COVID cringe memories (light hearted)

[Floogal]

Looking back at the pandemic, especially at its height in 2020, what made your toes curl?

1. "Imagine". Enough said.
2. The Marsh family.
3. On the local news, footage was shown of the Thursday clap (may or June). There was a parade of bhangra drummers and smarmy bratty kids doing the irritating floss dance. Was that point the 'applause' was seen as having had it's day.

I know some people may mention the dancing nurses, I only saw tiny clips on the news. Even that made me cringe.

@fullbloom87

What are you talking about??

DS1 worked the covid wards throughout and the clapping drove him mad, esp outside the hospitals
People inside the hospital were sick and dying, and you lot were outside, making a bloody racket and disturbing them...

All those work zooms

1. Realising I'd had a bright orange roller in my fringe all day... 4 zoom calls later
2. Realising I just had 2 zoom meetings, with my knickers drying on the radiator behind me. AND they were my Bridgets
3. On a work zoom call and seeing that persons partner walk in behind her, stark bollock naked

Yes there were some extreme posters. Plus more run of the mill lockdown types who’d post numbers and demand lockdown all the time

Sorry I didn't realise you were living under a rock during covid.

I liked lockdown one for some reasons. It was the first time in Ds’ life that we’d had time as a family for more than a week or so. Dh and I have split out school holidays between us and juggled like crazy with holiday clubs etc.
There was a kind of gentle in it together spirit from people (obviously not all).
I was gutted our holiday was cancelled. Ds’ first holiday abroad and didn’t go ahead. We got a refund but the money just topped up living and then dh became ill so won’t happen now 😥
One of the local Fb pages had confine offer carrot peelings in case anyone needed them for their pets. Had no takers.
Most customers (retail) were lovely until tiers came in. Then we were the only place in the region for Christmas shopping and people were absolute arseholes.

Not being allowed in the vets with my poorly cat. I had to put her down in the car park and stand 2 metres away. I did learn how to check their temperature using their ears though. I remember reading really sad stories of people having to say goodbye to their pets in the car parks of vets, the one time you need to be with them you had to do it in a car park. I counted myself lucky that she was only poorly.

At the time it seemed a bit ott that playgrounds were taped off. I thought the risk of catching it outdoors was low- especially for children. I also thought 6 feet distance didn't make sense if we're breathing each other's air.
Fast forward to May 2023 when my dc caught it from a kid at the playground and we were all at death's door for about a month, but the cough and fatigue lasted ten weeks. Then we were great for four days only. Had gone to playground again and came down with it again and just got over it after three weeks. ffs. So sick of it (excuse the pun). 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I vividly remember a whole programme of Liveline (Irish phone in radio show) devoted to one lady who rang in saying she was not going to stop going to her DH's grave, something she did every day, even tho it was outside her 5km (the limit we could travel in Ireland at the time).

She was so lovely, and missed him so much.

In a MN-style pile-on, she was given short shrift. By the end, she'd meekly agreed to stop going. I just felt so sorry for her. 😔

Haha panty liner face mask!!!! 😷 😹 This has tickled my funny bone. Sorry you were laboring by yourself at the beginning - that could have been v scary

Being chased up an escalator by a member of staff with hand sanitizer.

Sanitizing my hands on the way into a garden centre cafe. Nipping to the loo to rinse it off as it was really scented and I'm prone to migraine. And then being chased again by a member of staff with sanitizer when I came out. I tried to explain that I'd not only sanitized but then washed my hands with soap, how clean could have possibly be! But apparently because I'd touched the handle I needed to do it again. She followed me to my table giving me a lecture about how she was there to keep everyone safe "including me *

Oh we still do that, every fucking day someone forgets to unmute themselves. It’s me about twice a week🫣🤣

Some meetings went to Skype and have never gone back, blessing really as I can multitask and do actual work during the dull bits!

Sorry I didn't realise you were living under a rock during covid.

No I'm serious, what do you mean? Were you really suggesting that Covid was man-made deliberately to harm? Or were you joking?

I cringe at how compliant I was! I was heavily pregnant when the mask rule came in over summer 2020. I would frequently feel faint and dizzy when in the supermarket. I genuinely nearly passed out a couple of times and was lucky that the staff assisted me and made me sit and scanned and packed the shopping for me! I still wouldn’t take my mask off though as I wasn’t officially exempt! Funny how all the time leading up to the masks being introduced I’d been working in schools with key worker children in very confined, unventilated spaces with no masks and been fine.
Then, when the masks were in schools when all pupils returned, we only had to wear them In corridors, not the classroom. Some teachers even got reprimanded for trying to teach in a mask but then also reprimanded for not making sure all pupils had masks in the corridors! Bonkers!

People driving alone in a car with a mask on. People cycling alone on our tiny country lanes with nobody for miles around wearing a mask. Me holding my breath if people walked past me. Crazy times

Thought of another one.
Forcefully imprisoning elderly in care homes.
My grandmother last saw her great grandchildren who she loved and breathed for in December 2019 until the care locked them down in February 2020. She rapidly lost weight, looked greasy and unkempt and yet there was nothing we could do because we were told police would be involved if we tried to remove her from the home.
Then when we were allowed to visit it had to be behind plastic 6 feet away (she was blind)
She would cry out for us yet we couldn't hug her. Had to wear masks even though we were 6 feet away behind plastic and outdoors.

We were allowed into the home when she was actively dying though, allowed to wander the corridors as though covid didn't exist.
They killed my grandmother as far as I'm concerned.

It's common knowledge they were using gain of function in the labs in wuhan. Many whistleblowers have been killed in China because of it.
It's not a 'conspiracy theory' it's a fact. It's been spoken about in uk government and on mainstream media. Seriously where have you been not to know this already?

Matt Hancock was interviewed by Phillip Schofield on this morning and it was when you could meet one person outside so PS said so I can see one parent and then the other parent but not both at the same time and MH said yes that's right, it was just so farcical and I imagined one hiding behind a tree waiting to pop out for their turn

Using disabled people as a stick to beat/emotionally blackmail others into following Covid rules when they couldnt give a fuck about disabled people at any other time

The police put a road block on the main road to Skegness to stop visitors.

@fullbloom87

I'm so sorry. My heart breaks for people in that situation. I saw it here too.

However, I have huge sympathy for those managing nursing homes. They were in an impossible situation. They were so restrictive to protect their patients - several nursing home populations in Ireland were just wiped out by Covid, patients dying really horrible deaths with no proper care as they weren't medical establishments & they were under-staffed (the staff also had Covid, or were terrified of getting it). It was really tough & there were no easy choices.

(However, people entering were certainly not allowed roam at will, it was carefully managed, full PPE etc)

Fucking Gary Barlow and his shite “lockdown sessions”

When the first lockdown was relaxed I listened to Jeremy Vine do a section of his show, calling in experts to talk about how to hold a bbq. They were genuinely suggesting walking one way around the garden and having a bottle of ketchup each. FFS

The zero Covid lot.

Maddening

There was something on here about going out in your car and spreading covid on the car tyres if you went anywhere that wasn't 'local'

Absolutely - especially on MN!

I had a melt down in a queue outside B&Q because someone was encroaching within the two meter yellow lines on the pavement. I remember shouting at them to move back to the yellow line as they were putting mine and DHs lives at danger. I think back to that now and can’t believe how deranged I must have sounded!