Thank goodness Trump has discovered why there are so many deaths from the virus in the USA. In an announcement on telly last night he declared:
"People are dying now who have never died before".
In utter desperation I watched 'Sunken ships' on one of those obscure American T.V. channels. Talk about dumbed down; Pointing out the extension on the end of a cannon recovered from the sea bed the expert informed us that: "They used this to point the cannon at what they were aiming for".
I'll spend tonight down the shed with a beer watching my chaincase drip.
Last edited by SPRIDDLER on Sat Mar 28, 2020 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
'There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood............'
39speedtwin wrote:Don't sit there watching the drip, fixit Neville.
And then what would I do for entertainment? I suppose I could always dig out that box of a dozen old spark plugs and clean 'em. (Why do we keep them? )
'There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood............'
39speedtwin wrote:Don't sit there watching the drip, fixit Neville.
And then what would I do for entertainment? I suppose I could always dig out that box of a dozen old spark plugs and clean 'em. (Why do we keep them? )
I can see Neville's point but am more concerned about the lack of preparedness of our own administration. One of the supposed benefits of the different approach to "administration" between USA (I recall that North America is not wholly USA) and the UK is that our administrative function (civil service) does not change with each party that forms the government; unlike USA where the administrative posts are in the gift of the incoming party.
The expectation with this arrangement is that we should benefit in terms of continuity and a long term overview of the expected needs of the country.
Unfortunately, it appears that our civil service has failed miserably to heed the warnings from previous pandemics, such as SARs and "bird flu". In these cases, we were lucky and little affected and in consequence there seemed to have complacency in terms of a clear policy and action plan for the next event of a similar nature. Policy and planning appears to have been developed incrementaly and "on the hoof". While it is true that "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force." (Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke) nonetheless, this does not obviate the need to have a policy and Action Plan. In the Action Plan there are aspects of a pandemic which which may be extrapolated from previous experience and for which preparations should be made.
A key feature of previous pandemics in recent times was that they involved respiratory systems, were highly contagious and spread to pandemic status through the use of modern high speed transport systems. Perhaps adequate stocks of facemasks which deal with viruses as well as bacteria, sterilisation materials and an early ban on personal travel should've been part of the Action Plan. Queues at supermarkets were not difficult to predict and, unsurprisingly, have probably played a strong part in disseminating the virus.
Setting aside the planning elements, our leaders could have taught Hamlet a few lessons in procrastination. Despite the clear evidence from Italy regarding the consequences of the population ignoring government advice, and with aggrogance that defies belief, our government thought that the UK population would behave differently to the Italians; this proved not to be the case and it is only now that measures backed by sanctions are being imposed on non-essential travel. Too late, the ship has left the harbour.
And so, following the flood of trippers to the village and despite restricting her to one walk out a day, my darling daughter yesterday afternoon and last night was throwing up, experiencing pain in her neck and stomach, had a temperature a little over 40C, struggled to use her left leg or arm and was almost non responsive able to only nod her head and sometimes say "No" or "Yes" to questions. The 111 system, although slow due to volume of calls, worked well. Her temperature has dropped a little and she's taking fluid but still not very responsive and in no position sit up or to eat. If this is what it is like for a fit and healthy 18 year old, watch out us oldies.
Dudley, make good use of those face masks. The rest of you please take every care that you can. We're on complete lockdown for 14 days in my house.
Johnny B
Last edited by 56G80S on Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
SPRIDDLER wrote: And then what would I do for entertainment? I suppose I could always dig out that box of a dozen old spark plugs and clean 'em. (Why do we keep them? )
You can 'walk the dog' to my place if you want Nev, I have drips you can fix without spoiling your entertainment once back in your shed. I'll stay inside the house and let you get on with it, so no 2 metres distancing would be required.
Christine unfortunately doesn't make bread pudding (Yuk BTW) so it'll just have to be biscuits. I'll put some in the garage now so that by the time you and the dog get here the 72 hours quarantine on them will have expired, and they'll be ready to eat.
The wife works in critical care. The worst is yet to come. Should expect to see some scary statistics over the next four weeks. She was on last night and back in tonight. Running out of equipment rapidly. And I've failed miserably to keep the kids quiet enough for her to sleep.
JimFitz wrote: They make handy weights when boat fishing.
No good for me Jim, I'm no fisherman so wouldn't know what gap to set them at.
Peter Morris wrote: You can 'walk the dog' to my place if you want Nev, …….. I'll put some biscuits in the garage now so that by the time you and the dog get here the 72 hours quarantine on them will have expired, and they'll be ready to eat.
Ta, but I hope 'Thrifty Peter' doesn't read that or he'll be round to nick the biscuits to put on eBay. In a phone call to me last night he mentioned (absolutely true) that the tin of 'Everyday Stewed Steak' he'd bought from Lidl was so utterly disgusting he only managed to eat half of it.
My son walks the dog in the morning and leaves him in my garden. I walk him in the afternoon and then drop him back home en route. Works well for us as we all get our walks and vets have said that pets don't carry/transmit the bug.
Technical Tip.
Being a bit bored I decided to spend housebound time giving the place a good clean so bought a new vacuum cleaner. I've just spent 20 mins on the phone to Dyson Customer Service complaining that the cord is far too short, until the dear lady explained that it is only for charging the battery.
'There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood............'
SPRIDDLER wrote: vets have said that pets don't carry/transmit the bug
I wonder which cynical vet was protecting his income with that gem. If it were the case then why should we worry about transfer on clothing, cash, steering wheels or anything else we touch? I would suggest a total ban on any lead longer than 3ft to prevent dogs approaching people other than their owners.
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