Morning all

[Rossm]

Good afternoon everyone. Weather has been very sunny in Hastings for the past week - it seems cruel that, after such a wet winter, people can't take advantage. Health wise, the wife (68) is not great. She was infected with hepatitis C in 1981 when she was given a contaminated blood transfusion after a hemorrhage when she gave birth to her second baby. Ever since then her health has been affected. Though she was cleared of Hep C after a course of Harvoni in late 2015, the damage to her liver had already been done. She was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes a couple of years ago and last Autumn had a stroke which has left her with a damaged memory and permanent severe dizziness. I don't know how vulnerable she is to covid 19. I would feel very guilty if I brought it home and infected her.
Compared to her, I (72) am overall fairly well - but very lame and overweight. I do the shopping and cooking. I'm not greatly troubled by the current situation in the supermarkets - I've avoided them in principal for several years and have always tried to shop from small local shops. I go to the butcher, greengrocer and fishmonger for fresh produce. I bake our bread with flour and yeast from the local health food shop and my wife makes our own soap.
I'm badly missing my rugby fix - I always used to dislike the off season. Now it's just got a lot longer. With our much improved form, I thought we could have had a shot at the playoffs and I was so looking forward to seeing how that was going to pan out.
Stay safe all.
Ross.

[Rifleman Harris]

A couple of days late. 

I work from home for a large pharmaceutical company in Safety engineering and so my daily routine is largely unchanged at the moment, and I am in the fortunate position of not losing any income at the moment.  I consider myself very lucky.

We have had my eldest daughter's Italian friend living with us for the past 12 days since she was kicked out of her house to make room for incoming Covid-19 cases (the landlady's son had it). Then with school being cancelled she was waiting for a repatriation flight which she finally got yesterday.  I took her to Heathrow (from Margate) and possibly saw a couple of hundred vehicles the whole day.  Heathrow was surreal - there were about another 14 / 15 cars there that we saw at Terminal 2 and 4 and in between. Now we are fully hunkered down.

Other than that Netflix has been a Godsend, and my youngest has been getting on with her school work surprisingly diligently.  I have been trying to improve my photography skills and our garden is beginning to look a lot better than it did.

VV I hope you are managing and you are all safe.  We are thinking of you over here.

Take care and stay safe everyone.   

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Thank you all for the kind thoughts. We're all doing ok here currently, fingers crossed it stays that way!

I'm about to brave the roads to go pick up Mrs VV's prescription... Wish me luck!

[Rifleman Harris]

Stay safe.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Well that was interesting.  I drove to the local pharmacy (some 4 miles away in a small village). People were queuing 2 metres apart for about 200m down the road.  So I came home and will try again tomorrow morning when they are first open.

[Rossm]

Well that was interesting.  I drove to the local pharmacy (some 4 miles away in a small village). People were queuing 2 metres apart for about 200m down the road.  So I came home and will try again tomorrow morning when they are first open.

VV: Some of our small pharmacies here are closing between 1200 - 1400 because of pressure of work. Maybe that is the case with yours?

[Rifleman Harris]

Well that was interesting.  I drove to the local pharmacy (some 4 miles away in a small village). People were queuing 2 metres apart for about 200m down the road.  So I came home and will try again tomorrow morning when they are first open.

That is what is happening here.  There seems to be panic prescription requesting gong on.

[Wiltshire Wasp]

Similar in Devizes where we have three pharmacies.  Although Boots here have had a staff shortage problem for a few months now.  Interesting to see the ones collecting their Scripts waiting near most of us coffin dodgers.

[Heathen]

And a shortage of meds. Went to collect a prescription for Pamela on Saturday. The most important one - an immunosuppressant - was not available and the wholesalers had not got any either. Having to chase it via her consultant now.

[MarleyWasp]

On the subject of prescriptions, I've been using www.echo.co.uk for a while now for repeat prescriptions. You set up an account, request via their app when you're running low (usually 2 weeks before you run out) and they contact your surgery to request your prescription and once it's ready they send the medications via Royal Mail tracked 48 hour post. Being a major hub they are less likely to run out and I usually get my prescription within 4 days of requesting it.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

My wife and I have used pharmacy2U, but the lead time is now close to 3 weeks. So, having just received our April prescriptions, I will have to order the May ones by the end of the week. For privacy reasons, they have to send our prescriptions separately. Mine is signed for (due to value and parcel size), my wife's is not (small enough to squeeze though the letterbox).

[Vespula Vulgaris]

We used an online ordering and delivery service previously, but they wouldn't let us change address when we moved house and so we moved to just picking them up.

The worry is that my wife takes Hydroxycloroquine which Trump has announced is a wonder drug that cures CV. Obviously he's talking rubbish, but that doesnt mean he won't be buying up all the stock he can.

[Heathen]

And a shortage of meds. Went to collect a prescription for Pamela on Saturday. The most important one - an immunosuppressant - was not available and the wholesalers had not got any either. Having to chase it via her consultant now.

Managed to get two months supply on a private prescription - £ouch!

[Vespula Vulgaris]

And a shortage of meds. Went to collect a prescription for Pamela on Saturday. The most important one - an immunosuppressant - was not available and the wholesalers had not got any either. Having to chase it via her consultant now.

Managed to get two months supply on a private prescription - £ouch!

I'm glad you got it sorted.

[westwaleswasp]

I was going to suggest private prescription. Glad it worked out. I ordered my meds recently and the pharmacist kindly bumped me up the waiting list. Worst week in 32 years, or so he said. I can believe him.

I re read my comments in the thread and noticed that had  originally written 'there'  when I meant 'their' . When a teacher mixes them up there is no hope for society. Given the number of perspicacious contributors  I can only assume people were being polite in not spotting such an egregious error. It is corrected now. I am blaming it on predictive text, of course....

Our worry is what happens if this goes into next academic year. We rely on school fees, and whilst we might get them next term, especially from year 11 and 13 who need us to predict grades, into next might really hit us.
Stay safe all.