Coronavirus

[#1]

So, today this happens.

[#2]

Irene, your story should make more than few of the whiners and grousers start appreciate what they have.  Beautiful as South Africa is ... that is untenable.

Maria, it beaks my heart to have to agree with you; at the current rate Spain is headed into a serious 2nd wave. Yes, tourism is crucial to the economy ... but the govt. need to stop visitors from coming.  Especially anywhere along the  . For some reason common sense flees when confronted with sun and surf.  Take care, my friend.

[#3]

¡Gracias Wendy!
The numbers are increasing rapidly.
The central government and that of the autonomies may not be doing very well, but, in the end, those responsible are the people.
Each of us must do it well, and it is not being done.
Take care of yourself too.

[#4]

Things are on the increase here, too.  We are heavily a tourist economy and the casinos, restaurants, bars and beaches are open, although with restrictions.  The locals seem to be behaving pretty well except for the very vocal minority who believe that the whole thing is a scam.  You cannot go into a store, office or anywhere indoors without a mask and people are being escorted out because of this.  I actually went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and the precautions were very complete.

I'm not so concerned about the increases in numbers of cases as testing is ongoing daily in my town.  I am, however, terribly concerned about the increase of deaths.  And then you hear that everyone with Covid who dies is being counted, even if they had a mild case and died of cancer or something else. So who knows what's really going on?

School is open here.  You either go virtually or in person, no splitting it up.  All kids are wearing masks and after one week open, 200 kids are in quarantine already because of a teacher.  You can't play with other kids at recess, you can't sit with anyone on the bus, physical education classes are calisthentics - no balls or other equipment.  No sitting with your friends at lunch.  Sounds dreadful,  frankly.

Dear Lord, please let this be over.  Sooner rather than later.  I think we've learned our lesson.

[#5]

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Irene B wrote:

Yes, I fortunately have some long-term clients that are keeping me slightly afloat for the most part. Thanks for asking. I appreciate it.

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Glad you're ok, and have at least some work. If it had not been for my long term clients, I would be in serious trouble. However, fortunate as we are, I don't think we have even begun to see the extent of the economic carnage the pandemic (and creatures in head scarves) caused here.

[#6]

After 100 days, Covid "finally" came back to New Zealand, the city of Auckland is in lockdown and the rest of the country is at alert level 2. The funny thing is, this all happened while we were booking our flights to back to Germany, for good.

So once again, I'm here with a flight to go back to Europe, hoping they're not going to cancel it...I feel there is a superior power in motion, trying to tell me to stay put.

[#7]

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Valerio S wrote:

After 100 days, Covid "finally" came back to New Zealand, the city of Auckland is in lockdown and the rest of the country is at alert level 2. The funny thing is, this all happened while we were booking our flights to back to Germany, for good.

So once again, I'm here with a flight to go back to Europe, hoping they're not going to cancel it...I feel there is a superior power in motion, trying to tell me to stay put.

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Why would you want to go to Germany for good lol?

I fear that there will be a real uptick in cases caused by tourists in Italy shortly, and they'll be carrying the virus home with them. The Italians have been pretty sensible since May, but they seem to lose all common sense as soon as August starts. There have been huge parties along the sea front and the nightclubs are packed.

Like every year I can't WAIT until August is over and all the loud tourists and their pesky cars go back to whereever they came from and I can work and sleep in peace again.

Luckily the incredibly noisy people who usually spend July and August in the apartment upstairs didn't come this year, and neither did the family of 8 including screaming children who usually seem to live (and fight) on the balcony above my neighbour's place. I am sorry they are missing their holidays (a bit sorry) but I am not sorry to have 50% of the noise of a typical August removed.

Oh and we had a wildfire last week. It came scarily close, I could see and hear it just beyond the olive grove that's the other side of my patio. At one point it jumped the main road and engulfed the shrublands in the dunes. The next day we had torrential rain and flooding-

2020 is NUTS

[#8]

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Petra R wrote:

Like every year I can't WAIT until August is over and all the loud tourists and their pesky cars go back to whereever they came from and I can work and sleep in peace again.

Luckily the incredibly noisy people who usually spend July and August in the apartment upstairs didn't come this year...

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Funny,  I somehow got the idea that you lived in a small isolated house in the middle of nowhere. It seems it's not the idyll that I thought it was.  😃

The main problem we have around here at this time of the year is the noxious stink of rotting seaweed.  It's really bad at the moment after a spell of hot weather.  I'm hoping for a big storm to wash it away.  Maybe today. 

[#9]

Renier,,,,,,Yup!!

And SOME time this weekend we will hear what is in store for us next. Incompetence does not even explain it.

[#10]

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Richard W wrote: Funny,  I somehow got the idea that you lived in a small isolated house in the middle of nowhere. It seems it's not the idyll that I thought it was.  😃

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I would, if I could afford to 😄

But this is probably the right compromise, I live in a ground floor apartment with my own entrance, and 10-11 months of the year there is nobody on either side or above me. All I can see from by back door and windows is greenery and olive grove and my tangerine tree.

So mostly it feels like a small house in the middle of nowhere.

Its just July and August it's bad

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Richard W wrote: The main problem we have around here at this time of the year is the noxious stink of rotting seaweed.  It's really bad at the moment after a spell of hot weather.  I'm hoping for a big storm to wash it away.  Maybe today. 

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Fingers crossed for a nice storm for you

[#11]

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Petra R wrote:

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Valerio S wrote:

After 100 days, Covid "finally" came back to New Zealand, the city of Auckland is in lockdown and the rest of the country is at alert level 2. The funny thing is, this all happened while we were booking our flights to back to Germany, for good.

So once again, I'm here with a flight to go back to Europe, hoping they're not going to cancel it...I feel there is a superior power in motion, trying to tell me to stay put.

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Why would you want to go to Germany for good lol?

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With a baby on the way, we wanted to be closer to friends and family (my wife is German), we've already lived in Hamburg for a couple of years and fell in love with the city, plus my wife has a very good job opportunity there so we decided it was time to go back and settle down.

I guess I'll have to ramp up my German and my tolerance for horrible weather.

[#12]

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Valerio S wrote:

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I guess I'll have to ramp up my German and my tolerance for horrible weather.

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I'd have to ramp up my tolerance for (the average) Germans before I go back lol

[#13]

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Petra R wrote:

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I'd have to ramp up my tolerance for (the average) Germans before I go back lol

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Aahahahahahahaha, probably I'd say the same if I would ever decide to go back to Italy.

[#14]

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Irene B wrote:

Renier,,,,,,Yup!!

And SOME time this weekend we will hear what is in store for us next. Incompetence does not even explain it.

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Well, it seems most of got what we wanted or needed, except the piper, who will likely only get paid in about 20 years's time. Just in time for my grandchlidren to contribute to the interest payments.  

[#15]

It is a mess here in India.

Hospital beds are hard to find in the major cities, and they come at exorbitant rates.

Meds are being sold in the back market.

Lost an aunt to covid-19, and my sister and brother-in-law are infected, but fortunately, they are recovering without special care.

[#16]

Dear, dear Ravi - I am so sorry to hear that.  There is very little about India/ Covid in the news here but I feared it was really bad.  Come back to the US - I'm sure Carbondale misses you!

[#17]

In Europe, this is NOT a second wave, it is stilll the first.  Nobody has understood what must happen with the new economics. No - they had to allow the summer raves, the beach conglomerations, the airplane virus carriers. Money comes first right? 

[#18]

may that people know that they bear the virus but no. For them the fun, and for their neighbors the problems.

[#19]

No, Covid, understand, you are not, repeat, not, welcome everywhere.

[#20]

August has undone much of the good work Italy has done since May.

August means holidays and holidays means people behave terribly irresponsibly 😞

Back above 1000 new cases in 24 hours.

Sigh

[#21]

School is keeping us from improving our numbers.  And the schools are not reporting cases, either among students or teachers, except in the general population numbers.  Rumor has it that our local high school has 125 people in quarantine but who know?  And are any of them teachers??

And now we're facing a tropical storm with a hurricane for dessert.  God help the poor people who have nowhere to go except to a shelter.  I wouldn't wish that on  my worst enemy.  And the shelters are telling everyone to bring their own masks, sanitizer, etc.

[#22]

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Mary W wrote:

School is keeping us from improving our numbers.  And the schools are not reporting cases, either among students or teachers, except in the general population numbers.  Rumor has it that our local high school has 125 people in quarantine but who know?  And are any of them teachers??

And now we're facing a tropical storm with a hurricane for dessert.  God help the poor people who have nowhere to go except to a shelter.  I wouldn't wish that on  my worst enemy.  And the shelters are telling everyone to bring their own masks, sanitizer, etc.

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Be careful!

[#23]

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Valerio S wrote:

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Petra R wrote:

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Valerio S wrote:

After 100 days, Covid "finally" came back to New Zealand, the city of Auckland is in lockdown and the rest of the country is at alert level 2. The funny thing is, this all happened while we were booking our flights to back to Germany, for good.

So once again, I'm here with a flight to go back to Europe, hoping they're not going to cancel it...I feel there is a superior power in motion, trying to tell me to stay put.

---

Why would you want to go to Germany for good lol?

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With a baby on the way, we wanted to be closer to friends and family (my wife is German), we've already lived in Hamburg for a couple of years and fell in love with the city, plus my wife has a very good job opportunity there so we decided it was time to go back and settle down.

I guess I'll have to ramp up my German and my tolerance for horrible weather.

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Make sure you have daycare covered that is what really sucks in Germany and is the reason why I moved further north.

[#24]

And now, our entire high school is quarantined for the next two weeks.  Trusting parents to send only healthy kids to school clearly doesn't work.  

[#25]

I am hopping that COVID vaccines soon gets us rid of that, as has happened for measles, polio and smallpox... but people need to be convinced to using the vaccine, and that the vaccine soes not cause autism, moreover if this emergency continue it will cause anxiety attacks.

[#26]

This is Africa. I will not talk about Zimbabwe. Strange things are happening. A lot of my friends are recovering without any medical care, just traditional concoctions, etc. It's much better than we expected.