Welcome back! Glad you are safe and well, a belated congratulations on being made Admin Manager:)
Things in the UK haven't been good either. I was on annual leave in March and, basically, never went back to work!
With my ill health and my mothers' glaucoma and motor axonal peripheral neuropathy getting worse, meaning that both her mobility and eyesight are failing, I decided to take early retirement from 30 June. I had to give four months notice for retirement so submitted my application near the end of February.
As I have asthma, I was required to shield once lockdown started for 12 weeks, which basically brought me to my retirement date. It took several weeks for my manager to get me a laptop but I was working at home for a couple of months prior to leaving. As crown court staff we are considered essential workers so, with the exception of three others, everyone else continued to work. Fortunately, our manager was very hot with all the social distancing so those at work said they felt very safe.
We had my 'leaving do' via Microsoft Teams with me and a couple of the others at home and the others in the office. It some ways it feels very odd but in others, as I'd been at home for four months, it wasn't to strange. One of my team popped over the following day with flowers and my leaving gifts, we sat in the garden suitably distanced and had a nice visit.
The UK was really badly hit with the virus. I guess that happens when you have a lot of people packed in a small area, especially the cities, like New York, we have a lot of multi generational families living together which made things worse. We also had a lot of people who ignored all of the advice and kept on mixing and spreading the virus. Although the country has partially opened up again even more people are ignoring the social distancing regulations, hundreds of people have been having protests, raves, packing themselves onto beaches and national parks, etc. Many are refusing to wear masks, we are supposed to start wearing masks in shops from the end of this week.
Personally, I have hardly been out at all. My mother lives with me and we went out for a short walk each day, luckily the weather was nice at the start of the lockdown so I did lots of gardening, as it was spring I managed to plant up a few vegetables and salad items which are doing pretty well, if I say so myself, lol. I've been out to the pharmacy a few times to pick up Mums' medications, although for the first couple of months we used the services of the group put together in the village which was a tremendous help. The village shop also took orders and volunteers delivered the orders.
Of course now that people are out and about again the infection rate is rising again, so I may just turn into a hermit, especially as they are predicting we could have a worse infection rate over the winter, there have already been over 45,000 deaths in the UK, it's just unbelievable isn't it, I don't think any of us really thought that anything like this could happen. It's been overwhelming at times, I've been away from social media for long stretches as I just haven't felt like engaging at times, I haven't really got a current fandom any more either. Although I got lured back into NCIS a couple of months ago and am re-reading some old favourites, there aren't many people in the NCIS fandom any more, sadly, but I just can't find myself a new fandom to follow, nothing on TV is really appealing to me at the moment.
I am so sorry to hear about your’s and your mother’s health issues, it is scary being high risk at the moment, especially as you mentioned with people not social distancing.
I am glad you were able to work from home until your early retirement. I bet it helped having an understanding manager. You leaving do sounded like fun - even if it was online. It was nice of your team member to visit you though.
The way people are acting still, after all they have seen so far with the virus just blows my mind. I don’t know how they can have such little regard to other people.
Over hear (well in Melbourne) masks have become a requirement anytime you leave the house as of yesterday. If you are caught without one, without a valid enough reason, it is a $200 fine. The fine for going outside of your area/suburb without a valid reason is a $1000+ fine.
I love that your village shop had been taking orders and having volunteers do delivery, I am sure that helped a lot of people.
It is winter here at the moment which is another reason Melbourne has such a high rate (apart from Tasmania who is off the mainland - Victoria generally gets the coldest at this time of year, this winter has been particularly cold). The only positive is we have almost non existent cases of influenza - where as last year was one of our worst influenza seasons yet.
It is funny how many of the NCIS fandom just faded out of the fandom or are just now returning. I myself haven’t been a part of the fandom since before Ziva left. Funny thing is my parents have just gotten into it this year, and I am horrified that my mother loves Tiva! Lol my Tibbs/Tabby/Tony & Paula shipper heart can’t take that. Occasionally I revisit some of my fave fics but that is usually only once or twice a year.
Since being on lockdown I revisited a couple of favourite shows (Numb3rs and Criminal Minds) and also some ‘obscure short lived’ shows like Forever, Dead of Summer, and Moonlight.
However in either late May or early June I finally gave in and watched Umbrella Academy on Netflix and fell so hard I have now seen every episode 10+ times (the last rewatch finished tonight). I fell so hard I now own ever UA Funko pop (including the rare chase ones), have purchased the two collectors edition bind ups of the comics (one arrives next week), a whole heap of fan art, and it lead me down a rabbit hole of watching every Robert Sheehan movie/tv show I could find, which takes a seriously disturbing turn at times (I have seen things no one should see - including an absolutely evil David Tennant that made me sick to my stomach). Luckily season 2 is out next Friday I don’t know if I could last much longer on the 10 episodes there are.
I am so glad to hear from you and to hear you are doing okay despite everything. :)
Things in the UK haven't been good either. I was on annual leave in March and, basically, never went back to work!
With my ill health and my mothers' glaucoma and motor axonal peripheral neuropathy getting worse, meaning that both her mobility and eyesight are failing, I decided to take early retirement from 30 June. I had to give four months notice for retirement so submitted my application near the end of February.
As I have asthma, I was required to shield once lockdown started for 12 weeks, which basically brought me to my retirement date. It took several weeks for my manager to get me a laptop but I was working at home for a couple of months prior to leaving. As crown court staff we are considered essential workers so, with the exception of three others, everyone else continued to work. Fortunately, our manager was very hot with all the social distancing so those at work said they felt very safe.
We had my 'leaving do' via Microsoft Teams with me and a couple of the others at home and the others in the office. It some ways it feels very odd but in others, as I'd been at home for four months, it wasn't to strange. One of my team popped over the following day with flowers and my leaving gifts, we sat in the garden suitably distanced and had a nice visit.
The UK was really badly hit with the virus. I guess that happens when you have a lot of people packed in a small area, especially the cities, like New York, we have a lot of multi generational families living together which made things worse. We also had a lot of people who ignored all of the advice and kept on mixing and spreading the virus. Although the country has partially opened up again even more people are ignoring the social distancing regulations, hundreds of people have been having protests, raves, packing themselves onto beaches and national parks, etc. Many are refusing to wear masks, we are supposed to start wearing masks in shops from the end of this week.
Personally, I have hardly been out at all. My mother lives with me and we went out for a short walk each day, luckily the weather was nice at the start of the lockdown so I did lots of gardening, as it was spring I managed to plant up a few vegetables and salad items which are doing pretty well, if I say so myself, lol. I've been out to the pharmacy a few times to pick up Mums' medications, although for the first couple of months we used the services of the group put together in the village which was a tremendous help. The village shop also took orders and volunteers delivered the orders.
Of course now that people are out and about again the infection rate is rising again, so I may just turn into a hermit, especially as they are predicting we could have a worse infection rate over the winter, there have already been over 45,000 deaths in the UK, it's just unbelievable isn't it, I don't think any of us really thought that anything like this could happen. It's been overwhelming at times, I've been away from social media for long stretches as I just haven't felt like engaging at times, I haven't really got a current fandom any more either. Although I got lured back into NCIS a couple of months ago and am re-reading some old favourites, there aren't many people in the NCIS fandom any more, sadly, but I just can't find myself a new fandom to follow, nothing on TV is really appealing to me at the moment.
Stay safe :)
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Thank you :)
I am so sorry to hear about your’s and your mother’s health issues, it is scary being high risk at the moment, especially as you mentioned with people not social distancing.
I am glad you were able to work from home until your early retirement. I bet it helped having an understanding manager. You leaving do sounded like fun - even if it was online. It was nice of your team member to visit you though.
The way people are acting still, after all they have seen so far with the virus just blows my mind. I don’t know how they can have such little regard to other people.
Over hear (well in Melbourne) masks have become a requirement anytime you leave the house as of yesterday. If you are caught without one, without a valid enough reason, it is a $200 fine. The fine for going outside of your area/suburb without a valid reason is a $1000+ fine.
I love that your village shop had been taking orders and having volunteers do delivery, I am sure that helped a lot of people.
It is winter here at the moment which is another reason Melbourne has such a high rate (apart from Tasmania who is off the mainland - Victoria generally gets the coldest at this time of year, this winter has been particularly cold). The only positive is we have almost non existent cases of influenza - where as last year was one of our worst influenza seasons yet.
It is funny how many of the NCIS fandom just faded out of the fandom or are just now returning. I myself haven’t been a part of the fandom since before Ziva left. Funny thing is my parents have just gotten into it this year, and I am horrified that my mother loves Tiva! Lol my Tibbs/Tabby/Tony & Paula shipper heart can’t take that. Occasionally I revisit some of my fave fics but that is usually only once or twice a year.
Since being on lockdown I revisited a couple of favourite shows (Numb3rs and Criminal Minds) and also some ‘obscure short lived’ shows like Forever, Dead of Summer, and Moonlight.
However in either late May or early June I finally gave in and watched Umbrella Academy on Netflix and fell so hard I have now seen every episode 10+ times (the last rewatch finished tonight). I fell so hard I now own ever UA Funko pop (including the rare chase ones), have purchased the two collectors edition bind ups of the comics (one arrives next week), a whole heap of fan art, and it lead me down a rabbit hole of watching every Robert Sheehan movie/tv show I could find, which takes a seriously disturbing turn at times (I have seen things no one should see - including an absolutely evil David Tennant that made me sick to my stomach). Luckily season 2 is out next Friday I don’t know if I could last much longer on the 10 episodes there are.
I am so glad to hear from you and to hear you are doing okay despite everything. :)
Reply
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