Covid - "pure luck"

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

AES

Established Member
Joined
18 Feb 2011
Messages
5,762
Reaction score
1,069
Location
Switzerland, near Basel
This is NOT in any way a political post. OR a rant. Hence posting a new thread.

The blokes who collect our household rubbish here every week are, at least theoretically, "scheduled" to come and collect ours every Wednesday at any time after 8.30 am. Normally they arrive at about midday (though we're a small village there are other places they normally visit on Wednesdays as well as us).

We don't put the rubbish out overnight because of animals "attacking" the rubbish bags, but today, when I went out to place the bag by the front gate the dustmen had clearly already been and gone. So I dumped the bag in the boot of the car and went off in pursuit. Found the 2 man team not so very far away and handed over my bag.

After the normal exchange of "sarcastic pleasantries" ("Did you blokes wet the bed this morning?" - in Swiss German of course) the driver asked me if I am English. It turned out that so is he, and although he lives in the same village - has done for 10 years or so - he was quite unknown to me.

It turned out that he's a Boeing 777 Senior First Officer for BA, based in Heathrow, but currently on furlough, so on constant "stand by" for call back. For those not familiar, the B777 is a long-haul aircraft (e.g. London to US, etc, etc) and he has been on stand by for over one and a half years now. No pay of course, and no idea when/if he'll ever fly again. So he describes driving a Swiss dust cart as his "Covid job".

Thinking about it I was again struck by how lucky I (and my wife) are, being already retired, in my case since 2015. Purely a matter of luck (and date of birth I guess). That bloke could so easily could be me if I was a few years younger.

Me? My wife and I are off to our local jabs centre for our 2nd Covid jab this afternoon. There are quite a few (many?) moaning about what our Government has and has not done and should/should not have done - me too sometimes I must admit. Just like everywhere else it seems.

So it's good to be brought back to "real reality" once in a while!

My thoughts and best wishes to all here in a similar position. Good luck to you and yours folks.
 
I feel for him, yet in a way he is lucky in the sense he managed to get a "covid job", plenty of people here who can't even do that.
 
If he's on furlough based in Heathrow then he should be receiving 80% of his salary or at least up to the £2500 a month limit, unless living in Swirzerland affects that.
 
Maybe Lons, I dunno, and we didn't get in to too much detail - amongst other considerations, it was snowing this morning.

He did say that he's been taken off the BA B777 currency roster because he can't do the simulator re-currency checks because he's finding it almost impossible to get in and out of LHR (which is where the BA sims are). How that affects his salary, and/or the fact that he's resident here, I just dunno.

Principle of my story still stands though - I (me) ain't 'arf lucky. And as Rorschach has also pointed out, our dust cart driver is no doubt luckier than many others. VERY hard for some.

Good luck all.
 
If you have any spare cash then you may be able to pick up a hotel on the Med for a song. It may even be cheaper than buying a house. Lots of bankruptcies all across Europe.

Of course, you need spare cash.
 
I hope you had your CHF2 sticker on the bag AES, man for me remembering to put them on was a real PITA
 
Oh YES Droogs (been caught by that one several times in the past)! BTW, in our village they now cost CHF 3!!!!!!!!!! And as I'm sure you know, that's IN ADDITION to paying what is the rough equivalent of the old UK monthly/quarterly/annual "rates".
 
pure profiteering that is by the canton cabal. Come the revolution...
 
What! i thought we didn't need to vote nowadays. just moan a lot on twitter and ...
 
Nah Droogs, that was tried by that oxygen thief in Washington DC and only works for a while. Much more effective is a proper revolution, like in Myanmar right now!

P.S. When you do start the revolution can I be your lieutenant please - "Oh go on ............ !"
 
Back
Top