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Post by Bean on Jan 1, 2021 8:32:31 GMT
I know a couple of you are off to a difficult start with losing or having poorly furry friends, so I'm sending extra love your way, but wanted to wish everyone a
Happy New Year!
In many ways, we're taking the problems of 2020 into the new year with us, but fingers crossed better times are ahead very soon with a new US president on the way and a covid vaccine being rolled out for all of us.
We had a fun evening playing games and sipping a bit of prosecco. We saw in the new year with 12 grapes as per the Spanish tradition, and let's hope they bring more luck than they did last year! We watched the fireworks display in London and really liked the use of drones - hope that and lasers take over from fireworks in the long run!
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 1, 2021 12:48:23 GMT
HAPPY 2021
Hubby and I were listing all the good things that happened, or non-bad things, during 2020. It was a different type of year, no doubt about that, but it wasn't all bad. I think it helps to make a list of all the good things that happened, as overall, the year is the worst in my lifetime. Still, we made it through, the future is looking brighter pandemic-wise, America's future is definitely looking bright with a new president we can't inaugurate soon enough for me, and despite all of the deaths, a huge percentage of people who contracted COVID-19 lived.
UK is going to experience the growing pains of Brexit, full force, now that all the holidays are behind us. I am keeping all virtual digits crossed that it won't be too painful, and that the change over to depending on local products will happen quickly and relatively painlessly.
It's interesting Brexit is happening at a time when some products are in short supply due to the pandemic. Brexit may get to slide in relatively unnoticed, and have time to get sorted before it becomes noticeable. I hope so. It would be really nice if Brits could come out of the pandemic into a world of promise, and not of more shortages and outrageous prices. All digits crossed.
A TV commercial posted 2021 as twenty twenty won. I hope that's the case globally.
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Post by Bean on Jan 2, 2021 9:15:57 GMT
From the sounds of it, the trade deal we have will allow much trade to continue as before in terms of there being no extra charges. But the amount of paperwork now needed to get everything through customs is apparently insane and will probably add costs because of the extra manpower and time it takes to process everything coming in and out.
This last year has been so strange that I'm sure any disruption caused by it will seem less inconvenient than before as we're all used to everything constantly changing and having to adapt in the blink of an eye.
I don't think we'd be planning to go abroad this year anyway because of the pandemic. But I'll certainly be glad to wait for all the travel issues to be ironed out before we try to cross any borders!
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 2, 2021 20:49:02 GMT
That's definitely an issue. If you have to get to the airport 4 hours before your flight, just to get through all the processing, then when you land in a foreign country, have to do it all over again, it will make traveling a lot less worth the trouble. Travel agencies, which used to be very big before the internet, may become very big, again. If they can work out ways to do the processing for the travelers, it's worth booking through them, just to have all that taken care of.
The best I can say it, travel while you're young and fit enough to do it. All the lines, the endless processing, not for anyone who isn't fit.
Do you think the governments will eventually sort out the paperwork, so it won't be as detrimental to the process, as it seems to be now? Often, when a new way of doing something starts, it has lots of kinks to work out, but they do get worked out.
I agree with using local products, and in season products, so that may catch on, when the imported products become too much trouble. Local will be expensive, though, and not everyone will be able to afford that.
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Post by Bean on Jan 3, 2021 8:07:47 GMT
I've had a couple of emails from small companies who ship abroad and they've both said that although overseas shipping costs will be rising, they're still operating as before and the only change is more paperwork for them, paperwork that might seem a lot now, but will soon be routine. They're just cracking on and maybe once everyone has got used to it, there will be a lot less complaints!
I do enjoy the trips we take, whether in the UK or abroad, but I'm more of a homebody than a wanderer, so any reduction in travelling won't bother me too much at all. I find airports (and the stuff at either end) very tedious!
We had snow yesterday. Not much settled but it looked very pretty coming down and my daughter made a mini snowman (more like two snowballs!).
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 3, 2021 20:40:15 GMT
We haven't had any good snowman snow in a long time. I tried to make a small snowman for Wheekies' son, and the snow was so wet, it just turned to cement, again. We seem to get cement or flakes that are so lite, they won't bind together. Glad you got to have a pretty coating of white, and she got to build her snowman Warm yesterday, so everything turned to slush, which froze overnight, and everything's a skating rink this morning. Luckily, the roads and sidewalks are clear, but we didn't even try walking through the pit today, as all slush I slogged through yesterday is now solid ice. We have had enough precipitation that our drought is down to abnormally dry, instead of severe drought. Not bad!
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Seffy
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Posts: 116
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Post by Seffy on Jan 4, 2021 3:10:24 GMT
Not sorry to see 2020 go. Between uncertainty with my job, Covid and the stress of trying to keep my disabled husband safe and healthy, the tRump sh*tshow, the election debacle, and the loss of my beloved Harold last month, it has been an emotional rollercoaster. Here's hoping that 2021 won't be any worse.
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Post by Bean on Jan 4, 2021 7:30:45 GMT
I think a lot of people will be happy to forget about last year. I really hope this year is a better one for you, Seffy, even if the first month or so looks like more of the same.
It's very cold and icy here too - I've been very grateful for my spikes!
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 4, 2021 20:53:12 GMT
2020 is definitely going in the record books, and the history books, and not in good ways I know nothing actually changes, just because it's 2021, but there's hope, something we lacked in 2020. I also feel some relief just knowing the president is going to be a human being, and a psychotic megalomaniac! All digits crossed for Georgia. I think if the democrats take the Georgia senate election, I will really feel there's hope for positive change in the US!
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Post by Bean on Jan 5, 2021 6:53:06 GMT
We're back in full lockdown until at least mid-February, with schools closed again too (which they were in the first lockdown, but not in the second 4 week one).
I just wish the weather was nicer! But in the absence of that, thank goodness we had the extension done last year!
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 5, 2021 21:33:52 GMT
Wheekies is ecstatic not to have to send her son to school. There are pros and cons, but if it keeps the virus from spreading, more pros than cons.
Did you get to swim, or was the leisure center closed for the lockdown?
Something I found on Facebook, that really says some good things, so I thought I'd pass it on:
"What we learned in 2020? That oil is worthless in a society without consumption. The healthcare has to be public, because health is public. The 50% of jobs can be done at home, while the other 50% deserve more than they're being paid. That we live in a society, not an economy." By Mohamed Safa, a diplomat and permanent member of the United Nations, and one of the five finalists in the United Nations Young Champions of the Earth award in 2018 and 2019.
There was a discussion on The Daily Blast, a live news program, about whether or not the US should go on lockdown. The basic response(77%v23%) was yes, but health, living situations and the economy all have to be considered and prepared for, first. That won't happen in the US, as the states each decide how they're going to do whatever they're going to do. I think Biden can institute a federal mask mandate. The Daily Blast crew said he has that authority, if he makes it an emergency declaration. That was followed by film of a huge crowd of unmasked people crowded into a mall in L.A., protesting CA's mask mandate, and chanting that they wouldn't wear masks, and no one could make them. Another film clip showed an unmasked woman in a store physically attacking a masked man, following him around the store, hitting and kicking him. Another showed a store clerk being beaten by a man who refused to wear a mask or leave the store. My daughter said they have a mask mandate, but the company told them not to enforce it, so they wouldn't get hurt. What's the point of a mandate, if no one has to follow it???
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Post by Bean on Jan 6, 2021 8:54:22 GMT
Blimey, that's the extreme end of people not wanting to wear masks. If that's anything but a rare occurrence, you need someone on the door of businesses, not letting people in unless they're wearing a mask, or have a pass to exempt them. But that costs.
Leisure centres are closed so no swimming for a couple of months - boo! I'll make sure I don't get quite so immersed in the more cake/ less activity trap that expanded my waistline in the first lockdown!
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Seffy
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Posts: 116
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Post by Seffy on Jan 6, 2021 12:55:26 GMT
In California, hospitals are having to turn away patients and decide who to treat and, essentially, who to send home to die. Other states are starting to face the same horrible reality. I can't even wrap my brain around it.
"All digits crossed for Georgia." Here, too! As of this morning, it looks like Warnock is the winner. The other is too close to call.
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 6, 2021 19:20:09 GMT
One Georgia senate seat to the democrats, and the other one looking good for the democrat to win. That means the end of Moscow Mitch, and his trumphole cronies. Yes!!!! Even if the second democrat doesn't win, the republicans only have one more senate vote than the democrats, and not all the republicans are going to vote along partisan lines. I feel hopeful New Hampshire doesn't have overflowing hospitals, a lack of oxygen to treat patients, or anything of CAs problems. We have our share of people refusing to wear masks. I don't know if any of the attacks on store clerks who tell people they can't enter without wearing a mask have happened in NH. I also don't know if, other than the armed protestors outside the governor's house, anyone is doing more than complaining about having to wear a mask. California is out of control, and yes, businesses need to have armed guards at the doors to prevent people from entering without wearing masks, but that's a republican tactic, and they're the ones refusing to wear masks. I really think, since businesses pay a lot of property and income taxes, they should call the police every time someone enters without a mask, and have them arrested. I think that might get the message across, really quickly. Technically, anyone not wearing a mask is a domestic terrorist. We don't know if they're positive for the virus, and if they are, they're acting as a super spreader, going unmasked to places with a lot of people. Yes, Bean, I think that mall invasion was a one-time thing, but it was a hugely attended event, so the anti-maskers did a lot of organizing to make their point. I also don't know if they were all arrested, or what happened. All I know is, if I were shopping at that mall at the time, I would have called the police, and told them a huge group of people were threatening my life. CA can't seem to get the virus under control, and this is part of the reason. Latest announcement seems to say people our age can start getting vaccinated in March, so we will do that. I'm not sure who will be doing the vaccinating, if we have to go to our doctor's office, or what. Since I don't have a doctor, that wouldn't be an option for me. I think the vaccine may be available at some of the chain pharmacies, which would be good. By April, I should be getting the pneumonia and shingles vaccines, too. Never had either, and I had chicken pox. Might as well get myself vaccinated against as many things as possible, though unlike the flu and COVID vaccines, the shingles and pneumonia vaccines aren't free. Another example of those with no money not having access to the same health care as those with insurance. I think the pharmacist who did our flu vaccinations said it was something like $366 with my insurance, so I'll have to spread out the vaccinations over a couple of months.
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Post by shades on Jan 7, 2021 10:41:56 GMT
No snow this week but really cold this morning. Up to -16°C/3°F by 7am. Not as unbearable as you might imagine if you've got thermals. Put away your 👕👕👕
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 8, 2021 1:28:52 GMT
Wow! Thermals are definitely on fashion in that weather!
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Post by Bean on Jan 8, 2021 7:32:12 GMT
I quite often get the thermals out when it's quite a few degrees above that, so I'd be well prepared!
We're due heavy snow this morning, but it was supposed to start overnight and there have only been a few flakes so far. I'm not sure the kids will be as happy to continue with their schoolwork at home if there's enough for a good snowball fight!
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 8, 2021 17:57:55 GMT
Priorities. Snowball snow HAS to be dealt with at the time. It won't last, and even if it's just their 10 minute outdoor exercise break, they need to make use of snowball snow, when they have it We're in a dry stretch right now, but we've had so many snow storms, the kind you have to kind of look carefully to see through when you're driving, that amounted to absolutely nothing. Didn't even need the windshield wipers. Three or four mornings in a row I swept the latest dusting of snow off the steps and cars. Hubby was having fun using the leaf blower to blow the rest of the snow off the walks and drive Enjoy the snow Yes, that's coming from someone who loves snow, and doesn't have to drive in it
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Post by shades on Jan 9, 2021 3:57:22 GMT
Wow! Thermals are definitely on fashion in that weather! I can't believe I wear thermals! I remember in the UK that thermals were really only for the elderly. Here they are available for all ages and come in all styles and levels of warmth. They are marketed as fashionable clothing, not granny clothes In the extreme cold, you can't get by without them. I also have warm face protection - don't know what it's called in English. It's like a sock leg but much bigger and I pull it over my head to cover my neck, ears, and mouth. Look like a bank robber!
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Post by Bean on Jan 9, 2021 8:36:52 GMT
Balaclava? Oh thermals have moved on here too, although maybe not as much as there. Mine are more like yoga gear than something you'd catch a pensioner wearing under their slacks and sweater! Our forecast snow ended up being more a mixture of sleet and snow, so didn't settle as much and was very wet. So not as distracting during the school day, although had school actually been open they'd have had more fun as they had a foot or so up there!
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