Cocooned Day 11
I am hearing about people going a little stir crazy with all the shenanigans going on.
There is really no need to panic. Yes, it’s tough in the beginning but take it from an expert – the first year is the hardest and after that you get quite used to it.
There is still endless waffle on the virus, in particular on our own beloved RTE, on both radio and television. The have an advertisement that is repeated ad nauseam telling us about “social distancing” [a term that is really annoying me], to wash our hands all the time, to cough into our elbows and not to travel more than 2km.
Now the distancing lark has a fair bit of logic to it. I can understand it but even then people take it too literally. If I walk past someone going in the opposite direction it doesn’t matter how close I get unless one of us coughs or sneezes. Or do we leave a little jet-trail of virus as we walk? Distancing only makes sense if you are in a queue or are talking to someone.
The hand washing is bollox. Yes, wash your hands before going out to the shops and wash ’em again when you get home. There is no point in washing them repeatedly in the house unless one of your rooms is a virus hotspot and the rest are clear. If it’s in the house then you have it, and no amount of hand washing will change that.
Coughing into our elbows is fine if we are out and about but if I’m out in the Estate, I’ll cough were I damn well please. Indoors I can’t see that it makes much difference anyway. If I have the Bug then Herself will have it anyway. We believe in sharing everything.
The 2km lark has me baffled though. There was a report a while back of how our illustrious Gardaí were parked up in the Wicklow Mountains stopping cyclists and telling them to go home. What the blind fuck? Take it from one who knows – the Wicklow Mountains are about as unpopulated as you can get. Sneeze up there and you may just startle some sheep but that’s all. I am no fan of cyclists but the heights of the mountains is one of the safest spots disease wise, on the planet and I cannot for the life of me understand why people aren’t allowed there. They have a far greater chance of drowning in a bog-hole.
The latest one that was broadcast last night is that people are heading to their holiday homes in the West. If they are caught on arrival they are told to go home again. Insane. Holiday homes tend to be on the side of isolation so it’s the perfect spot for “distancing”. People in Clifden are claiming they don’t want visitors presumably working on the basis that their area is clean and the rest of the country is a seething mass of virus. I reckon I would have just as much chance of catching the bug in Roundstone as I would in Roundwood.
The greatest protection against the Lurgy is common sense.
Sadly that is distinctly lacking.
This travel ban has some advantages; I’m getting three weeks to the gallon.
My petrol is dropping more by evaporation than use.
" Or do we leave a little jet-trail of virus as we walk? "
It could be. That's exactly the reason why 2 meters are safer than the usual distance we have while talking to each other. After 1.5 to 2 m the virus has sunk to the ground (or anything in between your nose / mouth and the ground).
" There is no point in washing them repeatedly in the house unless one of your rooms is a virus hotspot and the rest are clear. If it’s in the house then you have it, and no amount of hand washing will change that. "
It might still help to protect the other persons in the house.
"If they are caught on arrival they are told to go home again. Insane. Holiday homes tend to be on the side of isolation so it’s the perfect spot for “distancing”. "
It might be perfect for distancing – but it might also lead to health services not being able to cope because in these areas they are few and far between and tend to have enough on their hands with those who live there permanently. I know of one blogger in Cornwall who is asking people to please not come to Cornwall as there is only one big hospital there that will have enough to cope with without second home owners going there in droves.
Sorry for disagreeing so much 😉
Sorry for disagreeing so much – No problem!
The question of passing the virus to another in the house doesn't arise here. If one of us gets it then the other will too. The job of caring requires an awful lot of close intimate contact so transfer would be inevitable. I would imagine that in a normal household the contact may not be so constant but transfer would be almost impossible to prevent.
As for the holiday home mob, I can't see much danger there. Holiday homes by their nature tend to be isolated and even in [for example] caravan parks I can't see any danger there. Most caravan parks will be deserted anyway.
Great Claudia. I love reading this blog, I always think it is with a sense of humour that the author scribes. Hopefully one day most of us will realise that it is just that, humor)
Ah! But when is it humo[u]r and when is it serious?
Out for my statutory exercise walk along the canal towpath this sunny afternoon, I started to wonder whether I was ringing a bell and had a sign marked 'Leper' on my chest, as most folk approaching from the other direction seemed to take most extreme steps to achieve the maximum possible distance between us as we passed, despite the warmth of my amiable smile and the cheery nod of anonymous greeting.
After a while, it became a bit of a game, holding my station in the middle of the towpath, seeing just how close to a damn-good soaking they would go, just to avoid my apparently festering aura – some went teasingly close to needing a towel. If you start by drifting towards the land-side of the towpath, then from 50yds away, they will commit to the water-side – that's the point when you then seize the middle-ground of the towpath, forcing them to drift even further waterwards. It brightened my lockdown day, I'll probably go again tomorrow.
At least the ducks seemed grateful to see me, or maybe that was more about the bag of food I was distributing freely . . . .
I must try that. After all, people expect us oldies to wander about a bit when walking. Unfortunately we don't have any canals around here but it might work down at the river.
A little light but extremely worthwhile reading.
V the IR US
Ah here now! 352 pages? I'll get back to you in a month or two.
They are talking about easing restrictions here to boost herd immunity. Bloody hope so, I've had enough of this top down authoritarian bullshit.
https://au.yahoo.com/news/australia-considering-loosening-coronavirus-restrictions-233101859.html
The sooner everyone catches this bug and gets over it the better. It's only a matter of time.
I thought I was coping with my self isolation but realised I was beginning to lose it when I watched an episode of "Loose Women" on UK daytime tv and began having erotic thoughts about Janet Street Porter, one of the presenters. If you have never heard of the lady, a quick Google will make you understand my feelings of panic.
Watching daytime television is one of the first great symptoms of approaching insanity. I imagine that erotic thoughts about Janet S P would be a close second?
I would recommend immediate medication of several pints, or a few drams of your favoured spirit in that case.
My suggestion would be to release us plebs, and impose a severe lockdown/isolation on gubmints, officials and plod above Superintendent rank.
Couldn't be any worse, could it?
But then all those Millennials would have no one to tell them how to live their lives. There would be chaos. Bring it on!