To look to the future... When we’re back to normal, what 4 things will you look forward to most?

[TableFlowerss]

We’ve all suffered. Everyone of us to some degree or another. So with all the doom and gloom, I’m trying to think of things that I will really appreciate/look for to when this fucking nightmare is over!!

So here’s my too 4- ‘looking forward to’s’....

Going out for a meal particularly with friends I’ve not physically seen for a long time and giving them a hug.

Going on holiday would love to go back to New York 🗽

Being able to go for coffee with friends

Meeting up for play dates for my LO’s

Just generally being able to do what we want like we used to.

What things are you looking forward to most?

No longer wearing full PPE and an industrial resperator
Looking for a job outside the NHS
Getting a full nights sleep
Seeing people smile

Spontaneity
Variety
Seeing my parents
Socialising with friends

respirator , sorry typo.

Overseas travelling
Dancing with all my friends in a nightclub
Friday nights in crowded pubs and bars
Big dinner parties with friends
Spontaneous trips out.
Perhaps oddly - my commute to work and the routine of buying a coffee. I cycle and I miss it, have tried just going for a daily cycle to somewhere for a coffee but it isn’t the same somehow.
The gym.

No masks.
Eating out.
Browsing the shops and not feeling rushed or worried I’m going to get Covid.
Holidays!

Being able to see my parents
Weekends away with DP/friends/family
Meals/drinks when we want
Holidays

Those are all selfish for me but mostly I am looking forward to my teen DD to be able to go to college properly, do her placement and live her life.

Big family gatherings

Being able to let my children have their friends round

Coffee/lunch with friends

Having even a tiny bit of free time

• Going for brunch with friends
• Visiting my parents and grandparents
• Family days out with DD and DH
• Not feeling constantly worried about what’s coming next

going out with mates - getting drunk in our favourite pub

Public events - this year I missed a festival (my birthday present of mates) our local St Georges Day festival and the local fireworks display - I missed them

Seeing the people I work with face to face - I support young people in care and doing it via face time or phone doesn't cut it at all - I miss seeing them.

Hugging my mum

@Pyewhacket it must be relentless .
NHS staff are in my thoughts so much.

Museums, galleries and theatre
Friends and family
Holidays
Restaurants

A family’s holiday in the sunshine
A weekend away with dh
A girls night out
My children going out with their friends.

also as a mum:

My eldest two girls finally being able to meet with their BF/GF and mates

My youngest actually starting school properly - secondary school in a bubble of 10 where all the other girls went to the same primary has been rough - she needs mates!

Taking my son on spontaneous day trips again.

Going out for a meal. A takeaway is nice but it's just not the same is it.

Seeing my family such as elderly grandparents who haven't seen my son in a year.

Being able to book a break away, holiday, hairdresser, tattoo without the risk of it being cancelled & having that disappointment.

Pub! Pub! Pub!
Sitting in a cafe reading a book
Live music (surprised how much I’ve missed it)
Weekends away at the seaside

A hug from my DGC

A hug from my DC

A hug from my MIL

I’d be happy just with that

Seeing my parents.
Holidays - we want to go to Italy to take the kids to the Roman sites.
Drinks with friends.
Normal school/work.

Libraries and bookshops
Coffee in a cafe with a new murder mystery.

Travel
Dating
Sex (see above)
Work (opened a bistro late 2019)
Kids buggering off back to school so I can do some of above

Big family gatherings and parties at our house. It always used to be full of family and friends 😞

Trips to museums, galleries etc with the DC.

Meals out with family and friends. Particularly Sunday lunch in the local pub.

Wearing nice clothes and being arsed to do my hair and makeup.

Not having a constant feeling of anxiety and despair!

Actually being able to plan stuff and look forward to it
Going back to the office
Going on holiday
Doing things spontaneously

I’m so looking forward to having a normal life in general again. To just be able to do what I want when I want. It almost feels like normal isn’t normal anymore.

I’m looking forward to:

Seeing my grandma and grandad again. It’s cruel how they’ve had to be stuck at home since March with very little contact with the outside world. Oh how I want to just hug them!

Going out on day trips with my children whenever we like wherever we like.

Going to the cinema

Going to toddler groups and soft play

Going on holiday

Going to my weekly knitting group - it is such a wonderful group of friends, and I miss it so much.

Going out for meals.

Seeing ds1 and his fiancée - they got engaged in the autumn, and were supposed to be coming for Christmas - it would have been the first time we had seen them since the engagement - but obviously, they couldn’t come.

Dh being able to travel for work. I don’t want him away for 2-3 nights on the trot, but he used to go down to London every week, for work, and I know he is getting a bit stir crazy, having not been on a train since last March.

Doing the school run and staying on with picnic
Going to London for theatre weekend
Letting my teens have friends camp over
Having a meal out with my friends
Holidays
Coffee with friends on my favourite couch in my favourite coffee shop
Walking through people, hugging friends, smiling at strangers without fear. Doing things without fear. Just that.
More than four, but less than my actual list. I will appreciate life so much when all this comes back.

Holidays.
Going to my local pub for breakfast or quiz night.
Hugs with friends when we meet up.
Returning to the theatre.