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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
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Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Hi Guys,
It's been a while since there's been a new thread in this area and I thought I'd ask the question as to how you're all going?

Considering that different parts of Europe and the UK have been in and out of lockdown, are you folks still managing to eek out a living?

Have any of you folks had a near-miss with the Covid-19?

I'm opening the floor up to any and all comments from you, let's talk this over.........

1 member likes this: djk
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
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Trumpy Offline OP
Member
For me,
I went into business on my own, 6 months before this virus even was a thing.
Things have been ROUGH, a good percentage of my work dried up overnight, not because I couldn't do it,
but because everyone was so scared that they couldn't even afford to eat or pay the bills.

I only do Commercial and Industrial work, but there were so many places that closed up on the Commercial side of things, factories kept running, places like restaurants and service firms all closed their doors, which would have been the perfect time to do things like preventative maintenance and the like, just had no money to do it, they were trying to pay their staff, when there were no customers coming through the doors.

I'm not going to gloat about how New Zealand was so lucky, the Government could have done more to ensure our safety and well-being.
Personally, they should have opened up the individual traders (fruit and vege shops, butcheries, etc), so that we had real choice (and pricing) where we got our food from at the time.
The supermarkets here, elevated their prices as soon as the lock-down started, we only have two companies that work in a duopoly, that is really piss-poor.

1 member likes this: djk
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 38
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G
Member
I have not lost employment (TV broadcast engineer), and my free-lance radio station engineering clients have been able to pay my invoices, so I've been fortunate. We've had our Pfizer shots, so my wife feels more comfortable sitting inside restaurants and going shopping. Still diligent wearing masks in public, not only because of COVID but pollen...my allergies are in high gear with trees and flowers in full bloom.

We're starting to see an increase in copper theft. I am getting ready to slobber tar over exposed grounding straps at the tower sites to lessen their appeal to the thieves. Prices for wire and lumber are going sky-high, which might affect some of my upcoming projects.

1 member likes this: djk
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
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C
C-H Offline
Member
Cool that you guys are still around! I haven't been here for a long time. I'm not working directly with electrical equipment anymore, just doing desk work. In the past few years I've worked with nuclear, wind power and most recently a huge battery factory.

1 member likes this: djk
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 869
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R
Member
Hi ECN members, I also have to apologize for my slackness. Life is busy here in Auckland, NZ. Keeping busy with utility work, also sometimes working away from my normal base in Palmerston North and Wellington.
We are still more or less Covid free in NZ except, Wellington has gone level 2 with an Australian visitor who was positive, Geno sequencing at this stage has proven so far that there is no transfer, see what will happen over the next week or so.
Just heard in the news that New South Wales , Australia is going into a 2 weeks lockdown from 6 PM local time.
Regards, Raymond (Rodalco)


The product of rotation, excitation and flux produces electricty.
1 member likes this: djk
Joined: Jul 2004
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G
Member
I think the stray case is always the fear in a largely sequestered population. There is no naturally acquired immunity. What is your vaccination rate there? Do you have an active anti vax population?
The vaccine seems to be knocking it down pretty fast here but we still have a significant number of people refusing it.


Greg Fretwell
1 member likes this: djk
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
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djk Offline
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We'd a *fairly* tight, yet easy going, lockdown in Ireland, despite some of the online commentary here. We've a national pastime of "only in Ireland" type discussions... There wasn't much in the sense of Draconian enforcement of anything, but the vast majority just behaved sensibly and things seem to have worked fairly ok - all things considered.

We'd a couple of periods of national travel restrictions, limiting you to within 5km at the peak (other than for work, shopping and education) and to within your own county for a more extended time.

Most of the retail sector was closed, on furlough, but is now back open again and there's a work from home, if possible, request still in place.

Pubs, bars and clubs haven't been open normally since 15 March 2019, other than for outdoor stuff and takeaway pints (that's a thing now..)

The construction sector paused at the very peak of cases, but domestic EC work continued for essential stuff, with precautions in place.

There are fairly extensive income supports in place and a lot of programmes to retain and stimulate business, but still quite a lot of retail damage, including some of the UK and multinational chains that have just gone wallop or drastically cut back.

Education went into remote learning mode serval times, which was hugely disruptive for some kids and universities are still remote and likely to be vaccinated campus type setups this autumn.

We managed not to ever get to a meltdown crisis level in the health system, keeping ICU numbers below capacity, but it was close to it after Xmas when we had a short-lived surge.

At the moment the vaccine programme is going extremely rapidly. We've had over 90% uptake in most are categories, almost 100% amongst older folks and it's open for anyone 18+ at the moment and over 12 for vulnerable teens - that's just waiting for sign off from a safety point of view.

I've had two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech, but I'm just playing it a little cautiously, but feeling a lot more relaxed.

At present here retail is open, with precautions in place. Domestic tourism is open and booming. Outdoor dining and drinking is the norm, with huge adaptations to venues and streets to make it possible. Big events still aren't open, beyond a few experimental ones.

Our weather isn't always dry, so there's been a lot of installation of giant umbrellas, awnings and so on and also most cities and towns have jumped ahead on pedestrianisation and bike access etc etc

Masks haven't ever been mandated outdoors here, but they're required in retail, indoors in public spaces and in public transport. Some people wear them out and about but it's usually more so if you're in a city centre or something like that - use your own judgement. They haven't been politicised though, beyond a very small looney fringe that seems to mostly live in an online bubble.

Indoor dining and indoor pubs etc will recommence soon, but you'll need a vaccine cert to enter the premises (digital thing with a scanned QR code to verify its authenticity).

The big risk here at the moment is the Delta varient spreading from the UK. We've an open border, albeit with some checks and self isolation on inbound travel, but we've no real way of doing what NZ or Australia did in terms of zero covid with closed borders - our economy integrates deeply into neighbouring countries in the EU and the UK, and most of our goods travel by truck and roll-on / roll-off ferry etc. There's a bit of a race on to complete the vaccine programme before the end of August, to get ahead of the varient risks.

Intra EU travel has reopened, with digital covid certificates, since 19 July, so that's starting to look a lot more normal. I'm still in no rush to take a plane though. It's all just a lot of hassle.

Personally, other than the inconvenience factor, I've been very much unimpacted and all is well.

It's been a weird couple of years! Hope all is well with you and yours wherever you are.

Last edited by djk; 07/21/21 08:58 AM.
Joined: Jul 2004
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G
Member
Florida is pretty much wide open. We have a bump in infections among the unvaccinated but nobody here seems that concerned about it.


Greg Fretwell
1 member likes this: djk
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djk Offline
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The bars should read closed since March 15, 2020. I’ve lost track to time at this stage lol

Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 206
G
Member
Life is slowly returning to normal here though a lot of people are still being cautious and (now voluntarily) wearing face coverings in shops. Our restrictions are gradually being lifted, the latest change is from Sunday morning, when people coming in from France aren't required to quarantine. Consequently, my French dwelling family are currently driving up through France to visit for the first time since Christmas 2019. The grandkids have grown up in the meantime!

There is a growing feeling that some of the restrictions are being unnecessarily prolonged and especially being used to discourage international travel which is otherwise allowed.
For instance I have a much postponed holiday to Cyprus booked in September, but if I go I have to pay for expensive medical tests before going and for returning.
Also the gov. keeps seemingly randomly changing the status of countries at very short notice. If they do that when away you either have to cut your holiday and return instantly, or if missing the deadline be effectively imprisoned in a quarantine hotel for 10 days at a cost of about £2000 per head.
I think Cyprus will be postponed again until those threats are lifted.

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