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What we're the most bizarre/memorable moments of the pandemic for you?

758 replies

Jaggerdagger · 11/03/2022 07:09

Just wondering what they are for you?

I'll start. One of mine was seeing a children's playground cordoned off with tape, including all the park benches.

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WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 11/03/2022 10:30

yes, clothes were non essential too, weren't they?

Yet another way in which children's needs were trampled on. All of us adults had serviceable clothes of one kind or another, even if not the best ones for the occasion; but there will have been a lot of young children who were forced to wear uncomfortably outgrown clothes and shoes, because their parents simply couldn't buy them any bigger ones.

The report I read about the nurse who had her tyres slashed and was prevented from getting to work, after a nasty idiot neighbour with far too much time on his hands had seen her driving away from home every day and it obviously hadn't occurred to him that she might just be going out to work, let alone in a hospital.

He was probably one of those who banged saucepans 'in support of the NHS' and bullied any of the neighbours who didn't join in. In fact, I heard of a lot of NHS staff, who were still out at work or sleeping as they were doing unsociable shifts, who were criticised and shamed for 'not caring' about our NHS heroes. Apparently, banging saucepans (when parents are trying to get young children to bed) is much more caring and essential than actually providing medical care on the frontline.

The man I saw shopping in Lidl wearing a full oversized beekeeper's suit. So over-dramatic - and also clearly didn't realise that, whilst the holes in the mesh over his face would be effective in protecting from bee stings, virus particles tend to be a little smaller than bees....

On the first day of lockdown, I remember deliberately leaving my phone at home when I went to the local shop, in case I was suspected/accused of breaking the laws and discovered as a result of my phone being tracked. Paranoid, maybe, but it was all so new and unknown for everybody and none of us knew how heavy-handed the authorities would be. Probably routine behaviour if you live in NK, but not something I ever expected to even cross my mind in the UK.

Fuzzy303 · 11/03/2022 10:31

Going to walk around my local town centre & it being absolutely deserted & everything closed

Schoolchoicesucks · 11/03/2022 10:32

The compulsory clapping. What the f was that all about?

The overzealous taping off of play equipment and when people could only meet one other person outdoors. So children STILL couldn't see their friends. There was plenty of evidence within weeks about the low risk of outdoor spread - and no reason for being so draconian about meeting up in small groups outdoors.

AnnesBrokenSlate · 11/03/2022 10:33

My tragic one was having to visit my dying mum on my own because only one visitor was allowed per day (after testing and wearing full PPE).

My positive one was seeing how much our teen flourished with online schooling rather than being in school. They're very sociable but they relaxed so much being at home. I don't think people appreciate enough the constant low level bullying and anxiety in high schools.

godmum56 · 11/03/2022 10:34

@Schoolchoicesucks

The compulsory clapping. What the f was that all about?

The overzealous taping off of play equipment and when people could only meet one other person outdoors. So children STILL couldn't see their friends. There was plenty of evidence within weeks about the low risk of outdoor spread - and no reason for being so draconian about meeting up in small groups outdoors.

It wasn't compulsory, I never did it.
ClarencesWings · 11/03/2022 10:34

And having my friend tell me I couldn't go for a walk as it would involve 'touching gates' from which other people might then catch covid.

Then being told I shouldn't drive the 5 mins up the road to a quieter dog walking spot in the woods as it might involve me breaking down and requiring the emergency services, which would put them at risk... so instead I had to walk the dog in town, where i would come into contact with loads of people all doing the same thing on the same paths.

The lack of any applied logic to people's lockdown rules was what I found really bizarre.

Pyri · 11/03/2022 10:36

“Let the cabbages die!!!”

ClarencesWings · 11/03/2022 10:38

@madmomma

The poor students locked in halls. I'd insist any of mine stayed in shared houses during their uni years after that. It was absolutely horrifying.
God yeah that was heartbreaking. If I'd had kids at uni I'd have encouraged them to break the rules and go and make friends.
Fuzzy303 · 11/03/2022 10:38

just remembered - taking a vinyl glove with me on my daily walk so I could stroke the very very friendly neighbourhood cat

BarbaraofSeville · 11/03/2022 10:39

The gates thing was bizarre. I've always been a country walker and one thing I know is that many gates, stile etc are perpetually covered in bird shit, mud etc so your hands get quite grubby using a lot of them.

You certainly would be mindful of what you did with your hands after you've used a lot of them, even before covid.

Yet suddenly everyone was eating or licking their hands after touching gates and this was the reason why covid was so rampant.

Gizacluethen · 11/03/2022 10:40

Going to the supermarket armed with masks gloves spray and wipes to clean the trolleys down with. Queuing round the carpark to be let in one by one to do PILs shopping with click and go so the checkout person doesn't touch it then taking it all home to wash it to drive it 3hrs to PILs for them to complain it was shit living in a holiday location when the bingo was shut with absolutely no understanding of the shit show we were going through living in one of the highest case areas in the country being self employed and still doing their shopping for them because they "didn't know how" to do online shopping for things that weren't tat.

phew that feels better! Thanks!

Although seeing the streets of said holiday town absolutely empty was also quite harrowing.

godmum56 · 11/03/2022 10:40

Oh and Mark Drakeford making welsh supermarkets fence off the "non essential" shelves in supermarkets because it was unfair for big shops to be able to sell them when small shops were closed....so everyone went home and ordered from amazon. Did anynbody ever define what was non essential?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 11/03/2022 10:42

Stanley Milgram's psychological experiments on how people will strictly obey the merest whiff of perceived authority - or will take pleasure in freely meting out punishment to somebody else randomly assigned to the 'subordinate' group, without ever stopping to rationalise it - were 60 years ago; but lockdown proved that the findings are still just as accurate today.

You always assume (in western countries, at least), that most folk are just wanting to get on with their everyday lives and leave others to live theirs, but this is most definitely not the case for countless people nationwide - demanding to know your movements at all times, timing neighbours' walks and reporting people as if they were criminals for sitting on a bench and eating sandwiches or walking their dog.

Gizacluethen · 11/03/2022 10:42

Actually no. The fucking nightly clapping pan banging 🙄

ClarencesWings · 11/03/2022 10:43

I actually think there is a collective trauma from all of these examples. I know my family have been traumatised, my relationship suffered.

Gizacluethen · 11/03/2022 10:44

@godmum56 kids clothes being fenced off as non essential and vodka placed in front as essential. Neglectful alcoholic parents felt vindicated that day!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 11/03/2022 10:45

It wasn't compulsory, I never did it.

Neither did we, but as seen in many areas, there's a big difference between 'entirely optional if you want to' and 'being publicly shamed for not doing something that others believe to be nigh-on compulsory'.

Joystir59 · 11/03/2022 10:49

The first time I went supermarket shopping under lockdown one regime. Queuing outside around the carpark two metres apart wearing a mask. I was so scared in those early days. Going shopping was so fearful and awful, the notices posted everywhere explaining what you had to comply with, directional arrows and demarcation zones taped on the floor. It was frightening and there was no toilet paper, no flour, no paracetamol, lots of empty shelves.

Joystir59 · 11/03/2022 10:53

My DW died of cancer during the pandemic. I remember the clapping and pan banging as an utterly pointless and ridiculous exercise. I never did it. We would listen to it going on outside in absolute disbelief that this was the collective public response to the situation, to turn it into some nonsensical jamboree. Old captain Tom wheeling his trolley round his garden to save the NHS was a real low point. In a nation that continues to vote fucking Tory.

Theunamedcat · 11/03/2022 10:53

Seeing the poor girl in asda she was working on the shop floor asked if a lady needed help the lady stepped closer to speak to her (she was still almost 2 meters away) and the worker ran backwards screaming social distancing SOCIAL DISTANCING!! and cried (I've not seen her there since I think she left)

On amore funny note my sen son being asked if he lived together and he said no I live with my mom (pointing to me) the look they gave us was Confused

Kennykenkencat · 11/03/2022 10:54

Being told on here that despite ticking all the boxes for having Covid (and long Covid) that my family didn’t have Covid because no one had Covid in late December.

Cookie79 · 11/03/2022 10:54

The M62 being deserted. You could it from the back of my old house and it felt so surreal to see it empty.

Woman on local Facebook page going mad about irresponsible people being out and driving past her house. This house looked to be on the road near the local hospital so… you know… Honestly made me so tempted to drive the long way to/from work on my office days just to annoy random woman.

CountingSheep1234 · 11/03/2022 10:55

I work on reception in a GP surgery, and suddenly we had a list of questions to ask about symptoms and foreign travel before we could book an appt. The protocols changed almost every day in the beginning, it was chaotic.

Empty waiting rooms but non-stop phone calls. I would leave my shift with ears ringing.

The same people who stood and clapped on their doorsteps, now abusing our staff so much, we lost eight of our team in the last year.

The feeling that we were living through a history book moment when the schools closed.

The fearful phone calls from elderly patients.

The endless death notifications.

ThackeryBinks · 11/03/2022 10:56

Driving around all DP's vulnerable elderly customers giving them catalogues for a local food company that still had actual food. They did a phone service and it was a godsend for some.

Joystir59 · 11/03/2022 10:59

Another truly low point was a neighbour reporting me to the police because I had workers replacing a flat roof at the front of my house when building work was banned other than in an emergency. It was an emergency as the roof was at risk of collapse as we'd delayed getting it done as my wife was battling cancer. Said neighbours lives opposite, new fully the awful situation going on in our house, saw DW coming out looking v frail to get in the car to go off for tests or treatment. I cannot forgive her