Thirsty Relic

Post them on ebay - either as a single lot or in groups of them in bundles. First check what prices you could get by looking at what similar lots have sold for in the recent past.

Thanks - I was planning a Lidl store visit as a treat for myself. It's not my local supermarket, but close enough and would have been a change to do my weekly shop somewhere else - almost like a holiday! Oh well!

Something I have experienced that may be of interest is that letters or packages I have posted to local destinations (Sheffield, Rotherham, Chesterfield) seem to take longer to arrive than those sent alongside them to destinations much further afield. In a couple of extreme cases, 1st class letters have reached there the next day when sent a hundred or so miles away, whereas similar letters sent locally have taken a full week to arrive To me that points to localised shortages at the distribution end of the postal chain. It just means I will be sending time-sensitive letters out much earlier than I would normally do - a minor inconvenience. Again, given the pandemic, I think Royal Mail are doing a great job, as are other Key Workers.

We were told early on in this pandemic by a range of medical experts not to expect any kind of reliable vaccination against Covid-19 for many years. Of course there are many rival research and industry bodies trying to develop one, and many businesses that stand to make billions should they be able to sell something purporting to be a vaccine. We were also told that testing a supposed vaccine also would take a minimum of a year after it had been developed. Are we really meant to believe that there is a vaccine, tested and ready to use? Of course, politicians and Governments are ready to splash the cash, businesses ready to supply something to sell and many profits on, and many desperate people willing to act as guinea pigs. While I hope a real vaccine is eventually developed, I am old enough to remember Thalidimide and other medical disasters, so I certainly won't be at the front of the queue to test one out.

With you (and Baron99) on this. I'll add that I'm fed up of seeing businesses proudly displaying "You must wear a mask" type messages on their doors, then ignoring it when customers without one come in.

I heard recently that in Sheffield there are police occasionally on busses to challenge and "educate" those not wearing masks. Assuming this is true, I would like them to pop into shops as well, if only to act as a deterrent. I've noticed in my local supermarket almost everybody wears a face covering, but in smaller shops many do not, and are not challenged. When I've asked shop workers about it, the answer is the same "We're told we still have to serve them" and "I'm not at risk as I'm behind this big plastic screen - it's customers that are at risk". Perhaps with a warning to the businesses in question they may change their stance. If businesses cannot be trusted to obey the rules, they should be closed down - just as pubs have been.

Well lets hope she was identified, and followed. Perhaps she'll like being filmed being carted off to clink the first time she disobeys one of the new measures. Then people can see what can happen.

I think there is the same implied threat of one. Government has passed the buck onto Councils to manage local lockdowns, with the threat that if they don't work regional ones will be brought in. If regional ones don't work, well we'll be back to National ones. Personally, I think that those people/groups/communities that have not followed the Government guidance so far are those who Councils are likely to have local lockdowns imposed. Do we really think they suddenly follow the same advice, coming from their local Council? If they don't - yes, I think we're heading for another lockdown.

As those pubs that have reopened will have stock in, instead of pouring it away as they had to after the original lockdown, perhaps many of them will convert to selling their stock in plastic containers. I'd be quite happy to walk to a local pub with my cash, and walk away a bit poorer but with a couple of plastic containers of fresh beer (hidden away of course in a handy Tesco's bag away from prying eyes!).

I'd try and distribute them when there were fewer people around, I'd carry a sanitising spray and use it fairly regularly, (or some kind of barrier cream), and have a mask handy for use in more populated places. Can't think what else I would do. Probably use an mp3 player to alleviate the boredom of the job

Oh! Thanks Arnold - i got the wrong end of the stick. I've still not got the catalogue to use as normal then - I need to go on the Web for that as well. Ok.

I thought you had to be a strongman for that. Ripping off old poetry is a bit ott TinHat, but I am with you on mourning the Argos catalogue. Dead handy when when I needed something fast and was probably going to town in a day or so. I could even pop into an Argos near wherever I was working. No need to check other stores, or even search the web. More recently, I checked them alongside ebay, Amazon etc, knowing I could get it faster from an Argos store if their prices were similar. Oh well, another business hits the dust. Another reason not to go into town.

Self imposed? Well, only as far as those with internet access AND using it to book their holidays. If someone books online and then grumbles about the store closed when they wanted to use it - yes, they share the blame. The pensioner without internet access (or other person like me with the internet but who books holidays in store) has to suffer, but is in no way to blame.

Yes. Of course, not everybody is on the Internet, so to those people it may be more difficult (or impossible) to find a local travel agent. Chicken and egg - fewer travel agents, so fewer people using them, so fewer travel agents....... The digital divide marginalising sections of the community.

Spoke to my regular postie and they are being hit by Covid with some off sick and social distancing in the sorting offices meaning not all areas get their normal daily deliveries at times. I've noticed delivery times varying as those posties working are trying to fill in for absences. All in all, I think they are "key workers" doing a great job in difficult circumstances, and deserve our patience and support.