maple syrup products

[woofgang]

does anyone know where I can buy maple sugar, cream and butter from a uk mail order company? I know I can get it straight from Canada and the US but the p and p and customs make this very expensive.

[netibiza]

Well biddies this little island is on lockdown now
Schools closed
All theatres cinema libraries closed. Clinics and hospital closed. I have an appointment for Tuesday for which I have waited 13 months. Probably no buses anyway
My store cupboard is almost depleted as Mr N doesnt like hoarding
Hope we cam buy.lots this weekend. I guess food will be flown in although all unnecessary flights and ferries are banned. So no tourists . Mr Ns home grown tomatoes will be ready in about August!!!
I need a red cross parcel although I doubt the Post office will even open!!

[netibiza]

And now the hospital and health centres are cancelling most appointments and I've been waiting over 13 months. We are supposedly getting a phone call to discuss why we need to see the specialist! They have opened a new area in the hospital for the suspected covid patients and dont want us mixing with them!

[jno]

not mixing with them sounds like quite a good idea... keep them in a room together and they can infect each other till the cows come home

[Robinia]

Morning all, dull but thankfully less windy, we don't want any virus blowing this way.

Oh dear neti, please don't waste away or I'll have to be sending you some of my fun size bras. My sister has cancelled her short holiday in Portugal next week (only losing flight money) but I still can't convince a friend that there's anything to be concerned about. Hey ho, que sera and all that.
Following brexit, horrendous weather and now this there soon might not be any cows left to come home.

[shaneystar2]

Dull here too.
Don't panic Neti we'll send you a food parcel.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61NbNdSPQaL._AC_SL1000_.jpg
Nothing going on here.
KBO folks.

[Robinia]

Most stores have limits in place regarding loo rolls, sanitiser etc
ALDI limits are
1 MIG welder
1 sports bra
2 trumpets
1 spare wheel for a wheelbarrow

:) :)

[jno]

you need to adopt the Italian solution

[woofgang]

ooo mig welders! might need one of those!!!

[jno]

ooh, my internet's back. How else would I know what's going on in the world?

Not too impressed by the idea of herd immunity - let everyone catch the virus, the old and frail are expendable. I can't believe the government would risk losing all its voters...

[woofgang]

They aren't saying expendable Jno which is why they are being so hot on stuff like being careful where you visit, self isolation and so on. Sadly some people will die and some of those wouldn't have died anyway of other things. I loathe the phrase "herd immunity" to me it smacks of the medical/scientific community viewing all non medics/non scientists as a lower species which I am sure isn't entirely (!) true. Does the phrase "community immunity" sound better? The concept is that the young and healthy folk who will get it mildly actually make a barrier that stops the virus being transmitted to those who would be at serious risk if they catch it so that those people are protected by the herd/community.
I agree, as someone who spent a long time speaking two languages at work...clinical shorthand and talking to patients and relatives, the performances have not been flawless...but what would you? They get plenty of training but (happily) not much real practice and its live on the media and its very serious indeed.
Personally after experiencing other situations, I find the honesty a big step forward even though parts of the message are difficult.

[Robinia]

^^ dodgy link nothing to worry about

Afternoon...Tarquin just called on his way back from France to see how I am and whether there's anything I want him to bring for me that I can't get here. I told him a bottle of good brandy. Sorted. :)
Hope you're all ok.

[woofgang]

good thinking Robi.

[Robinia]

Just for medicinal purposes of course...

[woofgang]

oh of course

[jno]

we've had a few calls from jno jnr to check we're still alive.

Woofgang, I speak from a position of total ignorance, but the things I wonder about community immunity include how long it will take to get the 60+ per cent immunity they want (and how the NHS will cope), and what the vulnerable are expected to do in those weeks or months - isolate themselves with other over-60s somewhere? I also thought I'd read of someone being reinfected, which suggests immunity may not be all that reliable. We should in theory have community immunity to flu by now, but it just keeps evolving and people keep dying.

[Robinia]

That's what worries me, if this mutates into something even worse we're all doomed.

With that in mind I'll send you best wishes for tomorrow jno (assuming I've got the right day) Happy birthday, however you're spending it, have a good one
https://ibb.co/xC5BpJ3

[woofgang]

One woman in Japan is said to have had it twice...not confirmed so far. I agree that the community immunity thing is not great but pending a vaccination, it is what there is. Did you see the live briefing? The plan is to do our best to turn the shape of the infection period from a steep rise steep drop to a smoother hill shaped curve. This will lessen the strain on the NHS at any one time and move the height of the problem to later in the year when there are less winter illnesses anyway....that's what the self isolation, social distancing and handwashing is all about. Observation so far is that it doesn't seem to be a type that mutates quickly or easily. The aim is to get the community immunity up and running as fast as is possible but is still consonant with not collapsing the health service or the economy. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/science/coronavirus-curve-mitigation-infection.html

[woofgang]

oh ps. best estimate as I recall is that ideally the infection curve will run over around 12 weeks.

[jno]

escellent, thank you, Robinia.

Woofgang, yes, I guess that's where we are. It just seems likely to split older people from their families - if the kids were trying to avoid infection you might think yourself okay with them; if the thinking is for them to go ahead and catch it then their elders will have to be much more careful. I'm not much bothered myself, being not specially vulnerable, but OH is a bit more so and of course other people are much more so.