Hold your fucking horses people! The lovely Gina from AirNZ just called, and she has managed to get us on a flight on the 27th - 3 days EARLIER than the flight we got bumped from!
Legend!
2020 has still been a bitch, but I'm gonna celebrate one of the small wins tonight
Firstly thanks to everyone who has shared on this thread. Absolute legends all. I certainly have benefitted from reading your stories.
Thought I'd add a little colour to what prompted me to start this thread.
A little over a year ago I was in a strange space. Not depressed, but bored and stale. Same job for 14yrs, stuck in the crazy hectic Sydney life of work, traffic and running around after 3 kids. Doing OK financially, but locked in a high-opex Sydney life meaning both of us were working pretty hard. Mum back in NZ with terminal lung cancer, time remaining unknown.
Decided to take a year off and reset, managed to secure a sabbatical from work, and moved the whole family to Bali. Thought by not working I'd be able to get back to NZ fairly easily to see Mum as needed.
Obviously 2020 got in the way of most of that, and we find ourselves back in Sydney again, back into the hectic lives we left behind - just without the cultural experience we had hoped for and with a big hole in our savings!
Had started back at work early given we were back in Sydney, and although some of the staleness remained, I had a new found appreciation for the stability of a job I still liked. Until a week ago that is, when I found out my company is exiting the country in a few months 
. It was announced to the market just last night, whic is why I haven't posted until now. Looks like I have a role until April, after which I'll be job hunting (haven't had a job interview since March 2005...eeek!).
I certainly don't write this to complain, I am very conscious that many folk on here have had extraordinary events happen in their lives, and 2020 has totally destroyed some peoples lives around the world - like many others have said, that has made me very thankful for all I have.
But its been quite interesting to find out a bit about myself this year. Before 2020 nothing really bothered me. Never really got anxious about much, was always pretty confident. That definitely got shaken up this year. Even the minor task of getting the family back to Sydney from NZ caused me an inordinate amount of anxiety at the time, and now I find myself pretty stressed again at the thought of seeking and (hopefully) starting a new role.
Turns out I really do value stability in my life. Routine. A sense of control, whether its real or not. I am looking forward to getting that back, the volatility of 2020 has really not been enjoyable.
Thanks again to all those who have shared, and to the wider Fern community. 2020 would have been a whole lot worse without you horrible cnts to "talk" to.
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...
Mate, I certainly admire your energy and passion on this. And a genuine thanks for bringing stuff to mind that most of us probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.
I probably won't engage too much in this thread, and thought I'd explain why, given you've gone to the effort of setting the forum.
Truth be told, I'm just tired. Tired of talking about it, tired of reading about it, tired of it dominating our lives.
I feel like we have pegged our sails to the vaccine rollout now, and I just want to hit that full steam. I want us to get to 75% or whatever the nunber is, and then I want us to just stop talking about it altogether. Singapore style. No more updates on numbers, no more pressers. No more restrictions on movement. Just life as normal, with 1 more virus out there to live with.
Am I asking too much?
I'm aliiiiive!!!!!!!
All went pretty smooth in the end. Up at 4am, easy drive to Akl, 5mins wait with the police at the border.
All the airline staff were awesome, plane totally empty, and the pokice and army at the Sydney end were all great.
Ended up at the Meriton Suites in the CBD - 2 bed, 2 bath, 3 tv apartment on the 29th floor, ocean glimpses west and north, city views south,and a balcony with real fresh air. Really cant complain!
Aside from the fucken NBA being cancelled of course!!!
When you let someone into traffic in front of you and they don't give you a wave. How fucken hard is it to raise your arm you lazy fluffybunny!
Apparently caffeine is a stimulant and readily accessed as such which is where the buzz comes from and teh alertness - and the addiction.
I've never had coffee addictions, I'll just stop for weeks at a time no worries.
But, if I have coffee after 2pm it messes with my sleep.
That's a sign you're not drinking enough booze
@act-crusader hard to build a play off offense though when guys can sag off him and clog the paint around Embiid, then just hack Simmons whenever he drives. I think if he stays a poor shooter, he has to be able to make >65% at the line to compensate.
Shaq was a terrible FT shooter but at least that didn't stop him attacking. His attempt numbers are outrageous.
Simmons is just a scared little kid now. Too worried about his image I reckon.
@nta said in Melbourne Earthquake:
@roninwc said in Melbourne Earthquake:
Felt it here in Sydney.
Sitting at home (where else would I be given we are in our 13th week of lockdown
), our 3rd floor apartment in Lane Cove and at first I thought I was experiencing some sort of vertigo as I felt my feet "moving" under me as I was sitting at my desk gaming... uhm, I mean "working".
And then my wife came in a few minutes later having seen the earthquake reported on the news and I was like, of course!
A couple of car alarms went off at that time too.
Last earthquake I experienced was the "Newcastle Quake" back in '89, not long after settling here in Australia. That was a much cooler experience as the building I was working in swayed and moved.
Felt nothing out here in the Hills.
Bloody Eastern Suburbs elites, even keeping the quakes to yourself!
Nothing here either, waiting on the tsunami to arrive though
@canefan said in NBA Season - now 21/22:
Ben feels unappreciated after what happened at the end of last season, appears to be intent on taking his talents elsewhere, regardless of the financial cost
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32250236/sources-ben-simmons-report-done-philadelphia-76ers
No way the 76ers get value for him right now
My most hatiest (TM @Hooroo ) player by a long way. How the heck did he get his contract structured to receive 50% of it by October?!
Also bizarre that he earns $33m in salary, but can play zero games and only get fined a total of $18m - what's he doing to earn the other $15m??!!!
@catogrande said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@tewaio said in Coronavirus - Overall:
It's amazing how different various parts of the world are now. In the UK I haven't put on a mask at all since late July.
Signs are still up in the tube/trains to wear a mask, but only about a quarter of people do. Staff members and ticket inspectors don't.
Just come back from a week in France and they are operating a bit differently to the UK. Mandatory mask wearing in all shops, cafes, restaurants etc with a high degree of compliance. Obviously in cafes and restaurants once you are sitting down and eating/drinking you are not expected to wear one... except for one small cafe in St Malo on the way back. Everyone sitting down, inside and out and not wearing masks. We walked in, wearing ours and then sat down and took them off. Less than five minutes in and I had a French guy asking me if we had masks. I replied that we did but as we were sitting down we didn't have to wear them. He seemed a bit put out by this (he was wearing his mask on his arm. His bloody arm). The rest of the cafe joined in asking if we were vaccinated and most were satisfied with our answer except the protagonist who got up and walked out, still not wearing his mask.
No amount of mask can contain your englishness
@kiwiwomble said in Coronavirus - Australia:
Tradies marching over the westgate...not good
its pretty wild isn't it?!! Fascinating
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
is it possible to just not speak to or listen to these academics?
Have a fucking read of that. These blokes have done a model that reckons even if we hit 80% we will need lockdowns for half of next year.
The only way to avoid that is to apparently vaccinate 90% of the entire population and stay at Level 2 restrictions and don't let anyone in the Country.
For all of 2022
A state politician just got an erection reading that
In 2017 there were > 1100 deaths from influenza (not "with", "from"), a drop in 2018, 2019 back to 900 again.
In 2020 36 and in 2021 as of August? Zero.
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/australia-records-zero-flu-deaths-over-past-12-mon
But yeah, seems sensible to lock us up and destroy the economy and many peoples lives in other ways to avoid a similar outcome from Covid even if we are vaccinated.
