Life in quarantine

[Sharifu]

I feel like quite a few things have happened lately for us since I last posted. As Petteri already mentioned, he got his job back, which is good of course.

Sad news is our cat Miss Kitty passed away around the end of May. (I posted more info about it in the "Pictures of Your Pets!" thread).

And I recently announced this news on Facebook, but I am pregnant! So when Petteri lost his job, I said to him, "Oh my god, what if I'm pregnant?!" which we found out I was just a week later. So that was one of the reasons I was pretty worried about what was going to happen to our health insurance, and of course you just need health insurance. Last September I found out I have diabetes, so I have been going to quite a few doctor's appointments. But it all worked out in the end. I know I am probably in the minority here as it seems most people here do not want children. When I was younger, I wasn't sure if I wanted kids either. But after my nephew being born over 10 years ago, it made me desire to have my own child.

I know people have asked us since Miss Kitty passed away, if we want to get a new pet. And we would like to, but at the same time, since we have a baby on the way (due in December) I wonder if we should wait until after the baby is born and we are a little more settled. It might be hard to take care of both a baby and a new cat or dog. (I love both cats and dogs, but I would really like to get a dog this time). But it is strange to be without a pet. Both Petteri and I have always lived with a pet pretty much all of our lives.

When it comes to travel, we did end up driving to Oregon in the beginning of this month. I didn't want to wait anymore. I was worried about travel at first, but my parents didn't know about my pregnancy yet, and I wanted to tell my mom in person before I started showing. I was also a little worried as my mom is older and has health problems. But she was ok with us visiting, so we just did it. I think the choice was easier for us since we drove in our own car instead of flying. I also brought my nephew back to California with us so he can spend more time with us and also my dad who lives in California. I know we can't take my nephew to a whole lot of places, (since everything is closed and staying at home is safer for everyone) but I think he has just as much fun spending time with us, watching movies and playing games. We are planning on making our own pizzas for dinner tomorrow. I know he has fun doing that. My dad took him fishing too. We might go for some walks in parks, or maybe walk across the Golden Gate Bridge if it's not too cold. (But my dad forgot to bring his jacket, and my dad lives a 44 minute drive away). This is our last weekend with him before he goes back to Oregon too. Oh well. Either way I know we will have fun.

Kossu, I'm sorry you have been feeling down. Honestly, I would just go visit family. I know the risk is there, but this is really your only chance this year. But I know some people would disagree with my opinion. I am not as worried about it I guess. I know that sounds strange as I am actually in a higher risk group myself, having diabetes and being pregnant. I work with the public too. But I take precautions. I wear a mask outside of home, wash my hands a lot, and wear gloves at work. So glad my store still closes at 1:00 pm too.

When it comes to traveling, I guess it's a personal decision. Only you know what will feel right to you. We are not planning any other trips this year, but going to Oregon was important for me. I had big news to share with my family, and doing it in person was the way I wanted to do it. (Although I would of wanted to go even if I wasn't pregnant. I like to spend some time with my nephew while he is on summer break, and my mom needed some help with some things she can't do by herself).

[KanuTGL]

Again, massive congrats to you and Petteri, Audra It must be so exciting. Hmm, is this the first Lea baby?

Life over here goes on... The spread has really gone down a lot this summer, like they said it would, so at the moment things are starting to feel more optimistic. Sort of. Being out and about feels less scary and even though we've ramped up testing, confirmed cases are dropping. And people from certain regions of the country can now visit Denmark and Norway, woo I still think our neighbours' reasoning on travel restrictions are weird. For a while now, Norwegians and Danes have been allowed to come into Sweden, but Swedes haven't been allowed to Norway or Denmark. As if Swedes inherently carry the virus and returning travellers can't have it or anything... (It was Danes who brought covid to Scania in the first place~)

I'm still sort of wary of going on trains, or planes, but as it turns out I have to take the bus every day for my new job(!!), which is a one hour commute each way. Of course I landed something that can't be done from home, haha. It doesn't feel great to be on public transport because my default assumption is that the general public are awful people, hah - and the other day there was a woman on board who was sneezing and blowing her nose half of the way there - but I can't turn down a job opportunity in this time either... Unemployment here is higher than the government first thought and it does feel good to not be part of that statistic o.-

I agree that travel now is a personal decision. Europe is doing better and people have started going on holidays abroad to certain places again, so I suppose you have to weigh the risks yourself. Precautions like masks and hand sanitizers are good! I hope you feel better soon either way, Kossu

[Kossu]

Congratulations, Sharifu and Sadiki! Such wonderful news! I hope all of it will go as smoothly as possible.


Also I hope everyone else here is doing fine.

Things are more or less stable in the Netherlands, though there was a sudden rise about 2 weeks ago (if I remember correctly), mostly at places near the sea(especially because of a certain cafe/restaurant). Like Nathalie and Kanu said, there are enough of cases where you see people doing dumb things or not sticking to the measures...People being irresponsible and going out despite having symptoms, or just not sticking to the distances in supermarkets and stores. We are still being careful and wary, doing shopping once or twice per week and just going out for cycling or walking. There's a large nature area nearby, so we go there for walks almost daily.


As for my travelling plans...in the end, I cancelled my tickets. It was a very difficult decision, but I believe it was the right one. Both my parents have serious chronic illnesses and I felt that despite all the precautions I'd take, the risk of infecting them would still be there and it's not one I am willing to take. It wouldn't be like other times. I'd be stuck at home most of the time. I wouldn't be able to meet with my friends either(next to seeing my family, meeting my friends was also very important to me), and if I did, I could not do in good conscience anyway. My parents live in the suburbs of Athens and my friends all over the province, so our usual meeting point is the center of the city. Which is a tourist attraction and always packed, with or without tourists. I'd have to travel with public transport to get there, about one hour retour. And trains are still packed these days, as they've always been. There are just too many ifs and I don't feel comfortable with that.

I discussed it with my partner(who would have to stay behind, because of Kiara) and my parents extensively and in the end we all agreed it was for the best to delay the trip. I feel depressed about it all, but I still feel it was the right thing to do. Now I don't know when the next time will be, but we'll have to wait and hope for the best. In the end, safety is all that matters right now. Even if things do seem to be getting better in a lot of places in Europe right now, I feel like it's too early to rejoice. Especially once it's winter, in the northern hemisphere...

[nathalie]

Sorry you had to cancel your plans

Belgium was so hands on when it started, but ever since lockdown was eased, for the past 2 weeks, cases seem to be rising badly again.
I think visiting my parents this year is also a no-no.
My mom will have to send me a care package with Belgium food, as I'm running out of most things (and am out of most things) I already looked up prices with DPD to send me a 20 kg package, haha!

[ThiagoPE]

In my case, since 20 of march my work asked for everyone work from home, in that moment i havent realized the gravity of situation and thought it was unecessary measure, as at that time we had less than 10 people killed by this virus. as the days passed the death toll increased to hundreds by day and people started to freak out, my family was avoiding even to go to supermarket buy food and all food asked by delivery needed to be desinfected before being consumed, after then started people we knew being hospitalized and even being killed by the virus. my family spent literally 4 months without going anywhere except supermaket once in 15 days (and i wasnt alowed to go with them, because as i already had cancer, im considered a person with high risk of being affected by this virus). I think that i only didn´t became crazy of being locked by so much time because i was working from home and trying to do things i liked from home, but even with that, after sometime, you became full of being locked by so much time and have a desperate need to leave home. today the death tooll here are being about one thousand by day, lot of places still not working and myself still working from home today with no estimate day of returning to my work place.

2020 is a year to be scraped from history....

[Kossu]

I genuinely start wondering, whether things would have been better with a stricter lockdown for a longer period when all of this started. And I don't know, also more holiday restrictions perhaps. It feels like even a functional vaccine won't be panacea, at this rate we will have to keep living with this for the years to come.

I've been feeling lots of stress about the situation again, with numbers rapidly rising. My father and a close friend also got operated recently, which also added to all of this. Just...so much stress about so many different things lately, even a creepy earthquake yesterday... so little contact with family and friends...Realising there propably won't be a chance of seeing them this Christmas either...It's all taking a toll on my sanity.

[nathalie]

I hope the ones who haven't cared so far are happy.

When we reported our neighbour, she should have been fined. That would teach them!
I'm sure loads didn't get fined, so they just do it again since no action has been taken.

Disneyland Anaheim still closed.
Disneyland Paris closed again until February.
France in lockdown.
Belgium until December 12.
UK from Thursday until December 2.

Thank you to anyone who doesn't care.

[cleargreenwater]

There's just an incredible level of insanity in the US around this all, and I just keep my fingers crossed that no one I know ends up dieing from it all.

My mom got sick in mid October, the Covid test said negative but a month later se was still having trouble breathing and the found ground glass opacity in the bottom of her lungs. So now the lung doctor wonders if it might've been a false negative. Other types of viral pneumonia can cause the same damage though, and she's immune compromised, so who knows. If it wasn't Covid though I dont want to see the real thing, viral pneumonia is bad enough and did permanently damage. She is one of those that's very high risk. The vaccine isn't here yet people!

[nathalie]

How's your mom now ??

My dad is doing great, heart patient, +60, so he's been very lucky that his life is completely normal now.
He's been back at work for a while now, and the tiredness is basically gone too. Where before, he'd feel 100 % until he had to go up the stairs, and then was 0 %.

Some people are also confusing the vaccin with a cure :/
But I cannot be bothered to go into discussion about that with the people who think it's a cure.

[cleargreenwater]

She's feeling better, but yeah, she gets deeply out of breath and wiped out walking up stairs or hills and things. That's interesting that your dad had that for months. My mom is not interested in getting the antibody test so I'll never know for sure if she had it (which is fine with me so she doesn't start going out thinking she's invincible since she had it already!), but something caused damage in her lungs and it seems like too much of a coincidence. I mean she was really sick for like a week before the fever passed and she was able to stay awake for a few hours. That's REALLY good that your dad is a heart patient and is not getting any lingering side effects, it really messes with cardiovascular health and that is SUCH a good thing to hear that he's doing well. That was scary that he had to go in to the hospital for it.

[nathalie]

The aftermath of people who really had Covid, will have issues for months, even for those who didn't have it extreme.
The damage it does to your lungs is insane aparantly :/

He's on appointments for his heart anyways, since his heart attack 10 years ago, so if anything is wrong they'll see it anyways.

Yeah, he was on a ventilator, but not in a coma. But he did need one to pump extra oxygen into his lungs, after that, he had like a tube that goes into his nose for just small extra additions (that's the best way I can explain in English, lol).
Once oxygen levels were normal, he was allowed to leave the hospital.

He told the doctor when he wanted to do a test "DON'T TOUCH ME!!" My dad is scared of a lot of things (I'm sure that's where my panic comes from).
Eventually he needed 4 tests, lol, and then he was like: yeah, it was nothing, pfff

[Kossu]

Glad to hear your father has recovered well Nathalie, considering how hard recovery seems for people of that age and above. And especially since other illnesses were also involved.

CGW, your story sounds scary. I hope your mother's situation will only improve, as much as possible. I really hope things will be better next year around this time, after vaccination has taken place.

[KanuTGL]

I'm glad to hear your parents are doing okay now, Nathalie and CGW. It must have been very scary to go through

Yeah, I hope that enough people will actually take the vaccine to build herd immunity so that by this time next year we'll be in a much better place.

I'm considering staying away from my family for Christmas, since they live in another region and the town in particular is the worst hit place in Sweden at the moment. It'd be the first time in my life I haven't spent Christmas at home and I'm... conflicted. It would feel wrong to go as things are now and I would get to spend the holidays with my boyfriend instead, which I wouldn't mind, but... Christmas-time at home ;__; I would go by car and not see anyone but my family, so it could be plausible, but I'm going to wait and see how things go and probably decide what to do in the last days before Christmas Eve...

[Kossu]

Sorry to hear you are struggling with such decisions Kanu.It all feels so weird.

We might go visit my inlaws for Christmas, as they invited us over for a few days, though we are not certain yet. There's a lockdown here right now until the 18th of January. It's not certain if there will be more limitations for Christmas and New Years yet. And my father in law is a cancer patient so we have to be very careful.

Also, I am clueless as to when I'll see my parents and family in Greece again...Going there for Christmas is out of the question sadly. It's been almost a whole year since I've last been home, the longest I've ever been away. Feels depressing and unreal, despite our often videocalls. I'm hoping I could perhaps visit around Easter if things improve.

Otherwise we'll just try and go for a long holiday this summer with my husband, we were considering perhaps to go by car and stay there for over a month, or longer. That would be nice, I've missed home so much.

[ThiagoPE]

IT´s so sad see how the quarentine changed our lives ... As i still live with my parents, probabily i didn´t suffer "being alone" but by what i can see at least here in Brazil is that people are getting tired of this quarentine. my christmas for example, lot´s of parents came to here celebrate with us, all wearing maks, but i dont know if this is enough... some of them live alone at their homes, and their need to be outside, hugging people, is quite noticeable....

I confess that Im also tired of so much rules (like : always use mask when leaving home or you can´t sit at side of someone in the public transport) because you do this for a few days, wekks, even some months, ok, but you do that for almost a year... also people are getting in panic with that desease: my parents are wearing masks even inside home, my mom keeps cleaning the doorknobs with alchool even when no one touched it!

How I would love to have our normal lives back....

[nathalie]

Lockdown #3 in the UK, for 6 weeks.

Our region got put into tier 4 on new years eve, which already meant lockdown for us.
But it's national now, and more strict.

I won't lie, I'm definitely scared working in a supermarket now, especially with all my mental issues.
Doing an extra shift tomorrow, and already major freaking out, as I said 9-3, so store will be open during my entire shift.
(Don't know what I was thinking when I said those hours, I just thought I'd be a nice change, not having to get up at 3.40 in the morning).
Normally I do 5-11, so I'm usually gone when the crowds starts coming.

Chances of getting to Belgium in May now even look really slim.

*sigh*

[nathalie]

This messed up b*tch downstairs still didn't get the memo! National lockdown, and her friends just waltzt into the house -again-!

I don't know what we can do about it. Tell the landlord? Talk to her? I'm scared she could make our lives very difficult, as we are above her, and she could start playing loud music, or whatever.
Landlord still doesn't know I'm actually living here, I'm sure she does, and she could tell him. Which means we would have to start paying loads more rent, and we don't have the money for that.

It's messed up retards like her, who don't care about anyone else but themselves, that this thing keeps on going.
God knows where she hangs out, God knows where those friends hang out, all touching the front door, that 5 other people in this house touch. (well, 4, I only touch it with tissues).

*sigh*

[Kossu]

Sounds like a very stressful situation Nathalie. Sharing space with other people seems hard enough without the covid-19, situation, let alone with something like that going on.

[KanuTGL]

Oof, that sounds really rough, Nathalie. Indeed, if people weren't so damned stupid we wouldn't be in the situation we're in any more... I'm sorry you have such an awful neighbour.

I had to go back to work this week and I've really realised the toll this is taking on my sanity too Those almost two weeks that I had off I've felt so good, considering, well, everything. Being able to stay home and not have to worry about it all on a daily basis has done such good for my mental health. I've even felt quite calm at times. Buuut now it's right back in the pit again since I can't work from home and I really don't feel like risking my health doing a non-essential job I wish we'd be put on lockdown now, haha :') The Swedish government actually can't go down that route though, by law, so we have to rely on the public to take responsibility. Aaand, yeah, so that is why we're in the really bad situation we're in right now.

For me it's such a shame because I do really like my job, but I'm considering my options now. There's no end in sight for the pandemic anytime soon, so I feel like I need to find a way out of this... Ugh.

[Kossu]

Similar feelings here.

Winter break passed so quickly! Looking back it feels like months ago when we were celebrating New Year's. It’s a very odd feeling. Time seems to have little meaning when you do most things at home and there’s no place to go other than walk around in nature or do shopping for the basics.

In general I struggle with keeping a sense of time and doing the things I have to do every day. Even the very basics feel so very hard some days. Most days I have little motivation for doing more than what is absolutely necessary.