For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1828857
1) First child appeared 6 months ago - she takes up most of our time and energy. CV19 has meant I've been able to spend more time at home, supporting wife with PND.

2) Huge number of social and church activities cancelled, which I would normally be in the middle of organising and facilitating,
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By skydriller
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1828861
Work : There isnt any. As all my work is abroad, but the rules for travel change daily, so what few projects there are wont hire unless you are local.

The irony is I was planning to sell up this year and move countries, but I cant finacially justify doing that with no income due to the cost/fees of the process.

So, for us, life is on hold. Im trying to think of something positive thats come out of C19 or the various governments reactions to it, but quite frankly, for me at least, there isnt anything. Its not that nothing nice has happened this last year, but not as a result of the current situation.

Sorry... SD.. :|
#1828863
1) realising that switching off from news and some social media is pretty cathartic. I cancelled my newspaper subscription and might cull Facebook now.

2) although the opportunity to spend more time together / slow down a bit has been amazing, we’ve so missed being able to do our normal family and friends stuff such as swim, skating, zoo, holiday, just meeting with friend groups etc

@riverrock my heart goes out to you all. My 19 month old has had such a weird early life experience. For those born into this and new parents, it has been so challenging without all the normal outlets and support groups, meet ups and social. I wish your wife well and don’t forget to look out for yourself as well.
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#1828876
Being locked out of home; literally for several months and practically since then. Tomorrow will be a year since I saw home. Not sure it ever will be again. Looking forward to having a proper place to live again with all my “stuff” and some outside space.
Miss the travel involved in work and seeing old friends. Not sure if that will ever be back either.
Life has always been an adventure but I thought it would be less so in my more senior years.
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1828904
Feeling very lucky, and on the wider level, I am amazed how the actions and paths taken over the past 20 years or more could not have prepared for this all that much better if I had known it was coming.
On the micro level, as a (currently non participating) cat person, the garden bird watching has been something new, especially as the garden is bushy rather than artificial grass and paving slabs. One bird has benefitted even more than the others (which are all being fed). Now named Clarice, a starling, ("obviously"), has been brought back to one-legged fitness after being in a poor state about 10 weeks ago with a badly damaged leg. Clarice has had, and still gets, extra individual feeding, protected whilst eating from other birds trying to intervene, and has slowly recovered strength and confidence. Except for knowing food can be demanded just by appearing on the balcony railing, the wild element has not disappeared, as social distancing of about a minimum of 12 inches between the human and the bird is meticulously maintained despite many weeks of personal food service. Clearly wiser than cattle and pigs in being suspicious of why plenty of food is on tap.
Oh yes, you want two things.... Zoom radio courses going v well, very easy to run, and course already existed for classrooms. (One coming this weekend....)
Last edited by Irv Lee on Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1828913
Irv Lee wrote:Clearly wiser than cattle and pigs in being suspicious of why plenty of food is on tap.

But perhaps not wise enough

One of the producers local to my French place used to, if not still does, produce a Paté de Sansonnet au Nid, which was a tin of pate containing a whole cooked starling.

And tasty it was too!
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1828942
Flyingfemme wrote:Being locked out of home; literally for several months and practically since then. Tomorrow will be a year since I saw home. Not sure it ever will be again. Looking forward to having a proper place to live again with all my “stuff” and some outside space.
Miss the travel involved in work and seeing old friends. Not sure if that will ever be back either.
Life has always been an adventure but I thought it would be less so in my more senior years.



Any inclination to write a book?

BTW, I see the BWPA is promoting The Blades' Kirsty Murphy's initiative for International Women's Day - running a session covering issues relating to young women considering a career in the aviation industry. https://m.facebook.com/bwpa.uk/?__tn__=C-R
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1828952
MattL wrote:@riverrock my heart goes out to you all. My 19 month old has had such a weird early life experience. For those born into this and new parents, it has been so challenging without all the normal outlets and support groups, meet ups and social. I wish your wife well and don’t forget to look out for yourself as well.

Very true - the number of people with PND has soared without this support.
The research that will go on afterward will be interesting, as to what the result of this lack of support has meant. Hopefully it will allow support to be better targeted (and funded) in the future. Much of this support in the past has been run by charities / groups with little recognition or funding.
Wife has been on GP referral for mental health support for a few months. Still not had any contact with a mental health professional.
Local NHS trust has offered her CBT with a private provider over online text chat - which she said she'd try (3 week ago) and still no appointment (apparently she is still in the queue for verbal remote meeting).
Her employer has a contract with a provider to provide mental health support. After ignoring requests for 3 weeks, it was escalated by her employer. Immediate appointment given, which then they messed up by not booking into their system so there were no counsellors available at the appointment time. Been re-arranged for another week.
Mental health support systems, which were already under-resourced are clearly crumbling.

The lack of / different social interaction will have had a much bigger impact for your 19 month old compared on my 6 month old. I know teens who have had no mental health issues before CV19 now having huge problems. Its that generation that this will will have the biggest long term impact on.
#1828964
1) At first I got fatter (lockdown 1), but then I got MUCH fitter (lockdowns 2 and 3) and now can carry a good 20l extra fuel in the aircraft than previous.
2) I've come to (or maybe I'm coming to) a realisation that eating out - perhaps thinking about pubs - is a real luxury and potentially a huge waste of money.

On the pub point, I genuinely can't say that I've really missed the pubs being closed. I do like a drink and would regularly eat out a couple of times each month with the family or friends, but now with a bit of distance I think I've realised how much money I've saved not doing it....I don't know, it just seems to me like I should be doing more to justify spending £100 on a lunch with my family as it's a lot of money - and I'm not sure how the pubs near us can really justify £9 for a glass of wine, or £5.50 for a pint, especially after people have spent many months drinking exactly the same wine from the supermarket for the same price....for a bottle.

I realise the irony of hesitating to spend £100 on a family meal at a time when I'm readily spending (or about to spend) much more than that on an hour's flying, but I'm just going to put my fingers in my ears and go LA LA LA and not concern myself about reconciling that paradox for now.
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By MarkOlding
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1829029
1) Work has been very busy and bar a period of 6 weeks at the start of Lockdown 1 has been very profitable. I also know I can never work from home for a protracted period of time.

2) I miss the pub / eating out and will happily frequent them again when they open, I miss a beer with mates on a Thursday night and above all I miss being able to "pop" somewhere on a whim which includes the airfield / flying.

The last few weeks have really started to grate and the announcements of Monday have eased some of the tensions as to coin a phrase there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just in time for my kids who are doing A levels and GCSE's and who are really starting to go stir crazy.

So I've got nothing to be too upset about and conversations I have had with a lot of people I meet through work lead me to believe there will be a lot of money pumped back into the economy post lockdown.
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#1829064
riverrock wrote:.... PND ....


Post Natal Depression or Paroxysmal Nocturnal Dyspnea?

[I do know which one you mean, Riverrock, but folks should be very careful using abbreviations (and indeed acronyms) in the aviation & medical world; there are so many of them that are easily misunderstood or confused or transposed!
I recommend using the full term upon first use].

This is so that unknowing and even ignorant folk like me can't complain which one is which! Plus I get an education :wink:

I do offer you & yours well wishes.

Rob L
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