It's been five years since the pandemic and I have questions

[BaggyTrousing]

• will Paddington ever be investigated for his role in the departure of our dear old queen?
• was the woman who wrote "and the people stayed home" ever taken to task for her contribution to the awfulness?
• what about that nurse who was roaring about bread in a supermarket car park? Hopefully shunned and avoided at least
• how do you all feel now about protecting the NHS?

The loud hailer lady outside one shop seemed to reveal in bossing people around. It did bring out a few ' captain mannering ' jobs worth types out of their shells. Especially in the supermarkets. The queues were well policed though , people had the ' war mentality 'at first anyway .. until the tier systems and that went a tad pear shaped.

I followed the main 'rules' because I had no choice but as time went on they got more and more batshit. There were some I didn't follow from the start.

I deleted the app - I live in a flat and no way was I isolating because one of the neighbours had Covid. If I went anywhere I waved my phone in the direction of the QR code, I only ever checked in once as a friend asked me to and it would have affected his job if I hadn't. I stopped using hand sanitiser as well, I just put my hands near the generally scummy bottle and then rubbed them together - I was fed up with the skin peeling off my fingers! One of my friends gave me a real telling off when I said I wasn't reporting negative test results. I didn't see the point and couldn't be bothered.

I commented earlier bur forgot to mention, sorry if this has been said since but on the news my goodness scenes in Italy of people 'apparantly' just dropping and dying in the streets. It felt like an unbelievable time and what we were watching and talks of turning Birmingham Airport into a hospital/morgue!

I was in France during one of UK's lockdowns, the French were being told how disappointing that they weren't adhering to the mask mandate.

It was just a way to try shaming people into wearing the damn masks the world over.

I hated the mask wearing. That was one restriction I was pleased to see the back of.

One of the lockdowns came in on boxing day I think it was or the day after- we'd been at my sisters for Christmas and other family had come along the next day and it turned into a small party so we ended up staying that night.

Someone spotted police in the gardens behind with torches- we don't know if someone had phoned the police! They never came to the door though.

The funniest thing for me was when we were first allowed to visit and sit in the garden but we had to bring our own cup for coffee. I visited an anxious friend who made me bring my own cup but then wouldn't make me a coffee haha even though our kids were playing so if we were going to catch it it was probably through them.

With the dealers all masked up 🤣

The poem about the boat that was relentlessly shared on social media for a while.

Captain Tom!

18 pages and I'm still trying to get Barnard to rhyme with coward (I can't do it!!)

Bar - nud
Ca-wud

I remember how grateful I was for any tiny human contact. A security guard, a Sainsbury's person, the man in the corner shop.

Then I got to like it.

I remember very clearly the first time post lockdown we were in a cafe and I could hear the conversation on another table. It seemed very loud.

Didn't he have a fake autistic kid?

Safety first!

Followed by his own daughter taking advantage out of the cash raised, which pretty much sums up Covid for me.

Urgh. Even the words 'home schooled whilst wfh' bring me out in a cold sweat, even now.

On the flip side was the junkies - I remember walking through town and they were really aggressive because they were so desperate. The closure of shops and everyone Staying At Home meant there was no one to beg from. One guy came right up to my face, I told him to stay away from me and he just screamed, “I CAN’T AFFORD TO STAY AWAY FROM YOU”. I genuinely felt really sorry for him. And the irony was that I had no cash to give him even if I wanted to, because nowhere accepted cash anymore.

That's heart breaking . Did homeless shelters actually shut down during lockdown ?

No, the opposite - there was loads more funding to get homeless people off the streets, iirc.

So many posters mentioning stuff that happened during covid that I either wasn’t aware of or was but never experienced.

What was the issue with pasta availability
Was food rationed?
I saw on the tv the way shops were making customers walk around supermarkets but were there really staff with loudhailers
Was using cash a general issue in most places

Anyone know if everyone had to walk the same route around a supermarket up and down each aisle….just interested

It still relied on people wanting to go into the shelters. When they can’t drink or take drugs there, or they don’t permit pets, many round here seemed to prefer being on the streets still.

Omg Captain Tom! Didn't he get a knighthood??! Paddington was also implicated in that one - I'm sure I saw a picture of him being "guided" into the eternal rainbow by that bear, walker and all. Can't remember if it was before or after he despatched HRH.

I don’t understand why so many people believe that it was just a coincidence that the virus broke out at a wet market just down the road from that chinese lab.

I’m all for coincidence but really?! Also, isn't it strange how the virus attacked certain groups more than others?

The people happy to accept all that are the same ones who no doubt believed wearing a mask or wiping down shopping with antibac would have made a blind bit of difference.

Isn't it generally, at least tacitly, accepted that it came from a laboratory? As I understand it the means is debated but not the source itself.

Try asking chat GPT