New Year's Countdown

SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Well it seems 2020 wasn't done with me yet.
I've just been told I need multifocal lenses but not because I need reading glasses or help in that area (I'm short sighted) but because I can't focus on a timely manner on distance... seems that the ligaments holding my lenses in places are too tight (I have a bad astigmatism) and as such are actually stopping me focusing on distance. Once they relax, I can see more clearly. By using reading glasses, it takes the strain off the ligaments and allows me to focus in a more timely manner (seconds rather than minutes) on distance stuff. So it's a 4 figure job for my glasses in multifocals (I always have the polarizing lenses and extra thin lenses because of my prescription and issues with my nose, I can't have contacts period, they can't correct my eyesight even before this). Grrr
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You really are having a bad time. It has got to get better!! Only 11 hrs to go,lol.

Russ
 
We are looking forward to tomorrow when our close friends will come out of quarantine and visit. We both just want this F'ing year over. Up until Christmas week we were happy that we were not too badly affected. This week has had a really bad sting in it's tail in particular for my wife. We are treating today as a normal day ie going to bed at the usual time.
 
Burt Blank said:
We are looking forward to tomorrow when our close friends will come out of quarantine and visit. We both just want this F'ing year over. Up until Christmas week we were happy that we were not too badly affected. This week has had a really bad sting in it's tail in particular for my wife. We are treating today as a normal day ie going to bed at the usual time.
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Here's hoping the best for your wife.
 
Burt Blank said:
We are treating today as a normal day ie going to bed at the usual time.
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We always have done. Gave up on the family gatherings decades ago and usually spent new years Eve in a tent. Alcohol, snow and winter in a tent when it's dark at 4pm simply never mixed as far as we were concerned (and we've camped over New Year when it has dropped to -18°C (just under 0°F).) So we would just eat evening meal, prep for the following morning (little things like making sure water was in the kettle, flasks full of hot water, porridge in its cooking vessel because everything is frozen the following morning and if it isn't where you plan to cook it, you won't be cooking it tomorrow, anytime tomorrow..., and then we'd play a round of cards or two, curl up in our amazing sleeping bags (needed trust me! ) and sleep for the night unaware of the passing of the Year.



But my gut feeling is that this coming year is actually going to be harder on people than the last year for most countries. Too many people are pinning their hopes on a vaccine thinking cure, vaccines are not cures sadly and as already shown it is mutating and i doubt that these new strains are covered with the vaccines. I don't see the next 12 months getting any easier tbh and I know compared to most, we have it very easy here in Australia (except for restrictions that are now normal, can't travel overseas, can't in many cases travel interstate, very little in the way of flights anywhere and what there is are desperately expensive now. We'd always had an emergency fund big enough to get us back to the UK if a family member needed it. Now not only do we have to get an exception, through an agent, but you have to buy business or 1st class flights to stand any chance of getting your seat and to then have to pay 2 weeks quarantine in a hotel at +$1,000 per week per person if you actually manage to get back to Australia (currently restricted to something like 4,000 passengers per month for all of Australia).

I don't know if you are aware, but everywhere we go to, shops, restaurants, tourist centers, opticians, and so on, you are meant to 'check in' either by scanning a QR code or signing in manually on paper. That's ACT (Aussie capital). In NSW, you are meant to sign in, sign out, confirm with text code to your phone, enter code manually enter check on, log in all persons individually and any dependents... ACT only requires 1 person in the group. I don't think petrol stations are included yet, but supermarkets are, physio, doctors, superstores, cafes, takeaway trailers, swimming pools, health clubs, hospital (went without saying).... yep, the only place I can come up with right now that we don't have to sign in, was the multistorey car park and the petrol station. Eat at a rest area and you need to sign in... Eat at a petrol station and you need to sign in. Just fill up seems ok at present...

I have no issues with it, but I do wonder if people outside of NSW/ACT have any idea. I know it also varies from territory to territory to state and so on. A different app for each as well.

It's working, where it is followed but as Christmas news has shown, It is not always followed. Too many people actually are thinking they are safe from it here and they are not. It's not done with us yet. The only glimmer of hope is that the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is actually bad by Aussie standards which might just keep the traditional crowds away from the traditional beaches where 60,000 plus usually try to be on New Year's Day. And sadly those beaches are right in the middle of the current outbreak.

No I don't see next year being any easier sadly.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Too many people are pinning their hopes on a vaccine thinking cure, vaccines are not cures sadly and as already shown it is mutating and i doubt that these new strains are covered with the vaccines.
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When was the last polio pandemic? Viruses mutate, scientists don't stop working, hence the flu jab I had this year was a cocktail that changes every year. My beef is with those stupid people who spread the virus because of their refusal to listen to Doctors and Scientists and abide by the simple precautions. According to Oxford University Croatia had the toughest lock down rules in the world for the first wave. It worked culminating in seven days of no new infections. The government was pressured into opening the borders to let the tourists in and we out performed even the UK with infections.
 
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4 hrs to go, just got home from drinking with people that just kept turning up. We went to have a quiet drink and a few bets, three friends turned up, one of them has his birthday today. We sat together then two other friends turned up. Then another then another guy, my best mate who called in to see birthday boy. Turned into 4 hr session. Wife drove home, bk on the way home. Watching a doco about queen and having a few rums.
Enjoy your night peeps. :)

Russ
 
rascal said:
4 hrs to go, just got home from drinking with people that just kept turning up. We went to have a quiet drink and a few bets, three friends turned up, one of them has his birthday today. We sat together then two other friends turned up. Then another then another guy, my best mate who called in to see birthday boy. Turned into 4 hr session. Wife drove home, bk on the way home. Watching a doco about queen and having a few rums.
Enjoy your night peeps. :)

Russ
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Russers mate have a good time. It's my kid brothers birthday at midnight. We both miss the bugger !
 
Less than 3 hrs here. I'll see it in bed hopefully, though the last few nights have been patchy and midnight seen for most of the last week. We're both exhausted from the day out (combined with an eyesight test), so there is a chance of this storm quietens down.

None of my family will bother wishing me a happy New Year in the morning. They didn't on Christmas day, our wedding anniversary or even my birthday. As far as they are concerned the only timezone that exists is theirs. After nearly 5 years of being polite about it, it is beginning to hurt. Even my in-laws rang me on my birthday in my timezone and wished me happy birthday (this year like all of them since we came to Australia) . Yet my own family seem to think that it's fine to wish me happy birthday/Merry Christmas/ happy New Year a day late. I don't understand it.

Perhaps my new years resolution should be to actually tell my family ... not much point though. It won't get anywhere....


And on that bright note...
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Well it seems 2020 wasn't done with me yet.
I've just been told I need multifocal lenses but not because I need reading glasses or help in that area (I'm short sighted) but because I can't focus on a timely manner on distance... seems that the ligaments holding my lenses in places are too tight (I have a bad astigmatism) and as such are actually stopping me focusing on distance. Once they relax, I can see more clearly. By using reading glasses, it takes the strain off the ligaments and allows me to focus in a more timely manner (seconds rather than minutes) on distance stuff. So it's a 4 figure job for my glasses in multifocals (I always have the polarizing lenses and extra thin lenses because of my prescription and issues with my nose, I can't have contacts period, they can't correct my eyesight even before this). Grrr
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Mod comment: Please note that a whole series of posts which followed from this, have been moved to a new thread about wearing glasses: Wearing glasses
 
I don't know what this tells you about my life, but I've had worse years than 2020. Yes it was an odd year in many ways and there were some difficult times but I was very lucky that me and everyone I love got to keep our jobs and our health. During a good part of the year I had more peace of mind than I've ever had in my life, because I do get along well with a certain amount of alone time and working from home has allowed me to manage my stress better. I discovered dancing and the joy it brings me. I read a lot more (except last part of the year where I don't feel like reading). I discovered new recipes. I lost weight and exercised more often. I met someone very special to me. There were grievances and issues but looking at the grand scheme of things I'll consider them minor. So all in all it wasn't bad and I'm lucky. Wish everyone a happy 2021.
 
I first got infected with the Coronavirus back in late February, around the 25th or so. Since then, I have had no problems, probably because I have developed a body memory to do a quick antibody response. I think a lot of people have reached that stage now. Unfortunately, some have not and while some survive the virus, a good percentage of people do not.
 
LissaC said:
I don't know what this tells you about my life, but I've had worse years than 2020. Yes it was an odd year in many ways and there were some difficult times but I was very lucky that me and everyone I love got to keep our jobs and our health. During a good part of the year I had more peace of mind than I've ever had in my life, because I do get along well with a certain amount of alone time and working from home has allowed me to manage my stress better. I discovered dancing and the joy it brings me. I read a lot more (except last part of the year where I don't feel like reading). I discovered new recipes. I lost weight and exercised more often. I met someone very special to me. There were grievances and issues but looking at the grand scheme of things I'll consider them minor. So all in all it wasn't bad and I'm lucky. Wish everyone a happy 2021.
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I have had worse years also, but I won't relate that collection of years here. The thing about 2020 is that it has been a bad year for so many people, all at once. 2021 is already here for some past the International Date Line. So we can put 2020 in the past at last.
 
flyinglentris said:
I have had worse years also, but I won't relate that collection of years here. The thing about 2020 is that it has been a bad year for so many people, all at once. 2021 is already here for some past the International Date Line. So we can put 2020 in the past at last.
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Let's see what 2021 brings. I'm usually hopeful and I believe 2021 will definitely be better but that may not be the case at all. Just because the year is changing, doesn't mean anything else will change with it.
 
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