Coronavirus.

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
I had to pop to get some antibiotics on Friday and lots of people were picking up kits from the pharmacy.

I'm not doing home test kits as at the moment I don't think I need to, I'm working from home as is the OH and go to the supermarket once a week, normally on the day I've done a LFT at the vaccination centre. If I start to go back to work at all then I will.
Apparently Gnosall health Centre have been pretty good at publicising this, I first heard about it from someone who works there. We have a test before we go to "check up " on an elderly relative who lives in the area, we used to get tested at either the Kingston Centre or the Grisvenor Centre on the way. About 6 weeks ago we were at the Grisvenor on a Saturday & it was the last day they were testing there. It closed due to lack of demand.
 

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
I did buy the odd Newsletter in the 70s and 80s, but not many.
.
The good old newsletter. I haven't read it for many years& it was full of adverts or other crap back then. I was told this weekend that the current edition has 8 pages devoted to the scandal of the Bank House.
No changes there then
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Well I'm getting ready to drive up to Westward Ho! for my second jab. Not sure what to expect traffic wise it being a Bank Holiday. But rain is forecast soon, perhaps it will be accessible. I'm going early just in case.
(Gets in car and drives off into the sunset. Except it's the wrong way for sunsets and there isn't any Sun anyway. :roll:)
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
My cohort is impending where I am, so I thought I would make an attempt at joining in. Not being a 'resident' seemed likely to cause some bureaucratic issues - I don't have the requisite PRS number, in particular, so I decided to use the phone line, rather than the online system, so discussions could be had about the inconsistencies that would occur. The call was answered so quickly, after the initial automatic preamble that I was caught unawares - we discussed my situation and she filled in the form on her screen - at one point, it seemed a good idea to put the local GP down as where I was registered, even though I wasn't. I promised to ring them to warn them, in case this caused some bureaucratic issue later on.

I rang them the next day - the receptionist answered (rather more than I have come to expect from my Stafford surgery!) - I told her who I was and explained that, for vaccine purposes, we were pretending that I am registered there - "That's OK, I'll tell him and we'll sort out what happens, if anything".

A minute later, the phone rang "I can register you now, if you like?" - "Yeah. OK" - thirty seconds later, I am registered.

I have, in the past, tried to explain to her just how different things are to the east...
So, today was Jab Day. This involved the excitement of a trip to the county town, where a hotel ballroom is being used as the venue.

11:30 was the appointment - "please don't arrive more than five minutes early", it said, so I arrived at 11:25 and the bouncer made sure that I had the requisite items on me. My 'presentation' was checked at the entrance and this revealed that I don't, as a non-resident, have a Personal Public Services number - this will identify you to most state services. We had discussed this potential difficulty on the phone and I was assured "Ah, it'll be OK" - and it was, the official actually went ahead of me to prime others about the 'difficulty' that we had and the path was smooth from there on.

I was jabbed at 11:40 and, apart from the actually stabbing, the only short period of trauma occurred then, when I was issued with a Paddington Bear-style sticker which defined my "Expiry Time".

I survived this 15 minutes in what was more agreeably termed the Recovery Area and was out on the street at 11:55.

Being 25 miles away, there was actually nobody I knew there, but there were many small (distanced) groups forming - as the nearest thing to 'going to the pub' they had done for a year.

I overheard talk of using our weight-of-numbers to force the bar shutters, but the bouncer looked like she would bring a good few down if they tried that. Being in the vanguard would have been a bad idea.

The weather on the way back was spectacular - a real winter storm.

No "effects" yet - we will see what tomorrow brings.


The good old newsletter. I haven't read it for many years& it was full of adverts or other crap back then. I was told this weekend that the current edition has 8 pages devoted to the scandal of the Bank House.
No changes there then
Adverts would have been the only reason i bought it - I certainly wouldn't have been buying it for news...
 

The Hawk

Well-Known Forumite
So, today was Jab Day.

No "effects" yet - we will see what tomorrow brings.
Mark_Wing-Davey_as_Zaphod_Beeblebrox.jpg
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
I have a home test kit knocking around but I mostly got it in case a client turned up without being able to get tested that morning. For some reason they put a hard deadline on businesses ordering workplace tests and declined my application as well

I take it there’s still no “walk in and ask if they’ve got leftovers” for the Stafford centres by the way?
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
I have a home test kit knocking around but I mostly got it in case a client turned up without being able to get tested that morning. For some reason they put a hard deadline on businesses ordering workplace tests and declined my application as well

I take it there’s still no “walk in and ask if they’ve got leftovers” for the Stafford centres by the way?

Home tests are available from any chemist free now, and from any of the testing centres. Or online at the gov site.... Hope you get your jab soon, I got my second 4 weeks before I should of, so hopefully it won't be a long wait for you.
 
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Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
I'm exactly the same. Since that Sun headline 'Gotcha' in 1982 I decided newspapers weren't even fit for purpose hanging on a piece of string in the bog.
The Daily Mail's “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” headline brought me to the same conclusion.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
The good old newsletter. I haven't read it for many years& it was full of adverts or other crap back then. I was told this weekend that the current edition has 8 pages devoted to the scandal of the Bank House.
No changes there then
No, half of page 13 devoted to the scandal of the Bank House.
 

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
I have a home test kit knocking around but I mostly got it in case a client turned up without being able to get tested that morning. For some reason they put a hard deadline on businesses ordering workplace tests and declined my application as well

I take it there’s still no “walk in and ask if they’ve got leftovers” for the Stafford centres by the way?
If you order through the site I linked they send a pack of 7 tests, every time I've ordered they've arrived the next day. There's no cross referencing the tests so they don't know what test kit has been sent where ( if you get my drift) so there shouldn't be a problem ordering them with your personal details but then using them for business I order a pack every week & 3 of us use the same pack. There's no compulsion to report the results either.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
If you order through the site I linked they send a pack of 7 tests, every time I've ordered they've arrived the next day. There's no cross referencing the tests so they don't know what test kit has been sent where ( if you get my drift) so there shouldn't be a problem ordering them with your personal details but then using them for business I order a pack every week & 3 of us use the same pack. There's no compulsion to report the results either.
Yup, same.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Got to Westward Ho! and had an hour and a half before my jab time, but had no difficulty parking. It was semi-busy, but total cloud cover and a strong south westerly wind had coats and gloves on most people. Walked around the place for an hour then got my jab and scooted off home in steady rain, which is still falling.
On my walk I noticed this sea pool rather spectacularly carved out of the rocks. But nobody was swimming in it !!

Bloody pansies !!! .... now if I'd had my bathers with me ...... (cough) :roll:

WestwardPool.jpg
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Got to Westward Ho! and had an hour and a half before my jab time, but had no difficulty parking. It was semi-busy, but total cloud cover and a strong south westerly wind had coats and gloves on most people. Walked around the place for an hour then got my jab and scooted off home in steady rain, which is still falling.
On my walk I noticed this sea pool rather spectacularly carved out of the rocks. But nobody was swimming in it !!

Bloody pansies !!! .... now if I'd had my bathers with me ...... (cough) :roll:

View attachment 10506
We had a pool like that in Cyprus - I actually threw a stone into the sea from it, just to make the point. It was fed with pumped seawater. It seemed a great idea to me, but I have always been unable to find it on Google Maps, which seemed really odd - until yesterday, when someone posted current pictures of it on Facebook, showing that it had been filled in, for some bizarre reason.

It is the vague rectangle of brown vegetation here, to the east of the remains of the concrete base of the changing rooms (which weren't there in my time, I'm sure).

https://www.google.com/maps/place/R...c4af99f94a58b39!8m2!3d34.5900986!4d32.9892064
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I see on the Google map that 95 people have reviewed RAF Akrotiri with an average score of 3.7 stars. Reviewing an RAF base?
To be fair to the reviewers, it was/is one of the better ones - I would happily have stayed there.

We were deported from there to RAF Hemswell, which is the worst place I've ever lived in.

A definite No Stars.
 
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