Petty Pandemic Whinges. Bring your trivial traumas here and I promise I won’t judge.

[LunaNorth]

Before I start, I know that some fucking awful things are happening to people around the world as a result of Covid19. I’ve had to endure some real trauma myself, so I don’t take it lightly.

But sometimes I think a space to rant and stamp our feet about the petty inconveniences would be very cathartic. So here it is.

I’ll start.

Today my fucking face mask ripped my favourite earring out of my ear when I removed it, and it broke.

My much-loved yoga class, which was the best hour of my week, is permanently closed.

If anyone else has petty whinges that they don’t feel happy to say out loud in the real world, please feel free...

I want to go swimming and to the health suite. I would drop DD off in the morning and then go there a couple of times a week. If I timed it right I could get the spa pool to myself.

Luna, it looks like my bookclub will be cancelled in August too, luckily we will definitely keep going post pandemic. There have been a few zoom chats but I hate video calls.

I've got toothache, my wisdom tooth hurts and has just got worse. The emergency dentist gave me antibiotics a fortnight or so and said the only option just now was to take it out. I can feel the hole on the surface so expect that it would be able to be repaired in normal time.

We had grand plans to leave DS with his grandparents for a weekend this year and have a couple of nights just the two of us. We've only had one night "alone" in over 3 years and that was spent doing a several hundred mile round trip for a friend's birthday party, which was held in a pub with a 2-star hygiene rating, where my ex boyfriend chatted to us cheerfully all evening and made DH feel uncomfortable.

DC2 is due in a fortnight so we've missed our opportunity for another year or two.

My home country has a closed border which will be closed for at least another six months to a year. I love to travel but I've explored every nook and cranny of this place. Tourist paradise it may be but to me it's old hat. The service is terrible and it's not warm enough for it to feel like a holiday. I'm bored and cold and I want to travel anywhere but here.

Oh God, I've just read the full thread and now I hate myself for posting that ^^. I sound like a spoiled obnoxious brat after reading this:
I'd just like a hug, I haven't touched another human being since the beginning of March

It’s taken me so long to pluck up the courage to have driving lessons. I had a brilliant instructor and got to near test standard but this all happened and now I haven’t had a lesson in months. I have my first one on Saturday but I’ll be shit again.

I thought I might pass my test this year in January but no

@Guineapigbridge no spoiled obnoxious brat that I can see. This is a thread without judgement.

I too hate the feeling of being trapped.

I'm pissed off trying to dodge the increasing number of cyclists on my long commute to work. They pootle along the busy A road into the city without a care in the world and in vast numbers. They can fuck right off.

Where I live and on my shortish commute, they have put some weird plastic barrier thing on the road for a temporary cycle lane. I t is rather wide. Not many cyclists use it. Well how could they annoy other road users/paedestrians otherwise??!!

LunaNorth

Sorry for your loss Luna. I am lucky that my Aunt died just before CV lockdown so had a good send off. I cannot imagine how shit it must have been for you :(

When you said no judgement did you mean no judgement? OK here goes. I'm pissed off because I lost weight last year, I've grown my hair and my skincare is really working for me. I look hotter than I have in my life, and no fucker notices or cares.

Last summer it was all guys in cars idly gazing at me as I crossed the road. Eye contact and smiles in the supermarket or god forbid, the pub.

Now it's all steamed up glasses, no smiles visible indoors, leaping out of each others way etc.

So judge away. I hate CV because I was enjoying being attractive for the first time in years and now nobody's looking.

And other more sincere reasons too.

I am glad we have a place to whine on!

I am sad that I missed a UK holiday in June with my friends.A cheapie get together. We always have fun! Never mind!

Also missed my book club get togethers. We are rather crap at it. We don't all read the books, we pass them on so we aren't reading the same book all together. We sometimes forget to mention any of the books when we get together. We do enjoy a cup of tea and some nibbles though!

I miss seeing some of them that are shielding.

I have not been out for a walk for ages. I have a very over active bladder so have to know there is a functioning loo, not a locked one nearby. I really do need to get out and walk (my only exercise).

I am very sad for the cinemas and theatres. I am also annoyed about not being able to sit in cafes (I know some people seem to be sitting outside and I asked one if he allows people inside and apart from two tables (middle ones) we can!!

I still think things will take a long time to get back to normal, if they ever do!

I feel very sorry for anyone who has lost their job / waiting to hear.

Also any family member who has not seen their family.

I think when it is all over a lot of people will be partying!

I am trying to arrange a picnic in one of the parks in August for my book club crew. I hope we get decent weather (and that the loo/s is/are open!

I'll join if that's okay.

We'd been making sacrifices to pay for our annual Easter holiday. We obviously couldn't go. Our teen had a school trip to America postponed , they were really upset.

Our youngest was due to (finally) begin speech and language therapy , all he's had is a phone appointment , due to cv19. He was also attending a play group with amazing support for his developmental delay , that also had to stop. This has also been the first year he's mobile enough to play independently in the park , but they've been closed. He doesn't know , but he's missed a lot of important things.

@Supermarketworker06

I miss meeting friends and going for a coffee. I know you can go in a cafe but they all do track and trace and I don't want to get THAT phone call that I might have walked past someone who might have coughed on me or touched something I might have touched. I know I can see people at home or at theirs but I want to go out- out! I want to pop to the shops, not have to military plan all trips, and debate whether it'll be a 10 minute trip or an hour. I want to hug my friends (I do sometimes but it feels illicit). Most of all I would like customers (mostly old people, surprisingly) to stop bloody moaning about queuing, rationing, social distancing etc. I don't make the rules so piss off moaning at me about it.

Not all cafés and restaurants are doing track and trace. Check out a few and you might be pleasantly surprised.

I went to visit my elderly parents for the first time in almost a year last weekend and had to use two different restaurants. Both were pubs. Track and trace was offered as an option in one (we didn't take it up and didn't see anyone else doing so either) and the next didn't even mention it.

So many of these resonate with me. I don't think they are that petty. I don't like being dictated to. I certainly wasn't going to observe social distancing with parents who I hadn't seen for so long and who I almost lost during lockdown without being able to see them alive again.

I hate that the NHS is now the National Covid Service and you are hardly allowed to have any other issues at all.

I am not a big socialiser and not big on going out. Nor do I like big social gatherings. However, I don't appreciate the loss of my freedom to choose.

Oh, and like many, I detest fucking facemasks and they cause my glasses to steam up and are hard to breathe through. If one more person tries to tell me that I must be wearing it wrongly and it is for the greater good then I will cheerfully wring their bloody neck.

My Mum has cancelled her month long Christmas holiday, and I've only just realised that means she will want to Christmas at mine

Our local pool has announced it will be opening in September. For lessons only. No word of when we can go and swim

Also, I didn't realise that I would miss seeing children having fun at the park as mine are all adults now.

However, play areas that are closed for anything other than safety inspection and maintenance are a sad sight really.

I also hate the fact that people seemed to want to snitch to the police on their neighbours for things like going out more than once a day or sitting on a park bench, although I think that one mainly happened in London, which I am not in, but not that far from.

Being a bolshy old goat, I deliberately went out and sat on a local park bench here to see what would happen. Nothing did thankfully and nobody gave a shit. A few dogs out on their walks came up and sniffed me out, but nothing more exciting than that.

We lost our cat in lockdown. He spent his last 6 days of his life in a cage and we couldn't see or cuddle him. I was glad of the two hour journey to a specialist where he cuddled up to me and snoozed

@Oldraver

We lost our cat in lockdown. He spent his last 6 days of his life in a cage and we couldn't see or cuddle him. I was glad of the two hour journey to a specialist where he cuddled up to me and snoozed

I'm so sorry to hear that. I've lost two pets within the last two and a half years and it is a very hard time anyway.

Lockdown totally exacerbated an already fraught situation for so many people.

@Topseyt. It was so hard not seeing Ernie and can only imagine how hard it was for people with lives ones in hospital or care homes

Both me and DH are WFH ( and it's likely to continue until at least the new year). I usually WFH 2/3 days a week and have a lovely study which I've had to hand over to DH as his job involves being in really high level meetings all day where as my job doesn't involve as many meetings at the moment. This means i'm working in the kitchen which is cold all year round and also means i'm responsible for DS (aged 5) who is permanently hungry and hasn't been in school or any form of childcare since March.

DH is making up for it in other ways and I know he feels really guilty. I also know that we're lucky to have a house big enough to each have a space to work in but I WANT MY STUDY BACK!!!

DS was born end of last year and my maternity leave has been shit. No baby classes, no baby swimming, no meet ups or coffees, no play dates.

Now things are open I am trying to get out more but so many things I just won't get to do with him before I go back to work.

Good grief my arse has got fat - its entirely due to self-induced laziness and beer. I have moaned for ages that I really want to get back in the pool.

Now my pool is going to open but the only slot I might be able to book on is really early on a Sunday morning and I don't want to get up early.

First world petty lockdown problem indeed.

Pretty sure DP's petty moan would be about all the arseholes on his solitary dog walks across the moors, cluttering up the car parks, and those who hang dog shit bags in the trees.

@MorrisZapp no judgement from me. You sound like you really got your mojo back. Rubbish to have it whipped away.

@Deathraystare thank you. Sorry for your loss too.

@everybody - I hear you. Hope it’s helping to vent.

Great thread and you all sound like lovely people btw
I think lockdown has really brOught home how finely balanced on a knife edge our lives are.
I never realised how much I’ve kept myself mentally strong by planning my days and trips, and music gigs, theatre, cinema, friends etc and once that was swept away, I’ve struggled.
I also didn’t realise how much of a rebel I am and this has really brought out my inner warrior.
I’m glad I’ve had a lovely person to share this with, I would not have coped well on my own.
We have gone Out As much as we’ve wanted for as long as weVe wantEd without risk to ourselves or others , sometimes we’ve had beauty spots entirely to ourselves which while nice, was odd.

We’ve had it easier than most being retired so no wfh, or childcare to contend with. I think you parents are amazing and I recognise the toll it’s taken on you.
Our dowsing group is still going over zoom, which I hate, but we’ve missed our outdoor meet ups.

All in all, it’s been shit and still is.
Re cyclists, I do worry, especially as my friend had one killed outside her garden gate. So tragic. Left a family behind also.

I've discovered I don't really have friends or much if a social life - lockdown wasn't much different for me apart from 2 teens and DH permanently at home. I always work from home so my routine was really upset.

The only activity I do and live is singing which it appears is never going to happen again.

Both my DCs have been left in limbo with missing As and GCSEs. And missed all the fun of a long summer break after exams - holidays, festivals etc cancelled.

DH is working longer hours than he normally does which means we had virtually no family walks or outings, got no decorating done, and generally haven't seen any change since lockdown was eased.

I enjoy country walks and the odd cottage holiday.

Now the countryside is full of people stomping along and cottages are all booked up forever and even the measliest has increased in price to £7 million pounds a week...