To ask what the most COVID bonkers thing you did about

[Jay36]

First off this is not a COVID denier thread.

But I’m wondering what was the weird things you did at the start of the pandemic because you were worried about CV. I’ll go first;

Left my shoes outside the house as was worried about bringing the virus ‘in’ in case someone had coughed on the pavement !

Bleached the door handles daily.

Feel like I was a bit crazy now 😂😭

My hubby to be did some mechanical work on the chap up the road's car during Lockdown 1. He was paid in cash. He sprayed each note with Dettol 😂 both sides and hung it up to dry outside. Good thing the notes are plastic like now! I thought it was ridiculous personally lol

Washed the shopping and sprayed Mail with anti bac spray for 4 days right at the beginning, until I gave myself a good talking too. Got through gallons of bleach, bleaching everything. Dd worked in a preschool for key workers kids, made her strip off in the downstairs toilet as soon as she got in from work for a couple of days too. One of the preschoolers was sick on her, that was a major fumigation exercise.

In the second lockdown, after following every restriction to the letter, I was in a bad emotional place and went for a 10 mile drive when the limit was 5 miles. I didn’t stop anywhere and the windows were closed. When I told my best friend, she put the phone down on me and hasn’t spoken to me since (after speaking every day). It was the week after Boris had been caught cycling - with entourage - 10 miles from Downing St. I wonder what my former friend is thinking now… was it worth losing a 25 year friendship?

@Notdoingthis

This thread is scary. People are so willing to be brainwashed.

Completely agree. All the washing shopping hysteria etc. I’ve gone to work, gone abroad on holidays and generally just lived my life

Walked in the middle road and almost got knocked over to avoid getting to close to someone walking towards me on the pavement.

Had a meltdown when crossing the border into England (I live in Wales) back in June 2020 when restrictions were first eased. I was convinced we’d be arrested.

I used to go for regular walks into a local beauty spot and got really paranoid about touching the metal banister on some stone steps.

Before face masks I used to hold my breath when someone got too close in the supermarket, I’ve found this was quite a common one and lots of people I know have admitted they did the same,

The combination of watching the hospital chaos in Italy, reports out of Iraq telling people that steroids were off the menu and then getting a bloody cev letter in the first round telling me to stay indoors and away from open windows knocked me sideways. It may have we'll have said, "Well, you're fucked, soz, Matt Hancock".

I think full crazy for me was when I finally did venture out of the house and developed a habit of holding my breath when people walked past me too closely.

Oddest thing that happened to me was when I got a tooth abscess and I was given an antibiotic prescription by a disembodied hand at the dentist through the letterbox. It was just that moment when you're like, this crazy shit never happened in Outbreak.

When I used to go out on my daily walk I used to first change into my gym stuff and when a police car would get near me I’d break into a jog and make sure the police saw me actually exercising. I was so scared of being stopped for doing something wrong.

During last winter lockdown I used to meet a friend with both sets of kids. It was kind of legal I think as we met outside for our daily exercise with one other adult but we didn’t distance and we weren’t technically exercising the whole time.. because of this I lived in fear that this would land me with a 10k fine so we used to meet in this actual bog in the middle of a woods that we could both get to.

@Magicmum101

In the second lockdown, after following every restriction to the letter, I was in a bad emotional place and went for a 10 mile drive when the limit was 5 miles. I didn’t stop anywhere and the windows were closed. When I told my best friend, she put the phone down on me and hasn’t spoken to me since (after speaking every day). It was the week after Boris had been caught cycling - with entourage - 10 miles from Downing St. I wonder what my former friend is thinking now… was it worth losing a 25 year friendship?

That's so sad ☹️

I've lost an old friend to Covid restrictions too. I took issue with the way she was talking about "scrotes from the Valleys" coming down and spreading their nasty Valleys Covidy germs on the beaches of S Wales. It seemed to bring out the worst in so many people.

We can say it’s crazy in hindsight as we have the vaccinations now. The people who were bereaved and disabled by covid got the short straw in all this.

Just before lockdown when still going to the office I was sanitising/washing my hands every time I touched a door or shared surface - it was agony as I had a cut next to my thumb and I have really dry skin, so my hands were falling to bits in those few weeks!

I was always a little unsure about the surfaces thing and as soon as it became pretty clear surfaces weren't a likely infection vector I ran with it. Never washed my shopping though, I just couldn't be arsed and it didn't seem likely to be an issue.

I didn't do any massive hoarding shops, but I did probably pop out a bit too often for 'a couple more things', although let's face it, giant shops weren't the main problem, it was people like me repeatedly popping out for 'a couple more things' . TBF we didn't know at that point if we were all going to be shut up in our houses with the government delivering food packages for months at that point!

Followed the rules laid down by the Government.....

So many crazy things. My favourite two;

1. My daughter sneezed in my face whilst my mouth was open. I tried not to breathe too deeply, went to wash my face and then rubbed some hand sanitiser all over my face and drank a shot of gin (holding in my mouth for a minute before I swallowed).

1. We got a takeaway a month or two after it all kicked off. We placed the bag in the middle of the kitchen like it was an explosive. One of us removed the containers and put them in the turned-on oven to kill the virus. The other took the plastic bag straight out to the dustbin, and then sprayed rubbing alcohol on the floor.

Personally, I didn't do anything other than the advised precautions. But I have always wondered how many accidents or near misses there have been with cars hitting pedestrians, directly related to the pandemic. Many people apparently thought the covid risk from walking past someone outdoors for a second was higher than stepping out into an (often very busy) road without looking.

Washed the shopping, wiped packaging and parcels down with antibacterial wipes, sprayed door handles/light switches daily, crossed the road or walked in the middle of the road when someone was walking on the same pavement as me, swilled my mouth with alcohol when I realised I’d put something in my mouth that could be contaminated

Some of these have cracked me the hell up 🤣

Shielding! I am vulnerable due to my blood condition but I would much rather have had my mental health. Making OH do all the food shops whilst I stayed at home miserable sat at the window waiting for him to come back.

The man at the bottom of our estate kept everyone entertained through lockdown by DJing and we was all singing and clapping out the window. God it's so cringe to think about now!

Stripped off and changed the minute I got home from work without letting Dh or the dcs hug or touch me (teacher).

Went through an elaborate process of sanitising the shopping trolley handle then all the car door handles and steering wheel after food shopping.

It all seems completely insane written down.

During the first lockdown I was furloughed so I volunteered for my local council at their recycling centre. Lots of people took the opportunity to empty their homes, attics, sheds and garages of all the stuff they hadn't had time to get rid of or recycle previously. Wr were very very busy. We weren't allowed to help people with their stuff as we had to observe the 2 meter rule. It was awful watching elderly people struggling with heavy items so I would get them to sit in their car while I dealt with the heavy stuff for them. Bonkers times.

@mumsnethq this has to be classic thread? I hope that one day it will just be "of it's time"

I think the sad thing is; there’s still people doing these because they’re continuing to be paralysed by fear.

A relative who is a delivery driver for a supermarket tells me he still arrives at houses where people want their shopping placed on the ground and ask him to stand well back when they come forward to pick it up - despite him handling the stuff when he gets it out of the van and him being fully masked, so if it was contaminated, it would make no difference anyway.
He had a customer last week who picked up her bags with tissues but something fell out, which she picked up with her bare hands.

Remember when we all were counted in and counted out of supermarkets? We had to queue in a zig zag line in the car park until we were allowed in just, before being handed a disinfected trolley. There was also employees that had to round up all the ‘used’ trolleys to ensure they didn’t get in amongst the sanitised ones!!

@2389Champ

I think the sad thing is; there’s still people doing these because they’re continuing to be paralysed by fear.

A relative who is a delivery driver for a supermarket tells me he still arrives at houses where people want their shopping placed on the ground and ask him to stand well back when they come forward to pick it up - despite him handling the stuff when he gets it out of the van and him being fully masked, so if it was contaminated, it would make no difference anyway.
He had a customer last week who picked up her bags with tissues but something fell out, which she picked up with her bare hands.

To be fair maybe some of them have covid and are trying to distance because of that

Cleaned and quarantined shopping, sprayed DP with disinfectant when he came home even though he would bath straight away

Bonkers, I lasted about a month but it was Batshit crazy the fear I felt

My anxiety vanished after I gave birth early April 2020 so I'm not sure how I would have been if I weren't pregnant.

I’m still cringing at myself wearing gardening gloves and home made mask in the supermarket when the first lockdown commenced. The amount of people wearing marigolds and wrapping fabric round their face was a sight to behold! Someone wore a scuba 🤿 mask and snorkel round Lidl at one point! In order to give everyone a chuckle there were locals dressing up in full T-Rex costumes to take their bins out. I also remember some bonkers man hanging out of his window shouting at me and DH to go home when walking our dogs less than 50m from our house.