How is the corona virus affecting you?

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

[Mod. comment]:

Can I please ask folk to keep on topic in this thread. I am sure that many of us have strong views about how our political leaders are dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic, but this particular thread is to do with how Coronavirus is affecting our day to day life in terms of work, food, cooking, dealing with lockdown etc.

I'll back this up.

• I don't want this site to become a political debating area. It is for cooking and associated gardening or homesteading.
• I don't mind comments about how you feel the state of affairs affects you directly, but keep it polite and accurate, not inflammatory or trolling. These responded will be deleted.
• I don't mind the odd few lines of discussion if it is again kept polite (something politics rarely is).
• I don't mind a few posts off topic if they are friendly, polite and relevant to that branch of the thread provided it returns to the original thread topic within a few posts.

• But I don't want this site to become an area where members feel unwelcome because of their or others' political views and standpoint.
• I don't want any member to feel unwelcome or unhappy posting here (on the site, members can choose to post or not in individual threads as they feel).
• And I don't want this site to become a site where any particular (existing or potential) member feels that they would not be welcome here because of what they have read in old threads (and eventually this will become an old thread, and old topic.)

There are plenty of forums on the internet where you can go off and yell, argue and upset others and not deal with the consequences. This site is not one of them and the consequences here are much more visible with us being such a small closed knit community. Here, arguments and political bias have the potential to close the site down if they cause members to feel unwelcome and leave. The site is simply not large enough to withstand half the members leaving over a fallout.

So please, consider others. I know most people right now are going through a lot of stress, are missing out on social interaction, are struggling to adapt to an alien environment and struggling to adapt to living at home with others in the house all day, no way to escape them etc. This makes it harder for every one. It makes tempers fray and it makes people say things they would not normally say and then regret it later. So please, if you are in doubt as to whether to post, either ask the moderators (use the report button or ask in a PM to all of us), or hold fire for a few hours and read it again when you're less stressed and had chance to reconsider. If it still isn't a polite answer, or is politically insensitive or inflammatory, please don't post, just ignore it and move on. I know it can be hard to do this, but it is often for the best.

The t's & c's don't specifically mention politics, but they do mention politeness and consideration to others (Terms and rules) along with acceptable content and conduct. So I'll take this moment to remind all members of what is and isn't acceptable.

1. Content - Our forums are for a general audience and should be viewable by anyone, including children. Please do not post anything inappropriate in this setting. This includes, but is not limited to, profanity, sexual, sexualised or illicit content, hateful, threatening, racist, provocative or vulgar content, and links to websites and discussions encouraging illegal activity. Please do not circumvent the censoring options we have set up.
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Thank you.
SNSSO

 

[TastyReuben]

I think maybe we are a bit luckier in the UK. Being a smaller country, supermarket deliveries are well established here in most areas. Having said that, they have all been in a sort of melt down due to massive demand. Mostly though, if you can find a delivery slot, its not too bad. Mostly though, you can't find a delivery slot!

I think because I check frequently and 'score' a delivery slot, I've been lucky and have had deliveries (from Ocado & Morrisons).

When you say "delivery slot," is your meaning that you have to pick a specific time to have your groceries delivered to your house?

Here (meaning my area), delivery slots are for pickup only, and I think it's just a window of a couple of hours either way, but I'm not sure as if I'm going to the trouble of driving into a shop, I may as well just do my shopping.

For home delivery (from Kroger, anyway), it's just delivered by the regular post. They say two-day delivery, but that's more of an average. I got one box two days later, and the other boxes the following day.

 

[rascal]

Stupid Kroger online ordering!

I tried ordering 12 items online. First, they've stopped taking digital coupons for online delivery orders.

Second, out of my 12 items, they had one. One. Disposable razors. $6 for razors, $5 to ship, so that was a no.

They didn't have dill pickles. They didn't have Raisin Bran, for crying out loud. And, on top of that, they redesigned their app so that now it won't tell you something's out of stock until you check out. Before, it would display right up front. That means you get to go through the pain of shopping for your whole <BLEEP> order before you find out you're not getting anything. WTF?

I'm actually considering ordering a 25-lb bag of flour direct from a small family mill. Where in the hell am I going to put a 25-lb bag of flour?!?!

Like my parents used to say, I'm not mad, I'm just really disappointed.

I have about 15 jars of dill pickles from my garden, bottled in Jan and February. Bloody shipping???

Lol.

Russ

 

[rascal]

I think maybe we are a bit luckier in the UK. Being a smaller country, supermarket deliveries are well established here in most areas. Having said that, they have all been in a sort of melt down due to massive demand. Mostly though, if you can find a delivery slot, its not too bad. Mostly though, you can't find a delivery slot!

I think because I check frequently and 'score' a delivery slot, I've been lucky and have had deliveries (from Ocado & Morrisons).

Little to no wait here, mind you it's an up market supermarket. We shop,at new world, long queues at cheaper supermarkets like Pak n save ( pal n slap) countdown.

Russ

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

For home delivery (from Kroger, anyway), it's just delivered by the regular post. They say two-day delivery, but that's more of an average. I got one box two days later, and the other boxes the following day.

In the UK and here in Australia, you select a window in which your shopping will be delivered. You are expected to be in to receive it. In the past, you would sign for it as well.

If you were not in, it would not be delivered.

 

[Morning Glory]

When you say "delivery slot," is your meaning that you have to pick a specific time to have your groceries delivered to your house?

Yes, that's the way it works.

For home delivery (from Kroger, anyway), it's just delivered by the regular post. They say two-day delivery, but that's more of an average. I got one box two days later, and the other boxes the following day.

Here there are dedicated vans which come from the supermarket regional warehouses and deliver to your door within a time slot (usually a one hour or two hour slot). Before the virus the drivers would even carry the order into your kitchen and unload the groceries if you wanted. Now they leave them on the doorstep and stand back.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have had on it two great home deliveries in the past, neither of which were mine and both of which we ended up with all the items...

Someone, one of our distant neighbours, was throwing a summery garden party. No expense spared. The first delivery that was left at our address was £500 of fresh organic produce. Everything from butter (10 packs of), meat (loads and loads of), milk, bread, summer berries, etc. It was a large summer garden party for sure.

We came home to find this at our back door with a note pinned to our front door saying that the delivery was at the back door and he'd thought he'd be helpful and leave it for us even though we were out. The butter was the clue it had only just been left because despite it being 28°C outside, it was still rock solid not even soft. We surely rang Ocado, explained that it wasn't ours and were told to keep everything because it wad now considered to be spoilt produce having been left intended at a door (something the driver was prohibited from doing). This was 15 years ago now easily. We've not lived at that address for 10 years, so £500 of food was a lot. We kept most of what we could, freezing a lot of stuff and gave the rest to the guy who lived in the garage and to our friends.

Later that afternoon whilst we were out walking on the common, there was another delivery... This time of alcohol for the same person but this time the cost was 4 figures and didn't start with a 1! This time however there was no contact details for the company delivering it. No name nothing... and this time, as before, we had no way of contacting the person ordering it... that was a lot of alcohol and again it was decent stuff, not cheap plonk.


A few weeks later we had a 3rd delivery. Something much more useful but it had been dumped in the middle of the track blocking all parking points... A pallet loaf of wild bird feed... It took a long time to feed all of that to our wilds birds!

 

[rascal]

I have had on it two great home deliveries in the past, neither of which were mine and both of which we ended up with all the items...

Someone, one of our distant neighbours, was throwing a summery garden party. No expense spared. The first delivery that was left at our address was £500 of fresh organic produce. Everything from butter (10 packs of), meat (loads and loads of), milk, bread, summer berries, etc. It was a large summer garden party for sure.

We came home to find this at our back door with a note pinned to our front door saying that the delivery was at the back door and he'd thought he'd be helpful and leave it for us even though we were out. The butter was the clue it had only just been left because despite it being 28°C outside, it was still rock solid not even soft. We surely rang Ocado, explained that it wasn't ours and were told to keep everything because it wad now considered to be spoilt produce having been left intended at a door (something the driver was prohibited from doing). This was 15 years ago now easily. We've not lived at that address for 10 years, so £500 of food was a lot. We kept most of what we could, freezing a lot of stuff and gave the rest to the guy who lived in the garage and to our friends.

Later that afternoon whilst we were out walking on the common, there was another delivery... This time of alcohol for the same person but this time the cost was 4 figures and didn't start with a 1! This time however there was no contact details for the company delivering it. No name nothing... and this time, as before, we had no way of contacting the person ordering it... that was a lot of alcohol and again it was decent stuff, not cheap plonk.


A few weeks later we had a 3rd delivery. Something much more useful but it had been dumped in the middle of the track blocking all parking points... A pallet loaf of wild bird feed... It took a long time to feed all of that to our wilds birds!

Great stories and gains, lmao.

Russ

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Great stories and gains, lmao.

Russ

It was all related to where we lived and how the UK postal code system is set up and how sat nav worked in the early days.

You'd enter the postcode into the system and in a area full of houses you'd find it would give you the center of the postcode which applied to maybe 25 households. Easy when there are numbers.

Where i lived then, the center of the postcode was our house, a mile up a dirt track, on a military training area. The postcode applied to perhaps 5 houses spread along 8 miles of road... there were no house numbers which caused problems early on because often databases had a mandatory house number field... (select 0 if this was the case and if 0 was allowed) and we only had house names (enter in street address or comments field!). Often houses did not have a name plate at the road (like ours), so you simply had to know... It made directions interesting and essential...

We ended up with a lot of stuff that wasnt ours in the 12 years we lived there, not all of it wanted.

 

[rascal]

It was all related to where we lived and how the UK postal code system is set up and how sat nav worked in the early days.

You'd enter the postcode into the system and in a area full of houses you'd find it would give you the center of the postcode which applied to maybe 25 households. Easy when there are numbers.

Where i lived then, the center of the postcode was our house, a mile up a dirt track, on a military training area. The postcode applied to perhaps 5 houses spread along 8 miles of road... there were no house numbers which caused problems early on because often databases had a mandatory house number field... (select 0 if this was the case and if 0 was allowed) and we only had house names (enter in street address or comments field!). Often houses did not have a name plate at the road (like ours), so you simply had to know... It made directions interesting and essential...

We ended up with a lot of stuff that wasnt ours in the 12 years we lived there, not all of it wanted.

No google maps eh?? Oh how things have changed eh?

Russ

 

[TastyReuben]

My sister got laid off today (not furloughed, but laid off). She worked in a nursing home, head of their medical records department. She said they let about 30 people go.

Being in a nursing home, she was considered essential and had to go to work each day, so she went from being essential this morning to out of a job this afternoon. Weird how that works, huh?

Anyway, I talked to her earlier, and this whole thing, and possibly being exposed every day, was really doing her nervous system in, so she's not as upset as she normally would be.

 

[Backbay]

My sister got laid off today (not furloughed, but laid off). She worked in a nursing home, head of their medical records department. She said they let about 30 people go.

Being in a nursing home, she was considered essential and had to go to work each day, so she went from being essential this morning to out of a job this afternoon. Weird how that works, huh?

Anyway, I talked to her earlier, and this whole thing, and possibly being exposed every day, was really doing her nervous system in, so she's not as upset as she normally would be.

Sorry to hear that happened to your sister. Definitely weird how that works as you stated. It almost seems implausible in a time of pandemic, that health care workers are being laid off.

Every day I am amazed at the bravery of the health care workers who go into their job every day to care for others at the expense of endangering their own health.

I hope she finds peace/relief from less exposure on a daily basis while balancing the stress that job loss can bring. Sending good vibes to your sister.

 

[caseydog]

Sorry to hear that happened to your sister. Definitely weird how that works as you stated. It almost seems implausible in a time of pandemic, that health care workers are being laid off.

My sister is an RN at a busy hospital in Houston, but she works in a surgical unit, and all elective surguries have been put off until further notice by the Governor of Texas. So, there is very little going on in her unit. She was sent home without pay for now.

She has a ton of seniority, so the hospital is finding things for her to do for one or two days a week That keeps all her benefits active. She is also fortunate that she is probably amoung the highest paid nurses in Houston, due to her experience and the nature of her work. So, she'll be fine. She's not used to being at home for days on end.

Some of her peers are younger, and have kids at home. They need the money to get by.

CD

 

[Yorky]

These are the "reported" figures for Thailand since the start of 2020:

Death on the roads = 4823

Death by Covid-19 = 43

 

[epicuric]

My sister is an RN at a busy hospital in Houston, but she works in a surgical unit, and all elective surguries have been put off until further notice by the Governor of Texas. So, there is very little going on in her unit. She was sent home without pay for now.

She has a ton of seniority, so the hospital is finding things for her to do for one or two days a week That keeps all her benefits active. She is also fortunate that she is probably amoung the highest paid nurses in Houston, due to her experience and the nature of her work. So, she'll be fine. She's not used to being at home for days on end.

Some of her peers are younger, and have kids at home. They need the money to get by.

CD

It is weird. We went to our doctor's surgery this morning to pick up a prescription. Apparently, dispensing prescriptions is all thats keeping them busy. Where have all the sick folks gone?