Just thought it may be prudent to set up a new thread to discuss all things Lockdown 3.0 in the U.K.
It’s scuppered my plans for SOTA over the next 3 days, the only exception would be a bike ride to G/WB-018 where the road is in the activation zone, however morally, this is possibly not a wise move!
My understanding is you are allowed to travel to take exercise. So what could be better than walking up a hill?
From your government’s guide on the newest restrictions:
“You can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure”
Probably that “Exercise should be limited to once a day and you should stay in your local area.” … so if your summit is just out the back door probably OK, but for most of us it would be pushing it to explain the 20 mile journey let alone the recreation of sitting on the top of a hill …
Maybe they should change all the words to something everyone can understand.
I know…
STAY IN YOUR BLOODY HOMES AND STOP PARADING ABOUT THE COUNTRYSIDE
How about a new 2021 Q1 activity that promotes “stealth, 80m activations between 1am - 3am BST”?
Bonus points for not getting caught.
Paul
www.nomadic.blog
It’s the same mistake the german administration made. They should have told people to go out and exercise all day long. Hanging around at home on their sofa should only be allowed for important rasons.
Everybody would have made up their mind to find some important reason to stay at home, just because it is legal. 
Ahoi
Pom
I just checked the dictionary definitions for “recreation” and “leisure” and they both use the word “enjoyment”. So, it seems the government is saying we can do exercise as long as we don’t enjoy it.
Sorry to see the shutdown happening again. We are on the verge of another because some foreign aircrew broke their isolation agreement and went to the beach. They had a great time and now two States have new outbreaks instead of zero new cases. Borders have been closed and some restrictions in place. VK3 is at present open for SOTA but we only need one person to be irresponsible and the stay home rule will return. You don’t have to be very sick to be quite contagious.
I have both sufficient birthday anniversaries and preconditions to be near the front of the civilian queue for the vaccine but I’m not expecting to have it done until mid winter after my flu shots.
In the meantime I’m all masked up and frequently wringing my hands in sanitiser. Must look pretty pathetic. I’m avoiding crowds so social activity and theatres are off the list. Sad.
HNY and GL everyone.
73
Ron
We had that at work. My employer will let me claim upto £35 a month for “gym fees”. You pay the tax on the benefit still. Some of my fellow employees are in gyms, there’s one 10mins walk with a swimming pool. Some other people spend it on other exercise related things. One guy was putting it towards his golf club fees. Then we got a new “head of finance for Europe” (based in Dublin handling UK, F, DL, I, ON, PA, OK, OH, CT, YO, SP offices), a nice lady in her 40s but it was very obvious she had never missed breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner. Or any other meals / snacks / treats. I’m sure you get my drift. 
She droned out about misuse of expense claims and what people can and can’t claim and finally got to gym fees. She felt it was necessary to clarify that it was not for golf club fees but for gym membership and now I quote her words verbatim “it’s for things like gym membership, you know, things you don’t like doing not for things you enjoy”. She didn’t understand why 24 blokes were rolling on the floor laughing like the Martians in the Cadbury’s Smash advert till one guy said “we can tell you never do anything you don’t like doing” and at this point, the boss, struggling to hold back the tears and laughter declared we would have a short coffee and comfort break.
Never laughed so much in the office.
Hi,
as I said before here in EI the situation is very clear, exercise only within 5km of your home. It would seem that the situation in the UK is somewhat less clear and leading to a bit of “Barrack room Lawyer” discussions to try squeeze in a SOTA perhaps. I also appreciate that the situation in other parts of Europe, VK, North America and the rest of World may be less restrictive.
Would it be in order for the MT (or country managers) to consider a temporary suspension of the awarding of Activator points for a period to show solidarity with community and national efforts to stem the transmission of the virus.
One of the foundling principles of amateur radio is to provide a pool of radio operators in times of national emergency or need. Perhaps at present the need is for us to operate but only from home.
Stay Safe
Declan
Austria will definitely win the competition
"THE MOST RIDICULOUS LOCKDOWN"
During our (so-called) hard lockdown we are allowed to go skiing …
awe nice one , and from a moderater as well? , i used to walk 10 miles every day until the arthritis came and got my hips and knees,i cant do excersise due to my health status now so the penalty is “im fat” but just you have a kick at fat folk if it amuses you i have no wish to spoil your enjoyment, and long may you be thin , i wouldnt wish fat on my worst enemy,
keep safe and healthy as long as you can. ray
You can’t help thinking that they would have been better spending the gym money on some equality and inclusivity training.
Andy is fit, but I would never describe him as thin! And before you comment, Andy, I know that I am sadly overweight, too!
Ah… So the government does not have an obesity problem caused by lockdown, the next will be food rationing and prescribed indoor exercises.
Last time I saw you, you had shed a significant amount of lard, maybe 7kg/1 stone or so. Me, I’m still 19kg heavier than the quack wants and less activity during assorted lockdowns has seen my weight increase by just over a kg.
People are fat because they eat more calories than they expend. The fix is simple do more and eat fewer calories. If you can’t do more for whatever reason then you need to eat a lot fewer calories.
And yes, eating less is hard which is why I have self-inflicted life style/health issues from a very poorly spent 20s-40s period in my life and I now rattle after all the pills I’ve take daily and have given myself 7690 injections in the last few years.
There will be. But there are going to be bigger mental health problems to solve for some years to come. And whilst you can spot overweight people, spotting people suffering mental health issues is harder especially as significant numbers of people don’t view mental health issues as real illnesses.
Unfortunately I put a lot of it back on during the lockdown 1.0 and it is slow to shift. Now we have lockdown again while I am still additionally overweight from Xmas excesses. I take two long walks a day with the dog (so we keep each other fit!) but now it has to reduce to one a day if I read the rules correctly. I think that when the garden dries out a little I will do some double digging - and probably knacker my back! You can’t win.
I can’t remember who it was who paraphrased the Laws of Thermodynamics as (1) You can’t win, (2) you can’t break even, and (3) you can’t get out of the game!
Some people say “You don’t put on weight between Christmas and New Year, you put on weight between New Year and Christmas”
If you are working at home please try and exercise good posture. Don’t just ‘settle’ for working with a laptop on your knees, or at a kitchen table that is too high.
If you have a laptop consider using a riser, they are only a few quid off Amazon, and an external keyboard so that the top of the screen is level with your head. Try and maintain good posture. Take regular breaks. Take your walk at lunchtime, try and vary your activity. Keep your back and neck supple with simple exercises. Get a wireless telephone so you can walk and talk in meetings.
After a lifetime on computers, and often continuing on them after work, slouching and generally very poor habits I now have life changing issues with my back and neck. It makes my retirement potentially look very different.
So please take heed. If you can sort a standing desk do so. I’ll be moving to a walking desk shortly. My standing desk riser was a lucky find at £10 off eBay, a walking treadmill currently runs at around £300. I remember seeing Linus Torvalds (the guy who invented the Linux kernel) using one. You can then walk for as many hours as your body can stand!
Take care, stay safe, don’t compromise on anything that you are spending 7.5 hours a day doing!
Mark. M0NOM