Poorly chicken

[Alis girls]

Did you walk or use transport? Or are these places on your doorstep? 

We are NW London so dont fancy having use transport into town. But I agree I would love to go into town and walk round. 

[patsylabrador]

We're NW London too. We drove down the A40, through areas I can never quite get the hang of to Brick Lane. It's something we've done forever. The beigel shop is open 24hrs so we've visited at night, early morning whatever. Then Comercial Street (Jack the Ripper murder) to Woolwich. I forgot to navigate so we ended up going past billingsgate. After the ferry we drove through Catford, Southwark etc back into London. I highly recommend it. I think it's what Boris wanted, people to clear out the cobwebs and feel strong about the next couple of months. It did that for me anyway. Empty London street photos.... 

[mullethunter]

That looks fantastic PL - what a treat. Trips to the countryside will be available always but there will probably never be another chance to drive through and see London like this. Don’t get me wrong, I love where I live and I wouldn’t change it for the world, but I’m very jealous of your day out.

[Cat tails]

Me too! The only thing I really wish I could visit is all those empty great cities!

[Patricia W]

Sadly, we classed as elderly and vulnerable can only watch you all enjoying more freedom with envy.....   

[Alis girls]

I know the East end well trained there. Its busy car wise near us. Sad as I loved hearing birds.  Where did you park. 

[patsylabrador]

Patricia. I apologise for posting the pictures. I have a terrible urge to share and didn't think about whether it might make anyone feel miserable. Are these slightly more relaxed restrictions useful? 

2.1 Does easing restrictions apply to healthy 70 year olds and over?

The advice for those aged 70 and over continues to be that they should take particular care to minimise contact with others outside their household.

If they do go out more frequently, they should be careful to maintain distance from others. They and everyone should continue to comply with any general social distancing restrictions.

We know that those aged 70 and over can be absolutely fit and healthy and it’s not the case that everybody over 70 has a chronic health condition or an underlying disease.

But unfortunately, we also know that as you get older, there is a higher risk of coronavirus having a more serious impact with infection. Complications and deaths are more common in the elderly, even those without pre-existing conditions.

Anyone who has been advised to shield by the NHS or their GP, including those 70 and over, should continue to do this until at least the end of June.

 

8 hours ago, Alis girls said:

I know the East end well trained there. Its busy car wise near us. Sad as I loved hearing birds.  Where did you park. 

It turned into a road trip. We had the idea that we would park up and walk along the Thames but that didn't work out so we just stayed in the vehicle. Probably better really, it was nice to get out and we didn't go near anyone. 

[The Dogmother]

I lived around that area when I was in London, once lived in Stoke Newington and there was a wonderful bagel shop there.

[mullethunter]

My best friend lives just off Kingsland Road (the A10) right between Hoxton and Dalston. I love going to visit her it’s a brilliant area.

[The Dogmother]

This just tickled my giggle button

[Patricia W]

Don’t worry about posting pics, PL.   it’s one way to see more of the outside world!   Not being able to hug the grandchildren is the worst.    I love the explanation about masks!   

[Cat tails]

Anyone watched the Eurovision last night?

I think we really missed out with some songs, but then again... not missed anything with others... 😂

[Beantree]

Yes we watched it. Some real classics and some really awful songs.

Lockdown here was eased slightly on 11th, but it seems people around here are still not confident going out and are staying home. We went out to a supermarket to collect our face masks and called in at the tip close by with a full van load for composting. The place was deserted, except for the attendant who told us our stuff can't be unloaded without an appointment; one for Ester Ranston to give a 'jobsworth hat' to I think. So now we've got to ring up, make an appointment and drive all the way back!

[soapdragon]

Thus increasing any potential risk - doh!

[Beantree]

It got worse Soapdragon. Rang the tip for an appointment only to get an answer machine message telling me to phone another number, so rang that and got a message saying that number didn't exist. So I phoned someone else and they gave me the same number! Then the phone rang but I missed the call. Checked the number and it was the tip, so phoned back and finally got an appointment for 1520 today; don't do afternoons normally because of leaving the chickens out, but can't afford to wait any longer as we've run out of sacks, the van is full and getting rather smelly. I get to try out our face masks for the first time though.

[Daphne]

That sounds like our experience when phoning to get a date for a medical.  It was just like yours, except it also involved standing in front of somebody, but he refused to deal with us, telling us to phone back on Tuesday at 8am.   As everybody had to ring on Tues at 8am, it was impossible to get through.  Several Tuesdays later we managed to get through, only to find ourselves speaking to the man who had refused to deal with us in person.   I hope you don't mind, but we said to ourselves that it was just like French bureaucracy.  It was also like being in a Kafka novel.  On another occasion we were exchanging our UK driving licences for Portugal ones.  However the woman refused to deal with me because I hadn't taken a ticket marking my place in the queue, stupidly thinking I was with my OH and 1 ticket would do for both of us.  You live and learn.

As of today, we can go to cafes, bars and restaurants, with 2m distancing and only 50% occupancy, as well as larger shops.  On 6th June the beaches will open with lots of instructions about we must keep our umbrellas 2m apart!  Some school years can go back today/soon, creches will open as well.  We are not going to rush out and avail ourselves of it all, but it is encouraging to see some signs of life locally, as we have had low infection and death rates for a few weeks now, fingers crossed.

[Beantree]

Our licence exchanges were being dealt with by a centre in Nantes Daphne. After waiting 14 months one came back processed and a few weeks later the other not; they're overloaded because of Brexit. If licences are not exchanged by then you will have to retake the test and as my French probably isn't up to it, that may be a problem. The big problem though is the cost, which is set by the government. If I remember correctly the minimum number of lessons you must have added to the admin fees comes to €600. I needed to go to our admin centre for a residency permit, which I eventually got. Our first visit I was given a number and went into the office to find a queue about 3 hours long, so I took my ticket back on the way out. Best to arrive before they open in the morning.

Things are slowly opening here, the big events being hairdressers and some beaches. We're watching the hospitalised numbers. We've been stage 1 unlocked for a week and the daily reduction in hospital admissions is tailing off, down from several hundred to just 60, which means the infection rate is rising. See what tomorrow brings? Mortality numbers are pretty meaningless here due to delays in reporting. We had 80, 70, 250 and then 450 because the retirement homes were slow. But intensive care numbers are better at 2050, down from 7200 at the peak.

[Blackrocksrock]

Went 6 miles to the pharmacy for a prescription for my OH    You would think we had no lockdown at all now as the level of traffic is almost back to the normal here.   Scotland is still in lockdown so no idea why but think' people are Fed up.  It makes me mad.  I was also the only one wearing a mask in the pharmacy.   
Still cases every day in our county too.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Blackrocksrock

[Daphne]

I hope you get your licences sorted out Beantree, I can understand your worries, the same would have happened to us regarding having to take a test in Portugal.  We were given photocopies of a temporary Portugeuse licence with an official stamp from the office, with the assurance a real licence would arrive within a month, allowing for contact with DVLC.  We got them within about 3 weeks.

If I was in England, I would be very reluctant about venturing out beyond the necessary journeys, even though I accept we can't spend the rest of our lives in houses, but the rate of new cases still seems very high to me.  I guess being outside is safer, so that's not so bad.  In our region there have been no new cases for 2 weeks, so I am a bit reassured, but still cautious.

[Beantree]

They have to check with the DVLC in France as well Daphne, because you can't exchange your licence if you have any penalty points on it. You also have to chose if you want to take a medical to keep commercial categories. The towing limit is very low here at just 300Kg total I think? We used to tow a 2000Kg box trailer, which would now need a yearly medical to do; just as well we sold it.

The figures in England are pretty awful and don't seem to be improving significantly. Having said that France isn't great either. They are now finding companies that have a large percentage of infected staff; 25 'centres of infection' last week.

[Daphne]

Ah yes, the medical.  We had to do one for the actual licence.  It consisted of being asked how tall you were, what you weighed, having your blood pressure checked and being asked if you wear glasses.  I said I didn't know to the first 2, so the doctor guessed!  I hope it would have been more thorough if we had wanted commercial classes as well. 

I see cases in the UK do seem to be going down now, consistently, so lets keep our fingers crossed.  I can imagine that most countries will have to live with a certain (low) level of infections, rather than getting rid of it entirely.

[Alis girls]

Has anyone else found that when things dont go as planned instead of getting cross with someone you are inclined to let it go, Today our new shed was delivered and we have paid extra for building - unfortunalty no one told the two guys who came with it. they had other deliveries . They were very aoplogetic - normally I might have called head office and had a grumble - today its well worse things happening in country - its a bloody shed - let it go. 

Was disappointed as wanted to fill it with stuff😂

[soapdragon]

Absolutley not....I am still a grumpy old bag! Possibly even more so as not sleeping in this heat and still cannot lie on my operated hip (I suspect bursitis but cannot get diagnosis or treatment until I can face to face with a physio!) I could very easily grump for England and may yet consider doing so. 

[Cat tails]

Same here! Normally take all my frustrations out on the traffic! Or students.... 🤭

Now I just take it out on delivery companies, the central heating repair people and anyone else who crosses my path! 😅

[mullethunter]

Beaches in Cornwall and Devon have been rammed today. Traffic completely clogging up roads with people parked illegally all over the place where car parks are closed or full. At least as bad as the weekend before the government introduced lockdown after people couldn’t behave sensibly.