Lockdown started two years ago - what did you all think was ahead when it was announced?

[goaskmum]

So the very first lockdown started this day 2 years ago! I can’t believe that.

I remember hearing earlier that day that BJ was to do a big televised announcement in the evening and then being on edge not knowing what came next.

I also remember taking my dog out at half 7 that night for a walk because I wasn’t sure if it would be made illegal after he did his announcement!

What were you all doing and what did you make of it/think was going to happen?

This was the start of week 2 for me. My work became the local support hub and I only really noticed lockdown on the basis there were no cars driving in, and no one about when I went to shops to beg for help to get basic supplies for people.

I kept a diary, I've got notes from that day:
Cases: 6650 (inc 697), Deaths: 335 (inc 54) Lockdown announced.

My notes include a visit from the police. We were a bit spooked at this point because a local foodbank had been raided rather nastily, so security was called in.
The phones (I think there were 6) went nonstop from when the lines opened at 9am through to 6pm when we finished with people panicking. Some people just wanted reassurance that we could get stuff to them if we wanted. Lots of people needed urgent medicine. We got security passes, and something to give the police if we were stopped to say we were doing a job that needed us to be out.
My notes say "Spoke to one lovely gentleman who had a wonderfully positive attitude. He said that he lived on his own so at least he couldn’t fall out with anyone." Wonder what happened to him. I had a lovely talk with him on the phone.
We were also beginning to get donations. Some of the shops that closed sent us their goods. It was difficult at times because we had independent shop owners coming in tears because all they'd worked for had been swept away-but they wanted to do their best to help.

At the end of the day, I had some stuff to deliver and I picked up my dd to navigate because (my notes again) I was too tired to navigate as well as drive.
I'd worked 12+ hours every day since the 16th. Bit of a change from my normal 20 hour weeks! We were just running on adrenaline at that point. I'd arrive home and just collapse in bed and sleep through until the alarm went off to be in for the early morning briefing.

We were told at the beginning that schools would be shut until September and expect at least 18 months of disruption, so I remember having a bit of surprise coming on MN (about 3 weeks in) and finding a lot of people talking about schools going back after Easter, when had been told not a chance.

It was an odd time, but actually quite fun. The second lockdown was far harder for me.

@MakkaPakkas

I was shitting myself because pandemics typically last about 3 years and locking down seemed like an absolutely mad policy decision and everyone was so fine with it.

Not everyone!

I was working as a dispenser for a pharmacy based in a very busy train station, when the announcement was made I was at work and we wondered what that meant for us as we were told we were 'key workers'. The next day the roads were dead and only Transport police, a few station staff and tesco express staff were in, the station was scarily quiet with zero customers. I'll never forget that day. It was a novelty to start off with and that quickly wore off.

I was scared but I thought it would last 3 weeks 🤣

I thought the kids would be back at school after Easter holidays.

I thought that lockdown would be lockdown like in New Zealand. I still think that if we had locked down properly we would be in a better situation now.

@Startuplife

I thought my boss was absolutely nuts to be buying all 100 employees second screens and office chairs for them to work from home for a few weeks. A couple of weeks before lockdown started he gathered us all one lunchtime to say we were all to leave immediately and wfh for the foreseeable. He seemed to realise that we were in it for the long haul as he passed around all the food and alcohol from the office kitchen as we left.

Yes, we got sent home on Tuesday 17th, with an allowance of £150 each to spend on screens etc

We’d had a consultant working with us who went to China at the end of Jan 2020. There was lots of discussions about whether we could have him back. Havn’t seen him since.

I had a newborn baby and was miffed I wouldn't be able to do anything on my birthday, I'm very glad I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to do anything I planned to on my maternity leave

I remember feeling very anxious, we had pulled our DC out of school the week earlier as DS had a respiratory disorder and we just could not risk it.

I remember watching the briefings every night, homeschooling the kids. I remember reading online that we would flatten the curve and it would all be over by Easter 😂

We did eventually get covid in September 21, most likely we caught it at the hospital when DS finally had the surgery needed to fix his apnoea. We were fine, since then I think everyone we know has had it and all have been fine…

Sometimes I wonder if the long term damage it has done to my children was worth it

@Nicknacky

I had a holiday to Florida booked for the may and I was hopeful to make it and even commented that the parks would probably be quieter as people would have cancelled 🤦🏻‍♀️.

We were supposed to be going there in May too😔

Intense anger.. white hot furious anger that Boris appeared on television and told Me I could not see my family or loved ones. No way...We, as a family will make our own minds up and will decide what risks we are prepared to take, thanks Boris!!.
I could not, and still cannot believe the levels people went to and the precious time time they lost with loved ones just because they were 'told to'

@Trinacham Has it been rescheduled?

I thought best case scenario it would be for months and months. Worst case scenario that it was going to be the end of the world.

I went out for a bike ride in the sun before the announcement, just seen my fb memory post of a photo from the ride!

Our 14mo DD was accidentally conceived in the first lockdown and born in the Jan 21 lockdown.. certainly didn’t see that coming! The last two years have been a strange mix of awful and wonderful for our family.

I still feel like a part of me is stuck in March 2020 waiting for it all to go away and for life to continue as normal.

I guessed 2-3 years before we saw some semblance of normal life again. We settled in for the long haul and started reorganizing our lives with that in mind. It made the transition much easier.

The point that it hit me more was the first person I knew who died.

I saw her on the 16th and she said she was planning on going home to isolate with her dh. They'd bought enough stuff to last without going out. She died less than a month later.
She must have either caught covid that day, or had covid already.

She should still be alive and lively and smiling-she had at least 20 years ahead of her and I never saw her without a smile. A really beautiful positive person who never could do enough for everyone else.

I run the on-line learning system for my school. I’d spent the week before testing and checking the system and making sure that the children could use it- without saying why we were teaching them. We’d realised where things were going about a week before the announcements were made.
So the day lockdown was announced was the first day of home learning. At 9am the system crashed as every child in the system logged on simultaneously and I spent the day answering emails, texts and DMs on the school social media. I remember more about that than anything else.
I never did cancel the trip we had booked for May, as my colleagues thought it would all be over by then.

I thought a couple of months at most. I still have Facebook messenger stuff from year 6 school mums about how it would all be over by the time it came to our kids finishing primary in July.

I remember the odd news report coming in online at the start of 2020 and thinking, this could grow quite significantly. By Feb, I thought, despite what the media was saying, this isn't going to be sorted in a matter of weeks or months.

History showed that pandemics take years to settle, not months and given we were and still are rapidly connected world now, it wasn't going to be done n dusted quickly at all.

@Blossom64265

I guessed 2-3 years before we saw some semblance of normal life again. We settled in for the long haul and started reorganizing our lives with that in mind. It made the transition much easier.

This.

I remember the days before they announced the furlough scheme - DH is a pub manager & I work for a business that can only be run when clients are there in person, I was terrified about what would happen because I thought we would both lose our jobs.
I started working from home the week before official lock down. My office is just my boss & I and we carried on as long as we could - the day he said we would work from home I cried, pretty convinced I wouldn’t ever be going back.
I knew it wouldn’t be over in 3 weeks, but stupidly thought things might get back to normal after the Easter holidays!

@Sidge

I’m in healthcare.

We were shitting ourselves. We didn’t know what we were dealing with.

Yep, this! And becoming increasing annoyed at people who seemed surprised at the lockdown etc. will never quite get over driving into our estate after work and seeing so many families / friendship groups in each other's gardens enjoying the sun, having BBQ's etc and thinking 'you don't have a fucking clue what's is going on'. They used to literally ask me how things gs were in the hospital 🤦

I thought the world had changed forever. And I was right, I think

We had moved from England to Ireland permanently the previous day. It was very very strange living in a new country (had never been here before) and not seeing any of it for months except a 2km radius. I did think DS would be able to start school here after the Easter holidays. And my DH's 50th, planned abroad for August, would still go ahead. Even booked all the air tickets. In the end of course none of that happened, and we got no refunds on the tickets for 6 people. And we spent months seeing no-one and going nowhere at all, staying in our radius. I did love the empty roads.

I just remember thinking 3 weeks off work. I hadn’t ever had that much time off with the exception of maternity leave. Then it became another 3 weeks, then 3 months, then 3 months of flexi furlough.