Road Map: making sense of it

It's been a fairly bright mild week with a fair amount of sunshine about, heck I even saw the first wasp of the year yesterday morning AND I had to fend him off my torque  liking it's bright colours but really there's only been one major thing on peoples minds this week.

The much talked about Roadmap  for leaving the Covid restrictions not least the lockdown was signed off by the UK Government's cabinet before being announced in the House of Commons, Monday followed by a televised address in the Evening.

Because of devolution, the Scottish Parliament, The Welsh Assembly government goverment and the Northern Ireland Assembly all have their own differing versions of it so this just plan applies to England.

You might think Public Health would be better run across the whole of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as one but nationalist politics don't favour it and as a Unionist I feel that doing things separately causes needless problems around travel and quarantine arrangements we all don't need.

For the first full month for most of us little happens beyond those in  regular Primary and Secondary Education including Further Education and a handful of those in University who actually need face to face tuition and practical work.

People in care homes can have one registered visitor which is something many have been lacking since all this started last March and deserves a welcome.

Social distancing as in 2 metres apart, masks etc stays until we're told any different.

While this "road map" has dates unlike a well known broadcaster you should note the dates are Indicative (look it up) being when it is expected things may change BUT the final go ahead will be reviewed a week before on the basis of data and scientific advice first.

It is NOT a timetable of the sort that say on one date we WILL do this regardless cos that's what is written for that date.

It is expected on March 29th the first of a series of phased rule changes  allowing of more social contacts such as gatherings in peoples gardens, the "stay at home" message changing to "Stay local" will come in and outdoor organized sports will be allowed to resume but do stay tuned to the announcements first.

By July it is anticipated things will be more normal but some measures such as face coverings and the likely need for ongoing vaccination programs to run will more likely than not to remain.

While foreign travel is seen as potentially possible no earlier than May 17th, do bear in mind a few things such as much of continental Europe is very behind vaccinations compared to us and has high infection rates so they may not want you and you might well bring any local forms of infection with you both to their country and from it.

It is possible some countries may want proof of Vaccination if they were to allow you in because actually every countries first duty is to protect its own people first and until anything is said to the contrary, you will still need to do your isolation in hotel here on arrival at your own expense.

You might was well get that in your noggin and look at staying in the UK instead!

The virus isn't going away: What is happening is through vaccination, transmission is being reduced person to person significantly and the impact of any infection hugely reduced when it comes to developing it in people so we're all safer, safe enough we expect by the summer to have less restrictions and more of a near normal life back.

You have to do your part and be a part of the solution to getting things back to where we'd all like them to be in what has been a challenging and very scary year.

Delayed anniversary

 

Just over two years and a month ago I remade a tumblr as a newer replacement to one of the group that got removed as collateral damage several years ago.

Although this blog isn't centred on it, age regression is a big thing with me so apart from having a blog specifically about that, one of the first tumblrs I had also followed the same route to the point of belonging to a Tumblr age group community.

Not everything that interests me fits within that as you will probably know if you read this blog and having lost the original slightly more grown up Tumblr I was finding I needed one for things around fashion, anime and things around elements of alg presentation that didn't fit with the setting some communities take usually born of ignorance and it's best friend, prejudice.

That tumblr was called thatboardingschoolgirl cos really it tied in to this blog interests being a scrapbook of an adult little girl as if she was magic'd away to the boarding school of her dreams jotting ideas and cutting out things that interested her.

That as we are due soon to work our way out of this lockdown is something that will help as it has over the last eleven months with the stresses and strains of it all.

Staycation

Given it's been minus seven yesterday and darn cold throughout the week even though I'm normally super hot blooded perhaps it's understandable that for some minds are focused upon Summer vacations beyond these shores.

There had been a lot of talk in the mass media about getting away for summer and the much criticised "Jab and fly" promotion by Ryan Air, an Irish company implying that in effect you get vaccinated and then we can go to all corners of the World.

Well Mike Hancock, Health secretary and Grant Shapps Transport minister have put a damp squid on that idea in tackling the problem of people who had been abroad needing to quarantine upon return and just not doing it, potentially spreading covid of different variants.

In short, people from next week will need to be booked in a hotel at their own expense if they travel from a country on a list of 33 hots spots for ten days where they will have to stay and any time outside such as going out for a smoke will be supervised.

If you do not tell the truth regarding where you have been or otherwise break the regulations then you are likely to face a ten year prison sentence because the risks to the public are huge with this virus being something that does kill and such contact would effect potentially several bystanders who may well require treatment by our stretched health service.

The travel industry isn't happy about this - far from it - but honestly unless you are going act responsibly which a good number of people haven't then you are going to have to be made to do so.

Many of us do indeed badly need a break, this last eleven months has been stressful and some more for people not least those unable to do what they normally would  and for those of us with health issues or disabilities but it is likely at some point we'll be able to do so 'at home' but going abroad where a good number of countries do not want visitors as they too battle with this awful virus really is a very bad idea.

Let's concentrate on slowly getting things going again in our own country for our children and then build up more things for adults rather than rushing off risking so much.

800th post edition

It may sound strange but we're just over and I mean just that, 800 posts on this blog which does go back a long time and has had the odd makeover in that period from the days I sat huddled around the ancient Stone PC in it's console with separate Hello Kitty keyboard and 14" 4:3 CRT monitor trying to write something. 

One thing no one would of anticipated writing about is a pandemic that has more or less shut down much of everyday life around the world, resulting in over 110,000 deaths in this country alone because it's spread by everyday social contact, the stuff we crave as humans.

We've had some good news this week with that scientific research that shows people are inoculated by the Oxford/AstroZenaca vaccine have a very dramatic reduction in the transmission of Covid and that in one test no one in  the control sample who did develop covid required hospitalization who had been vaccinated compared to those who had not.

This over time dues potentially open the doors to a slow return to something like normal while the EU tries to sort out it's own program in a more responsible way by working with the vaccine companies to increase production.

Things around current affairs have been a part of this blog not least because it helps to keep my more age regression blog focussed on that and trust me that littles life has helped a lot where more grown up concerns get talked about here.

From day one posts around  music featured as between an overlap of people at one Tg site and a dedicated music site there was an audience for talking about recordings and the increasingly common question of how different editions do sound.

There has been at various times some posts around fashion not that current conditions easily lend themselves to having places to show your "glad rags" off and bits around littles fashion cos I'm very much that in everyday life.

And then there's been interests posts around literature, dvd's, the arts and vacations too as this tends to be a broad based blog.

It'll most likely make it's 900th post soon enough for thanks for following over the decades.