Amazing how many old faces this thread picked up, I just went back through it from the start.

How's everybody doing now we are potentially looking at coming out of the pandemic via vaccines saving our bacon?

I'm still at home and sport is still going so it's generally same-old for me. Homeschooling was mostly horrible, a constant hour-to-hour decision needing to be made about whether we compromise our jobs, the boy's education or our happiness and relationship with one another. Hopefully the schools reopening doesn't make for too much of a spike in cases.

Hey Milko, lovely to hear from you!

For you, keeping people at arms' length must have been no hardship.

Feel free not to read beyond here, because I've had a fucking good Covid.

I had my first AstraZenica vaxx a couple of weeks ago with no discomfort - not even what I felt after my October 'flu jab. Charlie, my youngest is not that far off thirty and schooling other people's kids. I have one lovely grandchild who calls me 'Grampus'. I have invested the shitloads I've saved from home-working on Georgian glass, Edo period Netsuke, strong drink and generic viagra.

Give my undying love to Tina.

Still waiting on our shots in Ontario (provincial motto: "Let others lead, we follow").

Striving to keep self-abuse to a dull roar, with limited success. Man, it's just so fuckin' fun.

Killed more peggies [FC5] than you can shake a stick at.

I *loved* FC5.5 New Dawn. Second only to 4, for me; so you have a treat waiting in the wings.

I'm loving the fc5 arcade maps, especially those by AKAFootloose. Maximum enemies, maximum aggression, threats, insults, shouting, screaming, and nonstop bullet storms. Loadouts are a bit limited but mostly pretty cool, with plenty o' reloads scattered about. Pretty amazing landscapes and townscapes too.

The final FC5.5 bossmatch against the twins and their army is a sod. I'm no fan of rock hard challenges generally - I'm along for the ride - but I was proud to have beaten it every time.

Partially returned to the office since Jan. Two days a week. Enjoy the two days I'm there but also enjoy working from home. Don't ever want to go back to five days in the office. Could probably be back in five days if I really wanted to be, though we've been asked to work to a rota.

I said enjoy, but in reality work itself is very chaotic at the moment, but that's not Covid related. Just work stuff. But that on top of Covid doesn't make things particularly enjoyable.

My underlying condition means I've now been invited for the vaccine, get that on Thursday. Good to see the end (of sorts) in sight.

Girlfriend has now returned to work from furlough after around 11-12 months. That's been a big change.

Genuinely no idea how people have managed this with kids. The idea of things going back to "normal" feels odd. Not totally sure I want to return to how things were before all this.

I know what you mean. My wife and I have a 4-bedroom house and no kids. It's genuinely been great having completely separate home offices during the past year. Meanwhile my wife has a married colleague that lives in a 2-bedroom house with her husband and young child, and which has a completely open-plan living area downstairs.

Sounds like hell in comparison, and I do feel for all those stuck in cramped apartments or with younger kids over the past year.

Yeah, I've got a couple of old school-friends who live in Canada now - one in Vancouver and the other in Toronto. On our weekly Zoom piss-up they remarked that they hadn't had even a sniff of a vaccination appointment yet. Struck me as curious after some international comment that Canada was "stockpiling" vaccine. 

Stockpiling IOUs more like.

I picked up a new contract role the very end of last year (Which was a VERY tough year). 100% WFH/remote, regardless of COVID so that takes me into now my 3rd year of 100% remote work. I'm going to need to stop telling people I stay away lot.

Very very bored of COVID and while I think, after 2+ years, I've adapted to WFH I'm still a bit unsettled. I'm desperate to get down to London (where the HQ is) and meet a few people on the team, and catch up with some people.

I've been a pretty good networker over the years, and I have found it really tough not being able to find an excuse to go and meet people.

 

Ooh, there's videos and everyting. This one's pretty good, but he's made better maps

Apart from the relatively infrequent lockdowns, things haven't really changed here in Auckland. We don't have many foreign tourists, which has put a lot of strain on the hospitality industry, but we're mostly just sitting around waiting for the vaccine to turn up. Most of us aren't going to be getting it (the Pfizer edition) until at least June or July. Which is fine, though we're missing being able to take cheap holidays to Fiji and Rarotonga. We can leave the country to some countries, but we'd still have to go through two weeks of quarantine on the way back in, so effectively we can't travel abroad.

During the first lockdown I went from providing IT support to various customers from the office, to providing it from home. My partner, on the other hand, used to be a genetic scientist before she went into sales. As soon as we went into lockdown and her job went a bit quiet, she was headhunted by the local health board to help set up a new laboratory for Covid testing. Her work were really generous and let her go to part time, and even paid her more to make up for the difference between what they would have paid her and what the lab actually paid her.

So I started working from home, where she normally works, and she went off to the lab every day. That only lasted for the first lockdown, so she's back in her sales job now, and I work from home two days a week. Luckily, we have two spare rooms (not as many international visitors as we normally get), so we each have an office.

I have to say, though, it's weird watching and hearing about how other countries are dealing with it all. We can't really match up our New Zealand (lack of) experiences with Covid and everyone elses. There's a whole country of people here wondeirng what you're all going on about.

 

Much the same for me, thankful to still have my job.  I'm in the office one or two days a week depending on when I'm needed.  I've been helping out with recruitment online which is a novelty, but once you get over being on webcam it's much the same as in person.

I'm hoping to be able to return to the office by summer, but we've no official news/guidance/target date.

My fella is in the high risk category so he's had his first jab, no news on mine yet.

Jayzus, you're all still alive¬1!!
We (myself, t'wife and t'kid) are all at home and working for now. Schools are back (primary) which is a huge relief, and I've been "invited" to return to the office from 29th March, but I'm in no rush and I'd rather wait until I can at least get vaccinated first before I make a genuine longer-term return.

Hello SERGIO!!

Alex being a special Teaching assistant we managed to get one my daughter into school! so only had William to deal with and he nailed it to be honest. Fantastic experience for him and the school were amazing, the teachers were online all of the lessons and he was actually focused!

My contract changed to WFH permanently just before we went into lockdown 1, not sure I am enjoying that much, missing a lot of the interaction and the geeky feeling when we work on projects as a team.

Starting to lose interest in my job due to the WFH to be honest but, bills need to be paid. Due to some major restructuring I am on a retainer until October 2022, after that, it's time for a serious change both in job and in tempo.

Hope Teh forum lot are doing well!