I'll soon have to attempt to cut what's left of my hair. Doing the top won't be a problem as there isn't much up there and I can see it quite easily in the bathroom mirror. It's the back that's going to be tricky. I've tried a dummy run or two using my beard trimmer (turned off) and a mirror but it's so difficult to move the thing in the right direction. I think I may have to bite the bullet and just do it. A drop of Dutch courage beforehand may help. Or not. I won't be going out much anyway!

A shocking but, given what we already knew, unsurprising article from The Sunday Times.

https://archive.is/20200418182037/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh

Primrose Day is an unofficial observance held in Great Britain on April 19. It commemorates the anniversary of death of Benjamin Disraeli who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Benjamin Disraeli served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for several months in 1868 and then again from 1874 to 1880. Disraeli is known for having played a pivotal role in the establishment of the contemporary Conservative party. He is also remembered for his passionate speeches (although his maiden speech was laughed at) and influential voice in international affairs.

Disraeli died on April 19, 1881. The funeral was private as Disraeli's executors were afraid a public procession would gather too large crowds. Queen Victoria did not attend the funeral because the protocol forbade her to do so. However, she sent a wreath of primroses to the funeral with a note stating that the primrose was his favorite flower.

Primrose Day is not an official holiday in Great Britain, but it is a good occasion to honour the renowned British statesman. On April 19, some people wear primroses to pay tribute to Disraeli. The statue of Disraeli in Parliament Square, London is sometimes decorated with primroses as well.

Clarification of the lockdown rules:
(unashamedly stolen)
1. You MUST NOT leave the house for any reason, but if you have a reason, you can leave the house.
2. Masks are useless at protecting you against the virus, but you may have to wear one because it can save lives, but they may not work, but they may be mandatory, but maybe not.
3. Shops are closed, except those shops that are open.
4. You must not go to work but you can get another job and go to work.
5. You should not go to the Doctor's or to the hospital unless you have to go there, unless you are too poorly to go there.
6. This virus can kill people, but don’t be scared of it. It can only kill those people who are vulnerable or those people who are not vulnerable. It’s possible to contain and control it, sometimes, except that sometimes it actually leads to a global disaster.
7. Gloves won't help, but they can still help so wear them sometimes, or not.
8. STAY HOME, but it's important to go out.
9. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarkets, but there are many things missing. Sometimes you won’t need loo rolls but you should buy some just in case you need some.
10. The virus has no effect on children except those children it affects.
11. Animals are not affected, but there was a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there…
12. Stay 2 metres away from tigers (see point 11).
13. You will have many symptoms if you get the virus, but you can also get symptoms without getting the virus, get the virus without having any symptoms or be contagious without having symptoms, or be non contagious with symptoms...it's a sort of lucky/unlucky dip.
14. To help protect yourself you should eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand as it's better not to go to the shops, unless you need toilet roll or a fence panel.
15. It's important to get fresh air but don't go to parks but go for a walk. But don’t sit down, except if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant or if you’re not old or pregnant but need to sit down. If you do sit down don’t eat your picnic, unless you've had a long walk, which you are/aren't allowed to do if you're old or pregnant.
16. Don’t visit old people but you have to take care of the old people and bring them food and medication.
17. If you are sick, you can go out when you are better but anyone else in your household can’t go out when you are better unless they need to go out.
18. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house. These deliveries are safe. But groceries you bring back to your house have to be decontaminated outside for 3 hours including frozen pizza.
19. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but they can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.
20. You are safe if you maintain the safe social distance when out but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at the safe social distance.
21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours ... or four hours...or six hours... I mean days, not hours. But it needs a damp environment. Or a cold environment that is warm and dry... in the air, as long as the air is not plastic.
22. Schools are closed so you need to home educate your children, unless you can send them to school because you’re not at home. If you are at home you can home educate your children using various portals and virtual class rooms, unless you have poor internet, or more than one child and only one computer, or you are working from home. Baking cakes can be considered maths, science or art. If you are home educating you can include household chores within their education. If you are home educating you can start drinking at 10am.
23. If you are not home educating children you can also start drinking at 10am.
24. The number of corona related deaths will be announced daily but we don't know how many people are infected as they are only testing those who are almost dead to find out if that's what they will die of. The people who die of corona who aren’t counted, won’t or will be counted but maybe not.
25. We should stay in locked down until the virus stops infecting people but it will only stop infecting people if we all get infected so it’s important we get infected and some don’t get infected.
26. You can join your neighbours for a street party and turn your music up for an outside disco and your neighbours won’t call the police. People in another street are allowed to call the police about your music whilst also having a party which you are allowed to call the police about.
27. No business will go down due to Coronavirus except those businesses that will go down due to Coronavirus.
Hope that makes things clearer for you?

This article makes interesting reading. What are your thoughts on how government should work the exit strategy to get life back to normal in a way that wouldn’t cause a second wave of the virus in the uk and more deaths?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/coronavirus-uk-lockdown-three-stage-exit-plan

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/03/coronavirus-how-to-store-food-safely/?utm_campaign=whichukf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=cleaningfood&utm_term=fbnews&fbclid=IwAR1YcAL3IrOLpXiX-1OYCDeAG0NmExemLL0DQWKDCAVMjfq9K3v8qufYD1c

Who does wash their shopping when they get home and who doesn’t bother?

Please note: I closed the discussion as it was pointed out on the post that the topic had been discussed before so I’m presuming that obviously meant it didn’t need to be discussed again.
So I apologise for putting a post up about the same topic as another earlier post.

Went to my local Co-op today, first time in weeks, it's like I've landed on an alien planet - it's so different out there and I don't like it.
Feel like I don'r ever want to go out again,

Seems a strange thing to say right now but what if......., after all the whole world is going through this.
We all started helping each other, talking to each other and forgiving each other. Working together instead of against (yes I am being melancholy) but listen to the words of this beautiful song by Jordan Smith

https://youtu.be/l6DPyiE5e3M

Saw this ad for a show on Thursday

For sale on scooploop
A travel size bottle for the price of large one - guess who grabbed it all- should be ashamed of themselves

Please report this and ask for it to be removed

This could be useful;-)

Does anybody know how to do this, please. Have been trying friend's phone for past 24 hours and permanently engaged. Once managed to get a 'ring back' notice which I did. I've tried 151 but unable to access unless I contact my 'service provider'. Also tried the 0800 number I found on google, rang it and it gave every option but to report a fault.
She's with BT Broadband, I know, but laptop wasn't working a week ago. She's had BT round when the line wasn't working about 10 days ago, who said the person who had installed her care-line phone hadn't done it correctly but said they had fixed it. Phone started playing up again and when she rang them (originally she was a priority), BT said they would get back to her and never did. I'm particularly worried as she was taken to hospital last weekend, I rang the hospital then, who said she would be going home the next day, left it a day and haven't been able to contact her since due to the phone. She was having carers.
In Norfolk so a distance away

If this is progress, then count me out. All I want to know is how to report a fault on a landline, please.

Buy this "Miracle Mineral Solution" and kill yourself. Surely no one will buy that product.



https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-church-ordered-to-stop-selling-bleach-based-covid-19-cure-11975002

Did you know Coronavirus is an anagram of Carnivorous

Picture of a carnivorous bat

http://www.foeeurope.org/peasants-day-feeding-in-pandemic-170420?fbclid=IwAR19iUVhxL3s3pv-VaMkBKCyHKKVh_ZKlmgg2xqYur3hnZ1ReVhBoZMHZuk

https://youtu.be/c32wI4bDazc

The first of six aircraft full of Romanian farm workers have arrived in the UK to pick our fruit and vegetable harvest.
Proving that leaving the EU because it would stop the foreigners taking our jobs was a load of tosh. They were taking the jobs because nobody in this country will do them.
OK, there were about 100 British that applied for work but that's nowhere near enough.
I won't be surprised now if we don't have just as many overseas workers as when we were in the EU. Maybe more from outside Europe.

I see now they are not saying 'essential' shopping, just shopping; does that mean different types of shops will be open now. ?

There is quite a big debate at the moment on the wearing of masks so I just wondered who On here wears Masks and who doesn’t at the moment & would you be happy if it was compulsory to wear one when the lockdown is finished?
Do you believe masks help or not?

This research study is looking for more people to sign up. They are particularly interested in older people (especially 80+). It is coming up with all kinds of useful, predictive data. Please think about downloading the App. It is free. After registering, which involves answering a few questions about your age, general health etc, you log in daily and say whether you have any Covid-19 symptoms. They need to know even if you have no symptoms. It takes only seconds. I have been impressed by the study. Please think about contributing.

https://www.ft.com/content/c0b7a2a1-e91e-44ef-9a96-55250cbbbaff

What a lovely Video

https://vm.tiktok.com/W5pxYc/

Moved me to tears

Saw this

Just a little reminder clap or bash a pan or two... show your appreciation.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

https://vm.tiktok.com/Wfm2XD/

It's time for you to all be agony aunts or uncles. This is an actual letter written to the I paper. Lets see how you would advise her.

I am 45, married with a 10 year old son. I know everyone is going through this but I am absolutely sick of my husband. We both work long hours full time so usually the childminder takes our son to school and picks him up at hometime. and we have a full time cleaner to keep on top of chores.

Now all the childcare, cleaning and washing has to be done by someone. And it seems to be me. It is driving me mad and I am constantly having to nag him.

Last week I caught him in the garden with a beer when he was supposed to be doing what the gardener would usually be doing. I hit the roof.

We are both worried about our jobs. I am emotionally exhaused and if I lose my job we won't be able to manage on one salary. How can I get him to help me?

That figure was on the big screen behind Jane Hill at the top of the hour on the BBC News channel. As she was reading the headlines she had to look at it twice and stuttered as she said it.

The BBC made a major boob as the ticker running at the bottom of the screens says 13,800 dead. Does make you think that 35000 could be the true figure with care home and community deaths added on.

What a true gent and lovely man.. hearing his interview on bbc this morning was very moving .. the tributes to him.. Michael ball singing and the words he used re coping with the situation we are in now with the virus and lockdown.. his words ‘the sun will shine again and the clouds will go ‘. He has so far raised over 12 million pounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/52306266/coronavirus-captain-tom-moore-finishes-100th-lap-in-nhs-fundraiser

I just signed the petition "Protect renters during coronavirus!" and wanted to ask if you could add your name too.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/suspend-all-rent-payments-no-coronavirus-evictions?bucket=email-blast-18_3_2020_lru_wider_optin&share=df393ecd-cdf3-4770-9a44-733039ac961e&utm_campaign=blast2020-03-18

Click on to enlarge

Amy Schumer had a baby boy. She named it Gene Atell Fisher. Then she realised it sounded like genital. So she changed the name to Gene David Fisher.

This may give you some inspiration.

Six week series starts this Thursday 16th April on Channel 4 at 8.00pm.

Every week Grayson will host the show from his studio - taking the country with him as he creates new art works. Grayson will talk to other famous artists, creatives and celebrity guests about how they are spending their time in isolation and host masterclasses to help teach us all how to create art.

The first episode concentrates on portraits.

https://www.channel4.com/press/news/graysons-art-club

There’s a number of products that have been found to contain either bits of plastic or metal that supermarkets are urgently asking customers to return. From Certain chocolate through to pickles and hash browns & more.

Link attached with details https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/tesco-asda-sainsburys-lidl-waitrose-21865137

Has now raised over £4m
Captain Tom Moore is 99 years old. He is walking 100 lengths of his garden before his 100th birthday to raise money for the NHS.
His first target was £1000 but then he was on tv and that target was reached in hours. So a new target set was £500k. Way past that now.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tomswalkforthenhs

If you haven’t heard of Simon Brodkin’s footballer persona Jason Bent here he is talking about premier footballers proposed wage cut and how you can help

https://youtu.be/nrrP2nCrDfE

In Derbyshire a couple having a drink in their own back garden were reported to police for breaking lockdown rules.

In Bedfordshire a nurse came home from a 12 shift to find a note saying she was a disgrace for breaking lockdown rules and had been reported.

After checking peoples shopping bags and monitoring non-essential aisles in Tesco; now they have been stopping nurses going to work at Addenbrookes hospital saying their lanyard and NHS id is not proof they are essential workers.

https://youtu.be/Ai0MVYzGC4w

.

Just had a phone call from some Preservation something or other. The guy went on about Coronavirus and started saying how a lot of masks are not good and we should only use a certain type. It was all so gabbled that I didn't even get the last sentence and with that he rang off. Anyone know what it was all about?

Old footballer

Just read this.

While people are at home, some are working on DIY projects.
Has anyone noticed fly-tipping has started?
I saw this yesterday. It has been reported.

Reading this very open & honest account of working with the very ill Covid 19 patients will hopefully make anyone not following the U.K. lockdown realise how bad it can get & is getting in the UK...how many more lives lost before the people sunbathing in parks.. playing sport... going out to shops more than necessary or any other outings, visiting family friends etc before those people realise that this awful killer virus doesn’t care who its victims are & the fact they suffer so badly from the awful affects of it till they eventually die alone or if lucky just the ICU nurse by their side.

Stay safe.. Stay at Home.

Part one( part two in comments)
This was posted by my
Facebook friend In USA who’s relative is a nurse who wrote this who has left her family to go and help the dying people in NYC as the numbers are so high.

This is getting disturbingly high now and still not being counted in official figures.
In the last week there have been 1000 corona related deaths in care home. Was mentioned as part of a rambling report on BBC news after BBC1 had gone off air.
Today on Breakfast, Charlie Stayt was interviewing Nasir Afzal. He is the former DPP for the NorthWest. His brother had tested postive for Corona virus but as there were no hospital beds was told to rest at home. On the Wednesday morning he just didn't wake up.
When the Muslim Burial Service man arrived he told Nasir that he couldn't move the body yet because they had another 14 to pick up.

It is with great sadness that I have to mention the loss of a few local businesses. The bra manufacturer has gone bust; the specialist in submarines has gone under; the manufacturer of food blenders has gone into liquidation; a dog kennel has had to call in the retrievers; the suppliers of paper for Origami enthusiasts has folded; the Heinz factory has been canned as they couldn’t ketchup with orders; the tarmac laying company has reached the end of the road; the bread company has run out of dough; the clock making company has had to wind down and gone cuckoo; the Chinese has been taken away; the shoe shop owner has had to put his foot down and given his staff the boot and, finally, the laundrette has been taken to the cleaners!

Can I delete them? If so, how?

Important notice in light of current challenging times:

HAVE YOU GOT SEX INSURANCE ?

You can now get sex insurance in the UK so make sure you get correct insurance for the sex you are having . Please find a list of companies below catering for most tastes:

Sex with your wife - legal and general.
Sex on the telephone - direct line.
Sex with your partner -standard life .
Sex with someone different - go compare.
Sex with a lady of generous proportions -more than.
Sex on the back seat of a car - Sheila's wheels.
Sex with a prostitute - commercial Union .
Sex with your maid -employers liability.
Sex with an oap - saga .
Sex resulting in pregnancy - general accident .
Sex with animals - National Farmers Union.
Sex with a monk- Abbey Life
Sex with Navy Officers- Admiral Group.
AND FINALLY
Sex with a transvestite - confused. Com
Make sure you are adequately covered!!

I had a phone call this morning which was obviously from a spammer. A female voice said that my internet would be disconnected in four hours time due to a faulty router. She said I should press one to be connected to my internet service provider’s technical support line who would fix the problem for me.

I wasn’t busy and I thought that I if I kept them occupied for a while at least they wouldn’t be using the time to con someone else.

So I pressed one. I was connected to a guy who went through all sorts of technobabble to tell me that my router was faulty and that he needed to access my computer to fix the problem.

I said that this was very worrying, I’m 75 years old (I’m not) and that my son (I only have daughters) had given me a computer about six months ago, rambling on about how he worked in a local bank and was very successful, and of course about how they don’t make things to be as durable as in the old days and how the computer was so important to me with the COVID-19 restrictions as I couldn’t get to the bank or supermarket so I relied on on-line banking and on line shopping to survive.

I could almost imagine the pound signs lighting up in his eyes.

Before I could use the computer of course I had to find my glasses and they were upstairs as I’d been reading in bed last night. More rambling on about how my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be. It’s amazing how much time you can kill by talking about any old rubbish that springs to mind.

I then killed several more minutes as I noisily climbed the stairs with heavy footsteps and lots of laboured breathing, plus comments about how I wished I had a stair lift.

Then I spent several minutes noisily rummaging around in a drawer before “finding” my glasses followed by a long noisy walk downstairs to the computer.

I “switched” my computer on (in reality a desk fan) and waited ages for it to “boot up” making comments about how it was an old computer and how it was slow to “give itself the boot”.

Then of course I had to put in the password – Three attempts at very slowly hitting keys on my keyboard before admitting that I couldn’t remember it.

Of course I said that the password is written on a piece of paper stuck to the fridge, so more heavy footsteps and laboured breathing as I slowly went to the kitchen and back to get the password.

When I got back I was obviously very out of breath and I complained that I hadn’t done so much walking for ages wasn’t feeling well. I commented that I wasn’t as active since my heart attack. (building up the image of some frail elderly man who wasn’t very healthy).

Then more slow typing and eventually my phantom computer let me in.

He then asked me to go to a website to download a remote access programme so that he could control my computer to fix the “problem” with my router.

I started typing something but then said that I really don’t feel well, groaned, let out an ARRRGGGHHH! sound and made a lot of noise as I supposedly fell off my chair and onto the ground. Then silence.

The guy didn’t seem to know what to do. He kept saying are you all right and then eventually hung up.

Maybe I’m cruel letting him think he’d killed someone, but I’d kept him hanging on for the best part of half an hour which meant that he wasn’t conning vulnerable people into letting him have access to their computers and bank details.

In the last two days I've read three news reports about rural northern police going OTT enforcing the lockdown rules.

1. South Yorkshire police threaten to fine a man standing in his own garden.

2. Cambridgeshire police announce they are going to search people shopping bags or trollies for non-essential items.
3. Cambridgeshire police again. Now sending officers into Tesco to make sure nobody is browsing in the non-essential aisles
Meanwhile the Met have yet to issue a single fine as they are too busy dealing with actual criminals.

I think I want one!