[AlanHo]

We went for a stroll through our local park this morning - which is a large designated wild life conservation area and mainly wooded.  The entrance is just 300 yards from our house and we saw only 3 other people there - who all kept well away from each other.

At our previous house - from where we moved 4 months ago, there was no picturesque local park or place to walk other than along a narrow and sometimes muddy canal towpath. We used to take the car into the countryside or National Trust gardens for a walk - which we would not have done in the present circumstances.

One of my friends - who lives not a million miles from where we live) saw someone in the supermarket yesterday wearing scuba gear - just the facemask and air tank on his back and not with a wetsuit or flippers. Novel eh!!!!

One of Libby's daughters was Emailed by her employer last evening not to go into work today - a colleague in another department was diagnosed with Corona over the week-end. She is worried and will not be doing any shopping for us until she is certain she is OK.

Our neighbours, who are Sri Lankans, put a note through the door on Sunday volunteering to shop for us. We might take them up on the offer because none of the local supermarkets are accepting new registrations for delivery of groceries

Libby's sister, who lives alone except for a dog that hates me - went to our local Lidl at about 9:00 this morning to find very few shoppers there and plenty of stuff on the shelves - even toilet rolls. While there she saw a guy with a large trolley piled high at the checkout loudly arguing with the assistant who was refusing to accept him buying more than 2 of most things. They opened another till, which Libby's sister used while the argument continued - now joined by the shop manager.  Some greedy selfish bastards never learn.

She mentioned that the only way the supermarkets could cut down on the hoarders would be to lock up the trolleys and only allow hand baskets. I guess the greedy would get round that by shopping more frequently and thus expose more shoppers to possible infection more often.

If Corona was confined to just those who do not follow the rules and carry on regardless - I might almost welcome it. It would remove from the gene pool such inconsiderate swine. However - its us vulnerable who pay the price invoked by the self-serving and ignorant - so it's just a dream.

I still have my food ration books somewhere in my archives, that were issued during the war plus the petrol ration books issued during the Suez crisis. Now there's a thought - history could easily be repeated.

[Dazzler]

This is the latest news about the ship my parents are on Costa Victoria More than 200 Australians stranded on cruise ship Costa Victoria with confirmed coronavirus case - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I did tell em not to go

That's an interesting news snippet. 30 cruise ships still floating around with Aussies on.. 

Cheers Alan, that's interesting. Even at your ripe old age I don't think you would have witnessed anything this crazy!

[Doggie 1]

cafes are closed to in-service (take away only).
Unnecessary travel is not allowed.

Anything to get out of buying the next coffee.....

 

[CraigB]

Just received a disturbing email from my Dad, Mums been taken off to a hospitable in Rome with breathing problems

They told dad to pack their bags in a hurry and they'll be taken off together but when they got to the exit my father was refused to be allowed to leave so Mum has been taken off without any of her travel details - identification/passport, extra clothes, glasses, phone...what an fn balls up

Dads freaking out as you could imagine and while typing this he's just been told he's getting shifted to another room

[asathorny]

Oh no, what a fu*k up.  Hope it all comes good in the end

[Dazzler]

Just received a disturbing email from my Dad, Mums been taken off to a hospitable in Rome with breathing problems

They told dad to pack their bags in a hurry and they'll be taken off together but when they got to the exit my father was refused to be allowed to leave so Mum has been taken off without any of her travel details - identification/passport, extra clothes, glasses, phone...what an fn balls up

Dads freaking out as you could imagine and while typing this he's just been told he's getting shifted to another room

Oh Jerpers that is terrible news. Hope they will both be ok! 

[Doggie 1]

  Craig.
Really hope they're both ok.

[mickd]

As above,
 

[mickd]

7 confirmed now.

[eye30]

Hope your mum is ok and dad able to go and see her in hossie

[Shambles]

 

[AlanHo]

I woke at 03:30 this morning and could not get back to sleep. I gave up and have been dressed and ready for the day ahead since 04:00.

Libby was still fast asleep - and gets grumpy if I take her a cup of tea before 9:00 unless there is a good reason to get up early.

I used the time to order the remaining materials for my new garden shed - which will be delivered before April 6th. I need to find satisfying things to do while stuck  in isolation for at least the next 12 weeks. We both fall into the category of 'vulnerable' due to age and health conditions.

The shed is a 4.8 metres long (15 ft) lean-to on the side of the house, with a transparent polycarbonate roof, doors on each end, and shelving down just one side because it is only 1.4 metres wide (5 ft). The materials are costing £720 - my original budget was £600 - so that's another item I under-estimated when we compiled our moving costs way back in June 2019.  It looks like our total budget for the house move and all the associated refurb of £44,000 will be exceeded by £2,500 ish. Of that, stamp duty, solicitors fees, estate agent commission and the removal men totalled £11,000 and the new conservatory and replacing the house windows was £17,500.

Can't take it with yer though can yer.

I was going to hire some carpenters to build the shed or have my son stay with us to help me. However, we are on lock-down and to Libby's intense annoyance because of the amount of work involved - I will now build it myself. I still have an extensive range of power tools and a large sliding mitre saw which minimises manual work.

Even so, I will need to take it steady and pace myself because of my angina and guess it will take me at least 3 or 4 weeks to do it, depending on the weather. I can't work outside when it's cold.

I have consoled Libby with the thought that not hiring the carpenters will save us £880 for her to spend on even more cushions, drapes, throws, rugs and all the other unnecessary flippery that ladies have a passion for.

[CraigB]

Dad still hasn't managed to make contact with her and he's starting to get rather distressed himself and not eating

I've been in contact with the consulate here several times and emails to the Australian embassy in Rome whom did manage to send and email to my father saying they have a very small capacity office in Rome and wont be able to provide assistance and we should keep dealing with the Australian consulate/Canberra

I'm waiting for a return call from the consulate right a this moment as it's now escalated to emergency status, they've managed to find which hospital mum's in (San andrea public hospital Rome)...only took 3 days now just need to wait and see if our consulate here can somehow get in contact with her.

The consulate just tried connecting me direct with the hospital but they hung up once they realised I couldn't speak Italian, neither them English.

They did manage to find out mum has Pneumonia which is a first for her and she's recovering, two negative Covid -19 tests at this stage but still requires a third, once clear we don't know what happens then as she wont be allowed back on the ship with my father.

Now I've to send notice to dad about the latest update and hopefully he'll get some rest.

I'll keep ya's updated once I know more

[tohis]

Today 1041 confirmed corona cases and 7 deaths in Finland. However, only 5 cases in North Karelia province where I live, so no panic here... yet. At last week Finland declared state of emergency, 1st time since WW2. The borders are closed for tourists, most schools are closed, people work from home if possible, restaurants will be closed at this weekend, but no general curfew has been set. Also everyone coming from abroad has been ordered to two-week quarantine.

The Uusimaa province, where our capital Helsinki is, has had 642 confirmed cases, and will be closed by road blocks starting from tomorrow, in order to slow down the spreading. Some ignorant people (AKA Covidiots) are now escaping at last minute into their summer cottages, and will possibly spread the bloody virus among them. Those cottages are typically in small towns and villages which have barely enough medical care capacity for locals, which will be a big problem when the bubble bursts.

I have spent my vacation week at home, not going much elsewhere than to a grocery store and walking/bicycling outside. Back to work at next week, as my job can't be done from home...

[sundiz]

I stopped following the infected numbers here when they stopped testing ones shoving symptoms. They only test the ones with severe symptoms or high risk patients. The numbers tell nothing about the truth. Estimations here are that there are 20-30 times more infected than confirmed cases. So today we are speaking something around 30000 cases at least. I assume it is much higher. I have been working at the lab, as that is a job I can't do at home. There is a VPN to access our files, but as I work in international company which "only" has 15000 VPN connections. They ran out quick, as every body who can, works at home all over the world. Been only in work, home and few runs per week to buy food. Also done some running by myself. Going to be "quarantined" in the province for the next 3 weeks. Police is closing the province boardes with the support of the army. Going to work over the province boarder is allowed, so not the most tighest quarantine, but better than nothing. Working is still allowed.

Should have gone to summer cabin on weekend few weeks ago. There is some welding to be done, but my old parents are there, so did not want to take the risk. I meet a lot of international travelers in my job, so there is a higher risk I get the virus, or spread it without symptons. Projects are now on hold. Also my summer tyres are at the cabin, so due quarantine there is no need to change the tyres. Basic toilet paper hoarding happened like in the rest of the 1st world countries. Temporary empty shelves on meat products and soaps, but they are coming back to stores quite fast. Of course stores sell more food, as there are more people at working at home and not eating in restaurants, but for some people the hoarding has gone over the limits. If you need 140 rolls of toilet paper for few week quarantine, your ass is a bigger problem than corona virus. I just hope that people actually eat all the food they buy.

People are freaking out about some people escaping the capital area to their cabins and spreading the virus to areas where the healtcare system is more vulnearable. Of course it could happen, but all the people I know are high risk group and they had been self quarantined few weeks even before leaving. And they have left to be in better isolation, so not conserned about that. These kinds of unfortunate times usually show the worst side of people. Also the modern clickbait media does not help the situation at all. Just makes it worse, causing people to fear and panic.

But you got the keep positive spirit. The traffic has been amazing. Empty roads and a lot of parking spaces. Also my introvert personality loves how every single mandatory social event has been cancelled.

[Dazzler]

Dad still hasn't managed to make contact with her and he's starting to get rather distressed himself and not eating

I've been in contact with the consulate here several times and emails to the Australian embassy in Rome whom did manage to send and email to my father saying they have a very small capacity office in Rome and wont be able to provide assistance and we should keep dealing with the Australian consulate/Canberra

I'm waiting for a return call from the consulate right a this moment as it's now escalated to emergency status, they've managed to find which hospital mum's in (San andrea public hospital Rome)...only took 3 days now just need to wait and see if our consulate here can somehow get in contact with her.

The consulate just tried connecting me direct with the hospital but they hung up once they realised I couldn't speak Italian, neither them English.

They did manage to find out mum has Pneumonia which is a first for her and she's recovering, two negative Covid -19 tests at this stage but still requires a third, once clear we don't know what happens then as she wont be allowed back on the ship with my father.

Now I've to send notice to dad about the latest update and hopefully he'll get some rest.

I'll keep ya's updated once I know more

Jeepers.. I'm stressed to hear that and she's not even my Mum.. good luck with it all mate.   

[Dazzler]

@tohis and @sundiz thanks for the update guys. Take care.. I love you guys (in a manly way of course)   

[sundiz]

We live strange times. Never thought this kind of pandemia would happen in my lifetime. I was thinking WW3 would be more likely to happen. But we still got time for that too 

There was some article that the covid started here as an upper class disease. One of the richest area had lots of infected people. It makes sense as only wealthy people have money to go on a skiing holiday in Italy, and travel around world due their jobs. Wealth and health usually goes together, so it has not been so severe with the first wave of infected ones. Now the virus has spread to old and sick and we are seeing more casualties. Luckily for us Finland is about 10 days behind other nordic countries, so we could learn about their operations to see which measures would work. The curve looks still similar. At the moment I personally hope for a full country lockdown and quarantine for few weeks. At the moment it would be an option. Later it might be mandatory. I am not an economist, but I feel it would be easier to get the economy back faster after few week full lockdown, than after several month survival battle with lots of casualties. Economy is the only thing goverments around the world seem to care for. Lives seems to be cheap.

Stay home (if possible) and take care of yourselves and people around you.

[Doggie 1]

Also my introvert personality loves how every single mandatory social event has been cancelled.

   I relate.

[AlanHo]

We learned last evening that a son-in-law of Libby's  has gone down with all the symptoms of corona, high temperature, very sore throat, loss of smell/taste, bad headache and total fatigue. They are a family of four with 17 and 21 year old daughters at home in quite a small house, so it's a worry.

The four of them have been taking it in turns to walk the dog in local fields that extend for a couple of miles from the end of their road.  Two days ago the dog was so tired after the SIL and girls had each taken him out for a couple of hours that he refused to go out again with Libby's daughter. So she went for a walk on her own.

Another son-in-law likes dogs - but has no time for their owners. This is because they have some bushes along their frontage and he regularly finds dog poo bags dangling from branches like christmas tree decorations or slung into their garden. So much so that when someone say they take the dog for a walk, his angry response is - "No you' don't - you are taking it out for a shit"

I suppose we all have a pet hate that is out of step with our normal character and gets us going. In my case at present it is people who are flagantry ignoring the corona rules. It really is getting my goat. There was a party at a house in our road yesterday with 5 extra cars parked on their frontage. I counted, by doing some curtain twitching from upstairs, 9 adults and 11 children in the garden. They are either too thick to understand the rules - or don't care about them or the health of others.

[Shambles]

Up here there's a hotline & online police portal where you can grass your neighbour, dog poo included.

[Doggie 1]

I couldn't agree more @AlanHo We have a member in a car club I'm in that refuses to be told by anyone, especially government, what to do and he just doesn't care.
Makes my blood boil. 

[AlanHo]

Up here there's a hotline & online police portal where you can grass your neighbour, dog poo included.

What's the point of throwing grass at your neighbour - I couldn't anyway we have an artificial lawn.

[CraigB]

I had an email from the embassy earlier today, looks like Dad will be on a plane back to Aus later this morning and then spending two weeks isolation at the Duxton Hotel in Perth, if you've got to be locked up it's a nice place to be

He did fail a temperature test last night and felt a bit ill which had us concerned but the test the next morning was better, stress and not eating wasn't doing him any good and now that the embassy is working closely with the both of them thought it best to get him out of there while they can.

Mum will still be stuck in the hospital in Rome until she's fit enough to travel sadly, not sure how long it will be

[sundiz]

Nice to hear that Spain does full lockdown. I just hope other countries would follow, even with not so severe situation. Sounds like best thing to stop the spread at this point. Hopefully getting them some time to test and find new medicine, maybe even a vaccine.

Police informed that they made over 300 people to turn around at the quarantined province checkpoint. Some people have just gone there to test if they can get through without mandatory reason. I just can't understand how stupid people can be. Go there to waste resources and time of the police and people who need and are allowed to pass the checkpoints.

[asathorny]

It'll be nice when mum and dad are reunited 

[CraigB]

It'll be nice when mum and dad are reunited 

Thanks Asa   Yes it sure will, it's been extremely stressful for the both of them and they wont be doing a cruise again...ever.

[Dazzler]

What Asa said. Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Having met them a few times and having spent a lot of time with you they are constantly in my thoughts at the moment along with a few other very badly affected by this bloody virus. 

[Doggie 1]

 
Watt ease head.
Sounds like the situation is starting to get a bit better Craig.

[CraigB]

Thanks guys for your wishes

Yeah there’s been some relief knowing she/we had contact via the embassy and they’re doing the best they can on stretched resources though still quite critical for Mum.

She is slowly on the mend with pneumonia but still weakened and where she is makes her extremely susceptible to Covid...one with the other wouldn’t end well