Evidence of the pandemic?

[LaceWingMother]

Just idly wondering whether it's clear from any aspect of my life that the covid era ever happened.

Fortunately, no one I knew died or became seriously unwell from it, DH and I don't work from home because of it, DC now going through secondary school as normal, I didn't make any large purchases linked to it (one friend built a home office and a feckless neighbour bought a now-neglected dog). Apart from a few face masks stuffed in a drawer and forgotten about, I don't think there's any evidence of it in the house.

Does the impact of the pandemic appear in your life now?

I used to just point my phone at the qr code.
Everyone assumed you were scanning it.
If it was properly supervised I'd say i didn't have my 'phone and would write down a made up name and address.
Wasn't going to be 'phoned up to be told stay at home!

There was a lot of that going on! I never once gave my real details. See also, people installing then uninstalling the contact tracing app.

Maybe it might've been different if all that had been introduced earlier. But we got it after not only a lockdown but also the Barnard Castle affair.

I wonder where all the perspex screens are now

Perspex screens? They're in the press office adjacent to the room where Johnson was seen toasting a large number of people during lockdown. Boris Johnson stated this under oath before the privileges committee, so it must be true. 😅(I don't know why the Bible didn't burst into flames when he swore the oath on it.)

But it's a good point. Where are they, those screens that businesses were forced to spend good money on? All that plastic waste, when it only seemed like the day before that the moral police were preaching at us to "use less plastic".

I can tell you where some of the "social distancing" and "wear a mask" signs are, though: in the bin, taken down by me. Especially the ones in parks, bus stops, and on pay and display machines: many of them were loosely attached. They were a blight on the landscape in beautiful parks, and were all part of the regime of fear. I did it when it was dark and wet, so that not many people would be around; I could hide under my umbrella, and ironically, I wore one of those silly blue masks while I was doing it, to hide my face. All I had to do was clip the cable ties, and usually the sign would not fall down straight away; but when I returned another day, it would be gone. Any shame about doing this? Nope. There needed to be a tangible resistance to the madness. I learned later that were armies of people doing this; but they didn't put it on social media of course, because they would have been strung up by the mob.

I hated those bloody signs.
I also made a point of not walking the "correct" way round shops .
i so judge people who went along with the ridiculous madness.

... and I think you'll find that many of us judge those, like you, who deliberately contravened rules designed to protect other people

judgey mcjudgey faces all round then ( but I bet I had a nicer time 😁)

would love to know the "science" of how a one way system in Tesco protected people.

I did. I took great joy walking the wrong way around Boots!

Think how many people you put in danger by not following the one way system.
How can you live with yourself knowing you flouted something scientifically proven to protect all people from all illness at all times.😄

Because it wasn't scientifically proven.

Wasn't having a go at you. Apologies if you thought that. I was being sarky.

You are such a krazee free spirit, we should all applaud your rebel soul... yada yada yada

The point being, @Mightymoog, that most of us were trying to 'do what we were told' to help. None of us knew, at that point in time, what would or wouldn't help.

But one thing that we did know, from very early on, was that the virus was spread by close contact. Therefore things like social distancing, one-way systems, etc, were worth adhering to.

I knew from the start that not going to see my mum would be very detrimental to her so i went.
I did what was best for me and my immediate family and make no apology for that

Selfish then. Fair enough.

Sanitising trolley handles, hands in front of a member of staff I remember well at Tesco.

. Not being allowed in together as husband and wife when my neighbour had to escort his wife because she was disabled. Humane behaviour kinda took a back seat.

A police car cruising our quiet village in a loop at ten miles an hour for an hour stopping to stare at people walking their dog. Very intimidating.

Only being allowed to drive from A to B. So home to shops and back . No scenic detours. Absolutely no stopping or parking up. One day I drove down to the beach and stopped my car on the promenade wound down all the windows and sucked in the bracing sea air . The sound of the waves felt like an orchestra playing. I'd have been fined for that if caught.

We laughed at the man running naked around Asda because we weren't allowed to buy clothes.
He did Go to court.

We raged that we couldn't buy books, birthday cards, children's shoes. Or clothing. So much of it was batshit.

In the second lockdown we saw our grandchildren and cared for them. We saw their parents. We were past listening because the first lockdown had harmed the little ones. The government caved and allowed grandparents care in the end.

My brother and sister in law live in Spain. They were walking down the road towards the supermarket and were stopped by the police and told that they couldn't walk together.......
Many people think that our government had stupid, draconian laws, but many other countries were the same or worse. Thing is, it was a new disease and it took some time (and the rolling out of vaccinations) before any government could decide how to handle it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but anyone who feels they could have handled it better should perhaps have put themselves forward as potential MPs......

I remember being scared to go to work in a supermarket, missing my family as they live several hours away via public transport, and my mental health taking a nose dive. I did get COVID in 2022, and felt shit. Felt and still feel weaker for having had it two and a half years later.

I was on a project WFH for 3 years. I became a dead zombie by the end of it. Hated it. Luckily I got head hunted for another project nearer to home so I go in every day. I see all the people I have worked with for years. I am a new person. I had to WHF the other day as my car was being serviced, the old feelings of doom weighed heavily that day. Not for me anymore. WFH is not all its cracked up to be.

Just goes to show, generalising is bad. Remote work suits some people and organisations very well, it's bad for others.

I got told off for going the wrong way. Well I'm not sure how they expected some of us to actually see them given the poor contrast of colours