My aunt ... in her 90s ... is in a care home in S Wales ... she no siblings left, she has two children, one in Tasmania and one in the north Midlands ... and there’s us over here in East Anglia ... I wonder how many hugs she’s getting? She gets phone calls and letters and cards from us which she loves and reads over and over again ... and all reports are that she is well and happy.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Not being hugged is the silver lining in this very dark cloud for me. Each to their own though. I've also enjoyed a whole winter of not being ill and not having to sit up all night with sick children. That being said my oldest boy is missing out on some serious social development with having an entire year without playing with kids his own age. We've really got the stranger-danger and being polite and patient with giving people space while out walking things sorted out though.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Just a general conversation @Balgay.Hill ... like around the table in a good country pub .., everyone can put forward their tuppence-worth, discuss and debate and stand their round then part as friends ... agreeing to disagree ... 🍻
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I come from a very non huggy sort of family. We look after each other, but we don't do a lot of hugging. I don't know whether this is inherited or learned behaviour. I had relatives on both sides of the family that were orphaned due to disease taking the rest of the family. In one case a second cousin gathered up a dozen children and moved 60 miles with them. They regarded each other as siblings and looked out for each other. Is the lack of hugging some sort of protection against disease, or are we all mildly aspergers? I find it fairly alarming when people I know only slightly go diving in for the hug and the air kissing. On the other hand I know an old friend who I would always describe as touchy feely, ended up in hospital with Covid and now has long covid.
My lecture comment wasn't aimed directly at you @steveTu. We all have our opinions. It's just that sometimes our opinions differ and who are we to say the OP is wrong.It may be wrong for us but who are we to judge!
Can I just ask where you do draw 'your' lines?
Do you judge others for not wearing masks when they should?
Do you judge others for not distancing when they should?
Do you judge others for travelling when they shouldn't?
Do you judge others for mixing in large groups when they shouldn't?
...
Do you judge others for speeding?
Do you judge others for drink driving?
Do you judge others for using a mobile when driving?
...
What I find odd is the 'don't judge' attitude when the whole human race is judgemental and forms opinions on the rights and wrongs of others' actions. Typically we all have our own 'moral compass' that draws those lines between right and wrong. But in forming your opinion, you're being just as judgemental aren't you? You judge the event madpenguin describes as OK - and then anyone else who disagrees with that opinion as being somehow wrong and judgemental. Odd.
I have my opinions @steveTu but i try not to judge people for what they do. I'm not judging you for being argumentative...
A couple of weeks ago a friend emailed. This is what he had to say on hugging which quite amused me:
”This pandemic seems to have turned us with regard to hugging. It used to be viewed with great suspicion, something which only Johnny Foreigner of the Latin persuasion or ‘them there’ did. We all left the desire to be hugged in the kindergarten. A lot of people now seem to be living for the moment when they can hug a distant relative, neighbour or even a random bod in the street.”
Brought up by non hugging parents in what can only be described as a dysfunctional family and no real contact with other rellies. OH is more of a hugger but only close family. I brought up Possum in Belgium where children hug, families hug, close friends hug and other friends and acquaintances do the social kissing or handshake.
I've had far fewer colds since we moved here which is a function of having to make new friends - less hugging - and a better climate and, I think, being outdoors more. The French are also less "kissy" than the Belgians.
I do miss my friends, old and new and the whole social contact thing but I expect in future I'll just be hugging close family and the cats and dogs and maybe, if needed, a friend in trouble or pain. Hugging can be reassuring and therapeutic.
The first time we went to the Xmas market in Nantes there were two women from some charity offerings "hugs for free" to anyone who needed one. Not for me but for some there's clearly a need.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I come from a very non huggy sort of family. We look after each other, but we don't do a lot of hugging. I don't know whether this is inherited or learned behaviour. I had relatives on both sides of the family that were orphaned due to disease taking the rest of the family. In one case a second cousin gathered up a dozen children and moved 60 miles with them. They regarded each other as siblings and looked out for each other. Is the lack of hugging some sort of protection against disease, or are we all mildly aspergers? I find it fairly alarming when people I know only slightly go diving in for the hug and the air kissing. On the other hand I know an old friend who I would always describe as touchy feely, ended up in hospital with Covid and now has long covid.
We're not huggy-kissy-touchy-feely people either. And no-one in the immediate family has had Covid (the one case that I know of was in OH's family, and he caught it in hospital). A girlfriend of my brother's once said that we were all autistic. I think we're just self-contained introverts.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I never tagged you. It was @steveTu i thought was arguing for arguings sake.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have my opinions @steveTu but i try not to judge people for what they do. I'm not judging you for being argumentative...
”This pandemic seems to have turned us with regard to hugging. It used to be viewed with great suspicion, something which only Johnny Foreigner of the Latin persuasion or ‘them there’ did. We all left the desire to be hugged in the kindergarten. A lot of people now seem to be living for the moment when they can hug a distant relative, neighbour or even a random bod in the street.”
I've had far fewer colds since we moved here which is a function of having to make new friends - less hugging - and a better climate and, I think, being outdoors more. The French are also less "kissy" than the Belgians.
I do miss my friends, old and new and the whole social contact thing but I expect in future I'll just be hugging close family and the cats and dogs and maybe, if needed, a friend in trouble or pain. Hugging can be reassuring and therapeutic.
The first time we went to the Xmas market in Nantes there were two women from some charity offerings "hugs for free" to anyone who needed one. Not for me but for some there's clearly a need.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We're not huggy-kissy-touchy-feely people either. And no-one in the immediate family has had Covid (the one case that I know of was in OH's family, and he caught it in hospital). A girlfriend of my brother's once said that we were all autistic. I think we're just self-contained introverts.