Happy 2nd Anniversary

I haven't seen one of my brothers in 5 years.

But that's maninly because he's ugly and lives in Devon.

I don't believe you can blame Boris for the lockdown - that was happening all over the world. In China they welded the doors closed on some apartment blocks to prevent people leaving and no doubt if you had covid and needed medical help, hard luck!

The Government have no doubt made mistakes but I really don't believe that anyone else would have done anything different or had a different outcome. In Scotland we had stricter rules and are currently top of the UK infection list so I don't think Government decisions really made a great deal of difference in all of this. At least Boris got the vaccination programme going more quickly than most countries.

Likewise. And despite that we have both failed to yet catch COVID (so far as we can tell) as at this morning.

I think it cannot be generalised. People reacted to it in different ways according to their characters and personal circumstances.

We took all the recommended precautions to minimise the risk of catching and spreading the lurgy, and continue to do so (I still wear a facemask on the tube and carry hand sanitiser - they are small things that simply don't bother me), but we did this deliberately and precisely in order to maximise our chances of otherwise carrying on with life as close to normal as possible, and certainly never to the extent of locking ourselves away at home like frightened mice other than when strictly required to do so (eq 5 day post-travel isolation at home). 

I went out for dinner no less than three times last week, and went to Dubai and back last week, so if one in 20 people has it, I have to assume at this rate of normal living, it's going to catch up with me at some point. 

It is for quite a lot of people, but not all....hope it's not too bad and you recover quickly.

I've been working pretty much as normal from day 1 of lockdown including staying in hotels and (like racing, as far as I know...) have managed to avoid it somehow.  The only difference has been less travelling for short face to face meetings, but I see that as a very good thing and long may it continue.    I was very careful at the beginning and sensible when visiting sites, so not multiple locations in a week, but everything has felt normal for quite a while and I've not worn a mask since I was last on a plane.   I might have done if I'd used the tube last week, but I was travelling at a time when cabs were OK.   I was on trains to both Manchester and London last week which and there were only a couple of elderly people in masks.

We did change our summer 2020 holiday to a UK one, but only because we couldn't get into the US and I was out out of the country several times in 2021 including a long haul holiday last Autumn.  Holiday plans are back to normal this year (hopefully), we're off to the Amalfi Coast in May for a week, 2 weeks in the US in August and looking at options for the back end of the year. 

I have avoided it so far, by not going anywhere other than Hasda be once a week. Rather tedious and a bit of cabin fever but not bad really. I still have the Badgers etc. The rat population has increased which means the Owl population has shifted slightly to account for the availability of protein. I had not properly appreciated just how silently Owls made their strikes on prey until recently.

Very much Flu like symptoms, took a test Sunday night as I had a bit of a sore throat and we've had a number of people in the office off due to covid. I felt fine until yesterday afternoon and then suddenly I'm freezing cold and my teeth are chattering. Slept terribly and woke up this morning feeling like I'm 100 years old. I was so achy I struggled to put my socks on, I'm now sweating like a gypsy with a mortgage. 

We have two off work with covid at the moment. They both had two pretty rotten days with a throat that felt as though they had swallowed broken glass. After that they have just had small bouts of tiredness and a runny nose.
My wife's gran, who is in a nursing home, caught it 3 weeks ago and was completely unaware she had it even though she tested positive each day. Likewise a friend of mine caught it and only found out he was positive because his wife is a cancer care nurse and all the family need to test every week. He says he had a mild headache one day and that was the sum total of his symptoms.

I’ve been testing positive since Sunday. I blame my pesky kids! At the moment three in the house have it, we suspect caught from middle daughter attending an 18th birthday party. I’m symptom free, daughter has mild headache. It’s my second time with covid. The first time was a bit more noticeable, but no more than a normal winter bug. It’s weird when you’ve got no symptoms because usually when you’re Ill you can sense yourself recovering.

It's not inevitable, Ben. My mum and I haven't caught it

I've still not had it despite getting back out visiting customers all over the country since the end of May 2020 and living with a teacher within whose school its spreading like wildfire. But she's also not managed to catch it and is instead dealing with the stress of having all her free periods taken off her to provide cover for isolating colleagues.

It's a tricky one, because it affects different people in different ways. I've had colleagues who were struck down for the better part of a week with really bad symptoms, while for others it's just a minor inconvenience. So you just never know how badly it will hit you.

That said, today Singapore announced a whole lot of measures to open up again. Not a total eradication of restrictions like in some countries, but a massive loosening up nonetheless that will make things feel a lot more normal again.

It’s a minor inconvenience to be out for a week in the grand scheme of things. It ain’t really bad if it can be fixed with a bed and some lemsip. And unless you are desperately unlucky (given that you are a fit and healthy younger man) you do know the worse of it will be a week in bed. Take sensible precautions but don’t let it limit how you live.