Getting used to new habits for Coronavirus....

[Hornet3d]

Good luck with the vaccines, eye test and scan.

Thank you, the scan is always the bother for me as they have already detected some signs of damage to the back of my eyes as a result of diabetes. So far it has been low level but the retinopathy has been delayed some eight months due to Covid, on the plus side my sugar control has been better of late, at least until my illness ten days ago. My diabetic review is also on hold as an indirect impact of Covid as there is a shortage of Blood Test tube so the NHS is, quite rightly, prioritising some blood tests and thus delaying others.

Eye test is less of a concern other than it will hit me in the pocket as I know I will need new glasses. That would not normally be an issue but with forecasts of our domestic gas and electricity bills going up by around £1500 ($2020 approx) money is going to get tight.

 

[Hornet3d]

It is very rare for me to get depressed but I have to admit that staying positive is proving very difficult at the moment. A mixture of Covid, Brexit and a change in the tax rules have created a shortage of Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers which had resulted in some empty shelves in the supermarkets. This has been happening for weeks but now the sudden hike in gas prices has resulted in a couple of CO2 suppliers shutting their businesses down as they can now longer make a profit. That has a number of knock on effects, one being the freezing of food products which could mean even more empty shelves. Meat looks as though it is going to be the first hit and, as I eat little meat you would think I would not be concerned but I am of course aware this will put the price of all food up.

The hike in gas prices is also predicted to cost the average consumer in the UK will pay around £1300 more on energy in the new year. This assumes that will will able to use that energy as in the last few weeks the UK has had to restart some mothed balled coal fired power stations as the mild weather has meant a drop in production by wind farms. In to this mix you have to add a major fire that has shut down one of the power cables supplying the UK with power from France. Papers full of headlines shouting don't panic the lights will stay on only has one effect, everyone is panicking.

All this would seem bad enough but it has now been admitted that the UK has something like £8.2billion worth of PPE equipment which is not fit for purpose leaving most of us tax payers wondering just where better we could have spent £8.2billion.

They say every cloud has a silver lining but all I can see is some very dark storm clouds in every direction I look.

 

[eclark1894]

Just out of curiousity, what are "Heavy Goods"? To my knowledge we don't use the term in the States, and if we do, it's probably called something else.

 

[Hornet3d]

In the UK you have to hold a Heavy Goods Vehicle License to legally be able to drive a lorry or a truck of of more than 3.5 tonnes, confusingly it is sometimes also referred to as LGV for large Goods Vehicle. As most of the trucks supplying industry and the supermarkets would be above this weight all such deliveries would require a driver to hold and HGV license. Brexit means many of the drivers from over seas who used to drive in the UK have left the UK and drivers are also not immune to Covid which has also limited the numbers. What has not been publicised so much is the fact the many such drivers used to be self employed and changes in the tax rules have made it less profitable for some drivers. The only reason I am aware of this is that my niece is transport manager for a National DIY chain and the change in the tax rules has impacted the fleet she manages also.

 

[eclark1894]

Okay, gotcha. In the US, they're called commercial vehicles. I tried to get my commercial vehicle license a few years ago. I was out of work and tried to get a job driving a bus. Didn't make it. Wasn't the driving part that tripped me up, it was my health.

 

[Hornet3d]

Okay, gotcha. In the US, they're called commercial vehicles. I tried to get my commercial vehicle license a few years ago. I was out of work and tried to get a job driving a bus. Didn't make it. Wasn't the driving part that tripped me up, it was my health.

I have never tried but the HGV test has a reputation for being quite gruelling.

 

[Terre]

There is a shortage of commercial drivers in the US as well.

 

[Hornet3d]

It has become more difficult in the UK in the last few days as some petrol stations are having to close as they cannot get enough deliveries of fuel, again due the the shortage of drivers. Media are now pushing the line that the more supermarket shelves will become empty in the coming weeks and that petrol may have to be rationed. There are reports of some farmers having to pay £30 an hour to get enough people to pick lettuces and the like, same reason shortage of people due to Covid and Brexit but some have little sympathy on the Brexit excuse as they say they have had many years paying low wages to people from abroad to do the picking. Not sure how many will feel the same way when the price of lettuces double in the shops.

 

[Hornet3d]

So the situation in the UK is now quite dire as petrol stations run out of fuel, there is no shortage of fuel just drivers to deliver it but there is also a major shortage of people who care about the wider community. If drivers were to buy as the would have done the worst that would have happened is that they may not have been able to get fuel at their normal garage and would have to move to another garage a couple of miles on. Now thanks mainly to a bunch of morons around two thirds of the petrol stations have now run dry. Some drivers have been filling up jerry can after jerry can in the ultimate of show of how little they care about anyone but themselves. There have been punch ups on the forecourts and crashes after some drivers feel the guy in front is not moving fast enough.

Happily for me the only trip I needed to do was a round trip of around 150miles for my Mother in Law to get to a hospital appointment to have cancerous growth removed. With that done and my mother in law back home I can park the car on the driveway and wait for the madness to die down, after all once your petrol tank is full it is on to jerry cans and there has to be a limit to those. One point I did note on my travels is you can still get petrol at the motorway services as long as you are prepared to pay £1.55 per litre, average now is around £1.44 and a week ago it was £1.39.

It is a crying shame when you have to turn to the Poser world to find any sort of sanity because there seems precious little in the real world.

 

[eclark1894]

So the situation in the UK is now quite dire as petrol stations run out of fuel, there is no shortage of fuel just drivers to deliver it but there is also a major shortage of people who care about the wider community. If drivers were to buy as the would have done the worst that would have happened is that they may not have been able to get fuel at their normal garage and would have to move to another garage a couple of miles on. Now thanks mainly to a bunch of morons around two thirds of the petrol stations have now run dry. Some drivers have been filling up jerry can after jerry can in the ultimate of show of how little they care about anyone but themselves. There have been punch ups on the forecourts and crashes after some drivers feel the guy in front is not moving fast enough.

I'm not hoarding, but I am stocking up on toilet tissue in case there are any more "shortages" in the near future.

 

[Stezza]

Crazy stuff in UK

 

[eclark1894]

What am I looking at? Two cars getting gas? Why is that crazy?

 

[Hornet3d]

What am I looking at? Two cars getting gas? Why is that crazy?

I think the clue might be in the name of the reporter.

 

[eclark1894]

I think the clue might be in the name of the reporter.

Ahh! That subtle Benny Hill type British humor.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

groan.

It wasn't until I did a search on Phil McCann, that I finally got it.

 

[Janet]

Nothing like a good pun.

 

[Hornet3d]

I'm not hoarding, but I am stocking up on toilet tissue in case there are any more "shortages" in the near future.

Plenty of scope to panic buy in the UK. We do not get a newspaper everyday, we just don't have the time to read one, so my information may be a little short on items but so far the media has reported actual or proposed shortages on/in Home electric and gas, petrol, meat, poultry, CO2 and therefore frozen foods, crisps and related products, and toys for Christmas. Soon the UK will be populated by nothing by hoarders.

 

[eclark1894]

Plenty of scope to panic buy in the UK. We do not get a newspaper everyday, we just don't have the time to read one, so my information may be a little short on items but so far the media has reported actual or proposed shortages on/in Home electric and gas, petrol, meat, poultry, CO2 and therefore frozen foods, crisps and related products, and toys for Christmas. Soon the UK will be populated by nothing by hoarders.

As I said, "stock up" , not hoard. I used to watch a lot of tv westerns when I was a kid. One of the things I remember and even my great aunt and mother doing, was that they would freeze and can foods and store them away, especially in preparation for winter or lean times. That's a mentality I think people in general should re-learn.

 

[Hornet3d]

As I said, "stock up" , not hoard. I used to watch a lot of tv westerns when I was a kid. One of the things I remember and even my great aunt and mother doing, was that they would freeze and can foods and store them away, especially in preparation for winter or lean times. That's a mentality I think people in general should re-learn.

I understood that so my comments were not aimed at you and I agree that planned stocking up is a good thing. Many of the problems we have in the UK is down to the modern preference for 'Just In Time' so that, as soon as there is a slight upturn in sales, stock run out. It is about this time of year the people do tend to shop a bit more as they stock up for Christmas, not panic buying but buying a few extra items each week that they put by to spread the effort and the cost rather than a a great panic days before.

 

[parkdalegardener]

It's the same everywhere Hornet. Costs going up, supplies drying up, fuel drying up, transportion drying up and slowly patience with the situation is drying up as well. JIT is a world wide supply chain issue for everyone.

As for putting up my own produce; been doing that for years until the pandemic hit. Lockdown through most of the spring and summer made it difficult to get a garden in. No transplants and too late for seed by the time one could purchase any. My miserly seed saving hippy ways allowed me to have some veggies on my balcony this year, but last year I barely got a garden happening in my community plot. This year; after 14 years, the garden was closed completely in order to comply with lockdown restrictions.