Morning Glory the restaurants I've been here in Portugal they disinfect everything of you, the tables, the chairs, the menus. You can ask ahead what additional safety measures they are employing, I'm sure there are also restaurants doing this in England.
How is the corona virus affecting you?
- Thread starter The Late Night Gourmet
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Yeah - I think the ones I'm looking at do have outside seating. Bear in mind the weather is much cooler here though! One thing that concerns me is needing to use the toilet. How can that be made safe after every customer uses it?
And I think your husband's cousin is right to be concerned. She is probably more at risk than the customers.
Yes - I think they are doing that here too. Its just that I haven't been anywhere for over 5 months so its a psychological issue as much as practical.
JAS_OH1
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I did not use the restroom at the restaurant. We chose a place close by and I used it before we left the house, then limited my drinking (no water with my meal, 1 glass of wine) while at the restaurant. I have not used a public restroom since March, which although at times has been a bit uncomfortable, I felt was necessary to remain safe.
JAS_OH1
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Yes, they dinsinfected everything at this restaurant as well, but again, we were outside. In fact, although they had clean laminated menus available, they had a contactless menu where one scans a code on a table standee and the menu populates on the customer's smartphone. There were customers inside eating, however, and that is worriesome, because it's known that the virus transmits best indoors. So even if others are at tables six feet away, if someone laughs loudly, coughs, sneezes, etc. while they are dining and not wearing a mask, you risk breathing in their respiratory droplets (it's been suggested that those droplets can travel much further than 6 feet when expelled with force from the diaphragm).
JAS_OH1
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Yesterday my husband and I went for a walk at one of the local parks. There was a school track team there running the trails that gave no warning as they ran up behind us. We had to scooch way over to the right of the trail as they passed and I held my breath since they were running hard and panting (and running right next to each other with no social distancing). After our walk, we saw them sitting and standing near some picnic tables in the large cleared area, no masks, and kids ranging from about 15-18 standing and sitting in close proximity, laughing and talking. The coach and one student were the only ones wearing masks. That really bothered me. How many of those kids will spend time with grandparents or other older and possibly immune compromised family members in the next few weeks?
The last time I went to lunch with my neighbor, the first place we went was too crowded. So we went somewhere else. It is nice to live in a town with hundreds of restaurants.
As for the toilets, Covid-19 does not spread very well by touch. If you contact it with your hands, you then have to touch your nose, eyes or mouth. To be a little crude, you won't catch it through your "cheeks," if you get my drift. Just wash your hands, as one should after using the toilet, all the time.
The goal is to limit your exposure. Don't eat out every day. Be selective. Make sure the restaurant is practicing proper social distancing. Hey, nobody is going to give you a hard time if you wipe your table down with disinfecting wipe.
CD
Yeah, I keep hearing from dubious sources (Trump Administration) that kids don't get Covid-19. BS. They may be more likely to be asymptomatic, but they still go home to parents, and in some cases, grandparents. How did one of the greatest nations in the history of the world become so stupid? It is basic science we're talking about.
CD
JAS_OH1
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It's not the toilet that's my concern. It's the small, enclosed space of the restroom with limited social distancing...the small partitions between toilets do not completely enclose from floor to ceiling, usually. The sinks are not 6 feet apart. There could be a queue inside. That and the fact that many people do not wash their hands properly. If you have to turn off the faucet and then touch the knob to dispense paper towels (some restaurants do not have touchless), then handwashing does little good.
epicuric
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Totally agree, which is why I wouldn't mind if the whole thing was cancelled. Can't cancel it myself now, without losing a shed load of money. I have no sympathy with mouth breathing anti maskers, so the flight is potentially fraught with confrontation if the airline don't get a grip.
Yeah, I don't know what she's thinking. Right now, she's saying she'll go and just be careful, order food in, etc, but it's for a wedding (ceremony only), and her whole family will be there, and they're not quite in the "it's a hoax" camp, but they firmly believe it's being blown out of proportion.
My concern is, since her stroke, and if I may be blunt here, MrsTasty is much more easily dominated than in the past. Her family are all pretty good at dosing out equal measures of guilt and bullying, and without me there, she won't stand up for herself, and unless our dog dies in the next six weeks (a possibility), I'm not going because she's too old to kennel now, and someone needs to stay with the dog.
If I'm betting, I don't think she's going to go, as she's extremely worried about her chances if she catches it (she's high-risk for a few different reasons). She just hates pulling the plug on it, the finality if it (for which she'll catch hell as well).
They had an virologist or immunologist or something like that on the radio last week, and he was commenting on our state's guidelines about going out. We have various activities rated as low, medium, and high risk, and eating in/at a restaurant is rated as a medium risk.
His comment: "Fine. Medium risk. What's using a public restroom rated? I'll tell you. It's high risk. So if you're planning on using the restroom while you're there, your medium risk just went high risk, and you're going to be more relaxed and less vigilant because you think it's medium risk."
I'll use a public restroom, but only for stands, not sits, and only if I'm the only one in there. I keep my mask on, hold my breath, use my elbows to turn things on and off, if possible, wash the hell out of my hands, and I don't touch the door handle on the way out.
Don't wear a mask on a plane? Get your a$$ kicked... then thrown off the plane and arrested.
CD
rascal
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We now have people allowed to fly all around our country, and people still pouring in. Only a matter of time before it blows up, and it will, no one wearing masks. Business as usual, what businesses there are. Just at Auckland airport, 120 businesses shut.
Russ
Russ
It's amazing how two people can read two entirely different things. What I read may be right, and what you read may be right. I think we need to ask President Trump, he'll know the truth (imagine the things he's done in a bathroom stall
).CD
JAS_OH1
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My niece just sent out invitations to her April 2021 wedding down in Savannah, Georgia, which is probably an 11-hour drive from where I live in Ohio. I am not eager to get on a plane, for one, so driving would be the only option, and I don't want to have to stop and use the restroom anywhere on the way. How likely is it that I can "hold it" for 11 hours? My husband immediately stated he wasn't going, so I would have to drive alone, which I don't like to do for long road trips. Secondly, the wedding is in a church and she has invited about 150 people. Social distancing or not, I am not eager to spend an hour or more inside of a church with a bunch of other people, most of whom I will not know and will have no idea if they are as careful as I have been with self-isolation, mask wearing, and good hygiene. And the reception is another indoor venue with eating and drinking, so that will mean not much mask-wearing going on, plus after people are drinking, they will likely be less careful to social distance. Then there is the staying in a hotel part. Not a fan of that idea, either, no matter how great the hotel staff has been at sanitizing things, all it takes is one slip-up and I could contract the virus.
Since March I have managed to stay COVID free and would like to stay that way. I have been so very careful, missing out on socializing with my friends and family, missing out on going out to restaurants and bars, and missing out on vacations that I normally would have taken by now and will miss the ones I usually take in the late fall and winter. I actually enjoy shopping in person and haven't been able to do that, either. I don't want to disappoint her, but I also don't want to risk my health. I don't imagine there is going to be a safe and effective vaccine by April. I would love to be more optimistic but I just don't see it.
Hopefully she and her fiance will offer a ZOOM option for those of us who will not be attending.