Would you move to the UK now?

[Paul1Perth]

21 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

Since I've been in Queensland - five months now  - it is almost as if Covid 19 never existed.  Bar signing in when you go to bars and cafes, seeing the odd person in a mask and the Covid-19 testing caravan on the promenade, life is normal. Every day I go to the cafe, every night to a bar/club/restaurant with few restrictions.

I'm not saying that it IS normal because at the back of my mind is the fear that  Armageddon  is just waiting to strike, the way it did in Melbourne, and to a lesser extent (hopefully) in Sydney.

But compared to what is happening in the UK, why would you want to "parachute" into that environment and in the middle of winter?! I'm not saying, "Don't go" but maybe wait a while to see if they get things sorted out. Moving to anywhere new is hard enough in normal times. I've done it a few times now, UK to OZ, OZ to UK, UK to OZ, and NSW to QLD. Well, the last one does not really count but the ones from country to country have all involved a period of adjustment.

 

Same here in WA. It's as if the virus was never here. We know we are incredibly lucky and the so called isolation has been a big factor in our favour.

[MARYROSE02]

2 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Same here in WA. It's as if the virus was never here. We know we are incredibly lucky and the so called isolation has been a big factor in our favour.

My brother say it is all BS but I keep asking him, "If some kind of higher force - he would become enraged if I suggest 'the Illuminati', - is controlling all of it, why have they not clamped down hard in places like WA and QLD?" I mean, WHY are THEY sparing US!? Seriously, I still feel as if there is a dark cloud hovering, just waiting its chance to block out the sun.

[scousers]

Sometimes i think its a blessing in disguise, my parents wanted to come since the 70’s but where refused on health grounds, now i think there was a reason for that and we should have just accepted that. 

[FatCat]

Well to be perfectly honest, Australia is doing pretty well compared to the rest of the world. Worse place to be about now is the USA or the UK. My family in the UK say Covid has been appallingly managed by the government and local councils, and they are beyond fatigued by it all. It has been pretty much life as normal with a few restrictions for me here in Sydney. Your choice of course, but I would stay firmly put until things settle down. Probably happen mid year when vaccinations start rolling out more. 

[Lavers]

On 24/12/2020 at 11:42, MARYROSE02 said:

My brother say it is all BS but I keep asking him, "If some kind of higher force - he would become enraged if I suggest 'the Illuminati', - is controlling all of it, why have they not clamped down hard in places like WA and QLD?" I mean, WHY are THEY sparing US!? Seriously, I still feel as if there is a dark cloud hovering, just waiting its chance to block out the sun.

Have they not got you isolated from the rest of the world though

[MARYROSE02]

2 hours ago, Lavers said:

Have they not got you isolated from the rest of the world though

It seems like it here in QLD, where in truth, life has been just about normal since I arrived at the end of July. Normal if you  don't look at the news and more importantly, don't have a tendency to worry.  Other than signing in each time you go to a bar, cafe. restaurant, etc. everything else is as it was pre-Covid 19. But is it just the calm before the storm, the "Sitzkrieg?" At the back of my mind is the fear that it will be our turn soon,

[Paul1Perth]

On 02/01/2021 at 04:50, Lavers said:

Have they not got you isolated from the rest of the world though

At this time of year there's no better place to be so we wouldn't have been planning anything.

WA is pretty big with some fine holiday destinations without leaving the state.

TBH I'm happiest when I'm at home with all my toys here and friends to train with.

[MARYROSE02]

On 02/01/2021 at 06:50, Lavers said:

Have they not got you isolated from the rest of the world though

It is isolated in the sense that we cannot travel to the rest of the world, and that is a trial for people like my brother who live to travel overseas. He would  probably be somewhere in China right now if not for the international lock down, but my international travelling is limited largely to cruising and although that is also "verboten" I can live without it.

Whether I'm in OZ or in England I live my life mostly within walking or cycling distance of my home. The beach is about 300 metres or so from where I live.  I can look up from my keyboard and see the waves crashing onto the sand. All the places I need to go are nearby, and a short tram ride if I cannot walk it. It was the same when I lived in The New Forest, where most weekends  I was out walking or cycling and my car stayed in the driveway.  I was just thinking of the last Foot and Mouth outbreak - twenty years ago? I could still go out walking and cycling but the cattle grids into the forest all had cleansing "mats" and you were not allowed off the roads, over stiles, onto footpaths and bridleways.

Where I feel the pain of lock downs is when we are required to stay in our homes and all the cafes/bars/restaurants, basically anywhere I used to socialise, is shut down. We came out of lock down in Sydney at the end of May last year, then the gates into QLD were opened in July, and I drove up to Surfers Paradise. Since I arrived here, other than having to sign into pubs/bars/cafes/restaurants we have 100 per cent freedom.

Even over the weekend, with Brisbane an hour or so away and in three day lock down, here in Surfers Paradise the only sign of any change was a handful of people wearing masks. On Saturday night, outside the night clubs below my apartment block, it was the same melee that you used to see outside football grounds before or after a game. I might post a photo if I switch to my phone and log in to PIO.

Of course, many people have experienced much harsher conditions - in Melbourne for three months last year, in parts of Sydney on the Northern Beaches over Xmas, and some people were forced to cut short holidays in QLD or NSW to rush back to Victoria to avoid border closures.

I am not complacent mind; the dark cloud of Covid is always there up in the sky threatening to block out the sun, but for the last six months, the sun still shines, in Queensland at least.

Edited January 11, 2021 by MARYROSE02

[MARYROSE02]

On 01/01/2021 at 16:49, FatCat said:

Well to be perfectly honest, Australia is doing pretty well compared to the rest of the world. Worse place to be about now is the USA or the UK. My family in the UK say Covid has been appallingly managed by the government and local councils, and they are beyond fatigued by it all. It has been pretty much life as normal with a few restrictions for me here in Sydney. Your choice of course, but I would stay firmly put until things settle down. Probably happen mid year when vaccinations start rolling out more. 

"Beyond fatigued by it all?" That is what I read in the paper the other day, or something like it, along the lines that "this is the worst its been in the UK since the dark days of WW2."  I don't feel guilty for being in Australia. Guilt is the wrong word, but then relief that I'm not there is also the wrong word. Somewhere in between, perhaps, as I said once before, the feeling that  I am "trapped" in Portugal during WW2, where there are no shortages, rationing, bombing, but the feeling that maybe I should try to get back there?

The lesser of two evils is how the Government would justify the lock downs? But, as I read somewhere recently, the lesser of the two evils is still evil, and the mental and physical strain of being "imprisoned" in your own homes, plus the prevention and treatment of all other illnesses being put on hold are also "evils". 

If we don't beat Covid we are all completely @@@@ed but we are only partly @@@@ed if we forget about the other problems?

[rammygirl]

I “chat” with friends and family in the UK regularly on  WhatsApp .  I did say I felt guilty as here in SA things are also still normal.  I was instantly told not to feel guilty but to be grateful,  and that they wouldn’t wish this s##t on anyone.

Some have had COVID some are ill now, all have people close to them who have had it. They all know someone who had died from it.  Very sad. 

[newjez]

1 hour ago, MARYROSE02 said:

"Beyond fatigued by it all?" That is what I read in the paper the other day, or something like it, along the lines that "this is the worst its been in the UK since the dark days of WW2."  I don't feel guilty for being in Australia. Guilt is the wrong word, but then relief that I'm not there is also the wrong word. Somewhere in between, perhaps, as I said once before, the feeling that  I am "trapped" in Portugal during WW2, where there are no shortages, rationing, bombing, but the feeling that maybe I should try to get back there?

The lesser of two evils is how the Government would justify the lock downs? But, as I read somewhere recently, the lesser of the two evils is still evil, and the mental and physical strain of being "imprisoned" in your own homes, plus the prevention and treatment of all other illnesses being put on hold are also "evils". 

If we don't beat Covid we are all completely @@@@ed but we are only partly @@@@ed if we forget about the other problems?

My cousin's husband is going to die waiting for a cancer operation. He is not going to die because of lockdown. He is going to die because the hospitals are full because they didn't lockdown.

There was an old man who slipped on ice and broke his leg in my village on the weekend. The ambulance never came. They waited several hours. In the end they had to drive him to hospital. That wasn't caused by lockdown.

I spoke to my mother in Perth on the weekend, and she has no concept of what it is like here. That is a good thing. At least I know she is safe. 

The vaccines will bring normality. But the UK is in for several months of pain until then.

[Paul1Perth]

13 hours ago, newjez said:

My cousin's husband is going to die waiting for a cancer operation. He is not going to die because of lockdown. He is going to die because the hospitals are full because they didn't lockdown.

There was an old man who slipped on ice and broke his leg in my village on the weekend. The ambulance never came. They waited several hours. In the end they had to drive him to hospital. That wasn't caused by lockdown.

I spoke to my mother in Perth on the weekend, and she has no concept of what it is like here. That is a good thing. At least I know she is safe. 

The vaccines will bring normality. But the UK is in for several months of pain until then.

What was the old bloke who broke his leg doing out of his house. I know that sounds callous but he should have been in his house with the central heating on.

[newjez]

1 hour ago, Paul1Perth said:

What was the old bloke who broke his leg doing out of his house. I know that sounds callous but he should have been in his house with the central heating on.

Taking his dog for a walk I think. You can't lock people inside 24*7 Paul. It's not good for their mental health.

[Paul1Perth]

3 hours ago, newjez said:

Taking his dog for a walk I think. You can't lock people inside 24*7 Paul. It's not good for their mental health.

Your right, it's not China where they did exactly that. Look where China is now though. No cases (If you believe them) and life back to normal.

[MARYROSE02]

15 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

Your right, it's not China where they did exactly that. Look where China is now though. No cases (If you believe them) and life back to normal.

I believe nothing where the CCP are concerned. They could have stopped all this right at the start if they had been more open and they are still ing investigations.

From what I am reading about the UK, total lock downs will be next with nobody allowed out to exercise.  That was shocking about the old man having to wait and wait for an ambo which never came. I wonder if there was a breakdown in communication between the people ringing 999 and the operator not knowing how serious the situation was?

A couple of years ago in Leichhardt (Sydney) I was driving down a road and I heard a shout from a house. I stopped, went over to talk to an agitated old Italian bloke and inside the house I could hear his wife screaming.  I assumed the worst, could not understand them, and rang 000. The operator would not send an ambo out. Luckily another bloke arrived who could speak Italian and it turned out that the woman was having some kind of anxiety attack.

Just the other week down at the pool here a bloke slipped into the pool. I didn't see it happen. There was a group of people supporting him in the water. A paramedic arrived about half an hour later. I heard that it was actually over two hours before he arrived. I do not know the full circumstances of course.

I don't know what to make of Covid-19. In the UK it SEEMS from what I have read that it is like The Black Death or The Plague?  Guys i worked with at Royal Mail were talking on FB about being "pinged" which I did not understand of course. They were being contacted via the NHS app to go into IMMEDIATE isolation?

[Marisawright]

19 minutes ago, MARYROSE02 said:

That was shocking about the old man having to wait and wait for an ambo which never came. I wonder if there was a breakdown in communication between the people ringing 999 and the operator not knowing how serious the situation was?

Probably a case of no ambulances available.  There was an Australian paramedic on morning TV yesterday. He's in the UK currently, working in Kent.  He was saying that the ambulances are getting stuck for hours  in queues outside hospitals, because there are no beds available (all full of Covid patients).  So then calls go unanswered.

As for being pinged - yes, if you are found to be a contact of a known case, then you need to isolate immediately.  Why wouldn't you?

Edited January 12, 2021 by Marisawright

[MARYROSE02]

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Probably a case of no ambulances available.  There was an Australian paramedic on morning TV yesterday. He's in the UK currently, working in Kent.  He was saying that the ambulances are getting stuck for hours  in queues outside hospitals, because there are no beds available (all full of Covid patients).  So then calls go unanswered.

As for being pinged - yes, if you are found to be a contact of a known case, then you need to isolate immediately.  Why wouldn't you?

I didn't know what pinging meant. I saw blokes from Royal Mail talking about it on Face Book so I asked them. Wasn't that supposed to be one of the functions of the Aussie government Covid app? I dutifully downloaded it back in March or April last year but it seems to fulfil no useful function?

[calNgary]

To be fair i am an avid watcher of Ambulance, Air Ambulance, Whats your emergency and all those types of shows. I just binge watched UK Ambulance(recorded pre covid) and even then ambulances were stuck at hospitals and there were just not enough on the road to cater to the call demand, i think a lack of ambulances certainly cannot be blamed on COVID..  The population is just way to big for the amount of staff the NHS has.

  Cal x

[BacktoDemocracy]

15 minutes ago, calNgary said:

To be fair i am an avid watcher of Ambulance, Air Ambulance, Whats your emergency and all those types of shows. I just binge watched UK Ambulance(recorded pre covid) and even then ambulances were stuck at hospitals and there were just not enough on the road to cater to the call demand, i think a lack of ambulances certainly cannot be blamed on COVID..  The population is just way to big for the amount of staff the NHS has.

  Cal x

Or it could be that our govt starve the UK health service of funds sufficient to run an adequate service and have always seen excess deaths as an acceptable price for saving money on equipment, buildings and staff as they preferred to live with a vacancy rate of 100,000 for the last 10 years in order to save money on training and employment of adequate staff

[Marisawright]

20 minutes ago, calNgary said:

, i think a lack of ambulances certainly cannot be blamed on COVID.. 

Ambulances waiting to offload patients, or having to  leave them in corridors, is something that's been going on long before Covid.  The paramedic was making the point that they're now waiting for hours longer due to Covid, because the hospitals have so many Covid patients.   I think he'd know.

[newjez]

16 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Ambulances waiting to offload patients, or having to  leave them in corridors, is something that's been going on long before Covid.  The paramedic was making the point that they're now waiting for hours longer due to Covid, because the hospitals have so many Covid patients.   I think he'd know.

It's covid and winter. The NHS is always under pressure during winter. It is its weakest point.

[MARYROSE02]

1 hour ago, newjez said:

It's covid and winter. The NHS is always under pressure during winter. It is its weakest point.

Whatever it is I have no idea why anybody (other for some kind of emergency) would want to return to the UK right now. A few months time, certainly. Even a complete lock down in spring/summer would be preferable to winter time.

[FirstWorldProblems]

5 hours ago, calNgary said:

To be fair i am an avid watcher of Ambulance, Air Ambulance, Whats your emergency and all those types of shows. I just binge watched UK Ambulance(recorded pre covid) and even then ambulances were stuck at hospitals and there were just not enough on the road to cater to the call demand, i think a lack of ambulances certainly cannot be blamed on COVID..  The population is just way to big for the amount of staff the NHS has.

  Cal x

I love those shows too. The people that do those jobs are wonderful people and I find it uplifting to watch. 
 

Covid is definitely impacting ambulances.  I take your point about what you see in the show regarding ambulances being stuck at hill spirals ore-covid, but remember this is a television show, so they are going to be showing the extremes.  additionally the show has an NHS message it’s trying to get across - don’t call an ambulance for minor things. 
 

The current Covid levels in hotspots means every day for ambulance trusts is like the worst day of a normal year. 
 

That said, you are spot on with the staffing point.  There are 100,000 vacancies in the English NHS pre-Brexit completion and pre-Covid wave 2.  We await the latest data but it won’t be better......

[Tulip1]

11 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Ambulances waiting to offload patients, or having to  leave them in corridors, is something that's been going on long before Covid.  The paramedic was making the point that they're now waiting for hours longer due to Covid, because the hospitals have so many Covid patients.   I think he'd know.

They are indeed waiting longer. A friend of mine knows a paramedic who was telling her a few days ago they got a call out within minutes of starting their shift.  The person needed taking to hospital and they were sitting in a queue outside the hospital waiting their turn to drop the patient off for over 5 hours. They only got to do two calls in their whole shift because of this.  Someone on a local Facebook page has today said they went to a nearby hospital end of last week for a blood test and counted 11 ambulances queued up outside. There maybe a lack of ambulances, that I don’t know but the lack of ambulances available right now is certainly to do with Covid or at least very much affected by Covid dominating the hospital situation. 

[Tulip1]

11 hours ago, calNgary said:

To be fair i am an avid watcher of Ambulance, Air Ambulance, Whats your emergency and all those types of shows. I just binge watched UK Ambulance(recorded pre covid) and even then ambulances were stuck at hospitals and there were just not enough on the road to cater to the call demand, i think a lack of ambulances certainly cannot be blamed on COVID..  The population is just way to big for the amount of staff the NHS has.

  Cal x

The problem is also because people ring for an ambulance with things that aren’t an emergency. You’ll mostly only see the ‘exciting’ ones on tv but many are for people that feel a bit unwell or have a bad cold. Perhaps a slight exaggeration but certainly many should have just phoned 111 for advice. You also get many that have a partner in the house and a car on the drive. They could easily have driven the unwell person to hospital or an out of hours doctor but it’s easier to just ring for an ambulance. I know a few paramedics and it’s not uncommon for them to turn up at a house and find that the old guy hasn’t eaten much for a few days and the family is worried or they’re a bit off colour and they thought it’s best they get checked out.  They’ll even sometimes say things like I’d have taken them myself but thought they’d get seen quicker if you took them. I’d say that it’s more likely people misuse the service than there’s a shortage, perhaps a bit of both.