veryoldbear

There are a lot of people in the UK who are testing regularly with the free LFTs. I wonder whether they are a) all being used and b) being reported whether positive or negative. If people are not reporting negative tests there could be quite a distortion of statistics.

The latest seems to be that the end of free LF tests is in sight and we will soon have to pay for them. Don't they realise that this will now cause people to rush out to their chemists and stock up with free test packs? Unintended consequences ....

Ah, I see that Day 2 lateral flow tests will be acceptable, but they have to be purchased ones not the free NHS ones. I can only assume this is to ensure continued income for the providers of the PCR tests. We must look after our friends and screw the travellers.

If you have been double jabbed you can get approval easily. Google and ye shall find.

Thanks MS. Sun is shining today, but I don't think it will last. The BMC is a rather nice little ferry, a bit basic and the catering is very UK traditional (you won't get curry rice and chips on a BF vessel). It was a bit full as there were a shedload of vontage cars coming over for some get-together. I hear that a new ferry "Manxman" is being built in South Korea. At least it's not Chinese ...

Mr and Mrs VOB have just arrived on the IOM on the good steam packet Ben-My-Cree and comments will be provided in due course.

Coo, this is going to be interesting ....

They would probably end up building two different apps for North and South. It's a Belgian thing.

Going slightly off thread a moment (it's what we do). What BF could really do with is some form of served restaurant that can be done on minimum manpower both front and behind the scenes. I don't know how to do it, but surely this is way things could go rather than just drift into universal self-service transport cafes. The land-based French small restaurant excel at this sort of model, as any white-van artisan will attest ....

Did our Randox 2-day tests Friday morning, dumped the tests at Cherwell Services by lunchtime, got the all-clear results by email this morning Sunday. I think things are improving/

Oh well, done the Day 2 tests, and registered on the Randox site. What a performance, who designs these forms?

This last week many of the UK cars didn't have either.

You should be fine. We ordered Day 2 kits last week and they appeared here is about four days/

Well, we had a week at the cottage and Mrs VOB gave it a good clean out. The washing machine had died so we shoved everything into a giant machine down at the local supermarket and sorted that out. Had several very good meals out. Toddled off to get Antigene'd at the local pharmacie (Euros 25 a pop), ordered Day test kits, filled out the Passenger Form and were back on the Normandie last night. I would say that traffic is getting back to normal and there were quite a lot of cars and a substantial number of HGVs. Being an overnight crossing we didn't circulate much, concentrating of getting our heads down, just emerging for basic breakfast. Portsmouth Ferry Port was working remarkably smoothly, with four Border Force shacks operational, and the Port Marshalls were making the best of a bad job (but why they were required to wear masks in the open air eludes me). Rather than fight the early morning M27 and its vile roadworks, took the back road via Bishops Waltham, and here we are. Hint: With all this darned paperwork it's very handy to have your own printer. I brought fresh cartridges over in case it had dried out. It all saves waving your phone frantically at the various dignatories and commissars. And even the restaurants seems happy enough with the NHS printout

We had tests yesterday, and Mrs VOB's certificate agreed with her UK passport no problems.