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.

Leaving a visit with my gran in her care home in early March 2020 not realising I would never see her again. Not being able to sit with my mum at her pathetic funeral. I wish I had said 'fuck it' and just sat there.

Having to literally beg to see my dad who was in hospital and dying of cancer. Amazingly I was let in for a short time and then there was a shift change and I don't think they realised the agreement had been just for a short time... and I stayed until he passed away a few hours later. Bizarre when you have to beg to see a dying family member.

One way systems everywhere. They made NO sense and actually meant that more people were being force into a isle in the supermarkets etc.

This!

In my local branch of Tesco the notoriously ferocious 'greeter' was now redeployed to prowl the aisles and shout at people who had inadvertently gone into an empty aisle in the wrong direction to pick up some forgotten essential. Instead, people would be directed back into the much more crowded one way system. They also made everyone join one huge queue at the end of the store to be allocated a check out. This, of course, meant that everyone was at far more potential risk squashed up together in one area of the shop. I also realised there was no point in trying to suggest there might be a better and safer way of doing things since you were treated like some sort of Covid Fifth Columnist for questioning any new systems.

I was driving back from the supermarket and a car in front of me misjudged the bend and crashed into the verge. It was only a minor accident but the teenage girl driving was shaking and very upset. I stopped my car, got her out gave her a massive hug without really thinking about it then immediately apologised for touching her. It was at that point I realised there were rules but we also shouldn't let go of our humanity. Sadly I think many people did during the lockdowns, it brought out the worst in some people.

And sitting at my MILs funeral wearing a mask and crying and feeling so upset and uncomfortable and just generally angry. Then attending her wake at my SILs house and there were 9 of us rather than the 6 that was the "allowed" number and all being anxious about it and wondering if the neighbours would report us. Fucking madness.

Driving with a bag of groceries in my car from my own fridge so I could pretend mum needed them to go see her on her foot path, despite being in my 30s crying on the way home I couldn't hug her before next time deciding I would and that mum hug was the best.

Not seeing my mum for the last two weeks of her life as the hospice wouldn’t let me in. Sitting with her in hospital just prior to that and having to book one hour slots which couldn’t be at the same time as any other visitor in the six bedded bay.

Having to queue and wear a mask on the school playground and only being allowed in the gate one at a time when another parent left, and having to stand on a marked spot to wait from your child. Utter madness wearing masks outside and being kept more than 2m apart.

Seeing council works dismantling the local playground, removing the chains and seats from the swing frame, chaining and padlocking the seesaw so it couldn't move, boarding up the climbing frame.

Absolutely fucking crackers.

Having to step in between two very angry men in Sainsburys , because one had taken the last two bottles of lavender scented Carex ( it wasn’t even antibacterial) and wouldn’t share . Verbally banged their heads together , one took one look at my face , thought better of it , and threw a bottle at the other man before scuttling away .

Going into work for night duty , turning onto the A1 on day 2 of lockdown , and being the only car on it for twenty miles .

@Buzzinwithbez

Rules my arse. They fucking weren't.

It was a real eye opener that few of the police had read the new law or been briefed properly on it.
It took weeks for the college of policing to clear matters up. Much longer than necessary for someone to step forward and sort out the debacle. I'd read and understood it, but what was the point if I could end up being threatened for doing something totally innocuous and allowed anyway. Those felt like very dark days..

Oh and for the first few days, we were led to believe there were laws in place. There weren't.

They were definitely dark days. And it was inexcusable.

A young Mum crying in the CoOp because they like everywhere else had sold out of baby milk. A shop assistant got one from out the back and said she had a few put by for emergencies.

Going into school to look after the KW children and sometimes only having one child in school.

Having parents calling us, crying and desperate, but not being able to help.

Doing weekly photo calls to the parents on my class and really loving chatting with them!

Loosing my lovely work colleague.

Free school meal packages piled up in the school kitchen.

Someone on Facebook taking a photo of a Dad and 2 toddlers having a picnic and shaming them.

Police asking us if we had driven to the local forest and moving people on and telling them to leave if they had.

Feeling so scared that I would be 'reported' by some nosey neighbour for breaking 'the rules'. Next door had a go at my sister in the street for looking after my DC while I was at work. And demanding to know if she was in our bubble! She wasn't

Some people were so keen to spread their own misery to everyone else.

Sadly some parks near me still have apparatus missing such as swings. No sign of them coming back.Kind of takes the fun out of it.
The rules were just madness, looking back.

You couldn’t visit an elderly relative, such as a parent or grandparent, yet you could go to Tesco’s and mingle with strangers..

Being stopped by the police when commuting to work on my bike on FOUR occasions. I nearly got arrested the fourth time because I got a bit lippy/exasperated

Taking photos of DS and his friends (yr6) outside school in March 2020 because we were very aware this could be the last time they’d be there together. And it was.

Texting DH after a trip to the supermarket in the run up to lockdown1. ‘No chicken, no beef, no mince, no rice, no pasta, no oil, no loo roll...’ you get the picture. At least the weather was nice when we were all queuing outside the supermarket after that.

Socially distanced get together on the street for the VE Day celebrations. It was lovely to all meet carefully and have a good old chat. We each brought our own tea and cake. It just helped everything feel a little bit more normal.

Sitting in school, hearing that Ireland and France had closed schools and wondering when we would.

Empty roads. With the horse and dogs, my outings were as per, I had no choice.

Yesterday my DD had her 7/8/9th birthday party.
Her 7th was cancelled as the venue and schools shut
Her 8th never happened due to the Jan-March school closure
Her 9th was great and hopefully I can start to disassociate her birthday with lockdowns, as can she.

I remember reading about a Mumsnetter asking if she would ring the police because her neighbour's daughter (late teen) had the audacity to come home and stay with her parents for Christmas. She lived by herself in London and was an only child.

There were as many posters saying yes as no. Unbelievable.

I had to do a couple of days at work when we first went in to lockdown, before being furloughed for 5 months. I'd come home, strip off in the hallway and shove my uniform in a bag. OH tipped the clothes in the washing machine while I went straight upstairs for a shower.

Felt like the right thing to do at the time! 🤦‍♀️

Being told by my employer that I would have to stop my son coming home from University for the holidays. It was at the time when university cases were rife (he didn't test positive, but my employer was so concerned he might be asymptomatic).

Luckily a quick chat with my union rep sorted that.

And being pulled over by the police on several occasions in the way to work asking where I was headed.

Travelling into work the week before the first lockdown on an almost empty bus and passing the 'stay home, protect the NHS, save lives' signs. Nature trails and quizzes tied to lamp posts by a local teacher for her primary school pupils to follow on their daily hour out of the house. Knitted angels hung on trees with comforting messages tied to them. Family groups out cycling on the empty roads, parents wobbling on bikes they hadn't used in years and super confident kids giving them words of encouragement. The 'non essential' parts of supermarkets being closed off. Birdsong instead of traffic and aircraft noise.

One way systems everywhere. They made NO sense and actually meant that more people were being forced into a isle in the supermarkets etc

Yes!

Our local Asda’s one way system ended with everyone in the far corner of the store so you either had to walk the wrong way back down the last aisle, or have twice as many people walking down the previous aisle. Madness

Also, our local agriculture store shortened its opening hours to 10-2, Monday to Friday. The same amount of us still needed to use the place, so we were all forced into shopping at the same timeframe. I had to leave work to go and queue for 2 hours to get feed for my horses.

I will never forget Picking up my dc from school on the last day before they closed.
It was a dark, windy and rainy day and everyone just seemed in a world of their own. There was so much uncertainty.

It was eerie and still gives me goosebumps to think about it.

Also, waiting in a queue for an hour to get into the supermarket. Once in, trying to be as quick as possible whilst trying not to forget anything.