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.

Someone posted on a local Facebook page, almost hysterical because a takeaway business had posted a leaflet in her letterbox. I know it was silly but I ended up feeling sorry for her because of the barrage she received.
It was the very early days of the whole thing and things were all so different all of a sudden, that ordinary things that we took for granted were all askew.

Queuing for an hour to get into an outside garden centre.

“Non essential” aisles being taped off at supermarkets.

At the start of lockdown 1, delivering a computer to my Mum to be able to Skype us, wearing gloves and washing the entire thing like five times and only letting her touch it when we were no longer in the room.

Washing shopping!

Being shouted at by a woman wearing pyjamas in Tesco, screaming that I wasn’t allowed to walk past her but had to wait til she’d finished browsing the veg aisle, even though she then bloody walked past me later on in the pet food aisle.

Seeing all my self employed friends lose everything they had worked so hard for in an instant, with no government support.

Two memorable events:
Random person commenting on how much I had in my trolley in ASDA, yeah I only go once a fortnight and have teenagers, myob

Second one, my eldest son being berated by a busy body neighbour for playing football ON HIS OWN in a field with no one else around.

People just went totally mad didn't they

I also remember seeing my GP have a wtf moment. Right at the very start, I'd ordered masks online for me and my son, and we were wearing them on a dog walk. They weren't widely available then, like now, and my GP was also out for a walk, and as we walked passed him, his jaw sort of dropped, and he stood staring at us, like something was trying to click in his head, but couldn't. Like he'd stepped into a parallel dimension, and couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

Meeting my mum in a drizzly grey car park a couple of days before Xmas to swap gifts, so we could open them via video call on the day. It was outside a Debenhams, which was shut yet decked out in Xmas decorations and the huge car park was completely empty. It was really gloomy.

I think it was the moment it got me that it was really happening. Driving home from work with a new laptop and everything I needed to wfh, seeing people on the streets wearing masks, and one of those road signs that normally tell you about road closures instead had been changed to tell people to wash their hands. It felt very weird. Hard to believe how quickly it became normal.

Attending my Uncles funeral online and seeing his children sat alone.
My adult son desperate to come into our home lonely and isolated in his own home.
My first visit to the supermarket, felt so anxious about getting it wrong or bring judged for buying non essentials.
My son at Uni unable to get basics and food and trying to work out whether we could get him home without breaking the rules.
Dreadful financial fear as my income totally dried up.

@mistermagpie

On a personal level, my daughter was three months old when the pandemic hit - she is now two and said the word 'mask' before she said her brothers names.

I'll also never forget the first time I went to 'the big Tesco' after lockdown, standing in a huge queue outside with everyone in masks, it felt terrifying and like something out of a horror movie.

Yeah that feeling of being in an apocalyptic movie was hard to shake for a long while.

"People just went totally mad didn't they"

People were scared

"Fear is the mind killer"

Dd came out of school and told me less than half her class were in and she was scared to go the next day. Schools closed two days later. That was the point that I realised this was A Big Thing.

And honestly some of utter fear mongering nonsense and downright viciousness right here on MN has stayed with me long term. I predicted at the time that many would have to name change and pretend to be a new poster entirely as they'd made such fools of themselves.

Oh god, remembered another one. Seeing an ambulance crew turn up in full ppe for a neighbour over the road. It was horrifyingly surreal.

Not seeing my partner for months and months on end, because although we were in a bubble, we were also in a long distance relationship and he is a bit of a stickler for the rules.

Meeting him for the first time in months after the first lockdown and cutting his hair in the woods, because he was having a job interview the next day and all the barbers were shut and he wasn’t allowed in my house.

Travelling to my mums funeral on the Thursday after the first lockdown. (She died on the 1st March 2020) And not seeing a car on the road!! It was very frightening. It was a beautiful sunny morning and trying to get a bunch of flowers just to put on her coffin. ( I found a small bunch in the only corner shop open)

The week before, people ringing asking if they could come to the funeral. It was really sad, that that only 6 people were allowed. My mil and fil, had to sit in the car outside. (they just wanted to show support- my lovely fil has gone now)

@PermanentTemporary

Good grief *@Frenchie8690*. You clearly survived but I wonder how.

I went to Tesco the next day and got a job on the checkout! I'd been used to a high consultant's day rate previously so the drop in salary was a shock

They announced in Scotland that social distancing was stopped for under 12s from 4pm. My DS was having a nap in his grandmother's garden (who she had only got to cuddle once when he was born 6 weeks before lockdown hecause we were abroad). He woke at 1550 and she looked at me pleadingly and asked if she could pick him up. As if those 10 minutes made any difference. When I of course said yes she physically ran to the pram to get him.

@Imsittinginthekitchensink

Hearing the announcement that once schools closed they would not be reopening. Obviously this was not strictly true but an enormous and very sad pronouncement.

Putting my son's clean uniform away that weekend after schools had closed. I wanted to cry, not know when he would wear it again or what would happen to any of us.

A woman being told to get out the sea by a police officer and my sister supporting the police officer.

Standing in a wide open playground on a windy day, 2m from anyone else, and being forced to wear a mask.

Having to walk past taped up playgrounds while my dad played golf with his friends.

Flying to New Zealand in the middle of the pandemic... Driving down to Heathrow in a hire car and seeing Heathrow car parks completely empty. I'd never seen that before.

Also the weird experience of having a few people (staff) turn up to help me with my bags once I entered Heathrow...presumably because there wasn't much else to do there. It all felt really odd. I've travelled a great deal in the past and it was nothing like previous experiences.

@HPD76

Not seeing my partner for months and months on end, because although we were in a bubble, we were also in a long distance relationship and he is a bit of a stickler for the rules.

Meeting him for the first time in months after the first lockdown and cutting his hair in the woods, because he was having a job interview the next day and all the barbers were shut and he wasn’t allowed in my house.

Haha - cutting his hair in the woods must have felt quite surreal!

Oh and our lovely elderly lady neighbour died just before the first lockdown and her husband went around to post details about the funeral. This was just before the first lockdown and it hadn't been announced and the next day he went around again to post that no one needed to feel bad if they didn't feel comfortable by coming to the funeral. We went and I am so glad we did.

Also seeing my dads rapid decline during the pandemic, I am sure without it he would have lived a few more years, in the end I couldn't go an see him before he died all alone at home (we don't live in the same countries and I couldn't travel)

I remember the week before the first lockdown and my older DS's best friend was pulled from school by his mum. His mother is a microbiologist and his father a scientist and I thought 'Shit. What do they know'?

I also recall calling my line manager the day after we were all sent to wfh (she was in the office clearing things away) to tell her I had left my office spider plant in my room. I drove to work and she lowered my plant out the window so I could take it home with me. She put a postit on it with a smiley face and a 'love you'. :) It felt surreal and wonderful.

When DH tested positive last summer we were getting phone calls about five times a day making sure he was isolating. It was getting absolutely ridiculous. The woman on the phone was on a massive power trip telling him what he wasn't allowed to do like he was a naughty school boy. We threatened to report them for harassment and they didn't call again.

Going into work at a hospital and seeing the huge containers in the carpark that were to act as additional morgue space.

'wonderful'; because it was a human moment I mean.

The post upthread of the year 6s writing goodbye on a rainbow sign outside their school made me tear up.

I used to hold my breath when I walked past people!

Neighbour having a go at me for walking my dog. Everyone, including me, was petrified.

The idea that a 59 minute walk was ok, but a 61 minute walk meant you were worse than Hitler.

Not going to see my best mate who had cancer because of " the rules", half a century we were mates. He is dead now.

Advice on here about not having a BBQ as covid affects the lungs.

People washing their shopping.

Clapping on a Thursday night, then straight back to treating those that were clapped for like shit.

So many of my former bus driving colleagues dying with covid while the bus companies cut corners and the great British public treated them with contempt.