scrubbedexpat096

Given the rule of six in place here in the UK not even really much point in coming this far to spend Xmas apart in most cases....

retzie

No, and people seem to talk about it quite freely. Which is odd, because it means exclusively putting your own family members at risk, which for some reason I don't consider to be a workable option...

A legitimate quarantine at a location where you don't have any contact outside your travelling party would be needed to actually have the intended effect.

Pulaski

As US financial support of airlines has recently ended, you might see flights slashed even further by Christmas as airlines struggle to survive. Flying routes with 10% of seats occupied is clearly not financially viable, and without the massive subsidies many routes are not going to survive. Under that scenario I could see many routes being suspended, with only transatlantic flights from the largest US hubs in an attempt to create flights with 75%+ occupancy.

Lion in Winter

It's all a bit shit really. On Monday, I will be missing my son's 21st birthday.

Good thing we're all trained in the stiff upper lip.

retzie

Oh, I'm sorry. A bit shit indeed

But I'm a big whining Australian 😭

spouse of scouse

That's a tough one Lion. Really sorry you and LL can't be together for this
Oi you!

Although in fairness, we can whine with the best of them

Lion in Winter

Thanks. Nothing to be done about it though and at least none of us are ill or anything. I'm having him a cake delivered, we'll get the girlfriend and us into a "room" on FB, and have a chat at least while he eats cake.

But wait, whining Australians? I didn't think there was such a thing.

spouse of scouse

Oh hang on, I meant wine. We can wine with the best of them.

Jerseygirl

sorry that you will not be together for LL 21st. I realise it is not much consolation, but at least you can have a virtual party....cooking sherry and one of hubby’s cakes at the ready.

Lion in Winter

That's more like it.

Lion in Winter

Yeah, we will. Thank goodness for the internet. Other people are in a much worse situation than us.

Jerseygirl

that’s a great way of looking at things. I keep telling myself how lucky we are being retired. We don’t have to worry about losing our jobs, or where the next meal is coming from. I do worry about my daughter. My old mum used to say ‘You never stop worrying about your children, no matter how old they are.’

Lion in Winter

Very true. My son is a student, and although sensible and not a social butterfly, will have to do a certain amount of mixing due to the practical and lab elements of his course. I can't stop worrying about him, either, although he's not in any way in a high risk group.

retzie

Hahahaha, oh yes. When I first arrived in Oklahoma, a Brit friend was already there in the same department. He had been stiff-upper-lipping it for two years at that point. He later admitted that he was utterly mortified upon waking every single day, but had somehow maintained the image that he was "doing fine". Then I showed up and commenced complaining about just about everything ("They smoke in bars here? What is it, the 90s?", "What do you mean we can't drink on Sunday", etc.).

Mercifully, the poor man got a job in a non-backwater the next year and the facade dropped as he almost literally ran away. My whining tapered off a little bit during my remaining two years there, but that was mostly through lack of new material. As it happens, there was quite a lot of wining as well, since the wine bar was the only bar in town where you couldn't smoke inside. Rather put an end to my interest in wine, tbh.

Lion in Winter

My image of Australians is them all being terribly tough all the time, partly because of all the dangerous wildlife and stuff. Things like punching sharks when you go for a quick swim seem to be the norm, that sort of thing.