The Cat

Those pesky Germans with their well thought out plan to test and trace the virus leading to a far lower death count than us.

Hahaha. Love that.

Amazing stuff. Had a quick look but will delve deeper soon. (John Beresford's years played is wrong, unless we signed him when he was 10.)

If you think pubs and bars are opening anytime soon then prepare for disappointment. They are one of the worst places for transmission. Small cafés and restaurants maybe ok because they are much easier to maintain some semblance of social distancing.

It's kind of obvious that small businesses and shops under a certain size will reopen before bars. You can easily limit the number of people in a hairdressers, bookshop, tattoo parlour etc to one or two, but you'd never do that in a pub. I just want Vinilo record shop to be open. Don't really care about anything else.

Reading the government advice I'd suggest football is a grey area. They can't work from home. Their activity needs to continue for the business to operate. Below is a cut and paste from here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/guidance-for-employers-and-businesses-on-coronavirus-covid-19 "All employees should be encouraged to work from home unless it is impossible for them to do so. Not everyone can work from home: certain jobs require people to travel to, from and for their work – for instance to operate machinery, work in construction or manufacturing, or to deliver front line services." "Where the social distancing guidelines cannot be followed in full in relation to a particular activity, businesses should consider whether that activity needs to continue for the business to operate, and, if so, take all the mitigating actions possible to reduce the risk of transmission between their staff."

We are "by far the greatest team the world has ever seen" so it will be disappointing if it isn't us.

I used to see Ken Monkou walking back up Wilton Avenue after games towards Bedford Place. He was mates with the guy who ran Videotheque.

They were both so bad they made Neil Heaney look like Ryan Giggs.

We had an email today saying tests have been opened up to Police officers or staff who are self-isolating because they suspect they have symptoms. You can't just go and get a random test.

Not seen Mindhunter, will have a look now we've finished Better Call Saul. I know a few people who bailed on the Wire. Season 2 was maybe a little slow but it's worth sticking with. Season 4 is probably my favourite TV ever.

Some of these names are bringing back memories. Peter Madsen popped into my head earlier. He was particularly bad.

Hojbjerg is actually overrated by our fans because of his fist pumping and badge slapping. They don't stop singing that bloody song when we have other much better players that don't ever get mentioned. He's clearly a million times better than any of us but in Premier League terms he's distinctly average. No shame in that, but I doubt he'd get much of a look in at a better team.

Mind you Keller was only on loan so not a proper signing.

Miller didn't play many games and actually did alright, I'd say Kasey Keller would be a better shout for the GK slot.

But, but, but we need to know when West Quay will reopen so thousands of people can wander around and buy a bunch of stuff they don't really need FFS.

If we'd locked down say a week earlier would it not have prevented the period where transmission was ramping right up and saved a significant number of lives? Is it just a coincidence that Cheltenham has twice the number of deaths as Bristol despite having a much smaller population? No doubt there will be enquiries about this going on for years. At least the lawyers will be coining it in.

Back on track, it seems that 8th April is the day with the most deaths. Considering it takes an average of 3 weeks from infection to passing away does this suggest that peak transmission time was between 12th and 20th March when lockdown came into effect and that it was therefore too late to prevent such a high death toll?

I don't really like any party in this country which is great because it means I can moan about all of them.

Not sure how old Olivier Bernard was when we had him but the bloke was utter toilet.

You are correct, however quite a lot has stopped. For example the big development up by Tesco in Burseldon has had no one working in it for ages. I'm guessing it's a problem with suppliers. That's the sort of thing that needs to get going again whatever the problem is.

Not sure he was particularly worse than anyone else that night. The whole team were so bad that if it came out we'd lost on purpose because of some massive far Eastern betting scam I wouldn't have been surprised.

I went to Huddersfield the day before with a Palace mate to watch their game. Got trashed in the Magic Rock brewery before staying in Huddersfield overnight. We were pretty sure we'd end up there for the rest of the weekend because of the weather, but luckily the locals were pretty on it and had cleared the roads and we made it to Wigan. That's probably the second coldest I'd been after Birmingham.

Mine are travel based disasters. I was at Brighton for 9/11 too which was plain weird. The Birmingham away game mentioned above. Drove up, parked by a pub. Went in to meet some friends. Started snowing quite heavily. Went to the game, never been so cold. Got back to car which was under a hefty amount of snow. Managed to clear it all and set off home. By now roads were very dicey. Slid around a bit before trying to head down one road which looked like it went to the motorway. As I did a big 4x4 came past and stopped saying that if I went down the hill I'd get stuck. Turned around, somehow found the motorway. Managed to get behind a lorry and drive at no more than 30mph in its tracks all the way until the A34. Plenty of cars had just stopped or been abandoned. Somehow made it home but it wasn't until about Newbury that I had any confidence that if make it. Was properly scary at times. MK Dons away in the cup when we won 6-0 there was a massive diversion because the A34 was shut. Headed off down a road that looked like it cut off loads of the diversion but it ended running out abruptly and turning into a field where the car got wedged on some tractor tracks. Took me about half an hour to dig out some of the ground under the car and get going again. By this time it was about 2am and I had to follow the diversion. Got home about 4am and then had to get up at 6am and go to work. FFS. West Brom away under Adkins. Got to the M5 turn off about 45 minutes before the game but then just got stuck. Nothing moved. My mate jumped out and walked to the ground. I eventually managed to park and got to the ground at half time. Turnstiles obviously shut. Found a steward who let me in the home end and then I had to be escorted around the side of the pitch to the Saints end. We lost, it was rubbish. QPR when Mane scored at the end. Fell down from the back of the stand over a load of seats. Smashed my ribs up and ripped the crotch out of my jeans. Walked around London for the rest of the night with my pants hanging out. Got to Victoria, missed the train to Swanwick by a minute. Bought more beer for the hour wait and sat outside the station with some homeless guys talking about football and sharing my beer. Got in the train looking a right mess, by now I was properly hammerd. Found a seat, only one left in the carriage. A family of 6 or so all sat around me were Pompey fans who took great delight in laughing at me although to be fair they then looked after me and made sure I got off at the right stop.

Small businesses, so shops under a certain size, hairdressers etc. Garden centres. You probably need to look at construction sites too Young school children, infant age first then gradually staggering the older ages although I don't think that will happen until after half term.