go' at containing this does seem quite large.
It struck me that some of the people celebrating VE75 might have had more concern about reducing the spread of a disease with a high propensity to kill the remaining WW2 survivors.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
It's an interesting project to ask a hundred random people when VJ Day is.
Carole
Well-Known Forumite
I can't speak for how others behaved but we were extremely careful.
One neighbours has had a transplant and he and his family didn't move from the drive.
We personally are taking it all very seriously and although I spoke to other families we all kept so far back from each other.
I think that we were lucky that we live in quiet a cul de sac with a wide road so we could be on opposite sides of the road and all a good distance apart.
A huge proportion of our neighbours are self distancing, having home deliveries, not leaving the house, not going to shops, wiping all their shopping down with anti bacterial wipes before putting it away, they weren't then going to put themselves at risk by going too close to someone else.