The Government are stipulating only Firms and work that is necessary are allowed to carry on during this epidemic .
We do not wish to carry or receive the virus and risk cross infection .
I did say we may be back at work for private dwellings , snooker and pool table re-covering by just after Easter .
but having taken on board what the Government instructions are we are closed until further notice .
Our line of work is not classed as essential , but I guess some of you Cue sports addicts will disagree with that !
I had around 6 weeks work booked in , and we have had to phone round and cancel most of them , the other work was cancelled by the clients themselves .
I had special ordered some cloth in for some of this work , and spent around £5000 in materials for the work and stock required going forward for the next two months .
Having just got back from Lanzerote only last Saturday Evening and finding the UK was semi open and not on full lock down I was shocked to see this .
In Lanzerote we had our last week on full lock down , in the villa for most of the day isolating .
only allowed out to the shop around the corner once a day for groceries .
So I know what full lock down means , having experienced it for a week before the UK did anything .
In my opinion the UK should have shut down the same time as Spain , it would have saved lives ….and we would have been a week better off in none contamination risks .
OK that would have meant us probably having to stay in Lanzerote until further notice , as we only just got the last plane to East midlands out of the island on Saturday .
which just happened to be our scheduled flight .
By Staying at Home and not working I am not going to spread or receive the Virus , the only risk I have is groceries being delivered to us and the Post .
so we wash our hands after touching these , and also wipe the tops of bottles and spray envelopes before opening with counter top disinfectant .
we also hand sanitise around 8 times a day .
I have not seen my Daughter and partner plus our gorgeous Grand Daughter for over three weeks now .
but we do video link often .
My Daughter has lost her job in the travel business , and her partner has been laid off until further notice at Bombardier , of which he is classed as self Employed the same as myself .
I am hoping the government hold firm on their promise to offer the Self Employed just as much rights to payments of 80% of their normal take home wages for the last three years up to a maximum spend of Course , I would not expect any more or less than an Employed person .
We are no different to employed people, when the Money stops coming in , we also have bills to pay , food to buy , we are not some rich globalist who have offshore bank accounts .
and having just paid out £5000 on work materials before all this lock down happened , we do not have too much in the bank to fall back on now .
I do have a small state pension that I can fall back on for some money , but no where near enough to survive on , hence why I am still working full time at 66 years of age .
and any Government payout will of course knock off the small amount I get as a pension from the total .
Like most of you I am locked down at Home and now doing all those job’s that I had no time for before all this happened .
but cannot get out to B&Q , and to tell you the truth would not wish to if they are crowded .
I also play with the Dog in the Back Garden he is also locked in at the moment and requires his Exercise .
stay safe and healthy, and please do not mix with people if you do not need to ….. look at the web site for further statements when the need arises to do so .
We are not taking telephone calls but I will answer most Emails .
As a last request , support your local cue sports venue when they re-open , some may not reopen if they have had to carry on paying rent and rates while closed down .
I hope that Landlords and local councils offer a holiday period of no rent or rates until this all blows over .
and that brewery’s allow a bit of free stock for all the beer and stock that has gone off while they closed down , especially if they had just stocked up .
I myself have suspended pool table rentals until they reopen for all the businesses I have tables in on rent that have been closed down ,until they re-open there is not rent to pay .
Geoff Large
Owner of GCL Billiards
