Yesterday at that... place the manager (the younger of the two brutes) said that he had tested positive for Covid-19 recently. They mess around (when it's quiet) at work, so I thought he may have been joking. He's quite macho and serious much of the time, and so I ask him for a hug now and again (if only to mollify his violent tendencies and get him more in touch with his feminine side). The loud kid (an awful employee, lazy, dictatorial, never has a kind word to say about anyone) at work had a mask on today (he never wears a mask - I am the only one [in store] that always wears one). I asked him why, and he said he had to, because he had tested positive for Covid-19. He normally shouts, a lot. Today he was silent the entire time, or when he did speak, spoke in a reasonably sane way and at a moderate volume (quite unlike his usual self). He also coughed sometimes, and kept blowing his nose. He did not look well, though to be fair, he put on a brave face. The girl working next to him was fine, but then she began to become unwell, and threw up in the toilet. The main boss (the larger of the two brutes) also remarked that he too had tested positive for Covid-19 recently.
As the boss said, according to the law, it is perfectly fine to keep working if one has tested positive for Covid-19. (I am unsure of the current legislation according to either the Public Health Act or the Covid-19 statute, whatever its name is). Maybe it is okay, maybe it's not.
It's the usual dilemma. Does the store close for that evening? Do you only put on skeletal staff until it's blown over? Or do you just carry on as per normal. Most of the population, certainly many of those most at risk have been fully vaccinated by now, so it does not appear to be an issue (even if there still exists a significant risk to the clients, what with no-one wearing a mask except the Covid Kid and I).
Even if the news is dominated by the invasion of Ukraine at the moment, and such things as Partygate or Covid do not receive the attention they were receiving, the pandemic has not simply gone away. I distinctly recall one most illustrious minister allegedly stating that he 'would rather see the bodies pile high than take the nation into another lock-down.' This statement proves that it's all about the economy. Wealth is more important to the administration than health. Yet what are the risks? Is it okay? On the face of it, no one has died at the store. The closest we got to that was the big boss being admitted to hospital, on oxygen, and that was a long time ago now. Equally, did I feel comfortable working right next to three people that had tested positive, one obviously rather ill (the Covid Kid), and that one had made the person working next to him throw up? Is it worth minimum wage, even?...
All this is probably a blessing in disguise. Firstly, immunity wains, so having our anti-bodies boosted is probably not a bad thing. Only one of the three suffered any kind of ill effects, and no one has died or been admitted to hospital (recently, at least). Secondly, the whole experience provides an impetus for me to get my bloody books published, as soon as possible. I still have three books to edit for the old ball and chain, which I really should get around to soon, but turning on the old computer is such a drag. I love this new machine, even if it doesn't have Word on it.
I have to become solvent, sharpish, and work from home. There can be no price put on the sanctity of human life, or even life in general. I cannot rely upon the British academic establishment to offer me any work (yeah, sure! *cough*). They couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!
I'm on my own, and am basically unemployable. I don't drive. I have some noticable character flaws. Yet my strengths far outweigh my weaknesses. I should imagine that it won't be long now (perhaps only months) until I am able to get the hell out of that... place. I've already put the hard work in. It wouldn't take much to get the books published (it just means doing boring bloody HTML). I have to be honest, I would sooner be translating British history, or writing plays about Great Britain's history, but that's just a hobby (this is, after all, not Elizabethan England, but Dark Age Britain - such things are worthless in this day and age. It is not the Renaissance, evidently). I should like to translate classical texts, or better still, Scivias by Hildegard von Bingen, but these have already all been translated. Therefore, I am focusing on gaps in the market. It's pretty cool actually. Okay, so they are pretty... esoteric texts (books on astrology, magic and runelore), but they are gaps which no one has filled. There is little point in translating something which has already been translated when one works among Covid ridden children, being told what to do by uneducated kids and foreign thugs. I am not necessarily materialistic, quite the opposite, but who doesn't like being comfortable? If it's the choice between going into that... place, being called names by those ignorant plebs, and working at home doing something I love (translating, writing plays), it's a no-brainer.
Necessity: the mother of invention.
Max.
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