sydneyjohn57

Here in Australia they have now set a limit for non essential indoor gatherings to 100 people which will affect larger restaurants, pubs and clubs. Until 6 months ago my local pub was owned by a family group who have 6 or 7 pubs but has now been taken over by a large organisation that have 80 venues. The licensee has been retained and I asked him yesterday what will happen as the bar never has more than about 50 patrons at any one time. He said that he was awaiting a call from head office but likely the pub will close before Friday. Their reasoning that they are unable to keep patrons more than 1.5 metres away from each other especially in the restaurant with a family group and in the poker machine room where the machines are mostly lined up next to each other. I advised him that they are mad to close the whole venue as they will lose 100% revenue and likely still have to pay full time staff for a while. My suggestion to him was to close the restaurant, move tables in the bar area and keep suggesting to patrons to remain at a distance from each other. In the poker machine room (aka engine room as it is the main income generator and gives the pub its $34 million value) just shut down every 2nd machine. He did take my advice re poker machines and advised head office of 'his' plans so I will find out around 4pm after I walk to the pub to find out if its still open. I am predicting the next shortage in Australia is going to be packaged beer!!!

These were forwarded to me an hour ago and show the scene in Angeles last night.

I've just received an email from Cebu Pacific that they are grounding all planes from tomorrow(18th March) until 14th April due to the "Enhanced Community Quarantine" measures of the Philippine Government. This, shutting down of travel to and from Manila as well as all bar & business closures throughout the country will have a massive economic effect.

Strange that the same push bikes should still be there?

Anyone arriving in Australia from midnight tonight (4.5 hours from now) will have to self isolate for 14 days. We'll see how that goes and how it is enforced.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/ As of March 9, 2020 We are aggregating sparse data from various sources. Where a source is official, the entry is clearly marked. Even official sources don't always report daily. Some report weekly but, in order to provide a set of comparable data, estimates are provided based on the latest available data. Estimated values are clearly marked. Country Tests Performed Tests per Million People Population Bahrain 8,354 4,910 1,701,575 OFFICIAL source South Korea 210,144 4,099 51,269,185 OFFICIAL source Hong Kong 16,000 2,134 7,496,981 Estimated sources Italy 60,761 1,005 60,461,826 OFFICIAL source Switzerland 5,000 578 8,654,622 Estimated Mar. 3: 4,000 source Austria 5,026 558 9,006,398 OFFICIAL source UK 26,261 387 67,886,011 OFFICIAL source Belgium 3,984 344 11,589,623 Estimated Mar 9: 3,541 OFFICIAL source Australia 8,278 325 25,499,884 Estimated Mar. 8: 8,278 OFFICIAL PARTIAL source source Israel 2,386 276 8,655,535 Estimated Mar. 8: 1,771 source France 11,895 182 65,273,511 Estimated Mar. 5: 6,610 OFFICIAL source Finland 720 130 5,540,720 OFFICIAL Mar. 10 source Malaysia 3,132 97 32,365,999 OFFICIAL Mar. 10 source Japan 9,600 76 126,476,461 OFFICIAL Mar. 10 source Netherlands 600 35 17,134,872 Estimated Mar. 2: 200 source USA 8,554 26 331,002,651 OFFICIAL Mar. 10 source Vietnam 2,367 24 97,338,579 OFFICIAL Mar. 10 source Turkey 940 11 84,339,067 Estimated As of Mar 3: 940 OFFICIAL source

Good point. Nothing from Oz or Africa. Very few from South America. https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert In Australia As at 06:30 hrs on 14 March 2020, there were 197 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), including 3 deaths, in Australia. 1 in the Australian Capital Territory 91 in New South Wales 0 in the Northern Territory* 35 in Queensland# 16 in South Australia# 4 in Tasmania 36 in Victoria*# 14 in Western Australia# *Note that under National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System reporting requirements, cases are reported based on their Australian jurisdiction of residence rather than where they were detected. For example, a case reported previously in the NT in a NSW resident is counted in the national figures as a NSW case. # Includes Diamond Princess repatriation cases: Qld (3), SA (1), Vic (4), WA (2, including 1 death). Further details: 15 of the initially reported cases in Australia all had a direct or indirect travel history to Wuhan, China 10 cases, including 1 death, are associated with the Diamond Princess cruise ship repatriation flight from Japan 18 cases are reported to have had a direct or indirect travel link to Iran 92 cases are reported to have had a direct or indirect travel link to other countries and regions. 32 cases, including 2 deaths, do not have a reported history of overseas travel 8 of these cases are associated with an aged care facility in NSW. 2 residents of this facility have sadly died 2 cases are either directly or indirectly associated with attendance at a workshop 22 cases are close contacts of known cases, with further details pending The likely place of exposure for a further 30 newly reported cases is under investigation Of the 197 Australian cases reported, 27 of these cases are reported to have recovered.

Oh come on Jimmy. Surely you knew you can't pee in Quinn's, BBG's, or Soihound's corner of the world without permission from one of them.

Glad it all went well, speedy recovery.

I download photos mostly on computer so it may be different on a phone. I type a caption hit enter then add 1 pic, then hit enter to insert a blank line, type next caption hit enter add 2nd pic and so on. Just a thought, can you copy what you have pasted at the other forum then paste into here?

Move to Alaska ?

I retired 2 years ago at 60 with the intent of moving to SE Asia for retirement, however, have delayed any intended move until I turn 67 as then will be eligible (by age probably not pass the means test) for an Aussie old age pension as I do not want to have to re-establish residency at a later date. In the meantime I am doing some traveling around the area to decide which would be a nice spot to retire. Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia (Penang Is) are the three in the mix at the moment so will spend next 4 and a bit years on research.

Yet another disaster to hit the Philippines. The Taal volcano has spewed ash and is now at alert level 4 which means that it can erupt at any time. ( Level 5 is when magma spews from the volcano) Last Updated: an hour ago ↓ an hour ago Taal Volcano updates Taal Volcano updates, as of Monday morning: • Lava has reached the surface of the volcano • Volcanic quakes will persist around less than magnitude 4 • We reiterate the evacuation of the Taal Volcano Island and high-risk areas within the 14km radius of the crater https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/1/13/Philippines-Taal-Volcano-eruption-live-updates.html

Tis all good, have heard a lot about the bar and the goings on that happen therein and wish them all well for their party just a pity didn't get their previously, next time !!!

My post was not meant to be denigrating to Josh (whom I have never met or been to his bar) just that I had seen over the years in SE Asia many signs in bars with the spelling that way. I suppose that the reason is that a lot of non English speakers pronounce it as cOstOOmer so spelling it phonetically is only natural to them. Cheers