Lockdown - Further Clarification

[ExSurveyor]

Local, small independent hardware stores are allowed to open. My one has most things available including paint and tools.

Worth trying if you have one.

[Poppy]

14 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

Absolutely. Getting in the car for any reason other than to buy essentials isn't an essential journey.

As Griff says, rocket science it is not!

Keep up - both of you.

" Exercise

Likely to be reasonable

-Going for a run or cycle or practicing yoga.

Walking in the countryside or in cities. Attending an allotment.

-Driving to countryside and walking (where far more time is spent walking than driving).

This is from the original link which I posted.

[Meantime]

Just now, MauriceMynah said:

Interesting, I didn't know that.

It was initially developed for ticketing companies where a concert promoter will announce the release of tickets for a series of concerts by a top pop artist or group and suddenly the likes of Ticketmaster will have 2 million people all trying to get onto their website the second the tickets ae released. Clearly no site can go from handling tens of thousands of customers to a couple of million the second the tickets are released. So a whole new industry sprang up around virtual queuing systems.

Modern websites often have a number of third party services helping to maintain and create the web experience, from third party services that protect against malicious people using denial of service attacks to purposely overload a site, to load balancers to help spread the requests over a number of virtual, or physical servers to using managed database services to provide stock control etc.

I suspect there is another member on this thread who could give you chapter and verse in a lot more depth than I can.  

[Meantime]

I was cautious of the fact that people were quoting from a newspaper website and searched and found similar claims on the BBC website as well. However I have now found the three page document referred to by those articles and it can be found here direct from the horses mouth as it were.

[Oddfellow]

The bit about buying paint is bat-&*^%-crazy. 

If you don't want people to go to a DIY store to buy paint, stop them selling paint. But what else can't you do? Can I go and select a new saw for a project in my shed? Buy a power tool? Screwdriver, screws, fuses what? The ambiguity is is beyond stupid. If the DIY store only allows X number of people in at a time like supermarkets, the issues are not going to be horrendous. 

There might not be any prohibition to buying paint mail-order, but that doesn't help the very good hardware DIY shop in my village (or any other) stay afloat. Parts of this guidance are as badly constructed as most of the other approaches this government have adopted. It's a bad as the initial "stay away from pubs and restaurants but we're not gonna close them and allow them to crash and burn" advice. 

If DIY stores can't sell stuff, they may as well not turn the lights on and waste money on power. 

 

[Meantime]

1 minute ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

The bit about buying paint is bat-&*^%-crazy. 

If you don't want people to go to a DIY store to buy paint, stop them selling paint. But what else can't you do? Can I go and select a new saw for a project in my shed? Buy a power tool? Screwdriver, screws, fuses what? The ambiguity is is beyond stupid. If the DIY store only allows X number of people in at a time like supermarkets, the issues are not going to be horrendous. 

There might not be any prohibition to buying paint mail-order, but that doesn't help the very good hardware DIY shop in my village (or any other) stay afloat. Parts of this guidance are as badly constructed as most of the other approaches this government have adopted. It's a bad as the initial "stay away from pubs and restaurants but we're not gonna close them and allow them to crash and burn" advice. 

If DIY stores can't sell stuff, they may as well not turn the lights on and waste money on power. 

 

If you were at a DIY store buying essential supplies then you can buy anything else that shop sells. So buying fuses or light bulbs or a replacement toilet cistern valve and then you could buy non essentials like paint.

At the end of the day we all have a duty of care to each other to stay safe. It shouldn't be about looking for ways around the restrictions and my own restrictions on myself are stricter than the published rules allow. However I have placed an order with B&Q for a couple of essential items I need and have also ordered some fence paint. I am also approaching the stage of needing to do some food shopping, but am holding off until I get the email from B&Q saying my items are ready so that I will complete the two shops in one outing. It is tempting to make two breaks for freedom and complete the trips separately but I really am trying to go out as little as possible.

[Poppy]

I was speaking with a neighbour about this very issue yesterday (social distancing observed !)  He had been refused an on line order for paint and rollers by B&Q  since they were 'non essentials' , but home base accepted the same order - and delivered.

Always rated B&Q as crap anyhow.

[Oddfellow]

 

7 minutes ago, EastCoastIPA said:

If you were at a DIY store buying essential supplies then you can buy anything else that shop sells. So buying fuses or light bulbs or a replacement toilet cistern valve and then you could buy non essentials like paint.

At the end of the day we all have a duty of care to each other to stay safe. It shouldn't be about looking for ways around the restrictions and my own restrictions on myself are stricter than the published rules allow. However I have placed an order with B&Q for a couple of essential items I need and have also ordered some fence paint. I am also approaching the stage of needing to do some food shopping, but am holding off until I get the email from B&Q saying my items are ready so that I will complete the two shops in one outing. It is tempting to make two breaks for freedom and complete the trips separately but I really am trying to go out as little as possible.

That is not the point I am making and I certainly would not be heading to B&Q or any other shed. I only got out for food too, though I must visit the boatyard to check all is well. I am not looking for loopholes but there are many because this guidance has gaps you could drive a bus through. 

But what is a DIY essential? It can only really be for emergency repairs to things you cannot do without. The guidance suggests fence repairs. Really, how essential is a fence in these times? 

As for B&Q refusing to deliver paint and rollers on the basis that they aren't essential, that's just mental. How could the supply of these things do anything other than allow those staying at home stay active and productive rather than go stir-crazy? 

 

[LizG]

48 minutes ago, EastCoastIPA said:

I was cautious of the fact that people were quoting from a newspaper website and searched and found similar claims on the BBC website as well. However I have now found the three page document referred to by those articles and it can be found here direct from the horses mouth as it were.

I am fully aware that the guidance regarding driving to exercise came from an official source - I just think it is wrong and open to abuse and badly thought out as with a lot of things at the moment.  Decorating at home is one of the best things someone in complete lockdown could do but hey ho ..........

[ExSurveyor]

When people look for loopholes it is impossible to produce legislation that doesn't have them. Just look at tax law.

If everyone followed the spirit,  rather than the letter of the law, the 'authorities' wouldn't need to spend time clarifying.

If I am out for a walk I might pick up milk or bread and anything I need from the hardware store next door on the small parade of shops.

I needed stainless steel bolts and washers, I could have driven to a chandlers 4 miles away and incorporated it into collecting visor parts but I found them online and they arrived this morning.

We can spend another few weeks observing  the spirit of the lockdown or fight it and spend the summer in our homes instead.

 

[marshman]

The paint thing is a load of old rowlocks especially if you have a hardware store nearby.

Just go in and buy it and ignore those who are intent on trying to rewrite legislation to THEIR interpretation! Better still, ring them up and see if they deliver - most will.  If your hardware shop is open, then use it - if we all carry on like this the only place to go and buy anything will be your computer!!!

[Meantime]

1 minute ago, w-album said:

I am fully aware that the guidance regarding driving to exercise came from an official source - I just think it is wrong and open to abuse and badly thought out as with a lot of things at the moment.  Decorating at home is one of the best things someone in complete lockdown could do but hey ho ..........

And you still can. Homebase are selling paint online. OK so B&Q are not, haven't checked Wickes. B&M sells a good range of food and you could buy paint there whilst doing your weekly shop. I think the point they are making is that to go shopping just for paint is not essential.

[ExSurveyor]

I made sure I had paint when the lockdown was looming, ( we need a smug emoji )

What I didn't check was if I had brushes and rollers

 

[Poppy]

Westminster Bridge yesterday evening . Even the Met's 'finest' seem to be avoiding the guidance , yet so many seem to be wound up at the prospect of peole getting in their cars to go somewhere nice for a walk 

[ExSurveyor]

The emergency services don't have the luxury of social distancing from each other in their vehicles.

[Chelsea14Ian]

1 minute ago, psychicsurveyor said:

I made sure I had paint when the lockdown was looming, ( we need a smug emoji )

What I didn't check was if I had brushes and rollers

 

I've  got lots of rollers and brushes. Would do a swap and drop them off on your boat  if  A: I could leave home ,b: Travel up to the boat.Can't do any of that sorry.

[Poppy]

8 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

The emergency services don't have the luxury of social distancing from each other in their vehicles.

Just got pulled over by the police the officer said to me "sir I can smell alcohol"

 I said "yes that's because you are not respecting social distancing" 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, BroadAmbition said:

Easy - It goes against the instruction  'Stay at Home'  also increases the risk of RTA's thereby using up already stretched resources

I agree with Griff on this one the risk of RTA's increases which could end up putting pressure on the emergency services and the hospitals. I live in a rural area in the Lake District and one of my biggest gripes at the is the amount of people out horse riding at the moment, it's risky on public roads at the best of times with the way some people drive. We also have loads of mini "Tour de France" cycle groups who are quite clearly not all family members.

See what locking people up does...Iv'e started ranting now!! ....and Iv'e reached the conclusion that having been locked up with the wife for three weeks that I have decided not to retire early.

[webntweb]

As soon as new advice comes out many people are trying to interpret it to suit their own wants (notice I don't say needs).

"Why shouldn't I buy something I am not allowed to buy at one shop when I am in another shop that does sell it as long as I buy a small item that is allowed at the same time"

You could have the virus without knowing it and going around a shop touching items, surfaces etc and in the case of smaller shops probably being in too close proximity to other people, could spread it to others who then go on to spread it even further. Or you could pick it up from somebody else in the shop and then you would probably pass it on to others - the virus in incredibly virulent and contagious.

Buying unnecessary items on line means more, possibly contaminated, packages being handled by more (possibly contaminated or being contaminated) people and then being handled two or three more times at transhipment points before the possibly contaminated delivery driver passes them to you.

Think of how fast it spreads when it gets into care homes.

Think of the children and families of the NHS workers who have already lost their lives - one more is too many.

At the moment lockdown is not being forced on us . . . but it will be if people carry on like this.

 

 

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

34 minutes ago, Poppy said:

Just got pulled over by the police the officer said to me "sir I can smell alcohol"

 I said "yes that's because you are not respecting social distancing" 

Never drink and drive,cos your spill it silly

[OldBerkshireBoy]

It doesn`t 

19 minutes ago, webntweb said:

As soon as new advice comes out many people are trying to interpret it to suit their own wants (notice I don't say needs).

"Why shouldn't I buy something I am not allowed to buy at one shop when I am in another shop that does sell it as long as I buy a small item that is allowed at the same time"

Buying unnecessary items on line means more, possibly contaminated, packages being handled by more (possibly contaminated or being contaminated) people and then being handled two or three more times at transhipment points before the possibly contaminated delivery driver passes them to you.

 

 

 

 

It has a "life span" and lasts longer on hard surfaces and I believe it doesn`t live on soft textiles, paper or cardboard. Happy to be proved wrong of course, it`s just what I read.

[webntweb]

20 minutes ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

It doesn`t 

It has a "life span" and lasts longer on hard surfaces and I believe it doesn`t live on soft textiles, paper or cardboard. Happy to be proved wrong of course, it`s just what I read.

According to the results published in medical journals hard surfaces are the worst: plastic and steel up to 72 hours; cardboard up to 24 hours - paper especially if it is smooth surfaced is the same time as cardboard. Textiles time unknown but washing in a washing machine with detergent probably would kill the virus. Shared towels should be washed at a minimum of 60 degrees.

[grendel]

3 hours ago, Bytheriver said:

Wilco & B & M fully open paint paper &  do some plants - plenty of paracetamol & coffee to justify the trip

i saw the range locally was also open the other day.

[Oddfellow]

1 hour ago, Poppy said:

Westminster Bridge yesterday evening . Even the Met's 'finest' seem to be avoiding the guidance , yet so many seem to be wound up at the prospect of peole getting in their cars to go somewhere nice for a walk 

Natural Selection in action. 

 

[ExSurveyor]

A bit of light relief.

We will all be out and about, one day.