Accentuate the positive: what have been the BENEFITS of theLockdown/Furlough?

[screenman]

I single handidly have helped to create jobs for the people who make Magnum style ice creams for Lidl.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Fittest and lightest I’ve been in almost 2 decades

 

[ColinJ]

Sorry to hear about your sister - well her earlier pension thing, that's bloody awful! Six years more for half what she expected!

There are an awful lot of women in a similar situation. My sister agreed that equalising pension rights with men was the right thing to do once women started getting (closer to?) equal pay, but dumping it on older women didn't give them a chance to make alternative arrangements. She thought it should have been phased in for younger women.

Anyway, she is happy now. She has still lost out overall but the redundancy settlement has helped a lot.

When things clear again - if they ever do - maybe we should combine Yorkshire/Lancashire geetars and do a session.

Wait for me to catch up... (I am pretty bad as things stand! )

Funnily enough, my 'bubble pal' is sitting opposite me at the moment practicing fingerpicking on my classical guitar. She has recently discovered JustinGuitar (a whopping 2 years after I sent her that link! ) and is working her way through some of his easier lessons. Hint for today... She was struggling to keep up - I just showed her how to slow down YouTube videos. It is very handy when people are going a bit too fast for you***.



*** The opposite is also true. You can often speed up slow videos by 25-50% and still follow what the presenters are saying/doing.

 

[Archie_tect]

Guess where March 23rd is on this graph of my daily steps in 2020...

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Have been working from home since start of first lockdown, for first time in 38 years (and still had a very good year, business wise) so several, to name a few:

Extra hour at both the start and end of the day at home with my wife, i.e. some ten hours a week, great when we live right by the beach, the dog certainly thinks so.

Garden looks the best it has in years.

c6,000 miles less on my car/fuel usage/damage to the environment.

Maintained my normal commuting cycling miles with rides along the coast each morning (I part drive / cycle into work normally, simply due to time constraints).

Proves you "really"do not have to be in the work based office ten hours a day.

Haven't printed a single sheet of paper since March 23rd, my normal office based usage would be c30 A4 sheets every day.

 

[fossyant]

Worked all the way through. MrsF was on furlough but redundant as of October. Son lost his job, but has picked up something he really enjoys - only just started so keeping fingers crossed.

I've not missed 2-3 hours of commuting in the car per day, and haven't put fuel in the car since September. I'm getting more miles in on the bike, and the garden/lawn has been fab this year.

 

[fossyant]

Haven't printed a single sheet of paper since March 23rd, my normal office based usage would be c30 A4 sheets every day.

Think I've managed with about 6 sheets since march. Expanded to 3 screens though (laptop and two monitors) which helps

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Think I've managed with about 6 sheets since march. Expanded to 3 screens though (laptop and two monitors) which helps

Exactly the same for me Fossy re laptop and two monitors. Good luck to your wife and son, mate

 

[Gunk]

Personally, financially there has been no impact, and I ended up having three months off work which I really enjoyed, so we have been extremely lucky, however I've found myself being quite lonely, I've missed a curry with my pals and my two brothers, plus I've missed the local pub on a Friday night.

My daughter was 18 recently and we couldn't go out to celebrate with friends and family, she wasn't able to give her Grandparents a hug, so quite a tough time for us all. but as I said we have been lucky, I know others have really suffered.

 

[slowmotion]

1) I really enjoyed watching the birds in the garden during the earlier part of the year.

2) It's been great to have our grown-up daughter back at home for both of the lockdowns. She's been working here full-time throughout. We all get on surprisingly well with only the odd hiccup.

 

[fossyant]

Exactly the same for me Fossy re laptop and two monitors. Good luck to your wife and son, mate

We've had folk moaning abut being stuck on a laptop for months. Everyone had chance to take monitors & keyboards home. I didn't bother as we had a spare monitor, and then I went on ebay and got another identical for £50 used. Even bought myself a docking station similar to the one at work, but USB 3.0 rather than USB C so it will work with our other laptops. We've been saving a fortune on commuting costs, so flipping well go buy yourself something to make your life easier.

 

[itboffin]

Fittest and lightest I’ve been in almost 2 decades

Yep same here

 

[fossyant]

I've also got regular birds and squirrels just a few feet from the shed office window.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Has there been a lockdown 2, you wouldn't know it around here, traffic back to normal apart from less obeying speed limits, from what I can see the last 3 weeks were no different to the 3 months before them

 

[Gunk]

Has there been a lockdown 2, you wouldn't know it around here, traffic back to normal apart from less obeying speed limits, from what I can see the last 3 weeks were no different to the 3 months before them

Actually more traffic on the A34 than before