Early Risers.

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

We are all suffering from the virus, even if we have not got it.

 

My pub was supposed to be reopening on 4 April. That's dead in the water and no real idea when or indeed if we might re-start the renovation works. Assistant Manager started her job yesterday. I can't keep her on with no money coming in. But she is vital to the future success of the business.

You are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.  If you sack her, it could well end up as a case where she might try and claim for unfair dismissal!

 

The Obergrumpenfuhrer and her brother are having to review their rental business.

 

If tenants are unable to pay their rent, under the terms of the rental agreement, they can be evicted.  This is an expensive process, and under the circumstances that would cause it, morally reprehensible. 

 

Regardless of this and whether the properties are occupied or empty, there are outgoing expenses that still have to be met.  A worse case scenario would be tenants living rent free and the council tax due of the property reverting to the property owner.

 

The further up the chain one goes, there is less sympathy.  Buy to let landlords (we are not in that category) who might be losing the income required to pay the various mortgages, will get short shrift from the banks when they cannot meet their financial obligations.

 

Other businesses are going to be similarly affected

Edited March 17, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[81C]

Morning All 

overcast but dry

I had an email just now stating Ally Pally is cancelled so bang goes poor Chrisf's meeting with his friend in the Palm Room. 

 

I'm a bit concerned about my daughters, one is in the police force and there is talk of working all hours on the media, the other one 

is a restaurant Manager along with the SiL working in the same place having to close down, how the #uck as a nation do we end up in other

people #hit is beyond beggars belief, it seems every country in the world is run by a nupperty especially our own Doris he's totally out of his depth.

   

It's times like this when you wish you lived off grid in the Yukon, no need for toilet paper there just drag your #rse around in the snow. 

I better do something today enjoy yours P.Lenty-Andrex 

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is once again shining! How  long it will last who knows, we are forecast some rain at some point of the day. Life goes on as normal here and I’ll shortly be heading off to complete the Sainsbury’s Grand, this might be fun! I do have to go out anyway to collect a prescription so it’s not an unnecessary journey. What will be left on the shelves is anyone’s guess, but it’s mainly fresh produce that I’m going for and not the store cupboard items that most people are panic buying. 

 

I’ve just heard an interesting fact on the radio, on this day in 1979 a song went to No 1 and stayed there for 4 weeks:

the song in question was 

 

I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Is there a hidden message there I wonder?

 

Stay safe, back later

[45156]

9 hours ago, BSW01 said:

When Sheila got home from her Zumba class she’d received a couple of text messages from our GP’s, the first telling her that her diabetic review tomorrow has been cancelled due to Corvid19. The second reminding her NOT to forget to attend her diabetic review tomorrow, it seems like one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.

Quite simple to explain, as the booked appointments are pre-programmed into the GP practices system at the point of booking, and are normally scheduled to be sent about 24 hours before,   The cancellation text will have been manually sent, and sometimes the scheduled text can't be cancelled in time - I know this as it has happened to me in the past.

 

Morning All

 

Not going to dwell on the current events vis a vis the virus, food and bog roll shortages, as I think that enough has been said hereabouts and elsewhere. 

 

I should be confined to barracks for the duration as I am diabetic, but I have to take 30747 to work, and am not brave enough to try to get food deliveries arranged in the current situation, so will have to venture out.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[Happy Hippo]

19 minutes ago, 81C said:

 

   

It's times like this when you wish you lived off grid in the Yukon, no need for toilet paper there just drag your #rse around in the snow. 

I thought up there it was common knowledge  that bears grabbed rabbits for that purpose.

 

Warm fur is the ultimate soft.

[TheQ]

24 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is once again shining! How  long it will last who knows, we are forecast some rain at some point of the day. Life goes on as normal here and I’ll shortly be heading off to complete the Sainsbury’s Grand, this might be fun! I do have to go out anyway to collect a prescription so it’s not an unnecessary journey. What will be left on the shelves is anyone’s guess, but it’s mainly fresh produce that I’m going for and not the store cupboard items that most people are panic buying. 

 

I’ve just heard an interesting fact on the radio, on this day in 1979 a song went to No 1 and stayed there for 4 weeks:

the song in question was 

 

I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Is there a hidden message there I wonder?

 

Stay safe, back later

Not a hidden message  but because of this..

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A bit of frost here earlier but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and it should stay dry.

Slight panic stations this morning when it was discovered we were almost out of washing machine detergent so a quick(ish) scavenging mission to Sainsbury's was implemented when they opened and I managed to get the last bottle off the shelf. Long queues waiting for them to open but as I only needed that and a couple of other items I was away quickly. We may starve to death if we're imprisoned for 12 weeks but at least we'll have clean clothes!

Heard last night that Steve and Abbie, who work for the same firm in Central London, have been given the option to work from home.

No muddling done by me for quite a while but it looks like I might be doing some before long, no excuse not to according to The Boss!

Failing that I'm making other preparations.

Bob.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Dave Hunt]

It's my Dad's 97th birthday today. I guess we won't be celebrating down the pub though.

Stay safe and well all.

 

Dave

[Kingzance]

Moaningawl,

 

The disastrous SWMBO event has been cancelled and so I could have gone to the Ally Pally after all, rowlocks! I am making modern versions of crinnolene skirt supports, a framework that should keep “others” more than a metre away from the wearer. Problem 1 is that there is a shortage of Chinese bamboo and no one knows when the next shipment is being sent 

 

I’m off out to avoid people, such as SWMBO....

 

Take care and be good everyone.

[andyram]

3 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

We are all suffering from the virus, even if we have not got it.

 

My pub was supposed to be reopening on 4 April. That's dead in the water and no real idea when or indeed if we might re-start the renovation works. Assistant Manager started her job yesterday. I can't keep her on with no money coming in. But she is vital to the future success of the business.

 

My thoughts are definitely with you. It is a very worrying time.

[Rugd1022]

Morning all,

 

I'm taking advantage of being on rest days for most of this week by having a good old spring clean, tidy up and clear out, and getting on with other jobs around the house (and garage!), luckily we don't really 'need' to go out anywhere, but I'm due back in on Friday for the Battersea - Tunstead stone empties and a ballast job on Saturday night. I'm checking the company ipad and mobile for any texts / notices about the current situation, particularly regarding travelling on the cushions but so far we've had no drastic measures announced other keeping our hands clean and avoiding unnecessary contact. Makes perfect sense so far anyway.

 

Sympathies to those who may be struggling with normal day to day stuff, let's hope enough friends, neighbours and relatives are able to rally round and help out where needed. None of us know exactly how long this will last but I'm sure we can get through it. Economically, it would be a massive help if the banks and mortgage providers were able to give 'payment holidays' right across the board, if at all practical.

 

Chin chin 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Rugd1022

[Sir TophamHatt]

So found out my phone didn't notify me (or I swiped it away!) that the Manager for the new job I was told I'd got will look at getting me transferred over "very soon".

Then something on the railway happened, which would have sucked all their time for a few days.  Now this whole virus thing is going on...  but at least I've not been forgotten about... yet.

 

Seen a 70% reduction in the amount of people I normally see.

 

Gonna have to load the phone with movies for the rest of this week, or perhaps a TV series that isn't too long but would take a week of 4 hours a day to get through.

 

No wonder I applied for a new job!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Have to be quick as I'm shooting off down to Tescoe's for supplies, bread and milk plus a few other bits. I'm planning to do the main shopping early tomorrow morning before sparrow fart and while the cockwombles are still snoring. I asked the local newsagent about having the paper delivered but they've stopped taking orders because a lot of people have had the same idea and in case there is a shortage of deliverers if the virus takes a hold.

[PhilJ W]

Forgot to add. My brother is an idiot, with the coronavirus he is extreamly high risk as he is on dialysis, so yesterday he went shopping!

[Joseph_Pestell]

28 minutes ago, BlackRat said:

The worlds gone mad, mad I tell you.......

Are the powers to be deliberately about to crash the entire worlds economy? 

I cant help but think the results of the mass hysteria that is currently happening could potentially have far more disastrous results than the virus.

 

Having returned over a week ago from the Tirol....... With some symptoms, I contacted my GP, NHS111 ( repeatedly) GP again, several times and was just bounced about from one place to another, and 9 days after returning and still fluey I still have no answers to my questions.

 

 

 

 

I am inclined to agree with you. Certainly some sectors of the economy (including my own) are going to be severely impacted for a long time.

 

If you have come back from Austria, I think that the Govt medical advice is to self-isolate for 14 days.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Kingzance said:

The disastrous SWMBO event has been cancelled and so I could have gone to the Ally Pally after all, rowlocks!

I can think of better places to self isolate rather than a large and empty hall.

[The Lurker]

Greetings from Sidcup.

 

We are now working from home unless absolutely required to be in the office (I am not).

 

The schools are still open but the real problem may be that they are about to run out of soap and loo roll. Certainly that is unofficially the case at Younger Lurker's school. No chace of getting any for about the next 3 weeks.

 

one thing we have realised is that there might be conflicting demands for our one functional laptop. I have to work and the schools will set schoolwork. We mgith actually have to acquire another one. TBH we need a new one anyway as this one is the best part of ten years old and only has windows 7 on it. So I may have to do some research on that later.

 

I did go out earlier to Waitrose for some lunch things but resisted the temptation to go to Costa later. 

 

Anyway, I think it is now time for said lunch!

 

Stay well

[laurenceb]

5 hours ago, BoD said:

..... and all this time you’ve been conning us into thinking you were a hippo.

Are not hippos a kind of pig anyway?

[AndyB]

Afternoon all. 

Day 1 of working from home.

Not bad tbh. 

£7 saved on diesel. A month or so of this and I'll be quids in. 

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I thought up there it was common knowledge  that bears grabbed rabbits for that purpose.

 

Warm fur is the ultimate soft.

 

You've never had a kick in the bollox from a jackrabbit....

 

6 hours ago, TheQ said:

One thing that worries me is I'm due to retire in 2 years, Like many, the final pension amount will depend on an annuity . With the way the economy has crashed,  I don't think it will recover rapidly, though there will be a small bounce once the inital panic is over. We were coming up to being due another recession, as they occur every 10 years or so, however I think this one will be deeper than normal..

 

 

Hopefully, as you're close to retirement, the Pension Scheme will have been transferring into lower risk funds.  Yes, there'll be some pain, but hopefully no-where near as much as the rest of the stock market....

[AndrewC]

Afternoon all. Pension funds are sucking pond water at the moment. Basically I've lost a year so far. Could be worse. 

 

In other news SWMBO is about to miss the first Chelsea Flower show in many many years as it has now been cancelled. Refunds less service charge to happen in the coming weeks. No doubt our Dutch trip the following week will have to be postponed as well as the EU are talking about closing their borders and Eurostar looking at suspending operations. Meh. 

 

In other other news. The lurgy has really taken hold and I'm feeling like moderately warmed death. Shortly off to bed for the day. 

 

Bears do prefer rabbits but will use squirrels in a pinch. Note to would be bears. Don't use the black & white striped ones. They ain't squirrels and they smell funny. 

[polybear]

4 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Bears do prefer rabbits but will use squirrels in a pinch.

 

Don't you believe it. Those b'stards bite, and bite hard.  And they like nuts....

[Kelly]

Afternoon 'awl. hope all are well given the circumstances.

 

I have the company of Poppy for the duration it seems, so all is well.

[Ian Abel]

7 hours ago, BlackRat said:

ps.......small bit on the news this morning.......a Zoo in a secret location has discovered some of its Chimps can talk...........

That wasn't 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC by chance, was it??

[Simon G]

This morning’s weekly shopping trip to Whitehaven was a stressful affair.  Initially it seemed that there was no milk to be had in any supermarket.  However, I just managed to get some in Iceland which had delayed opening until 10am due to the virus apparently.  I was able to pick up the last 4 pint pack of skimmed milk, so we should have enough for the next week.  The shelves were generally pretty empty, but we managed to get nearly everything we need for the next week.

 

I had my hair cropped very short to start the self isolation, then had the misfortune to get cr@pped on by a seagull, an occupational hazard in Whitehaven, so my coat went into the washing machine when we got home, and I washed my hair for the second time today.