I went out with one of my son's tonight, the first time for months because of various lockdowns. We went to a local snooker club, at first it was nice, a couple of guys on the next table, a guy about same age has me and his son, and a group of young lads on a table round a corner but they seemed well behaved. But then three youngish guys came on the third table near us, then two more turned up then another who was really loud and roudy. then more young lads turned up on the table round the corner, there was supposed to be a system to keep the bathrooms safe but they just seemed to do what the wanted. I do not know if it is just me but I did not feel safe anymore, I just wanted to get out of the club, my son wanted to carry on playing. I just felt unsafe, what was the point in me and my wife being carefull for three ruddy months or more when this lot were acting like everything was normal. Does anybody else feel the same ?.

Yes. I have worked from home since March, we have done most of our shopping online, our children (12, 15, 17) have not gone out, other than the odd trip in the car with me (two of them didn't leave the house for over 3 months!). Since lockdown eased, we have not been out drinking or socialising. We have worn masks whenever we go to a shop, etc. Yet for months we have seen teenagers congregating in non-distanced groups, women (some men as well, but mainly women) stopping to chat in non-distanced groups and now schoolchildren all starting and finishing at staggered times, but having to travel crammed together on the bus! People without masks are everywhere in the shops and takeaways. As a result, our area (Trafford) has local restrictions, meaning that I can't visit my 79 and 83 year old parents. Even when that ends, as a family of five, the new restrictions will prevent us visiting as a family - despite us and our parents taking precautions all along.

I thought that all the people booking and travelling abroad for holidays (especially all bunched together on a plane) as soon as restrictions were lifted, was a very bad idea. I must admit that we have had a holiday, but not only was that booked before before we'd heard of COVID-19, but it was a perfect holiday for social distancing, as it was a week on a narrowboat. If it had been a week abroad, we'd have cancelled.

Similar situation here in NSW, people in shopping centres and cafe's going on like it never happened.

I do go out to the club, but I keep myself distanced.

Down in Victoria, of course, it's a different story!

Life as we knew it is either over,or were going to have to get used to living with the risk of  covid  and accept  live expectancy has taken a nose dive if we want the old normality back.Even with a vaccine it wlll only defend against the current version,once its mutated,which it already has,another vaccine will be needed and another,and who says nature wont design something new next year .  Lock downs dont work,new zealand being an example,unless you can self isolate every  country worldwide,good luck.The only certainty in life is death,its just going to either appear a bit earlier than was expected.

The trouble is that it is not just a bit earlier - the risks to the elderly could be knocking 10 or more years off and for those with diabetes or overweight, it could be 30+ years - and there are millions in those categories.

would be nice to see my son again, living in the Peoples Democratic State of Victoria, under the glorious leadership of our chairman Dan we have been in total lockdown for 8 weeks now and another 2 to go before they will consider letting us start to live again. All because some petty bureaucrat decided it would be too confronting for people in quarantine to see the army manning the doors.

Rant over.

Stay safe one and all

Graham

Round here I'm glad the main grockle season is over,  hoards of unmasked uncoordinated people wandering around.  Now during the week you see more locals masked up a behaving properly.  We still get a lot of second homers but they are generally older and better behaved.
The worry is these second homers are escaping the big  cities, particularly london and may bring the virus with them.  I expect I higher than usual number of them, to come every weekend.

During the school summer holidays I don't think I have ever seen West Cornwall so busy. Penzance and St Ives were really busy. Despite that we seem to escaped the worst of the virus.

I managed to get done what I needed to early mornings then stayed home

We've been very careful.
Cornwall, as @Phillip says, has been very busy, and still is.
Normally we go out for coffee at least three times a week but since mid March we haven't been near a coffee shop. Similarly, we haven't eaten out or been to a pub.
Any walking, eg the beach or clifftops etc has been very early morning to avoid the crowds.
Shopping is once a week and early but I must say that in my experience virtually everyone in the supermarkets and shops does wear a mask.
That's just our approach. We simply don't feel safe mingling at the moment and we are normally quite gregarious and outgoing,
I have made one trip to Wiltshire (in August) to see my children and very elderly patents. I even took a pee bottle in the car as I didn't want to enter the services !
I have, in the last two weeks, started to revisit our model railway club but only with one other member. We travel independently and work apart on different projects for our joint layout.
So.....are we being too careful?
I guess it's down to personal choice but we are doing our best to avoid contracting the virus.
What do  I miss most?
My fortnightly trips to the football in Bristol travelling by train and meeting son and grandson for a meal and a pint before the game. I see it being a long while before that happens again I'm afraid.

Thanks for the reply's everyone, what was annoying me was I had my temp checked on booking a table along with my son. Theses guys just walked in the place looked in and then stood round the table so no checks for them and then carried on has normal. We all have our time in life, I would prefer to die quickly or least if lying in a hospital bed be able to say goodbye to friends and relatives. This disease can take that away from you which is horrible, when you been in lockdown for weeks and unable to see my own two sons and friends and then to die alone is so cruel. Good luck to everyone and Keep Safe.

Sadly we are seeing the true colours of many citizens now. It's always been there but has surfaced and grown.
People in Bolton whining about restrictions and then reports in the news this morning police had to break up a wedding party of 100 plus in that town.
Decent weather means self centred animals travelling to other parts  of the country and shitting (literally in some cases) that area up. Litter everywhere, including used face masks which some other poor sod has to clean up.
I could go on but I think you can get how I feel about society at present.

From my limited experience, people have been generally fairly responsible in these parts, which is probably why we are in one of the least affected areas. I still hit the supermarket once a week at 7am, and we are able to see the grandsons once again, but otherwise not much has changed recently. We've been out for one pub lunch (outside table, ordering via app - absolutely fine) and we met some old friends in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago (not so fine, in my opinion, it was too crowded).

I do agree with @themadhippy to a certain extent - we are going to have to live with this for quite a while and we may have to accept a certain level of illness and death in the same way that we accept it for road casualties, many of which could be avoided if people followed the rules.

Keep Calm and Play Trains.

Chris

I've been working from home since March, and in that time I've been out of the house maybe 4 times, the most recent to get a McMuffin meal (had a real craving!)  I miss regular band practice with my mates, but I don't miss going out to the shops or pubs at all, and not going into the office everyday is fine by me 

Funnily enough, this morning I decided I needed to pop out and post a parcel to Germany, but seeing the queue at our local Post Office just put me right off the idea and it can wait till next week.

We have been effectively self-isolating for six months. Very little exposure to anyone. Click and collect at the shops. Masks at the post office. Only one person allowed into the model shop at any one time.
All was well until the kids went back to school. I made the mistake of going to the post office at 3.30. Total carnage. No one wearing masks in the post office. Hoards of kids not distancing from anyone. Made me feel sick. Made me think imposed isolation was a waste of time.

I work from home and my server had a RAM malfunction last month. My IT man had been round a couple of times and was going to visit the Tuesday after the bank holiday and replace the RAM. I was busy Tuesday so I said to him can you do Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon he gets a call saying he's been close to someone who has tested positive and has to self-isolate. No one will tell him where he might have been infected.

A few days later he thinks he might get a test, but he's had no symptoms. Blags a test despite no symptoms. He comes out positive too. Asymptomatic Covid. The weekend before he was told to isolate he went to his brother's 60th Birthday party, met his sister, her siblings and his 90 yo mum too.
Test and trace didnt want to know about him exposing them at all. I guess they only want to trace the people they are told to trace, not second and third generation exposure. So the whole thing is a total failure in my eyes.

He could have exposed me if I had not been busy that Tuesday morning and turned him away.
He might never have shown any symptoms and never thought he had Covid.
His family might not have got tested and they could have exposed others.

Now I read that the way vaccines will be distributed will be to essential care workers first, over 65s second, the rest last.
I've had no support from the Chancellor as I struggled to earn a living these six months and now no chance of a vaccine soon despite turning 60 on Monday and qualifying for a flu jab because of underlying health issues.

I feel pig sick about the youth of today and the random decisions being made to protect us, because every time I think I might qualify for something, I miss out for some reason or another. 
Rant over, but rant based on observation not opinion.

Still, free prescriptions from Monday.

Bob

First off, Happy Birthday for Monday Bob  .

Secondly, ...............

I initially put quite a rant in this reply about the position we all find ourselves in, on both sides of the Irish Sea, but decided that I had better delete it all before the Mod's got hold of me!  . Plus I would have started all sorts of comments about being 'draconian' or 'Orwellian'. Simplest to say that the behaviour of a lot of people just shows how much people care about society these days.