Last night I moseyed on down to the local pub - expecting to spend a safe ninety minutes supping ale and chewing the cud with my old mates Steve and Bert - keeping six feet away from each other. To my dismay I noticed that they were sitting with two other regulars - a middle aged married couple who had been in the establishment for hours and were filled to the brim with bonhomie.
Anyway, one thing leads to another, The couple call a black dog over from the front lobby. He's a happy Staffordshire crossbreed with a calm temperament and a tail that wags like a crazed pendulum. Then the dog's owner comes into the tap room. He had been on the doorstep smoking a cigarette.
He's a big, red-haired guy with a belly like a pillow. He's standing too close to me talking to the married couple about his dog. All very friendly. But he's too close to me. He is in my space. I move my chair away from him - a foot or so. The friendly banter continues. My radar continues to bleep - "Get out of my space!"
Then damn me, though I have not engaged with the dog owner, he bends down, puts his arm on my shoulder and shares a light-hearted confidence right in my face. I want to scream, "Keep your distance!" but it's too late, the deed is done - albeit it unconsciously, innocently with no ill intent.
But it could have been in that moment that the virus was passed to me. It could have been the initial signal of my eventual demise. I didn't even know the guy's name. To me he was a complete stranger.
What is it with other people? There are so many out there who still don't seem to grasp the importance of social distancing. Many times during this pandemic my invisible bubble has been invaded - in supermarkets etcetera - but never as blatantly as last night. All I can do is hope that that fellow is "clean".
Dr Anthony Fauci has gone now but his messages remain clear and consistent - including, keep your distance and wear masks. This health crisis isn't over by a long way. We need to remain on guard at all times and keep our fingers crossed that our fellow citizens have the same understanding.
And that's exactly how the virus spreads. It's so easy for people to forget about social distancing once they resume "normal" activities again. Maybe if you wore one of Shirley's colourful masks to the Pub you would act as a reminder to keep that distance.
ReplyDeleteWe are fortunate not to have to wear masks at present but the Government is stockpiling them just in case as the big risk here in NZ is from the people returning home who abscond from their isolation facilities before their 14 day period is up. Utterly selfish behaviour which results in prosecution, a fine and quarantine in a correction facility.
Hope you have isolated yourself from Shirley as a precaution!
It's hard to drink beer when you are wearing a mask Adele! Shirley has had coronavirus as a recent test proved - though she never experienced any symptoms. She is a nurse at a medical centre. New Zealand has handled the threat so well but as Victoria is proving - there is no room for complacency.
DeleteThe man's an idiot, doesn't care about anyone else so is either stupid or callous in his carelessness. This is why we don't go to the pubs. A few seconds in direct line of fire of the wrong person and bingo - we could be the next person in hospital fighting to breathe. Who knows - nobody knows how badly they will be affected until they get it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your wife has had it - could it be that you have too?
That is possible Jean. With regard to the big man, I would say that he was five sandwiches short of a picnic. Thick as a pine stump.
DeleteI have to go to Glasgow soon for my scans and drugs trial review. I have been perfectly happy in my combination of the real and virtual world. I cannot pretend that I shall be glad to be back in the maelstrom that is hospitals (three) and people in inevitably close proximity.
ReplyDeleteYour wariness is healthy.
DeleteWell, YP, the buck stops with you. At the moment, you'd not get me into any space like a pub, restaurant or public transport unless life were at risk.
ReplyDeleteI have said it on your pages before, and at risk of being shown the door, I'll repeat: The moment masks were made mandatory (in shops) was the moment social distancing flew out of the window. Big time.
You have to be proactive to keep that distance. So, for instance, if a flock of four people next to each other, taking the whole width of the pavement, come in my direction I will step out onto the road. Taking a wide berth. We have choices in life: What's a bit of roadkill compared to others staying out of your path?
The whole thing is shite, YP. What Johnson and Co. and their "rules" haven't factored in is how unthinking people are, how inconsiderate people are. Let's start with Cummings. If we are to lead by example then lead by example, don't flout the rules. Your own rules.
One last observation before I exhaust both you and myself: What's it with the English? Why couldn't you just have told him to keep his distance? Allow you your distance? Sometimes the English are too "polite" for their own good.
U
I'm not English, I'm Yorkshire. Although I have only been to the pub eight times since regulations were changed, that moment last night makes me think I should have continued to stay home. It all happened too rapidly for me to tell the stranger to back off.
DeleteI hope that your close encounter with the belly has no unpleasant repercussions! I was briefly at a cricket match last weekend ( P is the President and was scoring) ...a player nearby was offering his packet of crisps to all and sundry. I saw at least 4 different people putting their hands in!
ReplyDeleteThe crisps were death flavoured.
DeleteWell, it was nice knowing you YP.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will be able to attend my virtual funeral JayCee.
DeleteAnd that's why....after things were looking rosy, no new cases, and restrictions were eased a little bit here in Melbourne ....things turned nasty. Positive cases multiplied over and over and over with no idea of where the source was......after weeks of restrictions again.....nothing seemed to work so we are now in what is called stage 4. Legally it's been declared a State of Disaster! Night curfew included.
ReplyDelete'It's' out there - silently pursuing anyone who lets down their guard.
I think it's good that the authorities have responded so decisively in Melbourne. I have just seen a news item about it on the BBC. Happy curfew Cathy!
DeleteI'm surprised YP that you have been to the pub. In this time of such uncertainty, surely you have more sense than to do that? You are as guilty as all the others you have complained about. Their thinking is probably that as you're in the pub, you're a mate, and can be coughed, sneezed and embraced in a hug! As far as the virus is concerned, you're not wearing a mask so you're fair game!
ReplyDeleteYou have berated me like Miss Readhead and Miss Ford sometimes did. They were my teachers in primary school. I deserved it then too CG. The big fellow was not the sharpest pencil in the box but being in the pub probably means that I am not either.
DeleteThink back to when you were a teacher YP., and you had the responsibility of care for your pupils. If you were still teaching it's to be hoped that you would be setting a good example by sensible social distancing. The pub is definitely not a place to do it!
DeleteOh My Goodness.. I would be freaking out too. Perhaps wearing a mask and visor next time might send a message to these people?
ReplyDeleteAye. But such headgear would not aid the quaffing of beer Carol!
DeletePerhaps the pub should have employed somebody to enforce social distancing or even drink outside YP?
ReplyDeleteOn the other occasions I have been there I have felt perfectly safe. How tragic it would be if I was effectively killed by such a dumbass. It was as if he was living in the days before COVID.
DeleteWe've all been observing this to a certain degree, it seems; how people - deliberately or not - seem to have forgotten all about social distancing. When masks were made mandatory in Germany (on public transport, in shops and some other situations), concern was voiced as to what Ursula has said, too, that it would lead people to feel safe and not stick to the recommended distance any longer.
ReplyDeleteI have been to the pub a few times now, but only outdoors on the market square. Tables are spaced well apart, and the few people (a maximum of four at one table) I met were not hugging or shaking hands, no matter how close we are as friends.
Trains are getting more and more crowded every day, and although almost everybody wears a mask, I don't feel particularly safe when the seat next to me or opposite me is occupied; I rather stand near the door when it is like that.
Last week, I politely asked a customer at the supermarket in the queue behind me to please observe a bit more distance. He was loading the conveyor while I was not yet being served, and clearly not realising how close he was to me. He apologised and moved a bit further back. We were both wearing masks, but that did not make it "right".
Good on that man in the supermarket for accepting your request with good grace. One never knows how strangers will respond.
DeleteMeike, you (and YP) may be interested what, on reading an article yesterday, I was reminded of and had forgotten about. It's an old concept. RISK COMPENSATION.
DeleteRisk compensation essentially means (in the context of masks and social distancing) that as we feel more "protected" (wearing a mask) the social distancing rule is observed less. It's shocking in theory, never mind in practice. A sort of inverse reasoning: Give me a gun then I won't need my kitchen knife to fight you off even if the gun has no bullets. Or some such.
On a joyful note: There will be people who work in insurance ie risk assessors (underwriters) who may prefer to diffuse dormant landmines this minute.
U
Or even "defuse" dormant landmines? Risk compensation - fascinating psychology.
DeleteThank you, YP. You have confirmed a long held belief of mine that one can take a teacher out of teaching, you can't take out the urge to teach out of the retired. Alas, a gentleman hands one a tissue without mentioning the snot.
DeleteU
There is the "Maßnahmen-Paradox", as I have seen it named in the ZEIT: We had low infection rates in March, April, May BECAUSE we had all the measures in place - now the measures are questioned BECAUSE we've had such low infection rates.
DeleteUnfortunately, Ursula, a positive instance cannot confirm a hypothesis.
DeleteWent on the train recently (essential journey) and the number not wearing masks was astonishing. A group of 4 sat in the seats opposite talking to each other fairly loudly, none with masks. Others eating, drinking or just not bothering at all. I wonder if Shirley has had it whether you have too.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same, Tasker (as to your last sentence).
DeleteTrouble is I am not allowed a test unless I have symptoms. It is different for frontline health workers.
DeleteIf Shirley has had it, you've been well exposed. Go to the pub all you want cos you're almost certainly immune
ReplyDeleteI would want the proof Kylie. Many tests are faulty.
DeleteI think that bars and pubs are probably some of the worst places to go these days for the simple fact that people DO start to feel so much bonhomie after a few drinks and forget to be cautious. I am so sorry you found yourself in that position with such an uncaring jerk. Might be best for you and your mates to meet elsewhere for your social time. Like- outside.
ReplyDeleteIt was just unfortunate the way things worked out. Usually, I have felt very safe. How weird it would be to be effectively killed by a dumbass guy I had never seen before in my life.
DeleteSome people don't get it and some just can't help themselves to get on the right page and sing the same song. I made a big boo boo a few weeks ago when I ran into someone who I hadn't seen for a long time. We were both so excited to see each other that we shook hands like in the old days.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy for some people to forget that everything has changed.
DeleteAlcohol doesn't help either because it disinhibits people. Hopefully he doesn't have the virus.
ReplyDeleteThat's very much what I am hoping too Lily but it will take ten days to find out.
DeleteI have a few people, mostly my evangelical friends, who continue to act as if everything is normal. Ventura county has 850,000 people, 7,350 cases with 76 deaths so far. Our curve is moving up but the ostriches heads are in the sand, pretending as if nothing is wrong with the world. GRRRRRR!
ReplyDeleteSome seem to think that the virus only exists in news programmes, that it is not part of their reality..
DeleteYou said it! I've been in similar situations many times. I'm staying out of pubs because I have a feeling when people start drinking, all caution goes out the window.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think I should stay home but I don't suppose I will. I just hope that I have survived the biggingerguy virus.
DeleteNah then. Listen 'ere owd lad. Get thi sen a pack of beer from t' supermarket and stop at 'ome if tha wants to stay wick!
ReplyDeleteI had almost four months of that Christina.
DeleteYorkie.. I think we all are singing the Beatles song in our heads subconsciously through this pandemic.. we want things to go back to 'normal' and a lot of people just aren't accepting the 'new normal'
ReplyDelete[Verse 1]
When I was younger so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors
[Chorus]
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me?
A thought-provoking song link. Thank you Elle.
DeleteSo many people just dont get it. They are so blasé about distancing and masks, it makes me cross. A similar thing happened to me last week when I met two acquaintances I dont know very well for a picnic in the park. I had naively thought we would sit on the grass and distance but one of them said she had a bad back and couldnt possibly sit on the grass. She then promptly bagged an empty bench and sat on it leaving the other two of us to share it with her. Three of us on a park bench with less than a metre between each of us. It was a picnic and so no masks were possible either. To make a protest would have seemed rude so I went along with it but am now counting the days to make sure I dont erupt in boils or whatever Covid has in store for me. I guess you are doing the same.
ReplyDeleteWe see a lot of Dr. Fauci over here and yes, he is most certainly one of the good guys. I understand your concern at your experience in the pub and I think that situation is why many officials want the bars to stay closed for now. Of course in this country there are still people that think Covid, masks and all of it is "fake news". I have to just turn away because if you try to say anything you get blasted. I have even seen people that publically stated they used to think it was fake until they ended up in the hospital with it. Still many don't listen. Hopefully if Shirley has had it then maybe you have as well. Stay safe!
ReplyDeleteBars are expressly designed for NOT social distancing. That's why they remain closed for indoor service here. Sorry but the only way to keep yourself safe is to refrain from going to the pub.
ReplyDeleteIndoor restaurant dining, bars & pubs just opened here this past weekend but with strict rules. You must wear your mask until seated. You must remain seated - drinks are brought to your able. Your table is distanced from other tables. If you go to the toilet and when leaving the masks must be on! No loud music (so people don't have to shout) - no singing and no dancing. Police & By-law officers are on alert, especially on weekends and one venue has already been closed for not properly enforcing the rules. I won't be visiting anytime soon and our infection rate is well under 1%. The next big step is to get the schools reopened in about a month.
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