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.

My mums twin dying, not being able to travel to say goodbye. That Thursday clap thing. Wasn't sure if I hated it or liked it. The silence on our road. It was so odd. Getting the shielding letter. I cried and cried. Coming to an agreement with mum that we would do coffee in the garden everyday. My husband building a gazebo thing for that purpose. Truly was my hero x

Lockdown 1 before support bubbles, and so being told me and my DP who both live alone couldn't visit each other. That didn't last - it was a bit ridiculous! People on here genuinely said we should both spend months completely on our own.... Glad the support bubbles came in during lockdown 2 so we were no longer breaking the law.

Sneaking into DS2's Halls of Residence flat on a bitterly cold day to have a cup of tea because we were so frozen walking around outside abiding by the rules. No one else had turned up to live in the flat he was put in in his first term and he'd rung me in tears to say the only person he had spoken to all week was the cashier at Tesco. He was dangerously lonely and low - had stopped eating and sleeping. It was one of the saddest moments of my life.

@WindyPopPops

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

What she actually said was she was worried it could be tracked. Paranoia had kicked in and she was irrationally thinking this could be the case.

Getting the shielding letter.

Dad came though few weeks before sheilding was stopped - he'd been jabbed and had only just ventured out.

Even now we frequently still not allowed in waiting rooms - and chemist has limit of four people so have spent fair bit of time as we don't drive waiting around in cold and wet for perscriptions, GP dentits, orthodontist and vets and even eye tests.

Dmum had to get registered as a carer and still had to fight to stay with Dad in A&E as he does get very confused. Even few months ago FIL in hospital for many weeks wasn't allowed any visitors at all.

The moment DH and I watched all our income disappear as his diary emptied, that absolute panic.

But what hurts most is that I don't know if I'll see other people in quite the same light again. The vicious judgement - covidiots, the awful mask debates, the stuff about the unvaccinated, the sheer, petty, mean-spirited judgement and spite.
Having a friend tell me that DH was a tax dodger when I said how beside myself with worry about money I was.

I am quite reclusive now and avoid a lot of friends.

I do still chuckle about covid tyres though.

We live on the flight path to the airport and usually have a noisy plane over every 15 mins or so. I remember those first few weeks sitting outside for a few hours and the absolute silence was so weird. Not one car, not one voice, not one plane. Just the birds.

Nutty SIL posting on Twitter and Facebook photos of people having the audacity to pass her garden wall and put her at risk as they didn't live in the four houses of her terrace. That they were walking and cycling on a public footpath seemed to pass her by. That and her rants about her elderly neighbours who had had family move into care for them who dared to use their garden when she did hers just cemented the views I had always held.

Going to Wilkos with the kids after ld1 and us being the only people in the shop without masks on. Bloody strange…

phew thanks @SpeckledlyHen , I can imagine why people would think that in the madness of it all

Having only ten people at my mother's funeral. No flowers, pictures or possessions allowed in the church. The priest berating me for standing too close to my father. It was just surreal.

Refreshing Tesco non stop from midnight onwards as someone told me the new slots dropped sometime after midnight. (1am I think)

Watching my FILs funeral a few 1000 miles away on zoom, just 4 people physically present. He died of covid and easily had another 10 good years left in him otherwise. My youngest DC doesn't remember him much now

Walking my daily walk with DD and trying to get her to stick to the 2m distance rule.

The home schooling while wfh!!!

Sitting at opposite sides of a lay by to see Truck driver BF. We live long distance so the only time we could see each other was if he had a delivery to where I live. We'd sit there windows wide open just shouting across to each other. I remember when he'd got some face masks in Japan a month before lockdown and he left them in the middle of the lay by then got back in his Truck so I could go and retrieve them. Same when I took him a thermos cup of coffee up. I left it in the middle of the lay by got back in my car so he could get out and get it. It was surreal there was only us two in the lay by but we still didn't dare hug each other in case someone drove in and reported us. In the end once my mental health was declining we both just said fuck it and we'd stand outside and have a cuddle.

Shortage of toilet paper meant I daren't take my medication (metformin) because I didn't want to use up the 2 rolls I had left. Literally no shop at all had any in.

Feeling panic if I touched something in the shop then didn't buy it.

Being paranoid about joggers running past me (I mean...its just rude in general but I hated it the start of the pandemic).

One way systems that actually meant people crossed paths more.

Having to pretend I didnt know my husband in the queue for Tesco Express because we needed more than one person could carry but two people from the same household were not allowed in. We would even split up halfway down the road so we didnt arouse suspicion!

@LoHicimosAmigos

Noticing that people had stopped making eye contact.

I was about to say this too. Because everyone was out walking I would invariably bump into friends also walking with their families. I remember walking a short way with them at a distance and talking in a stilted way while not making eye contact. The kids of course were just delighted to see people and were the only normal ones among us.

I look back now and think how ludicrous. I lost my dad in the autumn of 2020 and feel like the last 6 months when we could have spent time with him were wasted with ridiculous rules.

The absolute worst part for me, was my husband being told to go collect my belongings from the labour room after my c section and they wheeled me to the antenatal ward while he was off doing that, and then he wasnt allowed into that ward. No goodbye, no warning. DD had been born 45 minutes earlier.

I was dumped on the ward, clutching DD, unable to move, get a drink, get my phone. DH was in shock and walked the whole way home to try and process what had just happened.

People losing their collective minds over an old man walking around his garden.

My parents (who live 200 miles away) appearing at our door unannounced on Father’s Day 2020 with an afternoon tea, having driven at dawn to spend the day with us for the first time since January of that year. We are not a very emotional bunch but I tear up just thinking about how joyous it was to open the door to find them standing there (“who the bloody hell is this at this time on a Sunday?!” to “oh my god!” in an instant).

And related to covid - DD6’s reaction to her first church hall birthday party in late 2021 - it had been more than two years since she’d been to one and she clearly found the whole thing totally overwhelming. It made me realise how many “normal” things children had missed out on.

My lovely Dad dying alone in hospital while my mum and I had covid at home then coming out of isolation a couple of days after he died. I understood the need to reduce the risk to others but it was inhuman and it still feels so unreal. Having to choose the twelve allowed to his funeral was traumatic too.

Does anyone remember the Welsh farmer who was filmed arguing with a bloke who’d been surfing in the literal middle of nowhere on a deserted beach ? It was a Ranger truck standoff and the farmer was hailed a hero.

Seeing the empty shelves where bread and toilet roll used to be and peoples trollies stockpiled. Not being able to get tinned spaghetti anywhere.

A woman in the supermarket telling me that God will look after everyone so it'll be OK.

How mean everyone got, watching their neighbours every move. No one seemed to consider for small second that lockdown was outright dangerous to some people.

The absolute nonsense of a MNetter "sobbing and shaking" because someone went out to buy a chocolate bar. Ridiculous, it's a virus not a fucking zombie apocalypse 🤦🏻‍♀️

Going to MIL's 90th birthday in summer 2020. 6 people were allowed to meet outdoors and there are 7 in the family in total, so we had an elaborate farce of a rota for which child would leave and sit in their car for 15 minutes. MIL had made a birthday cake and unthinkingly blew out the candle. Everyone was and none of us ate the cake because she'd breathed on it. Most of it ended up in the bin, and MIL was crying . She hadn't been anywhere or seen anyone for 3 months, zero risk of covid, I don't know what we were all thinking.

Pre Christmas 2020, meeting my dd and dgc in a nearby town to exchange Christmas presents on the street. dd could drive there because it was in the same county, we could walk there (different county) because it was close enough.

The wonderful summer evening when I could first meet dd and go for a walk with her, we walked for hours. And I wept when I was allowed to hug my dgc again.

@JellyNo15

My lovely Dad dying alone in hospital while my mum and I had covid at home then coming out of isolation a couple of days after he died. I understood the need to reduce the risk to others but it was inhuman and it still feels so unreal. Having to choose the twelve allowed to his funeral was traumatic too.

I'm so sorry. Incredibly tough, for him and for you and your mum, and I can well imagine you're not over it yet

My dad was one of the last allowed funerals on March 16. Two weeks later( Right at the start of full lockdown) I found out I had breast cancer. The day before my surgery we found out my DH furlough was now redundancy. My adult DS with ASD was so stressed about eveything going on he had to move in with his dad( who lives alone) to get some peace. I went through all cancer tests, surgery and following treatment alone. I have a rare autoimmine disease that hugely complicated my treatment and was often making life or death choices alone in a doctors room. It was so odd travelling down empty roads to a busy cancer care centre with people everywhere.
On a lighter note i will always remember that programme they showed with famous people singing and passing on messages of support. The one that always stays with me is Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day, singing an accoustic version of " Wake me up when september ends" over footage of deserted cities all over the world. That and the Jellyfish swimming in the clear waters of Venice canals.