On 20 Dec 2020 at 08:01p, Warpslide pondered and said...

My city begins a new lockdown starting tomorrow. The premier of Ontario will be making another announcement tomorrow, rumours on the news say it could be a province-wide lockdown or some other sweeping restrictions.
At any rate, we'll
find out tomorrow. I forgot to buy cat food today, so I get to deal
with the fun new restrictions when I go get it tomorrow or risk the kitties staging a mutiny.

Sorry to hear this. It seems like many places are facing the same thing in
the lead up to Christmas. I understand a new more contagious version of the virus is also causing issues for the UK leading to further lock down efforts there too :(

We've been fortunate in New Zealand. We had a big lock down back in March
that lasted 2-3 months and then restrictions started to lift slowly. There's been a few regional (Auckland City) lock downs since but by and large we've been able to reopen shops and lead a largely normal life here since.

I think one big thing our government did quite early on was to close borders
to anyone other than returning New Zealand citizens and require those who
came back to stay in managed isolation facilities for two weeks before being able to carry on with their internal travels.

This seems to have worked well for our country with the bulk of the COVID cases being reported and caught at the border in these MIQ facilities.. Still it only takes a small chink in the armour and the virus slips out. That's happened already with Auckland getting locked down for 3 weeks some time back.

I got a parental guilt-trip from my mom about me not coming home for the holidays, but they understand. I don't really feel safe driving three hours north and risk exposing myself and family members to something.
My grandparents are near 90 so I choose to play it safe.

I think that's really wise, I'd do the same thing. Stay put. :)

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Avon wrote to Warpslide <=-

borders to anyone other than returning New Zealand citizens and require those who came back to stay in managed isolation facilities for two
weeks before being able to carry on with their internal travels.

I wonder what those facilities were like?


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On 12-22-20 10:27, Avon wrote to Warpslide <=-

Sorry to hear this. It seems like many places are facing the same thing
in the lead up to Christmas. I understand a new more contagious version
of the virus is also causing issues for the UK leading to further lock down efforts there too :(

Yeah, this new UK variant is a worry. It's not any more virulent, but a lot more contagious, from all reports. At least one case made it here, but got stopped in quarantine.

We've been fortunate in New Zealand. We had a big lock down back in
March that lasted 2-3 months and then restrictions started to lift
slowly. There's been a few regional (Auckland City) lock downs since
but by and large we've been able to reopen shops and lead a largely
normal life here since.

Had had 2 lockdowns here - March - May, and the big one in August - October, but now in a position similar to NZ. Sydney is having some issues with a cluster, but it looks like they're getting on top of it.

I think one big thing our government did quite early on was to close borders to anyone other than returning New Zealand citizens and require those who came back to stay in managed isolation facilities for two
weeks before being able to carry on with their internal travels.

Yeah we have mandatory quarantine for all incoming visitors. But hopefully we'll be able to have a regional travel bubble some time in 2021. I plan on visiting (North Island) in early 2022. I'll also come over when there's a competition in Dunedin. :)

This seems to have worked well for our country with the bulk of the
COVID cases being reported and caught at the border in these MIQ facilities.. Still it only takes a small chink in the armour and the
virus slips out. That's happened already with Auckland getting locked
down for 3 weeks some time back.

Yeah it doesn't take much. Have to stay on top of it constantly.

I think that's really wise, I'd do the same thing. Stay put. :)

Yeah safest move. I make a judgement call based on travel plans and likely outcomes. Out here, it's unlikely that the virus gets around. We have a bit of a buffer from the main sources (i.e. big cities with cases in quarantine), though there are still possibilities.


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On 31 Dec 2020, Ogg said the following...

Now, I shop once a week for food (it's just myself now + 3 cats) and I Og> spend between $60-$100 each time - including cat food.

That's about par for what we spend for two people & 2 cats. Unless it's the odd time where we seem to run out of everything at once & need to buy another 6 months of toilet paper, paper towels & laundry soap.

I did enjoy the technology section.

I have to skip that section now. For some reason I loose all sense of practicality going though there. I still have this giant bundle of HDMI cables (of various lengths) here, I've only ever needed one out of the pack, but hey, I have them if I need them. It's right next to the 6 pack of 16GB USB flash drives I bought & never opened...

There was a time when they slipped in electronics that didn't
bear the Canada-approved CSA stamp for such things. When people
bought something that didn't bear that symbol, the Canadian
repair centers didn't accept those models.

Hmm, I never knew about that. A few years back we got my father-in-law a new TV from Costco. They were offering a "free" 3-year extended warranty with the TV. We're way past both the manufacture's & extended warranties at this point though & it's still chugging along.

2 years after my initial Costco membership, I analysed my savings
.vs. membership fees and decided that the difference wasn't worth
the waste and hassle of a trip to one those centers.

We're currently doing this. We live somewhat close to two locations, both of which have gas stations. We're trying to decide whether their toilet paper, gas & a coupe of pharmacy items are worth the $55 + tax per year. Since 2016 they stopped accepting AMEX and take MasterCard, which means you can take advantage of points to sweeten the deal (if that's your thing).

Though Capital One accounted in October of this year that they're ending their relationship with Costco, so who knows if they'll stick with MasterCard or perhaps switch to Visa this time around.

Jay

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Though Capital One accounted in October of this year that they're ending their relationship with
Costco, so who knows if they'll stick with MasterCard or perhaps switch to Visa this time around.

Costco's credit card partner in the USA is Citibank and Visa. So maybe! We get around $200 back from Costco spending each year which is nice.

Bob Roberts
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BY: Bob Roberts(21:2/118)


|11BR|09> |10Costco's credit card partner in the USA is Citibank and Visa. So maybe!|07
|11BR|09> |10 We get around $200 back from Costco spending each year which is nice.|07
In Canada it was Capital One, but they still can use their cards until the end of 2021.


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