To the commenters here who doubted health experts' alerts over the past few weeks as 'project fear', London has now declared emergency status because of the spike already, and Christmas mixing isn't even peaking yet. Holding back and restricting mixing is about saving lives, not making a political point or being controlling party poopers.
I have a horrible feeling that we will all be brought down to Earth with a bang after the Xmas weekend when so many workers will be off and services start to struggle.
You might not have heard of Billie Eilish but she is hugely influential and I'm very glad she came through this week saying "get a frickin' vaccine. It might save your life" & "using porn screwed me up. She, aged 20, will be getting untold death threats for her public stance and it might threatens to wreck her short lived career, taking any kind of 'political' stance. So, good for her. Her statements might make a rapid, global difference. Such is the power of international social media.
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The 24 'Jabathon' I mentioned up-thread, it finished today and it sounds like it a grand success - a huge vaccination effort that (previously unjabbed) teens enjoyed being part of. Volunteers essentially ran it - including many neighbours - so yeay for them!
I'd like to think she'll certainly influence younger people who are dithering @Fire.
Self isolation is required up here regardless of vaccination status. 10 days. That came in a week ago because of the new variant. Please bear that in mind if anyone you know is considering travelling up here.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Finally got through to the jab booking place. No call back from our email request but it turns out first thing Sunday morning is a quiet time for them. But I can't swap appointments with my wife because they'd have to cancel the appointments and then rebook them for some reason. Apparently they'd be rebooked by someone else before the opperator had a chance to do it because demand for cancelled places is so high. If we just turned up at each other's appointments we'd be turned away apparently but I know a few people who've done similar things with no problems. It's only mildly inconvenient though so not the end of the world.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Just in case you are interested, I was talking to one of my nurse neighbours who works in the Emergency Service. He told me that last night there was a surge of people coming in with Covid (he didn't say which one). There has been "numbers" coming in for the last few weeks. It seems that the people coming in had had "flu'" symptoms for a few days and then they began to get breathless, just going up some stairs or on any sort of effort. So they admit themselves to Emergency. Some of them just need the "nose" oxygen tubes, a few get the total nose/mouth mask. And so it goes. As the "some" get better and are discharged with cortisone prescriptions - but they are quickly replaced by others. The hospital is expecting a surge in the New Year. Discos etc are closed, so it will be home parties in smaller spaces. He also said, it was alarming the number of people who were "of a certain age" and not vaccinated. Nobody that came in had false passes.
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Self isolation is required up here regardless of vaccination status. 10 days. That came in a week ago because of the new variant.
Please bear that in mind if anyone you know is considering travelling up here.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.