Sunday 24 May 2020

My Sunday Photo - Maintaining Social Distancing

I abandoned a food shop on Thursday in Marks and Spencers due top lack of social distancing. I made it through the chilled aisles and then joined the queue with a joint of beef, cheese and milk.

There was a woman queuing up to purchase 1 mango, with her adult daughter who was buying 1 packet of sweets. There was also no way I could maintain 2ms distance at the tills, there was a rope behind me and I was told to move forward to let people pass behind me.

I made a complaint to the woman at the door on leaving and was told they were following government guidelines and only had 37 of the allowed 40 people in the store, the time I was in there.

I have been going to Waitrose once a fortnight and the local Londis once a week to top up with milk and to buy and post my mum a TV guide and some sweets in between the online food shops I have arranged for her.

I'd opted to go to M&S as I wanted to buy some bits and pieces for care packages and birthday gifts for family members in poundstretcher and poundland and decided to visit the retail park to minimise the amount of time I was out and the number of people I came in contact with.

It seems that a lot of people think if they are wearing a mask and gloves it's ok to literally barge past you, or wear a silly grin and tiptoe. I'm not sure these are proven methods to prevent the virus from spreading.


I also made some outdoor social distance visits to deliver care packages to family and meet with 2 separate friends on 2 separate occasions. We stayed outdoors, maintained more than the 2ms distance requirements and for less than an hour.

It did mean I left my local area and travelled 35 miles to make these visits, sadly I passed very close to the Welsh Border and where my mother lives, but I didn't go and visit her as she is on the vulnerable list due to her age and I'm not allowed to enter Wales. On Friday there were police road blocks between the Forest of Dean and Monmouth.

I did tweet about my trip on Friday, there have been a few sub tweets aimed in my direction. But I was well within the guidelines of what I could and couldn't do.

I certainly felt safer and more at ease not just because I was meeting with people I knew and could trust, but I was meeting with them in an open space, I took my own deckchair, drink and snacks and the gifts were handed over wearing rubber gloves and after I dropped them, I retreated so they could be picked up.

Have you met up with anyone outside your household? How do the meeting go?

Photalife

14 comments:

  1. I agree that people wearing masks in supermarkets somehow think they’re invincible- they’re not, and it’s worrying.

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    1. yes indeed, also people seem to think if they're quick the virus won't spread either

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  2. There are two different supermarkets near us. One is more reminiscent of a rugby scrum, the other is more sedate with more people wearing masks. As it happens, I dislike people wearing gloves. You don't know how long people have been wearing them and if they've worn them for more than a few minutes there's a greater chance they're just spreading germs around. That's why the guidance has always been to wash your hands! Anyway, we have met up with a couple of people in a socially distanced fashion so the kids could meet friends. it's a case of easing them back into the world because when (...if) the schools open it'll be a huge shock to them if they haven't seen at least a few people.

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    1. good idea to start a bit of meeting up with other people, you can use the time to supervise the children with the importance of social distancing ready for when they do go back to school

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  3. I had to go to a small store - I was in gloves and a mask. Another customer w/o mask or gloves got too close and I wanted to yell get back!

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    1. sometimes customers don't allow you time to move yourself to a space, it's so frustrating

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  4. The local supermarket to us is very well organised and when we visit it's often very quiet. The cheaper one further out of town is manic, no distancing at all. We won't be going back there.

    Thank you for linking up to #MySundayPhoto

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    1. yep, the cheaper supermarkets have been a night mare for me

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  5. I've noticed that people have seemed to stop social distancing in our local supermarket. I purposely hold back and leave space in front, then block space behind with my trolley but some of them come right up behind you. I have perfected my death stare over the past few weeks, I think !

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    1. I've noticed if one or two people think they can move closer then a lot of other people start acting like sheep

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  6. Marks and Spencer sounds a nightmare! It sounds like you were being very sensible and definitely well within the law with meeting with friends. We've chatted to my parents at the bottom of my drive and talked to my sister over her fence, but I haven't actually been out and met anyone yet, although my 18yo son has met up with a few people at different times.

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    1. it's great your family are all so close by for you to be able to stay within the same area, I've been a little bit hesitant about going too far afield

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  7. That does sound a bit of a nightmare. I haven't ventured into there yet and we have mainly had shopping delivered xx

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    1. I've got my first click and collect today

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