Stockpiling...

[lynnonthelake]

Well it’s already started with people fretting over whether the vaccine will be totally vegan and if it isn’t it breaches their human rights.

 

[Mazza]

I heard that the Spanish flu, as it was called, originated in chicken farms in Northern France where they were breeding chickens to provide food for the troops.

I saw a BBC4 doc on this and they said patient zero came from Kansas. He came over to Europe to fight in the First World War on a troop ship thus infecting his fellow passengers and it spread from there.

 

[stratobuddy]

I tried to open a savings account last week at the market's highest rate, as recommended by Martin Lewis's website.

The rate was confirmed when I logged onto the bank, but it took about 20 minutes to fill in pages and pages of information.

Just as I got to the end and was about to click confirm, I noticed that the rate had dropped considerably (it was a fixed rate account for 1 year).

I fired off an email, they took a week to reply, and they said the rate went down when I was applying.

I think that is wrong, as soon as I filled in the first page of the application form (name and address) that should have fixed it for me at the rate I was applying for.

Rang them today, and I am making a formal complaint to the bank and probably the ombudsman if they won't give me the advertised rate.

The rate has gone down even more now

 

[Boris Bear]

The rate has gone down even more now

I opened one that he recommended the other week and my date has gone down too I need to check what it is now then decide what to do.

 

[Twilight]

Until the Chinese horror turned our lives inside out I didn't know that the aches we get with a virus are caused by our immune system fighting the nasties, I thought it was just the bug, I don't think the medical profession has missed me! I had flu at the start of 2018, there was no build up like there is with a cold, it just hit me on the day when we were planning to rip out our front garden to eliminate horsetail leaving my Mr T to fill the skip with several tons of gravel. I was ill for the whole of January, went into the spare room because I had to sleep propped up to stop coughing & for the first time ever I felt the cold. I was the only person who got it, amazing considering the number of people I'd seen over Christmas & New Year. My mum had Hong Kong flu when I was 10 & she was extremely ill, I can remember my uncle turning up with something for her from my grandmother, he stood at the bedroom door, said she looked really ill & then told her how many deaths had been announced that day She always said that if she'd could have talked she'd have said how lucky they were; my sister & I didn't tell her that we thought the idea of being orphans was really exciting & wondered if dad would be ill so they could die together...

 

[stratobuddy]

I opened one that he recommended the other week and my rate has gone down too I need to check what it is now then decide what to do.

It'll be OK if it was a fixed rate for a year (as mine was) but otherwise bad news.

That's why I am angry, if I'd got the rate I applied for I'd have been OK for a year.

 

[stratobuddy]

 

[alter ego]

I have always been fascinated by the 1918 flu even went to the library and got books out on it. There was a young doctor in Belfast who murdered his girlfriend and signed the death cert she had died from it. He got caught and hung for murder. So there you go obscure fact or what? There are numerous documentaries about it and there was an English scientist who did these and always said something big would come. They talked about SARS which he said we dodged a bullet as it stayed in and around China, the Bird Flu which came in 2010. Oh, they found a dead swan in N.I. which died of bird flu this month. Now people tend to forget about it. They used to give out daily numbers of who had died of it in the local news until they decided to stop.

A member here was a nurse and she said it was so scary they had to wear full hazmat suits even if patients did not have it. A woman around the corner eldest daughter who was 12 at the time and suffered from COPD. She took ill and rushed to the hospital, the 12-year-old had to go into a seal roomed laying on a mattress no bedding with nurses and doctors wearing full hazmat until she was found not to have the bird flu. Her mother and father standing outside the room unable to do anything. People seem to blank out that one and we are only talking 10 years ago.

People seem to forget that at least 50 million people died from 1918 flu and that was a time no flying around the world on holiday. Villages up in the artic were wiped out by it. They now believe it started in the US a training camp close to a pig farm and they butchered their own meat in the camp from the pig farm. This was 1917 and young healthy soldiers started dying their lungs drowning in their own mucus. Then, of course, they all got on ships heading for Europe and WWI. This is the one they all fear and have some samples in a few laboratories. This strain H1N5 is still in the bodies of people who died from it and buried. All they can do is vaccinate every year for hopefully the lesser strains that come.

For Covid just look around the world now how many catching with long term effects after the get over the virus. How many dying still all over the world even now. America now has the highest death rate and it is not a 3rd world country. I think I will be in the 6 or 7 levels to get the vaccine. The scientists have always said the world will not end in war but with a sneeze.

My grandmother nursed through the epidemic and saw friends but not relatives die. She rarely talked of it as I think she must have been traumatised - she was 17 when she started nursing and the outbreak started.

She also nursed in a TB hospital where three relatives ended up. It was a long haul but they survived.

I've always been fascinated by things like this. I was glued to the telly watching the Plague 3-parter last week. I think the Plague was the first thing that truly frightened me as a child, then Hitler's treatment of the Jews horrified me (my parents would only leave me stay up past 9pm as a child to watch The World At War). Then nuclear warfare freaked me out to the point I ended up on Greenham Common protesting.

AIDS was another virus that fascinated me. I volunteered on a crisis line for several years for that. Ebola outbreaks have horrified me and the Saran gas attack in Japan put me off the Tube for several years (though my having an asthma attack on a Tube train during the SARS outbreak cleared the carriage and left me coughing away on my own!).

I'm a teeny bit morbid according to my OH.

 

[Twilight]

My grandmother nursed through the epidemic and saw friends but not relatives die. She rarely talked of it as I think she must have been traumatised - she was 17 when she started nursing and the outbreak started.

She also nursed in a TB hospital where three relatives ended up. It was a long haul but they survived.

I've always been fascinated by things like this. I was glued to the telly watching the Plague 3-parter last week. I think the Plague was the first thing that truly frightened me as a child, then Hitler's treatment of the Jews horrified me (my parents would only leave me stay up past 9pm as a child to watch The World At War). Then nuclear warfare freaked me out to the point I ended up on Greenham Common protesting.

AIDS was another virus that fascinated me. I volunteered on a crisis line for several years for that. Ebola outbreaks have horrified me and the Saran gas attack in Japan put me off the Tube for several years (though my having an asthma attack on a Tube train during the SARS outbreak cleared the carriage and left me coughing away on my own!).

I'm a teeny bit morbid according to my OH.

Good grief alter I only watch pretty things*, Lady Penelope & Joanna Lumley are my role models & if I go to another place when I shuffle off this mortal coil it will be just like my favourite hotel in Sicily & I will hear the music of the Two Cellos.
* The information I get from my animal charities fills up my sadness & horror quota so I don't deal with any other nasties.

 

[lynnonthelake]

Good grief alter I only watch pretty things*, Lady Penelope & Joanna Lumley are my role models & if I go to another place when I shuffle off this mortal coil it will be just like my favourite hotel in Sicily & I will hear the music of the Two Cellos.
* The information I get from my animal charities fills up my sadness & horror quota so I don't deal with any other nasties.

I love Joanna Lumley and like you animal abuse fills me with horror.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

JL is a real lady but don’t we secretly hope she has a little of Patsy behind closed doors!

 

[lynnonthelake]

JL is a real lady but don’t we secretly hope she has a little of Patsy behind closed doors!

Omg yes I can imagine her quaffing champagne and getting my daughters call me Patsy.

 

[donna255]

I was in M&S food hall this morning very quiet the woman at the till said Oh you are early this morning. Yes, because all the other shops are closed. Well, Boots was open.

Not to worry everyone but more wild birds are being found in England and Wales dead of bird flu. This could affect people's Xmas fowl. If it gets worse of course then will start culling.

Someone on another forum started a thread Why Can't We Have Christmas In June. Loads saying because a lot of people will be away on holiday.

On another note, I was watching a box set of Supernatural, Dean travels forward in time to 2014 from 2009. Chuck tells him when he gets back to 2009 hoard toilet rolls just make sure you hoard toilet rolls. Yes, this episode was made in 2009! It really was one of those moments.

 

[Twilight]

One of my best Christmas presents was a ticket to see her one woman show. I unwrapped a new JL biography & inside was an email print out with my ticket details, she was at Symphony Hall ten months later, it was a few days before my 60th birthday so a double treat. I first saw her in It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling when I was 13 & loved her voice, later I discovered just how much she did for animal charities & my adoration was complete. My dad was a committed supporter of CIWF & when he died she wrote to me & my sister telling us how much she had liked him. One of my favourite books is No Room For Secrets - she writes about her life, the homes she's had & her work. There is a wonderful piece about an Imperial War Museum exhibition of soldiers' love letters, moving doesn't begin to describe it. Her voice makes some people think she's just like Patsy, all posh & privileged, she's actually someone who has worked for everything she's got & I love her.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I never liked AdFab other than the Patsy bits but I love her travel programmes a good match for the wonderful Michael Palin.

 

[ClaireKelly]

JL is a real lady but don’t we secretly hope she has a little of Patsy behind closed doors!

My daughter and her friend bumped into JL on the tube in London. They said she was wonderful, was happy to have a chat and her photograph taken.

 

[Vienna]

Read the papers or listen to the scientists and this is how they`d have us spending Christmas Day together. Oh and you can`t play cluedo or Buckaroo or Snakes and Ladders. Plus everybody has to use a different toilet and if you don`t have enough toilets then give each person their own bucket and slice the turkey whilst wearing rubber gloves, (you not the turkey wearing rubber gloves) plus serve dinner on paper plates which can be binned rather than handled for washing.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

Our last years Christmas dinner photos have been leaked!

 

[Twilight]

I detest every one of these SAGE boffins, they have no idea of what life's like out in the real world, have based their predictions on out of date & questionable data, have lied & nearly every one has vested interests - yes, I'm talking to you Vallance. Their pathetic advice has included arranging dog shows or frisbee competitions to keep our spirits up, not to have an argument, hug anyone or play Monopoly, stopping granny clearing away after dinner or washing up & remembering to open the windows every 10 minutes. Along with the politicians they seem to think that all families are the same, that anyone 'elderly' can't put two words together & will automatically spend Christmas Day away from their own home & that we need to be reminded how to clean our kitchen surfaces. This granny won't be seeing her daughters or grandchildren over the holidays because one won't allow us into their house & our younger daughter's in-laws haven't seen their family for months due to shielding & as soon as that was lifted their area went into a regional house arrest. I look after our joint granddaughter every week & so it's their time to see her & enjoy her favourite question - "What are we doing actually, normally?", her wiggly dancing & her one sided talks with her toys offering them lemon drizzle cake & tea.

 

[alter ego]

Good grief alter I only watch pretty things*, Lady Penelope & Joanna Lumley are my role models & if I go to another place when I shuffle off this mortal coil it will be just like my favourite hotel in Sicily & I will hear the music of the Two Cellos.
* The information I get from my animal charities fills up my sadness & horror quota so I don't deal with any other nasties.

Oh. I get enormously stressed about the cruelty to animals that goes on in the world, too.

Donkeys being abused in the Middle East and Africa. The way they are treated turns my stomach. They're working their hearts out and are still horrendously treated. The way they treat animals in markets in the Far East - have you ever looked at where your chicken/chicken foods come from? Tesco imports so much from Thailand and the way they treat their birds... again, horrendous (and another pandemic in the making!). These are supposedly high-value animals to them.

In this country, animal breeders in the form of puppy farms make me really angry. The people that buy them make me even angrier. The fashion for the mixed cute breeds is driving these breeders to turn out more and more puppies where the adults are kept in awful conditions. And then there are the people who think it's fun to hurt animals. These people would feel real pain for a long time if I got my way, not just a fine, a short ban and a slap on the wrist.

What the hell is wrong with people?!