Hello again!

A friend of mine told me 2 weekends ago when I met her in person that she had caught Covid around the same time as me.
She's the exact same age, but unlike me she already got her booster a few weeks prior to getting sick.

And while my symptoms weren't really bad and it seems I have no long Covid symptoms thankfully, she struggled a lot.
When we met it was her 3rd week of being on sick leave.
She told me she still has to nap every noon to keep her energy levels up and circling that lake with me (around 6 km) was really tough for her.

It's so scary to see how this virus is like a lottery.
It doesn't matter how old or young you are.
It doesn't matter how sporty you are or if you have any chronical diseases.
It doesn't matter if you have been vaccinated and if so how many shots you got.

At least that's the impression I recently get.
I just hope she'll fully recover soon.
But she was happy to do this little excursion with me and I'm sure the exercise and fresh air was good for her.

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The lake itself is really beautiful and in summer you can swim there.

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That's what the lake looks from above and you can see the mountains in the background as well as the restaurant where we sat.


Ahhh~ I miss my home region. It's just so beautiful and there's ALWAYS something beautiful nearby to explore without having to be stuck in traffic jam like when I try to go anywhere here on the weekends ....


Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Bye~chuu!

So, I thought I'd also do this pandemic anniversary survey that's going around right now.
It will be interesting to look back at it in a few years - for better or worse.

One Year Of Pandemic

1. Did you catch COVID-19? If yes, when, and was it bad?

Nope, I'm pretty sure I didn't. Since the outbreak and even a little before that I haven't really been that sick with anything similar. *shrugs*


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5. Has your mental health suffered due to and during the pandemic?

Yes, absolutely. I've had a severe nervous breakdown back in January because things just kept piling up at work, in my private life .... all of that had nothing to do with the pandemic, but then I also had to move - which I didn't want to. And that within a very strict lockdown, rules changing by the hour. It was driving me insane. That basically gave me the last push into the nervous breakdown. :(
I see so many people who usually are mentally strong crashing down now due to the pandemic. I think just like for me it's not the pandemic itself, but things are piling up and on top of that all the crap around the pandemic is also going on, pushing a lot of people over the edge.
Maybe usually you could just go over to friends, talk it over with them, hug them etc. .... and this is missing right now....


6. How do you judge the performance of your local and national government during the past year?

Germany started out quite well last year and was even complimented by other nations.
However, that changed once the second wave hit as they were too slow to close things down in autumn of last year.
And ever since then things have gone down the drain ....... it's a shit show.
Rules are literally changing by the hour. I know of no other country with such weird and detailed and complicated rules ..... we're currently at a level where really NOBODY knows what's actually valid and once you figure it out, they change the rules again. It's so frustrating .... not to mention that none of this has helped at all with getting the numbers down ...


7. What is the worst memory you will conserve from the past year? What made you angry?

Definitely my nervous breakdown and the fact that the government sets up rules that ruin our lives and rules that make absolutely no sense on top of that .....




8. And, if there is one, the best memory? What made you happy?

I guess the fact that I was able to spend a lot of time hiking in my home region and that I was able to travel to France and Italy despite all the restrictions last year ....
I think the pandemic pushed me more to actually travel and explore as I didn't do anything in 2019 and I regretted that a LOT afterwards, of course ...


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15. What will be the first thing you will do when it is possible again?

Fly to Japan, of course!  ......

Hi.

Sorry, I just have to rant about it as it's so stupid you wouldn't even believe it.
For the latest development today, even I thought it was truly a joke when a co-worker told me, but apparently it's reality .....

Anger and frustration is growing bigger and bigger here in Germany with how the government is handling the corona situation .....
It's a shit show beyond your imagination and nobody would have ever thought that the usually well organized Germany could be just a comedy club, but it is - only that it's not funny and ruining millions of people's lives .....

I think the situation was handled well last year during the first wave, but ever since that it's been a really bad down spiral ....

In mid-December we went into a soft lockdown. I can't even remember the details anymore and I really don't care.
All shops closed, maybe schools, too, I don't remember and contacts were limited, curfew and all.

I remember being all alone on my 40th birthday and on New Year's Eve as those were the restrictions and because everybody had to be home by 9 p.m. nothing was going on anywhere ....

All of this was for nothing, a much stricter lockdown was implemented in early January - shortly before I had my nervous breakdown as they were continuously changing the rules and I had to move apartments in this very uncertain situation.....



The lockdown was extended again and again. Finally when the numbers were extremely low (compared to some other countries that had opened up with much higher numbers) Germany came up with rules that were extremely hard to understand and also required EVERYONE including shops etc. to check numbers daily.
Depending on the numbers in a city or town shops etc. were allowed to open completely to everyone, or with higher numbers only via click & meet (you need an appointment before you can visit the store) - or with even higher numbers everything is closed.
Same goes for schools and pretty much everything.
Obviously numbers had to be checked daily, to see if everything has to be changed.
This was exhausting as hell, but it didn't last long. I think only about a week?

Then they decided to go back into a hard lockdown, so we never really opened up ....
Not only that but they also decided that during Easter Holidays very strict rules should abide and that 2 additional days shall be national holidays this time, so that EVERYTHING has to close.

You know what that meant?
I give you just a quick personal example. My hairdresser called me up yesterday. I haven't been to a hairdresser in almost a year now and thought it's finally time to try and go as they've finally opened up.
But now they called me and said they had to cancel my appointment because that very day was suddenly declared a national holiday by the government the previous day .......

Now, obviously not only hairdressers in all of Germany had to call their customers to cancel appointments for those 2 days that now were suddenly national holidays.
Nope, clinics, car repair shops etc. ......
That must have been frustrating for them and a lot of work.

And not only that ... a lot of people, including me had to get rid of their remaining 2020 vacation days until the end of March. We were allowed to take days off at the beginning of April as well.
Now, suddenly those days didn't count as taken vacation days anymore so we all had to discuss with our bosses yesterday and shift things around.

And now guess what happened today?

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I just hope something good happens soon.


Bye~chuu

Heyho~

It’s been a while.
Honestly there’s not much to report recently.

Actually I would be away right now at our yearly biggest exhibition, but as it was postponed last-minute ….. due to corona...
What is a bit annoying is that I haven’t been able to travel to Japan during sakura season for years, because that exhibition is always in the way and we’re not allowed to take any vacation before, during and after said exhibition.
Now suddenly I could go, but …..

Said exhibition was postponed to the end of September. “Funny enough” I’ve already booked my vacation which ends exactly one day before the exhibition starts plus it’s also our fiscal year end, soo …..
I’m still afraid they might force me to cancel my vacation because of that …. We’ll see what happens. Due to corona nobody knows right now anyway, so I’m quite chilled.

I’m a bit sad though. As most of you know I haven’t been travelling at all in a long time.
And last year it was also a disaster, because everything I tried to book was already booked out and then I finally booked Madeira (Portugal) and had to cancel in the last minute (paying lots of cancellation fees) due to my sudden back issues…….

Then I told myself that I will sit down and book all of my 2020 vacation in the beginning of the year, so that I won’t sit around in October with my entire annual vacation still untouched as usual …..
2020 was supposed to become my travel year and now … there’s corona …

I still intend to go unless they forbid Germans to enter …… which could actually happen as Germany is in the top 10 of infected countries at the moment, but we’ll see.



Red is the number of infections, green the recovered cases, black the number of deaths. The list is as follows: China, Italy, South Korea, Iran, France, Germany, Spain ....


Coronapocalypse:

Other than that I’m not taking part in the coronapocalyse hysteria.

But jeez, people sure are STUPID as fuck!

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And then there’s Japan.

As much as I love Japan, but I’m actually quite sure that they’re trying very hard to keep the official number of infected people as low as possible so that they won’t have to give up on the Olympic Games ……
And it’s understandable! I just don’t think they can go on with this charade much longer …..
In every other country where there has been an outbreak (even the US, Germany, France) numbers have risen MUCH faster. There’s NO WAY in hell that the numbers in Japan are still so low. Maybe if they would have cut off the country completely from international travelling, but even then I would doubt those numbers …..



Co-workers just came back from Japan and brought me the spring season blend VIA instant coffee. I love those so much ... but oh, they're so expensive.

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Picrew.me charas:

Last but not least a few more charas I created using various different image builders over at Picrew.me:



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How's the corona situation where you are?
Almost all of you have already written something about corona on your journals anyway and I think I’ve commented on most of them.
But please feel free to update me on the current situation.

Have a lovely week!

Bye~chuu