The End is Never Nigh
There is something bothering me.
As you may have noticed, there is a bit of a public panic afoot these days. People are jumping out in front of cars to avoid people on the pavement. Nearly everyone is wearing those fucking face nappies. Businesses are closing and folding like ninepins. Everyone is avoiding everyone like the – well – like the plague.
I am beyond sick of it all. I’m sick of all those little and not so little yellow notices warning us ad nauseum to “keep our distance” and “wash our hands”. I am sick of hard plastic sheets in shops where I have to shout and can’t hear any reply. I’m sick of the dirty looks I get just because I haven’t bothered to subscribe to the mass hysteria and aren’t wearing a fucking nappy. I’m sick of the little marks and plastic footprints that are supposed to tell me where I can stand. I’m sick of the numbers – those endless numbers that mean little or nothing but have to be trotted out all the time presumably to give the Timid a dose of the shits. I’m sick of being governed by a bunch of mathematicians and statisticians instead of the usual bunch of incompetent idiots.
What worries me though is if and how this is all going to end.
Are they going to make an official announcement that the “Pandemic is now Over”? I doubt it. They will probably continue to do what they are doing now which is to “ease restrictions” in baby steps because they are too fucking scared of doing anything properly. With a bit of luck, the time will come when there are no restrictions at all, but they will never officially end. So people will continue to anti-socially distance as it is now an ingrained habit. People will continue to wear face nappies because they want to show how much they care for their friends and “loved ones” [a cliché that has become tediously boring]. The signs and stickers will remain because some are permanent, destined to remind us of the hysteria in perpetuity, while others will just be left there [just in case….?].
Will we ever get back to the Halcyon days of not giving a shite?
Oh yes! Went to the post office yesterday —a van in village Tuesday afternoons— postmaster, young chap, masked up, notices everywhere, leapt back into the cabin as I entered without a mask, "next time don't forget you mask!" Don't worry next time I'll go elsewhere, it's only a few pence more to go online and have Hermes come and collect a parcel.
They are getting used to me in the village. It only took a year. The only dirty looks I get now are from strangers. I have perfected the back-at-ya-dirty-look to perfection.
TPTB have invested far too much in this facade to drop it now. They cannot let go of the tiger's tail, lest it turn on them and eat them
An aside, as much as I disagree with a lot of his politics, Ewan McKenna hits it out the park with his latest
Clicky
Everyone – and I mean EVERYONE should read Ewan's article. I read the lot. I laughed because it was so absurd and I cried because it was all so true.
I dont understand the M50 signs. They tell me to hold firm while I'm driving. Does that mean I have to stop? Isn't that dangerous? They also tell me to stay home when they know I'm not home, that's a bit cheeky. 'We're in this together'.. what? A motorway? I already know this! It's all very confusing. I would love to hijack those signs.
Welcome back Somethingfishy!
Some suggestions for a hijacked sign – "You are driving on the wrong side of the motorway" or "Please drive faster to avoid infection"?
I have turned the snidey looks into a sport. I stare right back and universally the masked mussies look away first. None have ever said a dickie bird. One gets ones amusement where I can.
I did put the shits up one in Aldi the other evening. She was 'shopping' the markdowns by placing here rather rotund body and shopping trolley right across the selection whilst jabbering on through her blue mask into a phone. She moved slightly to one side so I dived in snatched some chicken and as she clocked me she let out a yell but clung to her phone. Was fun whilst it lasted. She was still glued to her phone wandering around after I had cleared the checkout. Some are beyond help.
Where I live, in Cumbria UK. We are opening up nicely. Business is booming. Friends are visiting. Towns are full. Busses are carrying passengers. Countryside and lambs are just beautiful. It's great!
Here most people wear masks as we call them, but only in shops or at the doctors.
All we need is a little patience and most of our old lives will return to us.
That will be nice as then we will be able to find different things to complain about.
Like the Cumbrian weather!
If it wasn't for that, I'd say you guys are living in the wrong places.
I live in Cumbria. the bit that really is part of Lancashire and it is still in the shitter. The masked mussies are legion shops doctors, cars, bikes, motorbikes, at the cemetery FFS.
The town centre is fatally wounded though to be fair it doesn't yet know it but come the next lockdown. Takeaways are doing okay, supermarkets are doing very well indeed.
The buses are all practically devoid of passengers and have been for months and months. The trains are as bad. Somehow though they still manage to keep on running, must be the magic money tree called the state dripping its fruits into their coffers.
Just take the jabs (don't forget to get your autumn 'booster') and all will be well. Make sure you continue to wear your mask, wash your hands in the ordained manner and keep 6 feet away from everyone else because you never know they could be virus infested arseholes who cough on everything and everyone.
"All we need is a little patience" My patience has worn down so much it's the thickness of a single molecule.
You lot in the UK seem to be way ahead of us. We're still in "lockdown" and they are currently discussing yet another "roadmap" to get us out of the mess by the end of summer.
Went out last weekend. One afternoon around a Nat Trust garden and one afternoon around a RHS garden. Apart from in the ticket office part, which was plastered with mask reminders nobody at all was wearing a mask, and as often happens at such places strangers talk to one another when admiring an interesting plant or building. It was almost normal!