Covid - 19: How is it affecting you?

[Magnus]

My blood pressure must be high. Wee nippy Nicky is hanging on to 2m for grim death, probably because she's "No daein' whit these fckn English are daein'." I've had a suggestion from a pal that on July 4, we all go to Berwick for haircuts and pints. Sounds good.

[Undried Plum]

So now Wee Fantabadozy wants us to forget her yelled scream, from that wee blue-painted Strinecunt: Freeduhm!!!

[Undried Plum]

[TheGreenGoblin]

Well it is the 03rd of July, one day before the great horde of twitching, hirsute, socially deprived gourmets and sundry alcoholics can descend on restaurants and pubs again.

I have booked into the barbers for a cut at seven o' clock on Sunday and my better half and I are going to risk the local restaurant for lunch on the same day.

What are other ops-normalisers going to do differently, if anything at all?

[OFSO]

Arriving at the London Eurostar terminal at 09:00. No papers no coffee no Prets croissants. No food on the train despite premier class.. Departing Paris Gare de Lyon TGV at 16:00. Papers, coffee, Prets open, croissants.

Why are we British always so out-of-sync with reality...

[ian16th]

Arriving at the London Eurostar terminal at 09:00. No papers no coffee no Prets croissants. No food on the train despite premier class.. Departing Paris Gare de Lyon TGV at 16:00. Papers, coffee, Prets open, croissants.

Why are we British always so out-of-sync with reality...

How does one transit from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon these days?

Remember, I haven't had the pleasure since 1958, and I had to detour to the British Embassy to pick up a travel warrant.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I used to catch the Metro. About 10 minutes if you are not to burdened by luggage. A cab will take at least 30 minutes and can be a lot longer depending on traffic. You can walk but wouldn't recommend that with luggage!

My folks lived in Lyons for a year before settling in the Dordogne so I became a fan of the TGV.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I used to catch the Metro. About 10 minutes if you are not to burdened by luggage. A cab will take at least 30 minutes and can be a lot longer depending on traffic. You can walk but wouldn't recommend that with luggage!

My folks lived in Lyons for a year before settling in the Dordogne so I became a fan of the TGV.

Lyon... they didn't live in a teapot!

[ian16th]

I see that Marseille to Paris about 3 h 30m by TGV, in 1957-58 it was all bl**dy night!
Then all day from Paris to London.
And then 6 hours from Kings Cross to Darlington.

It took from 16:00 on day 1 to 23:00 on day 2 to get from Istres to Redcar.
I only did the return journey by rail the once.
I also did the single journey once in each direction Orange - UK. This was easier as Orange was on the Marseille - Paris main line. The only problem was that the 'fast' trains didn't stop there!

[OFSO]

We gave up on taxi drivers (€20) after finding a very reliable hire car for €33. Having a lot of goods wth us this time, well worth it.

[ian16th]

The golden oldie, Jack London's 'The Scarlet Plague' is also worth a read.

Might be difficult to source.

You saw it 1st on O-N!

[ian16th]

We gave up on taxi drivers (€20) after finding a very reliable hire car for €33. Having a lot of goods wth us this time, well worth it.

Where did you pick up and drop off, your hire car?

[Capetonian]

How does one transit from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon these days?

My most enjoyable transit was on the back of a motorbike taxi, fully licensed and driven by a very charming young Algerian man. It was a lovely warm summer evening with the sun about to set and for those few minutes I felt like Lucy Jordan :
As she rode along through Paris
With the warm wind in her hair

We arrived at Gare du Nord, I paid him and gave him a decent tip, and he stood chatting to me for a good 10 minutes. Of course it doesn't work if you have mucho baggage.

I've done it by Metro and RER, both most unpleasant, hot, sweaty, and crowded, with long passages and escalators to negotiate. I did it on foot once too as I decided it was a better option than a boring meeting I was meant to go so I had half a day to kill. It took a couple of hours with suitable refreshment stops. Paris is full of lovely little parks and quiet corners but unfortunately none of them between Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon, so it wasn't a very pleasant walk.

I don't think I could be bothered with hiring a car for such a short period, the time spent on paperwork is disproportionate to the time using the car.

[OFSO]

Hire car - with driver. Meets on platform, carries luggage to car. Usually LWB Mercedes or Lexus. Can hardly lift cases for tomorrow so useful.

[ribrash]

Re title of original post. It hasn't and it isn't.

[Pontius Navigator]

Well getting strawberries from Waitrose, best before 4th July was disappointing but at least no queuing with C_C which we didn't do before.

[Pinky the pilot]

Re title of original post. It hasn't and it isn't.
D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F

Second all of the above.

[OFSO]

Back in Spain via France. Obviously we are in a parallel universe from the various advisory websites.

"Passengers arriving in France from the UK will be asked to quarantine themselves for two weeks". Never happened. Not even a sign.
"People arriving at the Spanish border are asked to download a form stating they are Covid-free and may have their temperature checked." At 22:00 last night the border crossing was deserted.

Incidentally down in the car park I reconnected the battery in the Fiesta and it fired on the first turn of the ignition key since it was parked on March 4th. Good little car.

[ian16th]

Incidentally down in the car park I reconnected the battery in the Fiesta and it fired on the first turn of the ignition key since it was parked on March 4th. Good little car.

Not a bad battery either!

[Undried Plum]

Back in Spain via France. Obviously we are in a parallel universe from the various advisory websites.

"Passengers arriving in France from the UK will be asked to quarantine themselves for two weeks". Never happened. Not even a sign.
"People arriving at the Spanish border are asked to download a form stating they are Covid-free and may have their temperature checked." At 22:00 last night the border crossing was deserted.

Incidentally down in the car park I reconnected the battery in the Fiesta and it fired on the first turn of the ignition key since it was parked on March 4th. Good little car.

Meanwhile, in Catalonia:

The government in Spain's Catalonia region has re-imposed coronavirus controls on an area of 210,000 people after a sharp rise in infections.

President Quim Torra said no-one would be allowed to enter or leave Segrià, an agricultural area west of Barcelona which includes the city of Lleida.

The local lockdown began on Saturday afternoon with provisions made to allow non-residents to leave.
Catalonia is one of the Spanish regions worst affected by coronavirus.