What reminds you of Lockdown One?

[Charlavail]

DD loves Donald Duck. So in Lockdown one we watched The Three Caballeros most days on Disney Plus. Today she put it on and it took me right back to that feeling of boredom and stress! Same with spag bol. I had never eaten it before lockdown and then decided I liked it so we had it most weeks in lockdown. Now the taste takes me instantly back to that time.

Pouring myself a g&t at 4pm every day to watch Boris's daily briefing. Bad habit. Kicked it now!

This song. It was on R2 a lot and provided the soundtrack to me tearing my hair out trying to homeschool a 7yo, look after a toddler and wfh at the same time. Shame as it's a decent song but I absolutely loathe what it recalls for me.

Water mint method spray. We would wipe down shopping and packages with it and I wasn't keen on it to start with but it takes me back to the first lockdown and the nervous anticipation of not knowing what the hell was going to happen or how bad it would be.

Blinded by the Lights.

And having a regular exercise routine, including bike rides and TikToks in the park.

By the third one, I was just sitting on the sofa watching Netflix and eating cheese.

Disney + we got it just as lockdown started. Also Joe Wicks, trying to get my DC to do a 'PE lesson' with him first thing for some structure to the day (and failing!)

The baking aisle in Tesco - I had a bit of a teary moment in there the other week when I remembered being anxious about whether there would be any flour because getting bread was tricky.

Sun and scrabble with my husband and teenagers in the garden

There is a local woodland place near us that we went for a walk to about twice a week. DD was just 4 so couldn't walk too far, so not much variety. She loved going there. There were logs to climb on when playgrounds were closed. I walk past it but can't stand going now, been once in 18 months! Maybe this summer we will rediscover it!

It’s a blur to me. DH and I were both working from home, I was the busiest I’ve been at work for years, trying to do our jobs in a shift pattern whilst looking after/supporting home schooling with the DC (one with severe SEN). Between 6am and midnight one of us was working. It was hard. I barely remember anything tangible.

When it's school holidays and dh is WFH!

Chalk on pavements from the drawings the DCs did for keywords. Early morning sunny walks. Sourdough bread. Bike rides. DCs telling me they're bored. It was a horrific experience at the time. But with moments of real beauty and contentment. Weirdly it's those that linger with me more than the panic attacks, financial terror, overwhelming loneliness of being a newly single parent on my own 24/7 with two challenging children...

*keyworkers

I was furloughed on April 1st 2020 as 1 started.
I had worked since I was 13, all through my degree, ever since except one maternity leave. So 43 years. Been a lone mum for a decade. I admit to feeling absolute relief. Of being able to stop and relax. Of waking up those first mornings to sunshine & bird song.

bird song reminds me now.

I didn't understand what was to come, illness & redundancy but for a little while I could relax.

Walking, singing, lots of sunshine and garden time.
I actually really enjoyed the simple-ness of lockdown 1, I know everyone was stressed and panicky that we knew nothing of what was happening, but I'd love to go back to some of the simple-ness and quietness. All I seem to do is be endlessly busy nowadays.

Band of Brothers and The Pacific. We watched both in Lockdown and the theme tune of either gives me chills.

Also ritz crackers, the children had them for lunch EVERY DAY with cheese and ham for weeks that first lock down. They used to cry if we ran out, my essential shop would contain about four boxes each time we went.

Going to work on covid ICU

Not much changed for me then

The dum dum of the netflix theme
Walking every day and coming back at 5
Bob Marley's 3 little birds
Avoiding the news
No job and no pay ( didn't qualify for furlough, feckers)
Talking to my isolating mum every day for an hour. Eventually ran out of things to say- like why didn't my brother and sister ever ring her?

Strangely a multipack of pyjamas I bought for DD1 just before lockdown 1. Got them out of storage this week for DD2 to wear now she’s in that size (I was heavily pregnant with her when lockdown 1 started

A guy I know. When I see him now it reminds me of seeing him in the queue at the supermarket the very first time I went during lockdown. It was all so quiet and weird.
Veggie boxes. They were a weekly highlight
Cosmic kids yoga - a bit easier than Joe Wicks became.

TBH I don't remember much about it. I know it started with the death of my mum on March 31st and ended with me being made redundant....the bit in between is still a bit of a blur.

Endless sunshine. Spring on steroids. Quiet roads for the weekly supermarket shop. I was in the fortunate position to quite enjoy it in some ways.

Baking. I haven't baked anything since.

Seedlings and sunshine. Gin and tonics. Being outside in the garden all the time. Wearing sports leggings and no makeup with joyful abandon.

I didn't realise how much I needed to detune the crazy running around I was doing.

I know so many people were sick or lost a much loved parent or spouse, so many people had money worries but for me, the absolute bliss of being 'off' for a chunk of time has done me a world of good and helped me reevaluate lots of things.

Blinding Lights & other TikTok Tunes
The Tiger King
Zoom quizzes

Joe Wicks.

Cigarette smoke. I spent a lot of time sitting in the garden at my (now ex) boyfriends house smoking. I've been a yo yo smoker for years but during lockdown I smoked about a thousand fags a day in the sunshine.

Having a nervous breakdown trying to homeschool two children and working full time, all in someone else's house (we moved in together immediately after the announcement)
The word "homeschool" gives me the heebie jeebies now