To quarantine or not?

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DavidS
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by DavidS »

Not as sad as seemingly spending your life looking for ways to moan about the UK and then posting them for our delight and delectation.
What satisfaction do you get from this permanent negativity and depression?
It certainly doesn’t make any positive contribution whatsoever.

A bit of baiting can be fun though and gets you wound up. ;)
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by daveuprite »

DavidS wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 8:32 pm Not as sad as seemingly spending your life looking for ways to moan about the UK and then posting them for our delight and delectation.
What satisfaction do you get from this permanent negativity and depression?
Well firstly, posting on this site probably takes up about 20 minutes of my day, every other day. For the billionth time, stop exaggerating.

And secondly I guess it's more satisfying to live in the real world, even if it's a sad one, than to pass one's time polishing a fantasy tory turd. :D
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by Barcelona Pat »

Hmmm. As someone who lives in both UK and Spain, and travels very regularly between the two (albeit not so much between April to early July), I thought I´d offer some reflections.

A week ahead feels like too far to plan with any certainty these days (my own travel plans this week have shifted twice in the last few days), so provided you can manage to live with the uncertainty, what you are thinking about for September could work. As others have noted, your 14 days of self-isolation starts from the day you leave the country (or may be region in due course) that is not covered by an exemption. So you are unlikely to experience much, if any restrictions on arrival back in the UK. But that could change... so if that does cause you issue, it could be a real factor in your decisions.

Travelling to Spain (as it stands now) you will be required to complete and submit a hard copy form - pretty straight forward - and may well experience temperature checks and a visual health examination on arrival. Again no big deal.

48 hours before arriving back in the UK, you will need to complete the online form on Gov.uk, providing details of where you have been, contact info etc. You may be asked about that on arrival (I was last time I flew in a couple of weeks back - just showed the email and reference number on my phone - but not been asked before). As it stands now you have to do that form no matter where you have been or are coming from. But to be honest, it only takes 5 mins, so not an issue.

Interestingly the rules in the UK once you get back, and how they are followed up vary depending on where you are heading.

I would certainly endorse comments about taking your own stuff, and maintaining good hygiene and safty protocols no matter what the data is saying in September. Key thing is to look after yourself and, consequently, your loved ones.

Personally, I found lockdown in Spain to be pretty rigid and enforced more than in the UK. Generally people out and about follow the rules, apply social distancing, cleaning and wearing of masks. Recent outbreaks seem to be coming from a few sources:
- (young) people partying does seem to be having an impact on community spread - some of the figures relating to care homes remain of concern
- there have been some outbreaks associated with places of employment (particularly where there is some form of production line)
- issues with transient agricultural workers with increased movement and shared facilities.

That said, the figures here are still low compared to March - June. 6 deaths in the last 7 days is 6 deaths too many - but hardly an indicator of the situation getting out of control again. It feels like the authorities continue to take matters seriously, are applying suitable tracking and tracing approaches and are managing the various outbreaks at the local level. Too early to make any informed judgements, but the data over last 2 days has improved.

I tend to agree with Spanish ministers when they point out that localised outbreaks are going to be a feature of the virus until such time as a vaccine becomes widely available. As with the rise in the figures in March, I suspect the UK is a few weeks behind the Spanish curve and that outbreaks such as we have already seen in Leicester and Angelsey will increase in frequency. I can only hope that the TTP approach in the UK is up to the task - I must confess I have greater confidence in some parts of the UK than others (but I am no doubt biased).

On the whole I feel safe in Spain - and I feel safe in Wales. I do tend to aviod busy areas and gatherings - but then I´ve gotton more anti-social in years and tend to favour my own (or select) company!

The roads are still clearer than before if you stay off the motorways - and people (while weary of social distancing etc) are still very happy to see you.

Hope this helps, for what its worth.

Pat
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by Flipflop »

Jak* wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 4:47 pm My motorbike insurance company, Bikesure has just confirmed that my bike insurance is still valid in Europe regardless of quarantine rules. Cheers
I haven’t checked with my bike insurer yet but read from another insurer that if it’s foreign office policy that a country is not safe to travel in then their insurance is invalid - it’s not just a Covid thing.
I would be very concerned about health insurance as well - maybe more so.

I shall check with my insurers and get back, I do hope you’re right and thanks for posting.
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by Mosel Bikes »

Interesting Pat, thank you. I'm comparing this to Germany, where I currently split my time with the UK throughout the year. Out of interest, what are you going to do after 31 December and Brexit? It's going to change my mode of operation with the 90 day / 90 day restrictions on travel and stay. Have you found a way round that?
Barcelona Pat wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 10:08 pm Hmmm. As someone who lives in both UK and Spain, and travels very regularly between the two (albeit not so much between April to early July), I thought I´d offer some reflections.
Hope this helps, for what its worth.

Pat
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AlanHolt
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by AlanHolt »

Please don't leave the UK. The UK is the rabid covid hub of Europe at the moment.

Joking aside, it's a bit of a free-for-all in Europe, until you are stopped. Even then, provided you give them the answers they want to hear, you are waved on. I only travel out of necessity now, for shopping or to earn money.

There are a couple of things to consider. Will your trip expose you to covid? Will your trip help spread covid which will then increase restrictions for others?
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by Tramp »

Mosel Bikes...

Don't you have German dual nationality? My wife's German Aunt, cousins have UK passports but not German and have lived in Germany for many years.. They where asked by UK High commission to sign a form or something that allows them to live and work in Germany after the brexit Dec deadline?

They are very uk patriotic having been born in UK and married Germans etc..
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by daveuprite »

It would be interesting to hear what you think of this article, Alan and Pat...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... c-mistakes
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by Tonibe63 »

AlanHolt wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:24 am There are a couple of things to consider. Will your trip expose you to covid? Will your trip help spread covid which will then increase restrictions for others?
Exactly what all members of Society should be asking themselves wether travelling, on holiday or just going about life in their own community.
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Re: To quarantine or not?

Post by Barcelona Pat »

Mosel Bikes wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:56 am Interesting Pat, thank you. I'm comparing this to Germany, where I currently split my time with the UK throughout the year. Out of interest, what are you going to do after 31 December and Brexit? It's going to change my mode of operation with the 90 day / 90 day restrictions on travel and stay. Have you found a way round that?

For me the biggest thing is the personal tax situation - which will depend on whether both countries agree to continue the current bilateral tax agreement (which is largely based on EU rules). To be honest with so many bigger fish to fry, I suspect that agreement will simply be rolled over - at least for a few years. Fingers crossed as given my specific circumstances it allows me to pay tax in the UK no matter how much time I spend in Spain (though that is clearly not the case for most people).

At present I am in both countries each month - sometimes travelling twice a month. That said, lockdown has reinforced quite clearly to my work colleagues that business can function well through remote working - and there are already signs that we are not going to return to how we operated before (talking about taking the best and learning from these experiences - with online meetings becoming the default from now on). So, fingers crossed, there will be less volume of travel in the future and consequently more time for quality travel (its been a couple of years now since I last crossed France by bike).

I am trying to look on the bright side - but the fact is I have been losing money every month since the referendum, have had rights taken away from me, disruption to my life with untold worries and stress, and the prospect of increased costs and admin on the horizon - so taken in the round, I still think brexit is an unsustainable pile of horse shit! :D
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