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?

Why has nobody ever taken Michael Gove to task for his going out once a day/one hour a day comment on GmTV/lorraine that was then taken as law by so many when it was actually just his opinion?

That one drove me round the bend. 😠 I always wanted to tell them to bugger off but I did refrain.

I remember many mad threads on here, including one where many of us had decided on barbecues in the gardens during the first lockdown due to the gorgeous weather. Oh boy did the MN lockdown police come for us because by sitting in the garden eating good food and drinking wine we were murdering people all over the country! We just got on with it and enjoyed winding them up. 🤣🤣

They'll probably answer the call soon. Although, if you're ringing about a hamster 🐹 it'll almost certainly have died of old age by now.

Have youtubers started making films about the covid marks yet? Like the one about the 'ancient light' signs that I saw the other day.

Depends where you are in the world. In China Covid began causing havoc in Wuhan around November 2019 if I remember rightly. They began lockdown quite quickly. So it is five years for them

In the UK we didn't have our first lockdown until March 2020.

Trying to isolate to keep my father safe, but running out of groceries and not being able to order online anywhere, I ended up bulk-buying Taylors of Harrogate coffee bags mega cheap from a small independent online shop. I stored them in the same cupboard as the cat food.

That went about as well as expected. I was seconds away from sipping a mug of fish cat food in jelly, with milk and one sugar, when the heady aroma of hot sweet fish hit me in the face with full force. I'm recoiling at the memory!

Joe Wicks and Paddington were working together. I'm pretty sure of that.

I went past that. I made DD get into the hot tub too as I'd sanitise everything.
Poor fucker tried to tell me it was overkill, but I was convinced the chlorine would "Keep us safe" ...The lock down just pushed my mental health over the edge. I laugh now, but between those batshit press conferences, and clap for the NHS and already severe OCD I just checked out of normal people thinking for a good while

Same here-I still see historic covid 2 metre markings on floors of shops and pavements.

@lcakethereforeIam
Have youtubers started making films about the covid marks yet? Like the one about the 'ancient light' signs that I saw the other day.

I have no idea what this means, but I'm intrigued!

I've never told anyone this but I remember silently seething at a young couple in front of me in the very long supermarket queue. Days into the first lockdown, when PPE was in short supply. Both of them masked up and both wearing disposable gloves. I was so irritated thinking 'If it's that dangerous, why the hell have you BOTH come shopping for one basket of food?'
Not sure why it got to me so much, but still think they're idiots 🤣 They somehow epitomised the various strands of selfishness we saw in that time.

oh, why don't you bake some banana bread?

Thanks topseyt

Time flies!

All the horrible zoom and teams calls. Socialising, hobbies AND homeschooling all with shitty little tiny pictures of people on screens.

I still haven’t quite gotten over all the reminders from work that we had to check in on the welfare and mental health of our furloughed colleagues (while they sunbathed/knitted/gardened/got a new puppy and received a top up from work to give them full pay) while I covered all their work for them. For an essential business that remained fully open and saw record profits.

We didn't lockdown so strictly (except in the capital area, where there were roadblocks for a while to stop people leaving), or so long, in my country so I have less questions to ask for here but I followed the news from the UK and I remember being so bewildered by some of the insane rules.

But coffee in cheese is actually a thing. Doesn't quite replace milk though!

I remember being in a coffee queue on site where I work and the sudden realisation we weren't social distancing. OMG I thought we were all going to get the sack! Or get struck down by COVID, in that moment. The brain did very very weird things....

"Next slide please"....

and the photo of BJ in a playground full of slides.

I worked in a school at the time and at one point DFE rules didn't allow us to sit at the same table and have coffee together at work, but after work we all went to the pub together and sat around the same table. Weird times.

I was thinking back the other day. Not in UK so some rules were a bit different.

Alcohol and cigarettes were banned here. So if you happen to partake in either if these, you had 24 hrs or something to stock up for who know how long. As you can imagine, some people made a lot of money selling bootleg wine.

We had a clear out and found half a box of cigarettes that someone had left from a previous party. None of us smoke so they were just there.

We have an area whatsapp group and so I posted that I would leave them in my postbox and at the 5pm (or whatever time) curfew lifted so first come first serve to fetch them.

I went outside at 16.55 to put them in the box and there was a queue of cars outside my house. The scramble was insane. There was no distancing happening through that negotiation on the other side of my gate. 😂

And then on the WA group later on, I was accused of being the reason people broke curfew so that they could get to my house first.

In hindsight, I should have said 17.30 but I didn't realise the stampede it would cause., 😂

Crazy times.

Did the lady who had the sheer audacity to put the whole country at risk by having a coffee whilst walking in a park, the one that was accosted by the police and TV crews like some dystopian American zombie movie ever survive ho tell the tale?

Ssshhhh but I have been on a secret mission to rip up every poster and sign I see about Covid in public places. The sight of them depresses me so down they come. I can be sent to any supermarket near you with a chisel…

Walking along the road in Spain eating an ice cream and being stopped by the police who told me that I could only eat the ice cream if I stood still. Walking and eating at the same time was forbidden.

This was because Spain required masks to be worn outdoors and the only time you could remove the mask was if you were eating or drinking.

So I stood rooted on the spot whilst the police watched me finish my ice cream. Then put my mask back on and continued on my way.

There was a huge homemade sign on a board with a red paint with 'go away' at the entrance to the town I was based in. You only got that far if you managed to navigate the 5 police cars that sat at the boundary line from one county to the next and the random road blocks from the locals that used to appear to keep the 'tourists out' I'm a social worker so I suspect if they could have kept me out they would. Used to imagine what I'd say to manager if I couldn't get through. I do miss lockdown fuel prices though. Only time car was always full!

I know it seems funny now, Toyah Wilcox getting her titty la la's out every sunday lunch time on you tube. She has all but disappeared again. Michael Sheen and the other one trying to be funny on the bbc.
The Archers actors doing there acting bit of talking on the phone ( that was terrible). No toilet rolls anywhere unless you were quick. No more than 4 of the same items in your shopping basket. It was scary though at the time as everyday the death toll was read out. Oh and only a few of us at my Brothers funeral when he died from cancer and not being allowed to see him before he died.
Thank god we can look back and have a good old laugh.

Oh and going to the supermarket at the earlier 'key worker' slot and the staff clapping as you walked in. Crazy crazy times. Wonder if they clapped for each other when they started their shift

Teaching a full day with a covid mask and face shield on with a 2 metre line around my desk and having to spray and wipe down all of the tables, every hour, between lessons.

Shouting “SANITISE!” at teenagers as they entered and left the room.

I remember breathing in a piece of fluff from the inside of my mask and having the world’s biggest coughing fit while saying, between coughs, “It’s… just… fluff…” to a front row of sceptical 15 year olds.

Also, they put plastic over the book section in Tesco to stop you buying them as they were ‘non essential’. All mental looking back.