Non football Sorry for this rant but

Im seriously pi55ed off and need to vent.

Due to this virus I haven't been able to see my mum in over 6 months. She is in a care home and has multiple illnesses. She is 80 and is seriously ill. The staff at her care home are amazing and I can't thank them enough.

My wife and I have lost out on our second getaway this year due to this virus and the government's restrictions. First one was meant to be in Skye in April but full lockdown was announced 1 week prior to going and this weekend we were meant to be going to Windermere to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We shall be instead celebrating it at home in Wakefield as everything is closed.

Some thieving git has hacked into my bank account and tried to clean me out .luckily the fraud department at my bank managed to identify it and stopped it happening.

It's my mates 50th a week on Saturday. The guy who was best man at my wedding. I havent seen him or any of my mates since March and goodness knows when we will all meet up again.

Stress levels through the roof and mental health taking one hell of a big hit.

But hey oh I'll keep going to work and keep sending the kids to school/uni during this "lockdown"

Sorry.

Rant over.

 

Hope having a rant helped a little bit!! It's just rubbish right now, especially for the elderly stuck in care homes unable to see their family.

 

Don't apologise mate, let it rip we all have our story to tell and your had me nodding my head at every point you are making.

If it helps you then that's great, do it.

Dave

 

Glad you've got it off your chest JT. Keep your chin up, I know life's **** right now, but we'll all get through this.

 

We know how you feel mate, as we are in a similar position. We are both p*ssed off (my wife particularly) as (apart from Skype) we have not seen our 3 year old grand-daughter , daughter or son in law since they visited us in Autumn of last year. We were all booked for last Easter, flights, additional accommodation car hire etc only for it to be cancelled (Now have hundreds of pounds worth of KLM vouchers for flights).
So we booked for this Christmas- for certain reasons with EasyJet rather than using the KLM vouchers -, Flights car hire overnight hotel etc only for the while situation to happen again. We can only really visit in school holiday times as my son-in.law is an assistant head and our daughter books her time off to coincide with him and all other times has a heavy workload. Next Easter is off the table as they had their holiday cancelled and rebooked it for then so God knows when we will get out to see them or when they can come to us.
In the meantime, EasyJet have just sent us a cancellation for the outbound flight with options to rebook, get a voucher or refund. We cannot rebook 'cos no-one knows when this will all end and in any case the return leg flight has yet to be cancelled and as the ticket is non-refundable if we cancel we need Easyjet to cancel that too in order to get a voucher.
Our Grand daughter keeps asking when Nonna and Nonno are coming as she was upset when we did not arrive at Easter and has been told regularly throughout Summer we would be there at Christmas. The sh*t will hit the fan when they tell her we won't be there and my daughter is dreading having to, as she got it into her head last time that, inexplicably, it was her fault (for being naughty??) that we were not going to visit her.

For us and you like many many hundreds of thousands of people separated from family and loved ones, notwithstanduing the huge pressures placed on people who are suffering financial hardship and uncertainty the vaccine can't come soon enough so we can all get back to some sort of normality whatever than 'new normal' will be.

Chin up mate, I know it is not much consolation but you are not alone in this sense of helplessness about the situation we have little control over. Whilst I do understand the need to control the spread especially restricting international travel, I get pretty annoyed when I see reports of illegal raves, parties (including student ones -those who are supposed to be intelligent enough to reason) hundreds of people queuing to go to IKEA, PC World (essential goods my ar*e!!) or going on protest marches with no attempt to socially distance and people condoning them. We can argue all day about methodology but the simple fact is distancing and basic hygiene rules restrict the spread. That message seems to now have been lost in the fog of all the constant confusion with constant rule changes

 

This is all just awful. Boris Johnson has the unalienable right to tell you with whom, when and where you can meet your friends and family.

It’s tyranny.

 

Similar for me too, I've not seen my wife since early July, I only see my 91 year old mum briefly about once every 3 weeks to drop shopping off.

I've found myself a couple of new hobbies, and spent far too long in the Curry Mahal, so I'm doing ok. Best wishes to you and yours.

 

Tyranny implies it is all a cunning plan.. Do you really think they have a plan? .....any plan whatsoever? They are surely making things up as they go along !!

 

Intrigued to know why you haven't seen your wife?

 

Ooops, I should have explained that a bit better. She's German and, in normal times, we have a long distance marriage with a house here, and a flat which she shares with her mum in Germany. We used easyJet to fly between Manchester and Hamburg, but that's not operated for months. She was here from February until July, and had a succession of return flights cancelled, so eventually I took her home by car via Hull-Rotterdam, spent a week there, then came home.

I could get there, but I'd have to quarantine for 2 weeks in a tiny flat where we've only got bunk beds to sleep in. Currently travel is not allowed anyway, and they've got a lockdown too since Monday.

She could get here too, but she's not comfortable flying and I don't blame her. It is what it is, and we both just accept it, apart from the odd rant on here.

 

Think he's just arbitrarily tyrannical.

 

totalitarianism by accident ?

 

I'm in the same boat, mate. Left my immune-deficient wife in France in late September and unless the travel restrictions are eased in December (which seems pretty unlikely to me) then the combination of those and the new post-Brexit 90/180 rule means I don't expect to see her until March. Like you, we're pretty resigned to it but it still sucks.

 

I have every sympathy for you and your mum mate. Hope you will be able to see her soon.
I myself have not seen my daughter or her kids since January. They live in Shetland and travel restrictions throughout the year has prevented me going there and them coming to Dundee. The phone is no substitute but it is what it is I’m afraid.

 

That made me laugh.

My favourite example of accidental totalitarianism:

We have created 'bubbles' at work. We've taken over more office space, moved each bubble into a separate room, the bubbles work together, take breaks together, have lunch together. It's not ideal, someone said to me the other day, "My friend is in another bubble and I haven't seen her for six months!". But it's how we thought we could best protect our staff.

So we have a number of bubbles of half a dozen people and those half a dozen work together every day, sharing work time, break time and lunch time. Can they go for a coffee together after work? The laws don't stop the spread of the virus they're just arbitrarily tyrannical.

 

Best wishes to you both.

 

Mate, you have me on Messenger if you ever want to let off steam. I feel your pain.

There was 'some' beauty to be found in Lockdown v1 - the quiet, the weather, the scenery, the nature, the pulling together ............ it has got harder through the year and Lockdown v2 is going to be much harder to manage.

I am starting to feel the strain. Four weeks after being really ill with it, I am still lethargic and 'meh'. I am home alone with the wife as both kids are now at Uni. That in itself is difficult. Older one only went back for the extra year as there was no chance of employment when he finished his three years in summer. He is coping well, but unsure as to what the future holds. The youngest is in first year, and I really feel for her. She would have been a model student and loved Uni life, but as it stands she is pretty much isolated in a flat, unable to go to campus, unable to visit the City and watching lectures at the mercy of Zoom. I feel for them both but we can't 'be there' for either.

Then our personal milestone - Silver Wedding last week. The planned trip to the Maldives (or similar dream) went out of the window early doors, followed by the backup option of the Algarve. We managed to get four days in Northumberland (beautiful) but there was something surreal about not being able to chat to other guests, not being able to sit at a bar .......... it felt weird. We had each other I guess, which is a blessing, and at the end of the day that is what a wedding anniversary is about? Each other.

25 years - I am quite proud of that fact. We've worked hard for it. I am thankful, but would have loved to celebrate it properly. Maybe the frustration will make the planned delayed get-together with valued friends and family next year much more sweet? Let's hope so.

And the job situation is stressing me. I have been lucky to stay employed, but have been on the project from hell, busy yet somewhat de-skilled. The gig ends mid December and for the first time in years I am now worried about my next position. Companies wanting people like me are certainly wanting their pound of flesh and I seem to have lost the ambition and eagerness to learn that I had previously. It's a young mans game and there is the sudden realisation I am not a young man.

I'm not in a position to retire. It's what I want to do, but financially it is not possible. Yet is retirement just going to be like Long Covid? Sat around all day wondering what to do next? So yes, drop me a line if you want to hit out ......... I can listen - I still have that virtue. You are not alone!

And another thing ............... keep writing your feelings ........... even typing this little bit has made me feel slightly better. Use FB, BBS ...... start a blog? A good friend of mine in Penistone started writing and it pretty much saved his life.

https://pretendduringthedaybreakinsideatnight.blogspot.com/

 

Thanks Andy.

And sorry for everything you have had to deal with and everyone else on this thread and their own personal issues.
Thankfully I have a wonderful family who help me keep it together.

 

The longer this goes on the more convinced I am that it is actually totalitarianism by design. Covid being the excuse behind which Demonic Cummings and his puppet regime can carry out mass experiments in population control, testing what works and what doesn't, and finding out just how far they can push us while keeping us quiet and complicit.