What’s life like?

[JanB]

Boa noite todos

All well here in Portugal. The Alentejo area has the lowest cases in the entire country and also - as yet - no deaths. Long may it continue. Probably mainly because we're in farming country and many are rather poor, so can't travel abroad. The area of Porto has had a lot of deaths, same as Lisbon.

Our lockdown started so many weeks ago, I forgotten Everything is shut, apart from essentials, like supermarkets, chemists. Some builders are still working, whilst keeping their distance, and obviously some builders merchants.

The holiday period was very strongly policed. No-one was allowed to enter the Algarve or even leave Lisbon and all airports where shut. The borders are also heavily policed.

Here is our little part of the Alentejo, we have no cases at all, but I'm expecting that to change in the next few weeks.

The weather has been rubbish, so not much time has been spent outside, but we were given a couple of jigsaws, so that is keeping himself occupied.

We go shopping once a week, I've banned Keith from the shops, but he likes to drive me down. And I do the recycling once a week, so I can get out for 5 minutes on my own.

We are keeping in touch with family and friends via skype or even the off phone call, but mainly on messenger on fb. From all over the world too Australia, Ireland and mainly England.

We've not had too many disagreements, but then he's fairly laid back - I'm the noisy one

And we pop down a couple times during the week to water our nice new neighbours plants that aren't on the irrigation. So a little but of exercise too

[Kaz]

Hi Weka, thanks for answering my qustion, and what an interesting thread you've started

Things sound so much more "sorted" in NZ thanks to your speedy lockdown - I'm afraid that our hesitancy has cost lives

I am in Gloucester, and so far the West Country is getting off reasonably lightly, perhaps because of the population density, or rather lack of. We live on a small estate of detached houses, opposite an open field, which has been very useful for the permitted exercise! We are only about a mile and a half from the city, but I haven't been in since this all started, and have no intention until it's over!

There are three of us here, Mick is in IT security for BT and has worked from home for years, so no change there. I don't work. Becky is a receptionist for the biggest and busiest vet practice here, also an animal hospital, and she's still working, although I think she should be furloughed as to my mind her job isn't key. They could manage with a skeleton staff of vets and nurses, and are asking the receptionists to take unnecessary risks, like handling money.....It's a sore subject....

My boys don't live here. Chris, the eldest, lives alone in a flat in Staines, near Heathrow. He's the IT Infrastructure Manager for the local council there, and is working from home, quite happily.

My Harry is 20, lives just up the road from Staines, in Egham, with his dad. He works in a Supermarket, and has had the virus - thankfully fairly mildly, and is now back at work. I was very worried while he was ill, especially as he's so far away.

I am trying to keep myself busy. I do all the shopping - for us, and for Mick's 83 year old mum, Doreen, who lives about a mile away, and is "shielding" for 12 weeks minimum, due to COPD. We have to queue up outside the shop, and distance ourselves very carefully inside. I'm trying to only go once or twice a week, which feels very odd as I am usually in and out of the shops most days. I ring D twice a day for long chats, and she's using WhatsApp to keep in touch with other family.

Keep safe! xxxx

[victor]

A great read of how life is in N.Z.
Can only agree with what everyone has said regards life here.
We are lucky being on the coast here in Hampshire where we can take our walks around the lakes in one park and in the opposite direction we can view Portsmouth Harbour where there are 2 Aircraft Carriers and 4 Destroyers tied up ,they look very impressive.
Also the Ferries coming from France twice a day.
The weather has been very warm for the time of year but a cold wind today and yesterday.

Thursday evenings people are outside their buildings applauding members of the NHS ,but last week the clapping was a bit overtaken by the Warships all blowing their horns !.
Supermarkets are pretty much back to full stock after the idiots that went panic buying everything in sight I have read of a woman in Bournemouth who admits to throwing out about £250 of food because it had started to go off.

Flour is still almost non existent in our shops but this is in part due to manufacturers being geared to bakeries etc instead of supplies small bags for the general public.

We actually live next the harbour in what started out as Henry the Eight's victualling yard for his navy.
the buildings are all named from that time --like--the salthouse/the bakery /the slaughterhouse- now a Gym! -there is a little café called The pump house in the car park dates back to that time.

So it's flour ,pasta ,tinned toms that are missing from the shelves although eggs have been in short supply as well.

Stay safe everyone.

[Weka]

Likewise it’s been really interesting reading all of your replies.

Our busses are still running. But, via the back door only. We have hop cards which are contactless cards (are they Oyster cards on the UK?) and no cash. There are also limits on the number of people allowed on the bus so that distancing can be maintained. The bus app that tells us when the next bus is coming (as they aren’t every 5 minutes) also tells us how many are on the bus. They decided to keep the busses running so essential workers could get to work.

I haven’t seen my family since the 3rd of March and only saw G’s mum and step dad on the 19th of March as we needed to pick up the dog from them. Her hip was getting to bad to look after her any more. So they tied her up to the fence just before we drove up, and then had a quick chat through the windows before we drove off. Our family all lives the other side of Auckland to us and it’s a 3/4 hour drive to get there in normally good traffic.

The traffic is amazing at the moment. I had to drop something at the courier yesterday right on rush hour (I’m considered essential as I supply food producers) and there was no traffic around. That journey at that time normally takes half hour each way. Yesterday I was there and back in 15 minutes!!

Our shops are also short on flour due to packaging. We can buy 20kgs but not 1kg as there just enough bags. Some stores have been breaking the packs down into plastic bags, but that doesn’t seem to have caught on. Not sure why, maybe the bags Leo’s breaking?

We are struggling to get gluten free bread, and yeast. We have the gf flour. A friend the other day managed to get us yeast so we are all set now. My friends and I have been posting what we are struggling to get and when we see it in the shops we buy it for each other and then leave it on their doorstep. We all live within 10 minutes of each other, and we have been wiping down and washing all items coming into our houses.

[TheOstrich]

Yes, very interesting reading folk's comments.

I braved the supermarket tonight at 6:00 and there were only about 20 shoppers in the store - far better than going at 8:00 a.m. for the "oldies hour" when it is rammed. The shelves were pretty much fully stocked other than flour and baking stuff which was completely empty, and canned stuff, where there was a restricted choice. But they did have canned plum tomatoes in abundance so I was able to pick up a couple of 4 packs. Waitrose seem to have got their act together a bit now - there was a guy disinfecting your trolley handles before you went in, and two metre marking spots around the checkouts. Still a bit of a free for all round the aisles, but people were being pretty good and waiting for others to make their choice and move on.

Hopefully, I'll not have to do a supermarket shop for at least a fortnight, maybe 3 weeks, so very different from my routine pre-virus, when I used to pop in daily, spend £10 and get a free newspaper …..

Perhaps, like you Weka, we should be washing down all the items we've bought before putting them away, but quite honestly you'd drive yourself nuts thinking about all the precautions you ought be taking but haven't taken. When they say there will be a huge mental cost to society at the end of this crisis, they're not joking, I'm afraid …..

[victor]

Not sure if self isolation is getting to my s i l ,tasted ok though but she was going to pour a glass of wine but poured it into her gravy instead.

[Suff]

Hi Weka,

Here in France, in the country, it is a bit more relaxed than the UK. Our shops are quiet, people are being sensible, we can get out to walk the dogs but, on the other hand, we have quite a large garden so it is not as if we're cramped in any way.

My parents are isolating and fine, #3 son is seeing to their shopping and they are also taking food orders. #1 daughter works in the NHS but is clerical rather than frontline, she is working from home and her son is handling the shopping/food deliveries. They were Gousto customers before the lockdown so continue to get deliveries.

I have a son and dil in Scotland who are in the Police and were struggling to get basics until the shops started bringing in priority times. It's a bit hard forcing your way into the shop early when half the customers are police as opposed to the elderly and vulnerable...

I have a daughter and two grandkids in Canada. The Daughter has less than one kidney function and has been advised to completely isolate. She lost her job this week so that is the entire family out there out of work. But at least they are safe.

We go to a ball in Scotland the first Saturday in March every year. We took the decision to go this year, even though we knew the virus could be an issue. I had just driven back from the UK at the end of Feb so wasn't too bothered about travelling. We were not going to travel but our Niece was going into a private hospital in Glasgow just after the ball and we decided that if my BIL and his wife needed us it would be better if we were there.

We went to the ball, 120 Scottish country dancers, most in the danger category (the average age of the dancers was well over 60) and had a great time. On the Monday we headed up to our sons in the Highlands. On Tuesday morning we got a call, could we come. It turned out that our Niece had two different stage 4 cancers in her stomach taking up 2/3 of the intestinal tract. We headed south immediately.

We held the fort whilst my BIL's life crumbled around the family, visited our Niece in hospital (using the hand cleansers and keeping a good distance from most people), stayed a couple of days more to help them get things settled, then started heading south to our daughters in Lincolnshire as Mrs S had a few days planned and our daughter had taken some holidays for that. There were also indications we might have issues getting into France, so the decision was made.

By Monday it was becoming clear that a French shutdown would be imminent. On Tuesday I called the Ferry to check on our Friday crossing and found that it had been cancelled but we had not been notified. France was shutting down that day. I arranged to move the booking to the Wednesday, in the morning, so we could sort out anything we needed to. We had to hand write an attestation form and both sign it as we had no printing capability.

So we got home. After all this we decided to contact our son in Argentina and find out how thing were. He told us that after all the support we gave him he had lost his new job after 2 days due to the Argentinian shutdown. He is an at risk classification because of lung issues. We asked if he wanted us to get him out. This was not a given as his daughter is still in country.

Thus started 9 days of intense frustration, complete lack of care from the Argentinian authorities, wonderful help from the Embassy in BA and one £10,000 private flight to get him out of the interior and into BA. He flew in to Paris on Monday 30th March and I did the 1,000km trip to Paris and back to collect him.

He and I went into complete isolation with Mrs S providing us with food and everything else during that time. We came out of that this Monday. We're all well and healthy.

Shortly after that my Niece, home again with a morphine pain driver but no palliative chemo (long rant there to be missed from this post), died. We were stuck, no way to get back, we had to attend the funeral via video link and just talk to the family over WhatsApp and some video calls.

Since Monday I have been rebuilding our old shed into two sentry box style sheds in the garden for Mrs S, our son helping, has been doing the set up of the garden for spring planting. We are well on the way with the clean up and nearly ready. However the seeds and plants are not available to buy at the local agricultural centre.

We have plenty to do and will not be bored (I've already put a screwdriver bit into the back of the knuckle of my left hand index finger), shopping is a bit of a pain as we have to sign a form every time and only one person can go in, ditto only one can walk the dogs.

In the meantime I was already out of a job as I had closed down end Feb due to IR35. I had another job arranged but the postponement of IR35 killed that one off and Tesco has a hard change freeze in place due to exceptional volumes of data in the system (more than twice Christmas levels). So they can't take me back outside IR35 as there would be nothing for me to do.

Jobs have dried up or companies are trying to take advantage. Such as offering jobs at less than half the normal rates.

We shall carry on though.

Stay safe and keep well.

[cromwell]

My friends and I have been posting what we are struggling to get and when we see it in the shops we buy it for each other and then leave it on their doorstep. We all live within 10 minutes of each other

That's really nice Weka to have a supportive group if friends like yours.
Suff, reading that back reminds me what a rough time you have had of it.

[Osc]

We got a very welcome update yesterday - our health authority said that o/70s staying in was advisory, not mandatory - within 20 minutes of seeing that, we were out for a walk! That will make a huge difference to us as we are doing fine otherwise but Edward in particular was finding the non-walking very difficult.

[saundra]

That's good osc
If just had a phone call from my housing assc asking if I was ok and did I need anything it cheered me up