So in all this chaos, here is a great kiwiana story for youse all.

I'm in Day 2 of iso, and have a Countdown delivery order coming today. I tried to change the address online yesterday because we changed our accommodation after I placed the order, but couldn't do it. I spoke to the local store, and they said to call back this morning.

So I grab the phone this morning and hit the most recently called number. But I'd forgotten that we ordered fish'n'chip delivery for dinner last night, so Anna, the owner of the chippy picks up instead.

At 7am.

Oops

Anyway, I apologise, she asks who I was trying to call, we get chatting. Less than 45 minutes later she has dropped off eggs, bread, butter and
crackers to our driveway for brekkie.

What a fucking legend.

It's good to be home.

Mods, feel free to delete if innapropriate or unnecessary, but I wondered if it might be worthwhile having somewhere for our little community to ask for or offer help to each other.

People could post requests (advice, favours, whatever) or offer assistance in some way.

For example, it sounds like many people could be becoming unemployed in the near future. Maybe Ferners can assist with CV reviews, job market advice, financial modelling for home budgets etc.

Obviously physical movements are limited so don't any of youse hit me up to help weed your garden...

@Stargazer said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:

I don't see the problem with including this lady's death in the numbers. Even if COVID-19 was the primary cause of her death, it was likely a contributing/secundary factor. If she hadn't had COVID, she might have lived (a bit) longer, even at her age.

Oh come on! She recovered and tested negative twice! You might as well chalk her death up to the chicken pox she had as a 5yr old or the head cold she got when working in the seafood markets as a 30yr old.

I have a 74yr old mother with lung cancer and months to live. If she got Covid now, it would likely be lethal, and of course would be recorded as a Covid death. But even then, I still wouldn't say she died of Covid, she is dying of bloody lung cancer!!!

Its absurd to consider this recovered case as a Covid death if we want to use the figures for any useful analysis of the virus.

Well that was a glorious afternoon / evening.

The pub had a dodgy feed that kept freezing but given the games weren't close it kind of added to the fun - lots of "oohhhhhhh"'s and "yeeeaaaahhhh"'s as we froze then caught up.

There were about 15 kids there for the early game, most wearing Australian / Irish / English supporter kit, each of them glued to phones and iPad's. Most buggered off home after the Australia game.

My lad was decked out in his AB kit and sat at the corner of the bar for both games, watching every second of the footy - didn't ask for his ipad or phone once. He even had a few sips of my beer with the observation "that's quite nice".

Never been so proud.

@Snowy said in RWC: All Blacks vs Namibia Pool B:

@sparky said in RWC: All Blacks vs Namibia Pool B:

Stuff has a second-by-second Countdown clock therefore if you so choose you can watch the seconds until that glorious moment when the team is actually named.

Well that's ruined that then.

Another of the great mysteries in life is just common knowledge.

Completely off topic and absolutely doesn't belong in this thread, but the single greatest mystery in life remains how it can take so long to collect a hire car from the airport no matter how much info you've already provided when booking online.

@hydro11 said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:

@Kirwan said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:

@Godder said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:

Level 3 lets more people go to work, but it's hardly a huge improvement on level 4 in terms of the cage doors opening.

However, in good news, apparently, not only is our curve flattening, it's exponentially reducing - halving every 5 days. At this rate, we are probably looking at a total of 6-8 weeks at levels 3&4 (so another 2-4 weeks) and then back to level 2.

The rest of the world is rightly envious of that, because they're generally looking at months of the equivalent of level 3+. 4 weeks seems a bit early to be rolling out the civil liberties flag - human rights and civil liberties are critically important to the NZ democracy, but the most important right is the right to life because the rest are not much use to dead people.

And a cratered economy is a damn sight harder on people on the other side.

This is exactly the sort of scare mongering that drove that poll result.

The original justification for this lockdown was not to eliminate the disease but to prevent our health system from being overwhelmed. That has been achieved and over the last four weeks process and capacity has been added to help even more with that.

So let’s move down the levels fast, test appropriately, contain regional reoccurrence, and get back to normalise life.

Even today Cindy was downplaying the huge impact this is having on the economy. “Doing in tough” is not even close to what’s coming IMO.

I think when level 4 started we didn't think it would be as successful as it has been. Now we have a chance to actually eliminate this from New Zealand. The worst thing we could do would be to go down the levels quickly and have it spread. Then you go back to level 4 or have unfettered community transmission and what we have done so far will be for nothing. We have the chance to get back to "normal" in NZ and we should take that if possible.

What a giant leap you make to get from our current 10 cases per day to "unfettered community transmission". We are destroying our economy, and the livelihood of thousands of people, for something that has 18 people in hospital.

It's just absurd.

As it stands, we could return to some semblance of "normal life" in NZ right now. We should be at L3 immediately, where there is next to no extra risk given how tight it is.

L2 should be right around the corner if the data continues on this trajectory.

This BS about elimination and effective contact tracing does my head in. Why do we need to have the "gold standard" / 100% success rate for this? We have no drain on our hospitals. This disease doesn't have some 20% fatality rate on the otherwise-healthy. Do we know where every flu patient has been every year, do we get stressed that they may have visited a rest home or a workplace or a school? Are people asked to keep diaries in case they catch it?

We just dont need to eliminate this thing in NZ. Its a totally unnecessary goal, and it's doing significantly more harm than good right now.

I don't know how some of you guys manage to comment during the game, you must be better typists than me (not saying much), I'd miss half the action if I tried.

It's also pretty fun to wake up with a smile on my face, make a BLT and sit down with a coffee to scroll through the 1000+ posts here over brekkie.

Happy days!

Day 14 of self isolation is today, I'm free!!!

@Bones said in Aussie Rugby:

@Siam thought he's about to receive the pop pass and then send the skittles flying.

"use me!!!"

5km solo today, a bit quicker at 4:44/km pace to test the calves, no pain so all good

@taniwharugby said in TR vs the future:

Ha searching through my activities for one I did last winter and came across this one...I felt fast, but that's next level, think it was due to me lengthening my stride

Looks decent....

@Machpants said in Hurricanes v Highlanders:

@gt12 said in Hurricanes v Highlanders:

@Bones

Frizell 23 metres, 8 runs, 3 defenders beaten, 1 clean break; MMT 59 metres off 7 runs, 1 defneder beaten, 2 offloads.

Laumape had quite a day on offense, by the stats: 100 metres, 20 runs, 1 clean break, 9 defenders beaten, 1 offload.

And most of laumape's work was in close, not running it back from fullback or the wing, very impressive body of work

He'd make a wonderful League player.

@Yeetyaah said in Hurricanes v Highlanders:

So much rubbish blowing onto the field. You Wellingtonians are filthy buggers.

It's the Bogans from the Hutt mate

@Bones said in Hurricanes v Highlanders:

Hey Mitch, fuck off.

Think he heard you and gave you a massive "hey Bones, fuck you too"

@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:

@Godder fucksticks, someone in thier late 60s ffs!

I hope it isnt gonna become a 'thing' if we dont come down hard on them, they think it is a joke.

We fucked up by not hitting the 1st clown with everything, now it's become a joke

@barbarian said in NBA season 2019/20:

I genuinely think it's impossible to tip. No crowds or home court throws it wide open. Who knows how players will react as the season goes on and they are locked up for a longer period.

This might be the break the Bucks needed. I tipped the Lakers earlier in the year, thinking the Kobe emotion might be enough to lift them to the title. But in a sterile arena that emotional push ebbs away, you'd think.

But it wouldn't shock me if a team like Houston or Miami came from the clouds. Or a settled, experienced team like Toronto.

I can't see anyone outside Clips, Lakers or Bucks getting up, absent some serious injuries. Houston, OKC could steal a few games, but over 7 games will ultimately get found out.

5km Park Run with the family today. I ran with the 7yr old, 32:25, he did pretty great I thought and my calves held up which was awesome. Time to get back out there.

Ms 10 finished in 23:20, guess I'm never running with her again.

Oh and if Philly lose every game, it'll be more than they deserve.