Serendipidy

Hi Y'all ...citizens of the world and fellow brothers and sisters of this human race

How are you doing has never been such an important question and the answer really matter. So how are you doing? How are you coping? What is keeping you focused and forward thinking?

Dips xx

Pistolpete2

Well I have to say that the 4 day a week 24 hour curfew and 3 shopping days has me focused on keeping sufficient food and supplies in house but the local supermarkets and merchants are doing a good job with keeping shelves stacked. Also focused on being up-to-speed on new developments locally. Never thought that I would become an avid Facebook user.

I used to be a forward-looking guy, with plans for travel and for other options while in retirement but I've found that I'm now totally in the day and one-day-at-a-time. Don't even long for the end of this curfew period.

Can't really plan for anything. BA cancelled our flights back to the UK for a short stay and other trips planned within the Islands in May. Wouldn't expect there to be much change before say October at the earliest and then long haul air travel is likely to look and feel very different.

Lived in Bermuda for many years and they used to have an expression of being "Rock Happy" if one had been on-Island too long. Can't say that being confined in-house is making us stir-crazy yet but being allowed out to exercise while maintaining social distancing doesn't seem like a big ask, but it clearly is.

(only) Looking forward to ONE big trip into town next week to sort out things that have been sitting waiting for weeks now, like going to an ATM machine, for instance. Local supermarkets do not always have card machines.

The toughest thing to cope with is living in a neighbourhood where everybody has at least one dog and being chained up for the entire day, they bark at all and nothing during waking hours and sleeping hours. Under curfew, one has no respite.

uk_grenada

One thing, I’ve seen nobody here complain on local media channels like FB and ask for the ability to walk or swim at all. I do think that the authorities are very knee jerk in their reactions and only aligned with previous experiences.

Locals don’t exercise much, though many walk quite a lot to work, adverts saying covid 19, stock a months food are simply rewrites of hurricane preparations, which I suspect is also why access to shopping was ridiculously limited early on (supply issues post hurricanes)

More worrying is that the current stance has no locally applicable exit strategy so far as I can see, the loss of the next years SGU students which would be decided in a few months will cripple the economy, plus of course tourism.

Serendipidy

Interesting reflection on learning to live in the present Pete. How long has the curfew been in place now?

Here in the UK we are in our 5th weekend but as our numbers are not dropping significantly I suspect we will be doing the same in weekend 8. I don't have a garden here and should be moving right now to a house that does. So I am eagerly looking forward to the restrictions on moving house being lifted as I think the housing market will be one of the first stimulations as part of exiting full lock down.

Apart from that I am actually doing more exercise than I did before and am very calm and relaxed ans addicted to watching Rue Pauls Drag Race (guilty pleasure) lol

Serendipidy

Hey Grenada how are you coping though was my question? Just wanted to personalise our conversation and get to connect a little rather than our normal external reflections

uk_grenada

I/we personally are coping very well. The lack of exercise is an issue but we lack for nothing physical. The troubling things here now [after the initial hiatus of government not knowing what to do] arent really about us personally, sure it will be nice when we can travel again, but the recent info from the uk on vaccine pricing [if/when] from bill gates and glaxo makes it clear it wont be coming here for the general population [350 pounds a shot], and there is no herd immunity forthcoming, so how does a nation recover ?

Pistolpete2

We've been on 24 hour curfew but with designated shopping days since 6th April. Curfew is due to end tomorrow morning at 7 - not sure what the new guidelines are yet.

We have a six-month State Of Emergency now in place from last week - to avoid Parliament having to go back to update as needed.

Initially, the shopping day routine was a bit chaotic if only because shops didn't have enough time to restock, so shelves got empty really fast. There were also long queues such that it could take a couple of hours to get into the store. As a senior, I was able to get priority sometimes but not always - two hours in the sun and I would be done-for. This last week or so has been easier in my out-of-town area as most shoppers have been able to get into town to shop at the market and fisheries, while also getting hair done etc. and getting cash from the bank counters.

There was a shortage of cooking gas but that seems to have corrected itself. No other shortages (loo paper??) apart from Dutch onions and hand sanitizer for a while. Local rum distillers got into the alternative alcohol market, as UK Grenada had mentioned elsewhere. 99% alcohol Jack Iron rum from Carriacou should 'do' it.

There was some confusion as to whether one was permitted to BUY alcohol for takeaway during the first week or so and this was clarified as a restriction only on buying and then consuming on the premises, so we were then allowed to buy and take away a couple of weeks ago. Coped with limited alcohol for a couple of weeks. Was in Morocco for five+ weeks in January/February so I knew I could do it (wink).

Some bus drivers were arrested for not initially following social distancing rules (one pax per row) in the overall confusion but that seems to have been sorted out now - personally haven't used a bus (minibus) in six weeks. Coped without transport.

Indeed, I'm very happy with my well-used VPN connection to keep up with the multitude of programming that now seems to be on offer. They have got to compete with Netflix! Recaps on Trump Covid-19 White House briefings had been kind of entertaining, if tragic for the Nation and the World Leadership stakes.

uk_grenada

Next week is this week again i suspect in terms of days but they have announced opening up pf ports/couriers/postoffice, a few other types of store too. I do wish they would allow physical distancing walking. The buying alcohol from stores thing was overly zealous policing i suspect, they had no mandate to do that.

while i have an excellent vpn, never had an issue with iplayer. i rarely use it these days, netflix doesnt need it, and anything decent on the bbc or other uk channels is widelŷ streamed/made available via bittorrent. Of course some of the best is actually joint productions with netflix anyway.

Pistolpete2

It's kind of weird that the herd immunity thing has come and gone and come and gone in various fashions. As I now understand it, the UK Government for example, found itself so ill-prepared for the onset of the virus, due in part to other perceived priorities and lack of execution expertise, that Herd Immunity was simply a sort of silver lining cum-fallback perk from the population at large being largely inundated with the virus - hardly a sound policy action. In any event, though nations had used the concept of herd immunity for future (flu-like) pandemic planning post-SARS and MERS, there was obviously no evidence that it was applicable here. However, BTAIM, there is now simply no evidence anywhere that we are close to the infected percentages that bring herd immunity into play.

SO, it would seem that pretty-much everybody (at least in the West) is in the same boat and the starting gates are being opened for a second go at it. Some have enough intensive care beds to cope now (or always had them) and enough PPE and fit and healthy healthcare staff ready and waiting in facilities now primed. They also have strong leadership and a generally compliant and sensible population (a la Germany and Sweden for example).

For others, like little Grenada, the football has in all honesty simply been kicked down the road for a month of so and the virus is still waiting out there and there is no vaccine, and as you say, no likely available vaccine any where soon. Not even a start to herd immunity and the virus will likely be in full tilt again in the 'tourism markets' this fall.

Hopefully, something has been learned in the first blush as to how to do more prompt contact tracing, safe operating practices for healthcare workers, and to keep the population at large in some form of disciplined lock-down (I hear stories of carefree partying in some quarters here, no masks, no care).

I do worry about how far the current very cautious approach is going to take us, but as I have said, it is best to keep in the present and not let myself get frustrated that with all of this we might be actually achieving very little.

Pistolpete2

Yep I had thought that was the case - sometimes it is hard to keep up with information feeds and going back to read the actual legislation. Will check bittorrent.

I had to cope with execution of various cancellations of flights, hotels, trains for the aborted trip to the UK from earlier this month.

For flights, BA is still 'processing' rebooking to late August and have issued vouchers for the flight back to Grenada which was a return trip to the UK (for that late August). I am likely to now have to ask for my money back which it seems that the airlines ARE NOT OFFERING in spite of the CAA rules. BA are not accepting phone calls at this point - they want us to be patient.

The hotels (Premier Inn) were giving refunds in full even though the bookings were non-refundable - it was easy . Travelodge have given vouchers good for this year - that took time and follow-ups.

The trains (thetrainline.com) (advance tickets) wanted me to MAIL the tickets back which was a challenge what with no mails on offer here. They then accepted photos of cut-in-two tickets and I have my refund. Service was good!

I spoke to a RGPF officer outside the supermarket earlier this week regarding going to Immigration for an extension because of our non-clocking-up-another-ninety-day-allowance when we planned to leave and return to Grenada earlier this month and he said it wouldn't be a problem here this coming week. Fingers-crossed!

Very much looking forward to actually SEEing Grenada and more Grenadians. Oh! and the take-out roti at Nutmeg??

uk_grenada

The post offices will be open next week, but I would stay away for possibly all week as the backlogs will be huge. British Airways, I really would never ask for a refund now, as I understand you will only get about half of the money back as the government has already taken its taxes when you pay for the ticket. I have flights booked, from here to the UK, and these are just rebooked into the future and probably the dates will be changed again but they do at least guarantee to carry me for no extra money.

uk_grenada

I didn’t have to interact with BA at all. A few weeks prior to flying they cancel the flight and email a link to cancel or rebook, rebooking is into any flight same route for no charge, so I just move it up a month and have done it twice so far. Pain free....

I do suspect community spread is here, and won’t be going away but who knows. Immunity is the only endgame, a vaccine is not a forgone conclusion, and if you don’t have herd immunity yet, lots of testing and tracing is the only palliative till then hence tracing apps etc. This is the uk exit plan and is happening now in Korea.

Pistolpete2

Yep - did the easy rebooking routine where we haven't started our journey yet but we came out from LGW via UVF successfully but BA cancelled the return and specifically rejected a refund and the booking reference is now gone when looking online. They (BA) can only re-book to another date themselves and that is via calling them, as asked to do, and they say the new booking date is available and then they 'send' it to an office for a check as what the new pricing is. They never emailed back as promised and the phone-calls from me dis-connect. I've emailed them and await a response. It will likely take time as I'm sure that BA are not certain to operate, even in August, which is hardly peak for them on this run.

A pain in the which-what really as we have onwards flights booked to France from Stansted on that 27th August day we arrive and then a one-way BA back to Grenada mid-September. Hence need to have the comfort of the firm booking to connect and all.

Or they can cancel the lot and we will have to stay put, again.

uk_grenada

? Never cancel if you can... My flights are all returns in theory, but booked direct with BA and seemingly not a problem to move to any available flight on the correct route? Mine are from Trinidad, i asked online if i couldnt get GND-POS what then?

They assured me that force majeur meant they would either move me to a GND direct flight - just pay the difference if any - or allow me to hold the POS-LGW booking for 12 months.

Pistolpete2

Indeed, but we are running out of ideas as we were due to only return to Europe from this region (after this August) on a cruise (OK - don't start!) from FLL in April next year which is when the voucher runs out. We didn't plan to cope (staying on topic here) with Covid-19 hangover or whatever by being anywhere other than Grenada and maybe St Lucia only briefly to see family and friends.

So by cancel I only mean BA canceling.

Will have to see what we can do with the ticket vouchers that we have 'in hand' from BA. Don't believe in flying for flying's sake, particularly now.

If in due course we cancel the cruise then voila. We can rejig flights.