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

[Jaggerdagger]

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.

Did I read that correctly @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll, you discovered your phone was being tracked?
How? Who would do that?
Are you a top scientist?

Going for a walk with my 3 week old baby (giving everyone we saw a huge swerve) and then coming home, looking at the news, and realising that I was not legally allowed to leave my house for the rest of the day. Blew my mind.

Having to go into hospital on my own when I miscarried.

DH having to leave 30 minutes after DS was born via emergency section.

@Joystir59

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.

We saw on the news that the shelves were empty but we always went shopping between 8-9pm at our local Lidl. (Have to say there were never more than 3 or 4 people in there at that time) The shelves were full or being restocked so we never had this problem.

2 for me,

1 - lots of people posting about only buying essentials in the supermarket but did you miss the fact that in wales you were only allowed to buy essentials? They literally taped off the non essential aisles. My husband was refused the sale of a birthday cake for our 3 year old.

1. When everyone lost their ability to risk assess at all. My mum said “I can’t come for a walk with you because if one of the children runs out into the road I will want to grab them so they don’t hit a car, and I’m not allowed to touch them” seriously mum!

Also no queuing

In my area they sealed off all the kids playgrounds with cable ties and stripy tape. Later, they opened them but removed every second swing

We were one of the top places in the country for toilet roll panic buying. It was crazy.

I was off on mat leave with DC2 for the first year of the pandemic. DC1 still gets ridiculously excited when our weekly Asda delivery arrives even now - for a long time Asda were the only people that ever really came to the door

I think I was lucky where I live in that I saw no instances of local police stopping people for walking in the wrong place or people spying on/ reporting their neighbours .

I found a sort of positivity when walking around our neighbourhood seeing the rainbows in the windows , people with socially distanced seats out in their front gardens so they could chat with their friends / relatives, and outdoor trails that had been created and anyones children could take part .

I think a lot of my anxiety came from reading MN.

My bizarre thing was that when I was eventually allowed to visit my mum in her care home after a few months , I had to wear plastic apron , gloves and mask but still sit at the opposite end of a 10 foot table to my mum who has advanced dementia, couldn't recognise me with the mask, couldn't hear what I was saying, and didn't understand why we were sitting at the opposite ends of the table .

@Kennykenkencat
Joystir59
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.
We saw on the news that the shelves were empty but we always went shopping between 8-9pm at our local Lidl. (Have to say there were never more than 3 or 4 people in there at that time) The shelves were full or being restocked so we never had this problem.
Well you were alright Jack then weren't you?

Walking from the Marylebone Road during the evening rush hour at the start of April 2020 & not seeing any traffic or people until Piccadilly Circus when I saw a police car. I passed through Oxford Circus & down Regents Street & I was the only person there.
During that time I was walking from Waterloo to Marylebone Road (& back) regularly as I didn't want to get the Tube & I just wasn't seeing buses or cabs!

Likewise during morning rush hour in April 2020, I was the only passenger at my busy commuter station - vastly outnumbered by staff! They were so bored, I was bombarded with questions.

Although I agree that there was definitely some hysteria and at points things were unnecessarily draconian, the bile thrown out on here is so unhelpful - we're not going to be able to move on with this level of YOU SUPPORTED THE LOCKDOWN SO I NOW THINK YOU'RE A STUPID FUCKER vitriol. Come on. We all fucking suffered.

Covid absolutely fucked my family though and my child is still seriously unwell so I find it hard to be objective.

Having to have my baby's first vaccinations outside in a car park as we weren't allowed into the surgery

For us it was registering baby DC2 - sat in the car in the registry office car park talking to the registrar on the phone. Then they brought the register out and passed it through the car window for us to sign. Very different from registering Dc1 a couple of years before!

Right at the beginning of the pandemic before the lockdown. Was sat next to a group of men on the tube during rush hour commute home. They were chatting away and one of them started innocuously coughing. A crowd of tourists that were stood near him recoiled in horror and literally ran down the tube away from him (like he was a terrorist). He hadn't realised the effect his cough had had and looked up and saw that the carriage had emptied and was gobsmacked, he laughed over it though. That moment still stays with me as it was a sign of how "on edge" people would behave for the next 2 years.

Having to talk DH down from panic buying tomato purée in that weird week before lockdown

Starting every morning of the first couple of lockdown months with Robin Ince & Josie Long on YouTube - absolute lifesavers, they created the most lovely community.

Once a fortnight I was allowed to go to work for 10 mins to walk round the building, checking the perimeter with a colleague. It was the most exciting thing we were allowed to do! When coffee shops opened in the deserted city centre, it made it all the more thrilling!

The awfulness of online school for my child - finding her weeping in confusion at her iPad, as a lesson took place that she wasn’t keeping up with. She’ll never be the same child/pupil again, but we can see the beginnings of recovery.

@frazzledali

Although I agree that there was definitely some hysteria and at points things were unnecessarily draconian, the bile thrown out on here is so unhelpful - we're not going to be able to move on with this level of YOU SUPPORTED THE LOCKDOWN SO I NOW THINK YOU'RE A STUPID FUCKER vitriol. Come on. We all fucking suffered.

Covid absolutely fucked my family though and my child is still seriously unwell so I find it hard to be objective.

Yes, agreed.

Seeing a picture of my friend who works in care wearing a full gown, mask, visor etc and pics of 2 family members who were working on the covid wards with the marks on their faces from the PPE.

Then being stopped by the police and having to produce a letter and text to say where I was going because it was the second time I'd been out of the house that day, and obviously some nosy twat reported me.

My first shift back in a care home after being furloughed and redundant from my original job, after being interviewed, being shown how to do a PCR test, put on/take off PPE properly and carrying hand sanitiser - through a window.

Oh and just after the first lockdown,I got booted out of Aldi as I was with my partner
We’d gone round together but we couldn’t go through the till together-I ended up waiting in the car

He pointed out that we could live together,have nookie an hour before we set off,could walk round together but couldn’t load/unload and pay for our shopping together cos ‘Covid’

The rule was dropped the following week

Driving home from work in central London during rush hour with no cars on the road was also bliss. Was the first time (and probably only time) I was able to drive to and from work without traffic.

Having to tie up our adopted dog outside the vets, and retreat to our car, so that the vet nurse could take her in to be PTS.
The vet came out afterwards in tears. 💔💔

Watching one of our neighbours having a massive 12 hour party and trying to explain to DS why he couldn't see his grandma or friends when he was doing this

Watching the police arrive at said party and shake hands with the "host" then leave after doing fuck all

An impromptu rugby match on the field behind us

A jumble sale in someone's front garden with people raking through stuff

All of these during the height of first lockdown

And when everybody was WFH it meant the tubes looked like this during rush hour commute for the rest of us.

About a week in to the first lockdown here in Ireland when my 28 year old son told me he had handed in his notice and wasn't going back to work, he was in a job he loved, there a few years but he was in and out of businesses and homes daily, he was living with his grandfather who has medical issues and we'd lost his grandmother a month before and he felt the risk was just to high despite him stripping off in the garage and immediately showering each evening, thankfully his employer didn't accept his notice but told him to use his holidays and within a few weeks the company was closed temporarily anyway. My son cocooned with his grandfather, relatives dropped off the shopping and stayed outside, they stayed in contact by phone but didn't have visitors, when things moved on and my son returned to work he told me he will always be grateful and look back fondly at those months that he got to spend with his grandfather, covid destroyed so much and caused so much pain but at a time of grieving these two men, of different generations and ages got to spend the time they needed together. To see them together when they'd facetime me (I'm a long distance away) and witness the closeness and obvious love they had for each other used to make things bearable

@Alsoplayspiccolo

Having to tie up our adopted dog outside the vets, and retreat to our car, so that the vet nurse could take her in to be PTS. The vet came out afterwards in tears. 💔💔

I had to have my dog PTS during lockdown. We planned it carefully and the lovely vet came to my house and did it in the garden so he could get near enough to the dog to sedate but not get near me. I cuddled him and fed him till he lost consciousness then moved away for the vet to give him the final injection. Not a good memory but it could have been so much worse.

@godmum56

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?

This.

Also remember Boris on TV scaring shit out of me - say everyone who had flu injection was at high risk - that was me and DS.

Sending DS off to hopsital with fear he had a reaccurance of a life changing medical emergecy - they operated to check - but standing watching DH and him off int axi wondering if I'd done the right thing or rised their lives with covid.

Everytime we did something we hadn't done for a while feeling fear/uncomforatbel- so first walk after few weeks of not leaving home, first shopping trip, first time on a bus then train.

It's also how much is "normal" to our children now - mask wearing and off covid rules they just accpet and they don't seem to remember that we used to go out much more than we do even now.

@Spottybotty20

2 for me,

1 - lots of people posting about only buying essentials in the supermarket but did you miss the fact that in wales you were only allowed to buy essentials? They literally taped off the non essential aisles. My husband was refused the sale of a birthday cake for our 3 year old.

1. When everyone lost their ability to risk assess at all. My mum said “I can’t come for a walk with you because if one of the children runs out into the road I will want to grab them so they don’t hit a car, and I’m not allowed to touch them” seriously mum!

I already mentioned the Wales idiocy. I also remember seeing on TV that police had been checking people's shopping bags outside supermatkets and telling them they could be prosecuted for buying alcohol as it wasn't essential. The Gov.t actually had to add to the shopping guidance that if you were out to buy essentials, it was allowed to buy non essentials too.