RogerBW's Blog

An Ominous Announcement 24 October 2020

The local council has issued a press release. Excuse me while I run round and round in small circles.

Here is the link. I'm trying to decide whether it's been written very well or very badly; it takes a long time to say very little, just "please keep following the rules or Big Bad Government will impose further restrictions". But it's clearly intended to be scary. ("Evil virus"? Really?)

I think it's misguided, though. People round these parts tend either to be determinedly sensible or determinedly stupid, and I don't suppose many of either will change their behaviour as a result of either reasonable requests or blatant scare tactics. OK, one small meeting of friends that might have happened has been called off, but that was going to be five of us indoors, at a distance, in masks, speaking quietly… not exactly a major risk event.

Meanwhile in the shops: there was one Unmasked in Lidl who was giving the staff a hard time about it (they hadn't tried to keep him out as far as I can see, he just felt like a rant), one continuous-dry-cougher (whom I don't think was the same person, but was the first one I've heard in public for a while)… but in Morrison's about one in twenty was Unmasked, presumably because they know that nobody's enforcing this law and my shopping is more important than your breathing.

(I know that there are good reasons for some people not to wear a mask, which is why I'm not calling them "mask-deniers". Though I do think that even if your face would explode at the first touch of a covering it's damnably selfish still to insist on going out and mixing with other people.)


  1. Posted by J Michael Cule at 12:26pm on 24 October 2020

    As I said to you the people who really annoy me are those who can remember to put a mask on but then leave their nose exposed while covering their mouth.

    Nothing like that to say: I'm doing this because they'll nag me if I don't but I don't really believe all this shit.

    They didn't bother to nervously take my temperature at the doctors yesterday. (1) That's a sign of the times or something.

    (1) Flu jab and a further diabetic review this time with the actual diabetic nurse.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 12:46pm on 24 October 2020

    If your mask does not cover both nose and mouth you are not wearing it.

    (When I did an operating theatre holiday job, masks pushed down to be worn round the neck were absolutely forbidden: that's how you mix the outside with the inside. Either it's on or it's off.)

  3. Posted by Chris Suslowicz at 02:34am on 25 October 2020

    I would trust (in the words of a Ngaio Marsh character) the current misgovernment "about as far as I could throw a grad piano by its stool. A concert grand, I might add."

    My current position is: mask to be worn (properly) everywhere outside my house/garden; one shopping trip per week (late at night when the local Morrisons is fairly deserted) and other travel as absolutely unavoidable.

    I thought I'd be OK with zero human contact, but it's not really the case; this was discovered at an ECG appointment at the local Orspitule, where having a Tech effectively administering a horizontal hug while wielding the ultrasound probe brought home how much I'd been missing human contact.

    I can cope with this, but it's really not ideal. (I am not Murderbot.)

    Brexit is coming, whether we like it or not, and I need to stock up on things that the nearest supermarket doesn't stock, and almost certainly buy a reasonably sized freezer for perishables. Not to mention getting a flu jab.

    The world would be a better place without Perfidious Johnson and the current Conservative Party, IMAO, but on that note I'm back on Zulu time and going to bed, Good Morning!

  4. Posted by RogerBW at 08:44am on 25 October 2020

    I am expecting at least some power interruptions (because among the many things that nobody's bothered to do is arrange to keep buying electricity from France) so I favour shelf-stable over frozen for the emergency supplies. We shall see.

  5. Posted by Chris Suslowicz at 09:50pm on 25 October 2020

    Ditto here as regards the electricity supply. I have a couple of small UPS units that will keep the internet on (it's via BT and ADSL over copper so I just need to keep the router up).

    There's a reasonable stockpile of rice, pasta, tinned food and biscuits (900g boxes of Jacob's Biscuits for cheese), plus I'm gradually increasing the long-life milk supply. The major drawback is all cookery is electric, so I may need to see about a gas ring for emergencies. (Or get a camping stove.) Bah!

    (The Indian Cowboy Builders installed a worktop over the gas point for the cooker - amongst many other conspicuously fuckwitted bodge-jobs.)

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1