Self Isolation.

[Orcs]

Is it just me being cynical. or is the self isolation (I appreciate the need for it) going to be used by lots of people as a method of getting 2 weeks ( or more) off work??

My other problem with it is that, at only 14 days it will hardly make a dent in my lead pile. 

[Steve J]

Well you would only get SSP for that amount of time (unless you have a workplace scheme) which is bugger all from what I've heard. Even ESA is low if you have savings which are taken into account.

My son and I are self isolating as much as we reasonably can given that I have asthma and he is on immuno-suppressants for Crohn's. I'm more worried for him to be honest than me. At least I have plenty to kep me occupied until mid-June, which is when the period of isolation is due to finish...

[Aksu]

Everyone at our workplace (150 persons) was sent off last monday to work remotely for at least two weeks. And it unfortunately means sitting in front of a computer, either in a telco or powerpointing or other worklike noodling stuff. At least at work I had an ergonomically decent electric table so I could either stand or sit. Now all this sitting is doing my back in. We were also told not to go to a cafe to work :/ And the pile of lead is looking at me from the shelves next to my PC. Aargh.

For us without kids it is OK, but I pity my colleagues who also have to cope with their teenage kids that are housebound since the schools are shut.

Anyway, keeping calm and carrying on with my trusty mug of tea to keep me company.

Cheers,
Aksu

[Big Insect]

I work a lot from home anyway - the firm has encouraged it for years - good for recruitment, good for reducing expensive offices etc.etc.etc - and a lot of my life is already spent on global conference calls - so I have developed a process whereby I can very often paint soldier and still be on calls ... although I did have a nasty incident a few months back where I stuck a brush loaded with varnish up my nose as I rushed to come off mute and also adjust my head-set microphone  

I have been working like this for years - when I am not out travelling around the UK or in Europe, meeting clients and prospects (which has now stopped completely).
So my wife has the view that actually I am ideally suited for self isolation.
I am effective around the house - as I take structured regular breaks - to stretch my back/legs, relax my eyes, make a cup of coffee, put on/take out the washing, unload the dishwasher etc.
If I am not painting on conf-calls I have even been known to do some ironing (always good for domestic brownie points) - such is the beauty of blue-tooth wireless headsets these days.

The danger however is that my working day morphs into the evening - sometimes because I'll be on calls to the USA late UK time, but often because i'm working flexibly. Likewise I can be up really early for calls to India or Australia/Asia Pac. But I am pretty much in charge of my own time.

As my role is to sell large IT systems, regardless of what anybody says, you need a face to face meeting - people don't sign cheques for $200mn+ after a phone call or even a good quality conf/video call! So my life is going to be very challenging over the next few months. But it is what it is - we can only make the best of it.

I've done most of my obligatory on-line corporate training for the whole year already - boy it is good to know that is out of the way - no 31st Dec last minute catch-up panic.
I've also done my annual tax return - again ahead of the 31st Dec deadline - that's another big tick in the box personally.
I'm starting to book meetings face-to-face for September - yup you heard right - that is when a lot of my clients/prospects think life will settle back to some degree of normality. I have a few who are endeavouring to try to do business by Skype/Zoom/MeetMe/Circuit calls - and we'll see how we get on with that over the next few weeks.

However, my painting list is large and long and I also have an allotment - not that conf.calls work very well from there (although I must admit once the weather gets good it is really tempting to try).  So on my painting bench I currently have the following:

1). a 28mm Wargames Foundry Early Carthaginian army
2). paint, base and flag (using LBM flags) a 15mm Zhou (Spring & Autumn) Chinese army for a competition in June (fingers crossed that will go ahead)
3). a host of painted 15mm Fantasy armies to base on 100mm x 50mm bases to be able to play Warband
4). a bare-metal 15mm HoTT army - to play in this years GBU competition - it's my American God's of the Plains army (to fitr into this year theme)
5). I need to paint up a few additional 28mm command bases for a couple of medieval armies
6). Paint & base a stand of 28mm Byzantine medium cavalry horse archers
7). rebase a host of 6mm Cold War East Germans and Soviet armour I bought off eBay cheaply a while back
8 ). paint & base my 10mm Pendraken Samurai Apes army - and add in a few extra appropriate monster tyoes to allow me to expand this to play in the new mass-battle fantasy rulews set I am working on
9). re-base my nicely painted 15mm Boer army and finish painting up the khaki British opposition - ready to play BBB
10). Finally finish off painting my 28mm Pictish army - I bought the bulk of the army beautifully painted and based - but now I am short of a few units (you know how it is) so I am having toi match the ones I am doing to the existing style ... it shows up how woefully inadequate my painting really is these days (*Note to self - maybe get your cataracts sorted if you can find a hospital to do it!)
Then there is a 10mm 2nd hand Pendraken late war Bristish and German, that I bought on Bring & Buy lasst year, that I need to get re-based and touched-up to play some BKCIV.
So much lead ... so little time!!!

Then there are all the new rules and revisions to existing rules and new Supplement PDFs and army lists I need to do for Leon ... lots to keep me busy.
It will be interesting to look back on the year and this period of isolation to see what i actually did get done in the end.

Cheers
Mark

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Bout a weeks work Mark !

[jimduncanuk]

I am fully retired, have been for more than 10 years now.

I have been largely self isolating for a few weeks so spend a lot more time painting than I do nominally.

I am also getting older (70 next month), a cancer survivor and now having a spot of bother with a coronary artery so I go to bed earlier than before so end up painting less than I used to.

It's all swings and roundabouts.

The one thing I am missing at the moment is a target show.

I have missed Vapnartak already this year and Albanach was cancelled, reasons unknown. I would normally got to Carronade in May but I expect that is at high risk of cancellation now so Claymore is my best guess.

Guess I'll just keep on painting.

[toxicpixie]

Well you would only get SSP for that amount of time (unless you have a workplace scheme) which is bugger all from what I've heard. Even ESA is low if you have savings which are taken into account.

My son and I are self isolating as much as we reasonably can given that I have asthma and he is on immuno-suppressants for Crohn's. I'm more worried for him to be honest than me. At least I have plenty to kep me occupied until mid-June, which is when the period of isolation is due to finish...

SSP is a whopping £94.25 a week IIRC. You could barely buy food on that, let alone pay leccy, gas, rent/mortgage. It's also not available for a lot of people on zero hours contracts or "self employed". So yeah. Turns out what's great for profits is very bad for society.

I don't want to back seat doctor Steve, but the dangerous bit of Corvid-19 appears to be the cytokine overreaction in bad cases - it's not the virus itself that's the dangerous part, but the bodies immune response going balls out crazy. The medical lit I read was suggested massive doses of immuno-suppressants and cortico-steroids to knock it back down.

So it might be swings and roundabouts - whilst your lad might be more likely to get it, he may be less likely to have a serious case or the dangerous reaction to it, fingers crossed for you both.

[Orcs]

I am fortunate in my company pays you at full rate for 6 months 

[toxicpixie]

We'd get a week per year worked, and as they kept our contract terms rolling when taken over, that gives me the maximum twelve weeks.

With an awkward new born let alone Corvid-19 I'm tempted by a three month break

Although unless I was actually in hospital our venture capital owned stats obsessed panic driven culture would demand I be "in" the home office as usual...

[Steve J]

The medical lit I read was suggested massive doses of immuno-suppressants and cortico-steroids to knock it back down.

I've heard the same as it moves from pneumonia to the body either getting sepsis of multiple organ failure due to the body attacking itself. So maybe our son is safer then...

[toxicpixie]

Fingers crossed, Steve, preferably for not having to find out ofc!

[Last Hussar]

I've been told to self isolate for 7 days by work, not 14.

[paulr]

That seems a little short, all the various advice I've seen is 14 days

[mmcv]

I've been told to self isolate for 7 days by work, not 14.

That seems a little short, all the various advice I've seen is 14 days

I've heard both, I think seven days is if you've cold/flu symptoms and 14 if you've got our suspected to have COVID-19. But there's a lot of much messages out there, at one point there was talk of being infectious for 21 days but not sure if that's still thought.

[Steve J]

7 days for a single person, but if that person is in a 'household', then everyone for 14 days.