I knew being almost bald would be a bonus one day. What hair i do have left, I self shave. I also got a Wahl from Argos, with the charger unit, in case of power cuts. No wind in my hair, but wear hat in the summer and a selection of woolley hats when it's cold.
My barber is cutting hair at his house now. He has a lawn chair on his front porch and that’s where he conducts business, out in the open air and he wears a mask while working. He asks those who come for a haircut to call or text ahead of time and arrange a time to appear as to not have anyone congregating around while waiting their turn. Says that he gets about 7-8 or so cuts in a day. Cash only since the credit card machine is in the shop still. I still want to look good even while in isolation you know. The man has to pay the bills too.
My son cut mine, did a pretty good job too, although he’d had a couple of glasses of Sauvignon just prior. Does his best work that way My wife was going to do it and found watching a couple of “how to” videos on YooToob quite useful. She then did my son’s and again, another very good job. I think we need never trouble Monsieur Alphonse’s Barnet Emporium again.
Charley, how are you doing with work ? South Korea seems to have handled it well. Don't tell me that you are out for a beer from time to time? Hope you are all well? Regards, Stu.
Total lock down day 9. I have learnt that there apparently is a correct way to hang the washing. Couldn't understand why the Mrs rehung everything I hung up. Mowed lawn for the 8th time. Brushed the dog numerous times (he's bald and in hiding now)
Hi Stu, Work: all over the place and I had to close for a week, but I still have a functioning business, so given the current situation I'm not complaining. We've had lots of 'social distancing' guidelines and constant reminders from the government, but we've avoided any formal lockdowns despite schools remaining closed. I won't get into the details of the Korean Vs British response as it will involved a) politics and b) bad language, but it turns out that taking serious matters seriously from day one results in a lot less death in the long run: fewer than two hundred deaths in total here--a large majority being the chronically sick and/or over 80s. The president here is ex-special forces (Special Warfare Command: based on the U.S. Green Berets)--he thrives on disasters like this. My biggest personal problem is that the Royal Mail has stopped delivering to Korea (and a large number of other countries). This would be an annoyance at any time, but the problem is compounded by the fact that they simply piled undelivered mail up at Heathrow for weeks in the hope that the situation would improve and didn't give any indication of what was going on. Hope you are getting through this whole mess with a smile, mate.
................. also we're in lockdown, why do things need to be ironed!? (..at least that's the approach I'm taking)
The Coronapocalyps in Holland: On Feb 27th, 2020, the first case of Covid19 was discovered in Holland. In late afternoon of Sunday 15 March Holland went into pause: bars and restaurants were closed, social distancing, no public gathering of over 100 people (until April 6th). At the time we had 1.413 registered patients and 24 deaths (numbers as of 16 March). The actual number of infections was higher, because not everyone in Holland is tested, only those who are "at risk of a serious disease course" - the real number of infections on 16 March was estimated at about 6000 people. Since then I've been editing on a daily basis how the situation in Holland rapidly changes. These are 'only' official figures. The actual number of infections and deaths is most likely much higher: 17 March - 19 new death cases, that makes 43; total confirmed patients 1705 (an increase of 292) 18 March - 15 new deaths, total now risen to 58; total confirmed patients 2051 (an increase of 346) 19 March - 18 new deaths, total now 76; total confirmed patients 2465 (an increase of 414) 20 March - 30 people died over the last 24 hours; total now 106; total confirmed patients 2994 (an increase of 529) 21 March - 30 deaths in the last 24 hours, death toll now 136; total confirmed patients 3631 (an increase of 637) 22 March - 43 deaths, death toll now 179; total confirmed patients 4216 (an increase of 585) 23 March - 34 people died over the last 24 hours; total number 213; total confirmed patients 4.749 (an increase of 533) As of March 23rd further restrictions became effective - (an almost complete) lock down: schools were closed, no public gathering of more than three people, work at home, social distancing (these measures are effective until April 28th) 24 March - 63 deaths; total number now 276; total confirmed patients 5560 (increase of 811) 25 March - 80 new deaths, total now 356; total confirmed patients 6412 (an increase of 852) 26 March - 78 deaths, total now 434; total confirmed patients 7431 (an increase of 1019) 27 March - 112 deaths, total now 546; total confirmed patients 8603 (an increase of 1172) 28 March - 93 new deaths, total now 639; total confirmed patient 9762 (an increase of 1159). 29 March - 132 new deaths, the death toll now is 771; total confirmed patients 10.866 (an increase of 1104) 30 March - 93 new deaths, total now is 864; total confirmed patients 11.750 (an increase of 884) 31 March - 175 new deaths, total now 1.039; total confirmed patients 12.595 (an increase of 845) 1 April - 134 new deaths, total now 1.173; total confirmed patients 13.614 (an increase of 1.019) 2 April - 166 new deaths, the death toll now is 1.339; total confirmed patients 14.697 (an increase of 1.083). 3 April - 148 new deaths, total number now 1.487; total confirmed patients 15.723 (an increase of 1.026) 4 April - 164 new deaths, total now 1.651; total confirmed patients 16.627 (an increase of 902) 5 April - 115 new deaths, total now 1.766; total confirmed patients 17.851 (an increase of 1.224) Edit today: 6 April - 101 new deaths, total now 1.867; total confirmed patients 18.803 (an increase of 952) ... on the positive side: It looks as if lock down measures are having an effect. The curve has reached a plateau. Especially when considering the decreasing influx of hospital admissions, which today was 253 and is lower than the number over the previous days (yesterday 336, the day before yesterday 502 and the days before that 625, 447 resp. 722).We're now at the end of the third week of our lock down which started 15 March and for the time being will last until 28 April. On the negative side: The limited number of available ICU-beds is still cause for concern. By pulling out all the stops there are at most 2400 beds available this week and that will be the absolute maximum. There simply is not enough staff to man more beds. Of these 575 are taken by regular patients, which leaves about 1900 for COVID patients. Today (5 April) 25 people with corona were admitted to ICU. A day earlier 36 people. In total there are now 1.385 Covid patients in an ICU. Making use of capacity abroad also is a solution. By now 14 ICU cases were transferred to German hospitals, this country still has enough ICU's available. Ron Fouchier, one of the leading Dutch virologists, recently announced that we weren't enough prepared for something that we knew was about to happen: “Ensure that your care system is in order. Now the whole country is in trouble, because we have too few intensive care beds. But that has simply been a choice in the past, healthcare has been actively stripped down. RIVM (the Dutch Health and Care research institute) has prepared plans for a pandemic. It just shows that you can't make it in terms of care, that there are not enough IC beds. Then it is incomprehensible that you as a government have not done anything about it.” Do I hear echoes of Bill Gates there. Another aspect that is thought-provoking is the lack of an exit strategy; how to act after the spread of the virus is under control. For comparison the number of Covid deaths per million of inhabitants: Spain (49 mln), with 12.641 deaths, is 258,0 Italy (62,1 mln) with 15.887 deaths, the number is 255,82 France (62,8 mlin) with 8.078 deaths, is 128,63 Holland (17,1 mln) with 1.766 deaths, it now is: 103,27 UK (64,7 mln) this number, with 4.934 deaths, is: 76,26 USA (326,1 mln) with 9.647 deaths, it's 29,58 Germany (83,1 mln) with 1.584 deaths is 19,06 Canada (37,6 mln) with 281 deaths is 7,47
Here’s my usual routine; Wake up. Check data on smartphone (weather, news, Gmail, texts, Facebook, etc) Roll out of fart sack. Poop, fix hair, brush teefus (plural for teef), shave every few days. Make juice, take meds, go fetch the newspaper from the driveway, scan front page on the way back to the house. Hit the bricks for the morning walk, usual 40-60 minutes. Did 50 minutes today. Get back home, change shirt, go pick up lunch (I’m doing my patriotic duty by stimulating the local economy, helping out the Mom & Pop eating places (drive thru or take out only). And I do tip the help. We do that here in the states. Go home, eat lunch, read the paper. After reading the paper I usually hop on my motorbike and ride 4-5 hours or so before heading to the house. The last couple of days I worked in the yard (my lawnmower is still in the shop). Yesterday I picked downed limbs and put them in the trailer. Decided to cut brush and trim more limbs. Cut two small trees down, loaded them in the trailer. Real work. Dogged it off, went inside and hit the shower. Today I drove to the Mississippi River levee and unloaded the trailer. It’s a few miles from the house. The water is high now, but nowhere near as high as it will get. Soon the limbs I dumped will wash up on the shore in Cuba. Maybe they can use it to fire up an outdoor stove. Who knows. Glad to help. Then I watered the plants. I have 31 hanging baskets and many more potted plants. Might start a vegetable garden, who knows. It’s hard with all the dang squirrels around. I’ve found that they don’t care for habaneros, jalapeños and cayennes. Prepared dinner. Ate. Watched a Netflix movie. Called Mom (she’s not taking this business very well). Last time I was up there I delivered a care package, and she started crying when I left. She said that she was scared and wants all this to be over with. I hated that. This time I brought her some dinner and we sat on the back patio and had a nice visit. She sat about 10 feet away, and was much better when I left. I call her every night, and I told her to stop watching the news. Then I go to bed. Repeat. I have many projects lined up to do that I’ve been putting off for so long. I’ll do one a day so I don’t run out of productive projects before the end of quarantine. Perish the thought. I’m pacing myself.
Thought you might like an update on how a 96 year old copes with Covid 19...……………... For starters, I am confined to my house, alone, and have been since March 9th when a dose of sniffles reminded me that I was not immortal. Within a fortnight my quarantine was made official and that's the way its been ever since. ALL my daily activities have now closed down & every day is much the same, aggravated by the recent absence of my excellent weekly cleaning lady, who is now in quarantine herself. My splendid daughters see that my weekly shop-up is maintained and both "whats-ap" me constantly The only deviation from the above is my once weekly visit to the front door to offer my thanks to the NHS. Every day I get offers of help from neighbours and I have started an ever-growing list so that when this is all over I can thank everybody for their generosity. I bless the fact that I am still computerate and so able to communicate with others even if I have to write things down rather than trust my memory. I still visit this site almost daily and relish the fact that you all still appear to maintain a thoroughly disrespectful attitude towards this terrible disease....... long may your attitude continue !!!!!! Best regards to all Ron
Dear Ron, You better than all of us know how it goes. One step at a time and NGU Ron, NGU. Keep well, stay safe, many, many things to be ticked off the list yet. Best wishes and kind regards, always, Jim.
What does NGU mean ? I looked it up & found this ... Nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) is an inflammation of the urethra that is not caused by gonorrheal infection. For treatment purposes, doctors usually classify infectious urethritis in two categories: gonococcal urethritis, caused by gonorrhea, and nongonococcal urethritis (NGU).
