The Phantom

They used to (maybe still) do something similar in France. National Service included Fire Service, Hospital Porters etc. I once met a French dude who was a beach lifeguard as part of his NS.

They are already rioting. There's been flag burning etc at a school in London because of Head Teacher imposing a (not all together unreasonable) dress code. My concerns are the parents that did have the 'tools' to look after the kids pre-lockdown, but are being forced into an untenable situation. Both the wife and I have pretty demanding jobs that won't accept a slow down because of lockdown. This is not a problem with nursery etc usually, but currently we are starting work at 7am, finishing work at 10pm and doing 2 hours on/off looking after the toddler, just purely to get a full day

The kids in Castletown are now stealing Swan eggs! https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/youths-trying-to-take-swan-eggs-from-nests-say-police/ To be honest it's hardly surprising that the kids are all going feral. They haven't been in school for half the year and parents are having to attempt to school/control them at the same time as working from home. Luckily mine is too small to realise what's going on, but the fact that she hasn't been able to play (or even really see) other children for half the year, can't have a great effect on her (future) social skills e

I know some places are accepting either proof you've been vaxed or that you've had a negative test within a day or two. The thing with a negative test however, is how to they prove you've taken it properly also bearing in mind these can be self administered? Never mind whether you've tickled your brain to get a proper sample, but you could for all intents and purposes stick it up your cat's arse and it would come out negative.

I was speaking to someone with pretty high reaching contacts in the UK Govt a few weeks ago and he was saying this has been quite the coup for the Brexited UK and it had swayed many remainers to agree that maybe Brexit was actually a good thing.

One cube of ice and let it melt a little bit.

Port G is about a 5 min drive for me and I try and take my toddler to the beach there as often as possible during lockdown, with both parents WFH and trying to look after her at the same time, I think it's one of the few things that will help stop her turning into some socially disaffected psychopath in the future. But yeah it was insane down there last weekend. Probably at least 30 cars (average is probably 3).

Laxey? Maybe use a different beach for the time being until the heat dies down and the Navy SEALS have been extracted. If you're part of the Central Eastside Massive - Garwick, Groudle or Cornaa? There are actually a couple of 'secret' footpaths down to the southern end of Laxey beach too - beyond the Prom.

Laxey beach this morning

Indeed. When I was getting tested, the car infront had a couple of kids in and I was genuinely amazed by the lack of kick-off, knowing how unpleasant it is.

Yeah just call 111. I was impatient after my results didn't come through within the quoted timeframe. They were quite friendly and helpful

Whilst I do respect Al Jazeera generally, that article says may be more deadly. Once again very little proof or knowledge on this virus (from the experts, not you). I'm basing my previous comment on historical evidence on all viruses generally and basic common sense. But then we are also talking about populations getting herd immunity to these things over the years. Although admittedly getting sensible figures for this when so many of the high risk demographic have been vaxxed must be quite tricky. Hardcore statistical analysis would be required, but we all know that you can always m

To be honest, this is what viruses 'do'. Over time they will evolve to become more transmissible but less deadly (possibly partially responsible for the reduction in deaths?). A virus that kills its host quickly and without time to spread, isn't a very good virus. That's the modus operandi - to spread... You can still find genetic traces of the great Spanish Flu in today's generic winter Flu bugs that go around. Remember, at the time it killed 10s of millions. Now it's just the flu. Luckily this is why those hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola have never really spread that far. T

My covid tester last week didn't find it funny when pretended to start taking my trousers off for the anal swab.

I'm pretty certain it will be no different than requiring a Yellow Fever jab before being allowed entry into various African countries. Although how effective this will be would be interesting. About 3 years ago I successfully effectively bribed my way into Ghana, after I got a new passport and forgot to swap my yellow fever certificate into the new one. It was either get jabbed with dubious equipment there and then in a little office at the airport, pay a small 'admin' fee (after they had taken great pains to explain how hard their job was and how little money they had) or get back on