Life in quarantine

[KanuTGL]

I woke up with a sore throat yesterday, which is... fun It's almost gone now but I don't quiite feel 100% right, so quarantine it is. Hooray.

Congrats on the full-time position, Audra ^^ Hope that sorts out the health insurance for you both

[Kossu]

^
I hope you're feeling better now Kanu. And Sharifu, also congratulations on the promotion. Hope it's fine with the insurance for both of you now.

Nathalie, I hope your father is doing better. At least he's in the environment that can offer him the most support right now...

I haven't had much time to be around online lately. The last week I have been super busy with moving to our new place. Lots of cleaning, wall painting, fixing things, moving our stuff. It has been a few exhausting days, but it slowly starts to feel more like our place now, which makes me happy. There's still a ton of things that has to happen, but we have a fundamental living room, toilet and bedroom arrangement for now. And an office room, where I can use my laptop and draw again.

[KanuTGL]

Thanks, Kossu, I feel fine again now It - whatever it was - faded out pretty quickly without really turning into anything, so I'm relieved, hehe.

So great to hear you've managed the move! Hopefully that can give you something more fun to think about for a while

Hope everyone is doing okay

[King Simba]

Good to hear the move is shaping up nicely, Kossu!

I woke up with a sore throat yesterday, which is... fun It's almost gone now but I don't quiite feel 100% right, so quarantine it is. Hooray.

Could it have been down to anxiety? I’ve been suffering with sore throat and a tight chest, but I’ve put it down to anxiety because it only comes when I’ve been anxious. Doesn’t exactly help that it’s hayfever season either with my sneezes and sniffles.

Speaking of which, I’ve just returned from food shopping and although it was relatively quiet, there are still people who just aren’t getting the social distancing rules. So yeah, I’ve been feeling quite anxious but I’m feeling calmer now I’m back home.

Hope you’re all doing fine.

[nathalie]

Anxiety doesn't cause a sore throat.
It's the sore throat that causes the anxiety.

Because you start thinking "could it be ??" and that makes you anxious.
It is a bit of a circle though, hard to get out of once you're in it.

A sore throat can be caused by many things.
Cold air your breath in at night, heart burn / reflux during the night which causes irritation to the throat, etc ...

I've been in it since all this started, and, I have hypochondria.
Life is such fun right now

An update on my dad:
So, he was on a ventilator since Tuesday until Saturday.
Which was pomping air/oxygen into his lungs, to make him breath. (the next step up would have been a coma where the machine breaths for you)
Since Saturday evening he's of the ventilator, and now getting oxygen from an oxygen tank, to help him breath (just to make it easy on him).
He's doing great, he looks good, he can speak in sentences again.
And when I called on Monday he said he was having a really good day, until he had to go to the toilet, and that was about a 2 meter walk, and he was completely exhausted by just taking a few steps.
Even moving an arm is just too much trouble.

So, apart from that he's going great.
His lungs are much better, they take xrays every day.
He may have permantent damage? They won't know until he really is better. But right now, the doctor said he can't see why he shouldn't fully recover!

Even though every country seems to be having less deaths, less people going into hospitals, please stay away from each other as much as you can.
I'll say it again: hearing my dad over the phone on the day he went to the hospital, not being able to say 1 word without gasping for air, is heartbreaking.
You don't want it for yourself or anyone you know.
This is not just a flu, where after a week in bed you're OK again.
He may not have had the very serious version of this, he will still need months to recover, for his lungs to be recovered.
So, spare your lungs from dreadful scenario, and be wise.

[Leorgathar]

I’m so sorry to read how much this virus has affected everyone here, and how much stress it has caused I really hope you all can recover from it all, especially Nathalie’s dad. You are all in my best wishes, and anything I can do to help you guys feel better, I’m still around I’m glad to also see some good news happening as well.

As for here... well, Mexico has a lot of cases, but compared to other countries it’s still among the less affected, I’m thankful for that. However, they’re still rising, so we can’t let our guard down. It can still (and pretty much will) get worse before it gets better. And everything from the bad health system to the people still going out in groups and ignoring the social distancing norms... yeah, I don’t see the curve lowering anytime soon xP

In my personal life, I’m doing ok. My job is pretty much paralyzed right now (dentists are at huge risk, for obvious reasons), I only see urgent cases, and even those I avoid as much as I can. Other than that, the place is dead. But I’m living with my family, and we support each other however we can, like doing chores and fixing things. So I keep myself occupied with house work, and I might use the chance to give the office a full makeover for when this madness ends.

My brother had been living in the US for years because of work, but they were laying off staff at the company he works at, and they ended up sending him back here to work for the Mexican branch temporarily. His trip back home was quick, but very calculated. We immediately put him in quarantine (he didn’t get infected, but it was better to make sure he didn’t bring anything with him, thankfully there were never symptoms). My sister kept working at the hospital for a while, but since a few cases of covid-19 began showing up there, they sent her home too.

I too had a couple of trips planned for this year that sadly had to be cancelled I really miss my girlfriend, we were supposed to be together around this week, and again in May for our first anniversary. At least I know she’s doing well where she lives (she’s from a southern state, but we usually visit each other often), and we help keep up the good spirits in each other <3

I can’t wait for all of this to be over.

[Sharifu]

I have some good news, when I applied for benefits on Monday, it said that it would be effective starting May 1st! So that is a relief.

As for travel plans for us this year, we didn't really have any. Our cat Miss Kitty needs medication given to her every twelve hours for high blood pressure, and she needs to be given subcutaneous fluids three days out of the week. (She is in the early stages of kidney failure) So making any kind of plans for a trip or vacation in the immediate future seemed impossible anyways. We don't really know anyone nearby who can give her those medications if we went anywhere. Plus, giving her fluids is a two person job, someone needs to hold her while someone else pokes her... It sounds kind of scary I know, but we have to do it, or she probably wouldn't live as long or feel very good. (Our vet showed us how to do it, and we have been doing it for a few weeks now at least) She is also now on a prescription renal diet to help her kidneys. These are things she needs for the rest of her life. She does seem happy though as she cuddles with us quite often, and loves to eat her new food. We just want to make sure she is comfortable and happy during her golden years.

But I was planning on having our 10 year old nephew coming and visit us this summer. I had tickets bought for me, Petteri and my nephew to go see the Jurassic World Live Tour in July. But it's been canceled now. That's kind of disappointing. But oh well, at least we are saving some money by getting a refund for those tickets. The Lion King on Broadway is going to be near us in July. I thought of maybe taking my nephew to that instead. But I'm so sure that will be canceled as well, even though it hasn't yet. By the way things are looking, I'm sure it will be. I'm more than ok with my nephew visiting us anyways, but nothing will be open for us to take him to. As long as it considered safe to visit relatives at some point in the summer.

But one possible trip we were thinking of was going to Oregon to visit my family this summer. (Originally thinking of taking my nephew back to Oregon that way after he visited us) That is the only trip we can do because we can take our cat to my Mom's house where we would be staying. But as of right now, I have no idea when it is alright for travel, even if it is by car... The stay at home order just keeps getting extended. It has now been extended through the whole month of May. Oh well, it is like this for everyone, just have to wait to make any kind of plans. But I want my family to be safe, of course.

[Kossu]

Glad to hear your dad is slowly recovering Nathalie. I hope for the very best.

Also glad it worked out with the benefits Sharifu. And I hope Miss Kitty will do well thanks to your care. It can be emotionally distressing to take care of your animal companion like this everyday, especially a cat.

So sorry to hear about all the cancelled plans. And for everyone whose loved ones or family are far away...I feel you. We are in this together and I think it's worth channeling positive energy thinking of the good times we'll all have when this is finally over.

[nathalie]

As for me, I am not fine. And that's very much of an understatement.

I also don't understand how people, that are basically scum, think of themselves being so special, they are more then others, and rules don't apply to them.
Talking about the scum person living downstairs, having people over during lockdown, and now sleepovers even.
We wanted to call the cops, but we both feel she's someone who can make our lives quite miserable. She's already not the nicest (and smartest) really, so we don't really know what to do.
If we talk to her ourselves, we feel she won't care, as she keeps inviting people in, so she's clearly quite dumb, so what's the point?
If you were smart, you'd tell those people "please go home, now's not the time".


On a good note: my dad is home!

[Sadiki]

Hey everyone!Haven't posted in a while so I thought it would be probably throw my two cents into the mix. Audra pretty much already updated our situation, me getting laid off and all, but I guess it's worth noting that it haven't effected me in anyway. As I did get my AS in CS last December, having full-time job made it hard for me to work on personal projects which now I have time and energy to concentrate on. I have been exploring Unity a bit, solved some common interview problems in Java and have been making a project with C#. So all in all the COVID-19 hasn't really done much to harm me. I also just had a trip to Europe to my brother's wedding so it wont be too hard to not plan any vacations for me. Interestingly enough, I watch news in Finland with my mom and she made a comment that this will be bad in global scale which I pretty much shrugged off... I guess she was right My personal feelings on COVID-19 hasn't really changed through out the pandemic either. I been saying the whole time it's worse than a flu, but with approximately 2% death rate which only 0.2% death rate on those below 50 and even majority of those who have died being under 65 have had underlying health condition, I do not personally feel scared the slightest. I don't think it's over kill to shelter in place or take other preemptive precautions though there is probably more effective ways on accomplishing herd immunity without destroying world economy and still not to sentence elderly to death by the masses. Much of it is because of how it was down played by authorities in the beginning though so now for a while it will be quite different world than we knew.Yet I do urge people who are not chronically ill, don't have compromised immune system and are not over 65 to take a deep breath and calm down, there is not much else we can do than wait it out. We will get through this. Also, Nathalie, I'm sorry your dad did get the virus, but I'm glad he pushed through it. I hope he wont have too many long lasting effects from it.

[nathalie]

I would normally think like you STM, but the amount of people that have died within 3 months, is what the normal flu does in a year.
So it different.

And I kept thinking 'it won't be that bad, surely??'
Until I heard my dad.
It's very much real, and the normal flu doesn't do what this thing does.
My dad has months of recovering ahead, his lungs took such a big hit.
And, in the end, he didn't even have it 'that bad'.
So how he was already, think about the ones who had it worse then him, and need recovering.

[Sadiki]

I would normally think like you STM, but the amount of people that have died within 3 months, is what the normal flu does in a year.So it different.

As I said it's worse than flu, typical season flu kills anywhere from 290 000 - 650 000 people in the world wide annually. It's rough estimate as there is not as well maintained data off it as there is for COVID-19. However my statement is based on statics with mortality rates of 40-49 being 0.4% and all other groups up to 10 years of age to 0.2% and no deaths recorder in below 10 year old in April 16th. Now I know these stats have change some and I know there has been children dying from it as well since then, but in general that is the trend. and even the people dying from it have underlying condition above 75% of the time. These are all statistics which everyone should think when considering their own well being. When considering the well being of the others it's entirely different story. I lost a friend when I was 13 to Influenza type A or more so an infection to his heart caused by secondary diseases from Flu type A and he had no underlying conditions, so dying from an illness is always a chance.Now I definitely do not try to make it sound less dangerous than it is, but I have ran into some situations where people go way beyond the limit of expressing how dire the situation is. In some situation I see people behaving like you have a bubonic plague.

[nathalie]

Downstairs neighbour has sleepovers, next door neighbour a housewarming party?
We live in the worst neigbhourhood, full of stupidity.

Since that housewarming wasn't in "our house" I couldn't care less who they infect and what they touch.
But 15-20 people in a 2 person bedroom room, that seems like a good place to pass around a virus, lol.

It's that they were loud at 1am still, and we wanted to go to bed.
So the cops came.

They told everyone why a housewarming party is not allowed.
The cop is like "I'd like to see my family, but I can't either".
The woman who rents, is then very sympathetic being all like "oh, I know" --> STUPID MUCH?

Cops were even like: come on, let's go, don't talk to each other, as you're not keeping distance.

So, 10 minutes later, most of the people returned into the room, but now shushing each other to stay quit.

Seriously? I hope they all get it.

[nathalie]

Lockdown is basically over mostly everwhere?
Adam's been back at work, this is week 4 now I believe (week 3 of 4).
Most stores have opened up again in the UK since last week Monday. Only thing still closed are pubs, food places, card/magazine stores.
Some restaurants have started doing take out since 2 weeks ago.

McDonalds has most drive-thru's open (we went yesterday, McFlurry never tasted better, haha!), and most other McDonalds will open here this week/next week.

Went to Primark yesterday.
Normally it is quite busy on a Sunday, but it was nice yesterday. Guy with a counter outside. And knowing most people are still shielding/not wanting to go outside, I feel this is mainly the time to actually go somehwere.
I was in desperate need of some new t-shirts and jeans, so wanted to give it a go.
It was nicer in Primark then it has been at the supermarket.

I was going to do a coloring contest a while ago, but was trying to figure out what I could do as a little prize, but that was the same day (or the next, don't remember), I got the news from my dad, so I just put that idea to the side, and then I completely forgot about it.
I can still upload some of the pictures though, people might still want to do some coloring.
(we got it from an adult coloring book, I got loads of TLK ones)

[Taneli]

Hello!

So quarantine for me effectively started on 17th March when my whole team was sent to work from home, and a week later on the 23rd the rest of the UK locked down too. It's been somewhat hard to stay motivated from a work perspective, though I'm fortunate to have a proper desk setup at home with a chair and a monitor. I know my manager is currently hunched over his dining room table with only his laptop screen

I am also feeling grateful to still actually have a job that's relatively safe in the current climate, one of my friends has already been made redundant and my brother is also looking at redundancy so it's all a bit "weeeeh" But the department I work in (property services) is one of the few departments that's actually making the company money at the moment, so our jobs are fairly safe...for now haha.

As for lockdown itself, I've coped mostly okayish I think! I live alone so I don't have to worry about anyone else which from a potential spreading aspect is a good thing. That said, it was getting quite boring and lonely on my own for 3 months. Thankfully the government introduced a "bubble" arrangement for people living on their own where they could go visit one other household, so naturally I took the opportunity to go leech off of my parents for a weekend I think the lockdown measures are being eased further still on 4th July so that bars/restaurants etc can reopen and more people can meet up in public. Whilst I think that it's possibly too soon to do that in my opinion, especially given how people acted this week when the weather was nice I'm half expecting the UK to have a second spike of cases in about 2-3 weeks time, but we'll see.

And yes like Nathalie, I had McDonalds for the first time in 3 months last week. I got a box of 20 nuggets and I regret nothing it was so good! Might give KFC a whirl this coming week, thankfully both my local McDonald's and KFC are both Drive-Thrus so they're both open again already. I've also started food shopping at Sainsbury's as opposed to Morrisons, partly because the clientele at Sainsbury's tend to be better behaved, but also because they do SmartShop where you can scan stuff with your phone as you go round and just bag it there and then so you don't have to wait in line at the end.

But yeah, that's basically been me during lockdown. A bit dull and boring but overall could be a lot worse! Hope everyone is keeping safe!

[nathalie]

I have a well planned system for groceries, lol.
We know which ones to avoid, and which ones to actually go to.

Morrisons Lutterworth is the nicest, I really don't want to sound mean, but the people shopping there are just nicer and more wel behaved, then when we went to the ones in Coventry.
But, Lutterworth doesn't have a toilet, and the one in Coventry does, which is important for me also at times, so it's give and take sometimes.

In the meantime we've had Pizzahut, Chinese and McDonalds, and I must say, McDonalds was the best!
I only like thin crust at Pizzahut which they don't do at the moment, so I really wasn't like "oh my God, I've missed this" haha. Chinese didn't taste like anything special anymore either.
Which is all good, because I don't feel like having a pizza or Chinese like before, where I would have these cravings for it.

But the nuggets and the mcflurry, yummmmmmmmmm haha


Weird how some countries can contain the people in it, and the UK seems to just not be able to.
In Belgium, there's actually police at exits on the highways to the beach, if you ain't got any business there, they make you turn around.
It doesn't stop people who live in those exact area's, but it does stop people who come from further away, spreading it potentionally all over the country again.

[Sadiki]

I also been back at my old job since June 16th so just over a month now. As I work in travel industry and also Hertz went bankrupt I was surprised when I got offered my old position back. At first I wasn't sure if I should just go back as the 600$ unemployment boost in states was basically making me earn about twice my weekly wages, but at the same time job security is nice. I do feel like the trend in my current job is more like it is in spring time, as we're very busy in Friday - Monday and pretty dead Tue-Thur. which is quite understandable. I do feel like people for the most part have learned to live in the current situation pretty well, though sometimes I run into situation where people either over shoot or little the situation. In personal level the whole COVID situation hasn't effected me in any way, heck financially it's been more of a blessing for our household, but the situation is far from over and much can still go wrong as the longer the situation carries out the more edge people will get. My personal prediction is that we will have to live rather cautious lives for at least a year longer and thereafter if we have vaccine that can be applied to at least 90% in global scale and has high efficiency rate, we can start going back to what used to be. If however the virus will mutate enough in that time frame, it may just have to be accepted as another periodic diseases.

[Kossu]

Good to hear you got your job back Sadiki! It's usually the other way around these days, with companies going bankrupt etc., so that's great news!

I've been feeling pretty terrible for the most part of June and July so far. A lot of stress and depressive thoughts, one of the reasons why I didn't post anything here. Things have been quiet for the most part. I've been plagued with trying to decide whether I'll pay a visit to my folks back in Greece or not. I did book tickets for next week, but I still sit around doubting, wondering whether I should cancel or not. I haven't been home since January, which isn't a very long time, but still...feels weird. I plan to start studying in September and I kind of won't have another chance for a while after that. And yet I dread the idea of travelling and getting my parents sick somehow...I really don't know what to do.

[Guntur]

Congratulations to hear about your job, STM.

I believe there will be a long term effects over the pandemic. I swear to god it will bite us all in 5 or 6 years after the last active infection.

[nathalie]

I ran into someone I know earlier today when I was going to the store.
In February I sat next to her on the train home from London, and now, we were having a chat with 2 meters between us.
Just like ... How is this 2020?

We were at the beach for a week, and twice, we arrived somewhere, and left within 5 minutes.
I get it, people want to go outside, and so did we, didn't want to just sit at a holiday home for 7 days straight, but the people in those 2 places were a complete shambles.
We then also went to another 2 places, and those towns were such a big difference. The majority of people were trying to get out of your way, were in those other places, the majority were walking towards you on purpose.

I got cornered at Aldi, I say it out loud that I am, and no one moves. 3 people were all in my face really.
I squeeze my way out, and I say "an excuse me would come a long way you know!" instead of rubbing against me, but I'm the idiot aparently.

Masks will be mandatory as of Friday in the UK.
Bit too late, but then again, UK's been late with everything.

@Kossu, I'm the same, I really want to go home, but it just seems such a hassle now too, and even though we'd just be at my parents for a week, I'm feeling scared to travel. Even though we'd be on the bike, so not interacting with anyone.
We were supposed to go end of August, but Adam's days off have been changed majorly, and he's just been given a week of in September, as they are kind of just giving people a week, rather then seeing if that's actually a week they would want off.

At least there's 2021 to look forward too.