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.

Illegally going to the house of DP's best friend and his partner, along with our other couple friend, two days before the second lockdown ended - the one in November. One of the women was having a hard time with her small business struggling and we wanted to cheer her up and celebrate her birthday, but we parked our car a couple of streets away and went round the back of their house so nobody would see us go in. Madness!

The entire thing showed how truly selfish people actually are.

We don't do big shops very often, we just buy things as we need them.

On the Monday (the night first lockdown was announced) I went to work like normal and was intending to grab a few bits on my way home.

I got to the shop and saw it had been completely stripped. Bemused staff were telling me that people had gone in and not found what they actually needed and ended up buying 16 leeks and 7 heads of lettuice. I had to go to 3 supermarkets just to find ANYTHING.

I managed to pick up the last 2 steaks in the chiller and ended up trading one of them away for 2 pints of lactose free milk (my youngest is lactose intollerant) with a nice lady who had picked them up with the intention of putting it back after the "vultures were done so other people could get something".

Then the following week you saw dustbins with stacks of side waste strewn on the streets and our entire road stank of rotting vegetables.

What did people think would happen? Did you actually NEED 6 cabbage? Did you think perhaps you just needed the one but screw anyone else that might have needed one? Of course not, you thought about yourself.

Gah... makes me bitter to even think back on.

I teach my DC to respect the police and the law but not blindly

@Vegeetas

Yes - agree. I was redeployed to ring people on the shielding lists and so many were struggling to get free from foods as they’d been cleared out completely. We all made sure we reported in specific dietary requirements so the food parcels might be able to have some in but getting hold of it was a different matter.

It was very frustrating for people that actually needed those items.

Receiving texts and letters from the government telling me I was at high risk of serious illness and death from Covid, then sitting in my room for almost 5 months barricaded away from the world, even from my family, on doctor's advice. I had my own set of cutlery, mugs etc I washed in the bathroom sink. I had a big zoom social life and got through but it seems so surreal now.

Hearing my friends DD in her twenties had died of covid and the same week losing a friend in her 50s to covid. Going to zoom funerals.

Keeping reading on here that people like me didn't matter in the stats because of preexisting conditions. We were going to die soon anyway, apparently, so shouldn't count compared to the 'young and healthy.' I felt like I'd entered a dystopian world where survival of the fittest was a proper thing and to be honest I still hear that kind of thing now even on threads like this from posters who try to minimise.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but back then no one knew how to handle it and so of course most kept to the rules because we were decent human beings. The fact that our government didn't enrages me.

Some other stuff too painful to talk about.

It was about a week or so after the lockdown and I needed some fresh food, so ventured to tesco. The queue to get in was a mile long, all in two metres apart boxes with our trollies. Everyone was silent and it felt so eerie and apocalyptic.

[quote Cookie79]@Vegeetas

Yes - agree. I was redeployed to ring people on the shielding lists and so many were struggling to get free from foods as they’d been cleared out completely. We all made sure we reported in specific dietary requirements so the food parcels might be able to have some in but getting hold of it was a different matter.

It was very frustrating for people that actually needed those items.[/quote]
As much as anything else, for me it was a case of walking around the shops and seeing people almost get into fights over who had what in their trolley.

I'd seen one woman screaming at a man for getting a multi pack of hand soap as she wanted it more and he retorted with "if there were any single bars I would have just got that". The woman screamed (yes literally) that he was selfish and she needed the soaps MORE than he did....

Even though you were socially distanced, I frequently talked to people (from a distance) and if a multipack was all that was available, I would split my pack and trade it for stuff that people had in multipacks. Why wouldn't you? Chances are you don't need 6 bars of Imperial leather and they don't need all of the content of their multi pack of xxx.

I intervened on one occasion in my local Asda. A man was walking the opposite direction to the floor arrows and was looking in everyone elses trolly and actually reached in and took things OUT of their trolleys to put in his own. He got to the lady in front of me and grabbed a multi pack of soap (soap was a commonly fought over item) and tried to walk off with it. I sort of snapped at that point. I blocked his path and told him if he didn't replace the things he'd taken from the other trollies then he and I would have a serious issue and I would take the things away from him and show him the exit.

Needless to say he very quickly ran back UP the isle and replaced everything he took and even managed an apology to the ladies he'd swiped from.

I hated that I was the one that had to point out that someone was being selfish, surely logic and decency dictates you don't take more than you need in that situation and you show decency with others around you?

@Madhairday

Receiving texts and letters from the government telling me I was at high risk of serious illness and death from Covid, then sitting in my room for almost 5 months barricaded away from the world, even from my family, on doctor's advice. I had my own set of cutlery, mugs etc I washed in the bathroom sink. I had a big zoom social life and got through but it seems so surreal now.

Hearing my friends DD in her twenties had died of covid and the same week losing a friend in her 50s to covid. Going to zoom funerals.

Keeping reading on here that people like me didn't matter in the stats because of preexisting conditions. We were going to die soon anyway, apparently, so shouldn't count compared to the 'young and healthy.' I felt like I'd entered a dystopian world where survival of the fittest was a proper thing and to be honest I still hear that kind of thing now even on threads like this from posters who try to minimise.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but back then no one knew how to handle it and so of course most kept to the rules because we were decent human beings. The fact that our government didn't enrages me.

Some other stuff too painful to talk about.

I was shocked at how callous people behaved on MN and in real life about vulnerable people. My DS1 is CV with a range of issues and I was told both on MN and IRL that a child like mine would not have even made it past infancy in the past so why should the world be put on hold to protect people like him now? I will honestly never get over that.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 days before lockdown one. All of my treatment took place in a virtually empty hospital. At one point I had to go to another hospital miles away for daily radiotherapy and the M25 was virtually empty, in an area where it's usually madly busy and queueing. Queuing at our local shop and only being allowed in 2 at a time. People fighting over loo roll. Walking at night and no planes in the sky and it being so incredibly clear to the point you could see satellites. It was such an odd time.

Being told off for walking the wrong way around a one way system in a field, by the only other person there.

Trying to post my daughter’s homework and arriving at the same time as the postman, I wasn’t sure what to do. The postmaster shouted at me to give the postman some space, only he was standing right next to him and I was a few feet away.

It certainly made people crazy for a while. Though I have happy memories too. We had a lovely street party on VE Day, everyone in their front gardens eating a picnic on a sunny day.

Another one from me

Being told by the police that my DD, who I am RP for and has SN and needs to walk next to me for support, had to walk 2m in front or behind me and couldn't hold my hand.

Was told on here that those where the rules. I didn't take DD out for a walk for about a fortnight after that it was ridiculous.

@TheNeverEndingIllness

Another one from me

Being told by the police that my DD, who I am RP for and has SN and needs to walk next to me for support, had to walk 2m in front or behind me and couldn't hold my hand.

Was told on here that those where the rules. I didn't take DD out for a walk for about a fortnight after that it was ridiculous.

Rules my arse. They fucking weren't.

Going to the park with DC and feeling very naughty for sitting down on the grass briefly.

DH stripping off at the back door, clothes going in the washing machine and going for a shower before he came to say hi after work
He's a hospital dr and I'm immunosuppressed (not a great combination in a pandemic)

The roads almost empty
People walking everywhere in parks etc
Huge numbers of people with newly acquired dogs out walking
People stepping to one side to let you pass as though there was an invisible bubble around you
Setting up a home school and feeling quite excited about all the posters around the room
Listening to the teacher on zoom and the bloody kids who hadn't muted shouting Miss, Miss, Miss!
Not getting up in the morning at 7 for weeks on end!
Following the daily death rates, numbers etc.
People in masks everywhere
Everything shut and like a ghost town.

Being told by a close relative that Covid didn't exist and my DH hadn't witnessed patients and colleagues ill and dying ...DH just 'believes' that but it wasn't true 🤯

People went out in the streets to bash pots and pans, park insanity...
Parks we're taped off and my local park had the gates cable tied shut, along with swings etc.
The police set up checkpoints to check your travel was essential and that you was only with members of your own household, full on police state vibes.

Oh yes, an hour drive to work became less than 25 minutes as the motorway was deserted.

@TheNeverEndingIllness

Another one from me

Being told by the police that my DD, who I am RP for and has SN and needs to walk next to me for support, had to walk 2m in front or behind me and couldn't hold my hand.

Was told on here that those where the rules. I didn't take DD out for a walk for about a fortnight after that it was ridiculous.

I read that and my mouth dropped open, that's beyond ridiculous

Queuing all the way up the high street for M&S and as I got to the front, a woman in office attire demanding to queue jump as she was a 'key worker'. Poor M&S lady faced her wrath and pointed out that she was trying to cut in front of me, heavily pregnant, and a man behind me on crutches.

The last day of term before schools closed for a while, picking my children up, all the teachers and parents were in tears, overwhelmingly sad and scary not knowing what would come next

It’s bizarre my office was open the entire way through, we were classed as essential workers. It was utter bullshit. We weren’t it’s an R&D company. They don’t need a fucking admin assistant to keep the ship afloat. But being too scared of losing my job to complain.

At one point I burst into tears and said I’d seen more of John from accounts than I had my own family.

Driving to Sainsbury’s 10 miles away to get a click and collect. The road was empty and an illuminated sign saying stay at home was blinking at the side of the road. I had a premonition that the whole world would be bloody dead of this virus and that sign would still be there blinking walking dead style 2 years on.

People panic buying after seeing newspaper reports of it happening in Australia and thinking it was happening here. Well, the next day it was!

Watching a giant blue football bounce down the middle of the main road like the modern British version of tumble weed!

First lockdown, my birthday. Met family on the beach although it was illegal. A helicopter flew over head and we all ran to hide in a cave. Nuts. No restaurants or even Chinese take away open so had toast and went to bed at 8pm totally fed up. Dropping shopping off for my parents and dad ordering me to leave the bags ten feet away on the path and get back in the car while he came to collect them, masked up. All of it was totally absurd and horrific and pointless.

But on the positive side, a few weeks ago was out walking with ds and struggled to get the hook on my coat fastened. Was really cold and windy and an older lady stopped and offered to help. She did up the hook and then cupped my face in her hands. That was such a beautiful moment, a stranger just displaying no fear of another stranger. Made my week.