You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Shirley wrote: "Well done Janice. Now you've passed it on to me.Stop it with the Norway. Covid stopped my trip there in 2021."
Your trip was scheduled about a month before mine. Fortunately, I got most of my money back (all but $165.00). I've decided that I will use it to go to Hawaii to visit my sister and see her new home... maybe this year.
Oh that’s right Janice I remember now. Hawaii sounds nice - and better weather. Pack you swimmers instead of your thermals🙂
Rusalka wrote: "I'm going to have words with our Kookas then. If yours can visit from the reserve, then mine can too (it's literally two streets away). Humph.A friend linked this the other day which made me laug..."
And I had no idea they could be so bold with people. I thought at first the kooka had that guy’s tongue😂
Most of our restrictions were lifted yesterday. No of cases has fallen and so have hospital numbers. I was able to swimming without using my covid passport for the first time today YAYHow are all you guys doing?
I am so surprised that I have avoided covid lately! I have had 5 kids in my class in the last week and a half have it and so many of our staff!
Thank goodness for some good news about COVID. We are pretty much at the peak of Omicron at the moment. Queensland students are not back at school for the next two weeks. They should have started today after 6 weeks’ summer holiday, but the government decided to extend the holidays due to Covid. Let’s hope Omicron peaks then goes away quickly. Dare I hope?
Who has two thumbs and is boosted (with a sore arm)?This gal!!
Which was very very very welcome after an email from our Vice Chancellor today telling us although we are at the peak of the Omicron ... blurt?... at the moment, we are all expected to be working on campus from next week when schools go back.
Let's see how long that lasts...
Brother is recovered and heading back to work tomorrow if his test is okay. I think his wife is okay from what he said besides the infection in her removed wisdom teeth (happened 5 days before his infection) as well as covid. YAY!
Mum, stepfather, brother, sister in law, and 2 nephews are all okay after a week in iso due to nephew's speech pathologist being positive and her having two 40 min sessions last week unmasked with the 7 year old (I don't know how you do speech pathology otherwise, not her fault at all) with my stepfather in the room. We were the only house out of 10 of us on the weekend not in lockdown.
How do you feel about going back to working on campus?
Shirley wrote: "How do you feel about going back to working on campus?"Oh I am in two minds. I don't really want to go back, but I understand that most of us have been off campus since August. And they are really trying to get the on campus vibe/feeling back for semester 1. I mean, they are having graduations from 2020 and 2021 in person in two weeks time, and then O Week. I understand we have to get back to normal, but I liked normal this time last year when the ACT hadn't had a case for 200 days, and had another 200 days until the lockdown started. That was a nice normal. Not Covid everywhere normal.
The uni will give us all, staff and students, packs in mid Feb, which will have a couple of masks, and a couple of RATs.
But that said, I still have an at risk person at home. Kids are just starting to be vaccinated and won't be before school starts. Most of my team have kids under 5 who can't get vaccinated and will be going to daycare. I have an office area that is sealed, which will house 5 of us - some sharing offices. We can open the door to in the foyer to get some air flow in from the corridor, but then we can't use the air conditioner. Which will be fine if it stays 20 degrees for the rest of summer, but we all know that is uncommon here. So the choice will be share recycled air or be uncomfortable.
I am in reality going to be sitting in my office for 7-9 hours a day wearing a N95 mask. And I am not looking forward to that. I think I will just be organising a lot of meetings where I have to walk across campus (benefit to being at ANU where the campus is the size of a city suburb, instead of a block like most city campuses) so I can take my mask off in between.
Being outdoors will definitely be better than sitting in the office if you can manage it.I still can’t understand how some states seem to have plenty of RATS. I would have liked to have a few on hand just in case I needed them, but haven’t been able to get them, and they’re saying that perhaps when students go back, they’ll have tests twice a week. That’s a lot of RATS!
Good news - my other grandson Jackson (my son’s son) just finished High School and got the score he needed to go to Uni for Secondary Teaching/ Business. Very proud he’s following my footsteps, though I was a Primary teacher.
Good to hear your family are recovering Rus. Not so good to hear you having to return to the workplace though.Here the monitory work from home has been lifted but lots of people prefer work from home. Petes firm agreed locally to blended working. Their work is project based and a lot of stuff doesn't need to be done on site. At the moment he's going in to manage staff 3 out of 5 days. Easier for him and better for the environment - he has a round trip of 60k to work. BUT they've been called into a telecon with their US overlords today and they might have a different POV!
Shirley wrote: "Being outdoors will definitely be better than sitting in the office if you can manage it.I still can’t understand how some states seem to have plenty of RATS. I would have liked to have a few on h..."
I believe we only have them as when the ANU epidemiologists were telling the gov to buy them for the country, the uni put an order in when the gov didn't.
That is so wonderful for Jackson! Congrats! I forgot offers were coming out today. I bet you are super super proud. Where is his offer? Still in QLD?
Margo wrote: "Good to hear your family are recovering Rus. Not so good to hear you having to return to the workplace though.Here the monitory work from home has been lifted but lots of people prefer work from ..."
Thanks Margo. That's great to hear about Pete. Here's hoping his powers that be in the US are like Lexx's and don't really care as long as the work gets done. I think Lexx's company likes the fact they have to pay less Aussie rent to be honest.
Shirley wrote: "Being outdoors will definitely be better than sitting in the office if you can manage it.I still can’t understand how some states seem to have plenty of RATS. I would have liked to have a few on h..."
Great news about your grandson Shirley. You must have inspired him ;-)
So Canada is about to have our own "Jan 6". There is a convoy of truckers in their big rig trucks headed to our capital (Ottawa) to initially protest the mandate that there be no exceptions for truckers crossing the border, and that they must be vaccinated. Even if we didn't have the mandate, the US isn't letting unvaxxed truckers into the States. There's a lot of rhetoric surrounding this event and it's really hard to get a grasp of exactly what these truckers hope to accomplish. You hear everything from having the mandate rescinded to the government overthrown.
The reality is that about 10% of the truckers in Canada are not vaccinated, and these truckers cannot cross the border anyway. So who are all these truckers headed to Ottawa? And what do you believe - the many pictures of convoys that show summer weather conditions? Or the videos of truckers in the black of night giving evidence of the convoy, but that only shows the trucker's face? Is this equivalent to Trump's caravans?
I read a news report that said the convoy was met in Manitoba with about a kilometer long greeting party, and the police estimate 12,000 rigs. That's a far cry from the organizers saying 500,000 rigs.
To top it all off, there was a GoFundMe account that has raised over 4 million dollars. It turns out the woman hosting the GFM is the secretary of the Maverick Party in Alberta which is a far right party that wants to see Alberta separated from Canada. There are now reports that the fund has been frozen and there are questions about the disbursement of the money. It's supposed to pay for fuel with any leftover to go to some seniors charity. They are saying they have frozen the fund until a plan is in place, and an official twitter account said there are no guarantees about the disbursement.
It sounds like an incredible grift to me. And again we have an extremely small part of the population driving the narrative for the majority. Do they just want the virus to run free and unchecked through the population, the consequences be damned?
And in the meantime, people cannot get life saving surgeries because the hospitals are full.
Janice wrote: "So Canada is about to have our own "Jan 6". There is a convoy of truckers in their big rig trucks headed to our capital (Ottawa) to initially protest the mandate that there be no exceptions for tru..."This is really ridiculous. I heard so many "but our shop shelves are going to be empty" (are we back to the toilet paper frenzy???)
my understanding is that, as you said, it touches about 10% of the truckers form Canada. I read that are way more on the US side that cannot cross, as the vaccination rate of the USA truckers isre lower. If I had a trucking company, I would have been on the phone trying to get new contracts from the Us companies as soon as this came out.
Another thing. While there are independent truckers, my understanding is that most are working for a company so it is not their truck. Would a company say, sure, take the time off WITH the truck to be part whatever this is? No so sure.
I agree, Esther. There are so many questions about this situation. I was just reading a news article saying that there are 12,000 to 15,000 truck drivers that would be affected by this mandate. That represents about 15% of all truckers.
That's a bad situation. It sounds like the organisers are just out to cause disruption and destabilisation. As you say, like trump supports. Even if they succeeded in getting the law changed on the Canadian side, these idiots aren't going anywhere without vaccine pasports. Like it or not, we have a new world order now.
Rusalka wrote: "Shirley wrote: "Being outdoors will definitely be better than sitting in the office if you can manage it.I still can’t understand how some states seem to have plenty of RATS. I would have liked to..." I am super proud of him. His offer is for QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in the city (Brisbane). It's the same uni that I went to but a different campus. It was called Kelvin Grove Teachers College then. I started there in 1969 - a momentous year for the moon landing! A small TV was set up in the quadrangle so we could watch it.
Jackson is very pleased - a big part of it is that his girlfriend is going to the same uni. :)
Margo wrote: "Shirley wrote: "Being outdoors will definitely be better than sitting in the office if you can manage it.I still can’t understand how some states seem to have plenty of RATS. I would have liked to..."
Yes very proud. Not sure about the inspiration. His father (my son) always said he wouldn't be a teacher because he saw how hard I worked.
Well, I’m one of the statistics...Sorry, I tend to be sarcastic when I’m sick. Bad habbit. I’ve got covid and usualy I don’t complain about being sick, but this is bad...2 weeks ago I got testes for the very first time. Not fun. My collegue tested positive with symptoms, but I was negative. Only an ear infection and viral infection. I stayed home a few days and went back to work, but not fully well. We’re a team of 6 and if I were out, 4 will be difficult. Last Monday, after work, I got a really bad cough and didn’t sleep all night: painful muscles and fever. I thought it was the flu and went to the doctor. She got me tested again, twice. I said I got a really bad throwing up reflex if she put the stick in my throught, but she laughed it away. Well, she didn’t got to far, because I wan’t able to. Then she put the stick in my nose, a further, because of the failed test and send me home. Yesterday I got the positive result. She laughed:’It would be very unbelivable if you testes negative with these symptoms.’ Like I won the lottery...
The worst are the pain and cramps in my muscles and joints from the back to my toes. I have fever and the nights are the worst. I can’t sleep at all and try to sleep a bit in the day. Then the headach and coughing. I’ve got Tietze’s Syndrom, which it makes it a bit worse. I’ve got no energy, I’m a coach potatoe. I can’t dat, but no problem, I need to loose weight. Walking is hard and I can’t concentrate or read. A bit of tv is okay...
If I could return it to get the flu or a cold, I would immediately.
Saar, I'm so sorry to hear you got it. It's a horrible bug and you need to stay in bed and rest. I remember the body pains so vividly! I hope it doesn't last too long.
Oh my.... Saar. So sorry. I hope you are back on your feet soon.
I’m so sorry Saar. Be good to yourself, and I hope that you recover quickly, and completely.
I'm sorry to hear it hit you so badly, Saar. I hope you feel good soon.
Awww Saar! I hope you start feeling better soon.
So sorry to hear you are so ill, Saar. Thinking of you and sending you healing thoughts. Hope you have some wonderful TV watches. I have been bingeing on The British Bake Off, Queer Eye, and the Christmas series of Blown Away as my mindless watches lately :D
Shirley wrote: "I am super proud of him. His offer is for QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in the city (Brisbane)."Oh fantastic!! QUT is a brilliant uni, I am sure he'll love it. I know a couple of academics who are brilliant who have left us to go to the city QUT campus. I do love these unis who have recognised awesome tech colleges, like your teacher's college, and turned them into fantastic more practical unis with amazing research faculties behind them. QUT and RMIT are the shinning examples.
He'll love it!!
Thanks everyone for the kind messages. I'm starting to feel better now. I was really sick for 4 days with fever, muscles aches, headache, my legs felt weird and walking was just painful...I pretty much couldn't do a thing. Even reading didn't work. Now, I feel better, still having an annoying cough and still very tired. Some food/coffee taste weird too.
I'm glad to know you are feeling better, Saar. Hopefully this will end soon.My husband and I also tested positive yesterday. My husband had a fever in Friday and that is why we got tested. He is fine now, and nobody else has symptoms. We are still keeping the kids home for 5 days, since the 4 younger ones are not vaccinated.
We hadn't got it yet (that we know) but it was about time...
Saar - Glad you are feeling better and hope you get to feeling 100 percent okay soon!Sandra - hope it’s a mild one for you and your husband and it bypasses the kids. Feel better soon!
I'm glad you are feeling better Saar. I've been thinking of you!Sorry to hear that you and your husband are sick, Sandra.
I'm sorry to hear about so many members and their families getting the virus. Hopefully, recovery will be speedy and symptoms will be mild. My 9 yr old grandson (fully vaccinated) tested positive last week and is much better now. Worst symptom for him? Boredom! Now my son and daughter-in-law are positive (mild symptoms at this point). I've made one chicken soup run so far and I'm doing another on Wednesday. Knock on the door and get back in the car. No contact. I know I moved closer to them for a reason.
My kids are also super bored! They are not sick so they are full of energy. They just have to be here because they are close contacts.I knew we were going to get it at some point. We avoided it for two years, so we are lucky to get it now, vaccinated and being omicron milder.
Glad you are feeling bete Saar. Sorry you got it Sandra and you are right. Later is better. not only vaccination helps but doctors now have experience dealing with it.
Poor you Sandra, hope the symptoms don't get too bad.Saar, I'm very happy to hear you're feeling better.
To everyone that is feeling sick, I hope you all feel better soon.I still got a snotty nose and feeling tired, but besides that I'm feeling okay now.
I'm glad you're feeling better, Saar. Hopefully the congestion and tiredness will clear quickly now.
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Catch-22 (other topics)The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories (other topics)
A friend linked this the other day which made me laugh (it's only half this length, the rest is ads). I had no idea they were so tenacious with food, but makes sense when they catch brown snakes to eat.
https://fb.watch/azT9nQ6tuG/