ilikeanswers

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

Time for a hint.

He also built a wall.

Are we in Spain? 

5 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

I don't believe the cruise lines would try to cut corners by not vaccinating crew. Pre-COVID, all crew on Princess had to have a flu shot. Why would COVID be any different?

There is an issue whether we will except their vaccines. A lot of the countries that crew come from are using the Chinese vaccine and it's efficacy is in dispute😕. 

3 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

But if they had a quarantine before joining the ship, 

But who will be responsible for this quarantine? The country of origin, the country they board in or the cruise line😳? 

13 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

WHO Covax initiative - he seems to think we'll get vaccines out of it 

I don't think he is expecting Australia will get vaccines but he wants our region to get vaccines like the Pacific Islands and Indonesia as that would be beneficial to us. 

4 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

That's really confusing that the South Australia vaccine has the same name as the WHO initiative to spread vaccines to poorer countries. 

 

Yes the name is confusing😂 I suspect they came up with it before WHO announced their Covax scheme. 

COVAX-19®

1 hour ago, Docker123 said:

However, Covax is a long way from being available.

Yes Covax 19. It would be quicker if they got the funding. They wanted to do phase 2 trials in Victoria last year and had volunteers recruited but without the funding to proceed they are taking the phase 2 trials to Pakistan. So Pakistan will be vaccinated before us😳. 

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think there was a problem with the Australian developed vaccine. Whatever it was based on (AIDS) caused false positives for that so even though it seemed very viable as a Covid vaccine they scrapped it.

That was the QLD vaccine but the one he was talking about was a SA vaccine. 

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

The restnt we went to the other day for Mrs Ldubs' B-day didn't have printed menus (because of COVID).   Instead you point your phone at the bar code thingy and the menu pops right up.  I had no idea how this worked.  Fortunately my phone knew what to do.  

Pre Covid-19 there were restaurants in Japan already doing this, even place your order through the app/website. So far one restaurant near me has started doing this but their interface is so clunky😖 compared to the Japanese ones. We gave up and asked for a paper menu. Hopefully as time goes on they improve the software😕. 

To me it seems most countries did not anticipate a supply issue of vaccines 🙄. Add to that the hysteria over AstraZenaca further hampering supply. Israel managed to avoid the supply issue by paying above retail value for the Pfizer vaccine and giving Pfizer access to patient information. I was very disappointed to hear that our home grown vaccine apparently had promise but the government decided against giving more funding to instead purchase overseas vaccines 😬. We really don't value our own sciences enough then wonder why they all end up working overseas😒.

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

That's odd. When I browsed down to your post it was showing 10.000+ then it changed to the exact number. Weird.

Maybe CC is testing a new display😜

4 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

So I did a nice "Shepherds Pie" (this is what my English Grandmother called it) ground beef, mixed veg and mashed potatoes on top. I always wondered about how the "shepherd" came to have beef, perhaps he borrowed it from a someone's herd😁. 

The recipe I was always told was lamb mince🤔. I had a little google and apparently it was traditionally a leftover dish made from whatever roast was uneaten so I guess the "Shepherd" is figurative😝. 

3 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

I’ve heard that ,I don’t know if I actually believe it . 
Two years bleeding money is going to affect any company.

I think they are painting a nice picture to keep the punters coming in.

They had $US8.2 billion in what they call runway money and they halved their burn rate by dumping a lot of staff and shutting down many operations. I wouldn't call it a nice picture but a survivable picture. 

4 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Will the cruise lines survive and what condition will the ships be in ,is the question.

The three biggest corporations have enough money to last till next year. IIRC Carnival Corp apparently has enough to last till June next year🤔

I would love to see the Ross Ice Shelf but the cruises to there are pretty expensive🙄. I personally don't need a luxury ship, I would be happy with something simple😊. 

5 hours ago, Docker123 said:

I thought Professor Pete demonstrated the wisdom of taking pandemic advice from a chef.

Remember those days when chefs cooked food for a living 😜? 

3 hours ago, qbay46 said:

Heddal stave church, Norway

Yep biggest of the Norwegian stave Churches and probably the most famous😜. 

5 minutes ago, clo said:

I wish we had a "wow" emoji!

😲

That could work? 

Name the church:

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I like Pu-er Chinese tea, which I used to buy in a small box. 

I have tried the traditional fermented Pu-er tea cakes, very interesting flavour👍though a little pricey😁. Use to be a bubble tea shop that did Pu-er. Personally I don't think it suits bubble tea. Recently tried Korean Dalgona coffee which is basically a foam. It was actually kind of nice bitter sweet drink. 

4 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

and as far as mobile phones, can be good.... but do we really need to contactable 24/7 ?

That is what voicemail is for 😜. 

I'll try Pisco Sour? 

7 minutes ago, ldubs said:

I agree.  My comment is more about an attitude.  Like the cup being half full or half empty.  Especially when talking about little unimportant things that happen on a cruise ship.   

Attitude is very important😜

1 hour ago, mr walker said:

I realise that the narrative on Ms Adern is that she is akin to Florence Nightingale or Mary McKillop & should be have already been made a saint, but in terms of the COVID-19 response just what has she done that is so very different to leaders in other countries that have also done well in terms of COVID response?

I think it is because she has done as well as those other countries that we tend to praise her. Being Australia it isn't a surprise that we focus on NZ's success a neighbour of ours rather than distant countries like Rwanda and Uruguay. At the end of the day the countries that kept Covid out and life normal are very few. Most are tiny little island nations like Fiji or autocratic dictatorships like Vietnam so NZ's success is really an anomaly that does deserve the praise they receive. 

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Thanks for the interesting map.  I've never seen a map overlay of NZ over Europe.

It is probably from this website. It is quite funny to see how country sizes are distorted on maps:

The True Size of...

Found this video on another thread, very interesting look at the cruise industry and the logistics of shutting down:

1 hour ago, MamaFej said:

Count me among those jealous of NZ for having a leader who was forthright from the very beginning about how serious this virus and its effects are, and who led (leads) with a steady hand, honesty, and compassion. Hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, and millions of cases have happened in my country because we didnt have someone like Arden leading us. I believe that many in other countries also suffered/are suffering  because many nations do tend to follow the USA, as mentioned above, even when our leaders are wrong. 

I also admire Tsai Ing-wen president of Taiwan🏆🇹🇼. They were the first country to take Covid-19 seriously when the rest of the world was still calling it a silly little flu🙄.