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Original poster

This time last year...

93 replies

SkepticalCat · 28/02/2021 13:15

Is anyone else thinking back to this time last year when things were still (relatively) normal?

According to my Facebook memories, a year ago I was at an art exhibition, in an indoor space with possbly hundreds of other people, none of us wearing masks or socially distancing.

A week or so later I travelled into London on train/tube (again, no mask wearing) for a work meeting, then met a friend for lunch where we hugged each other hello and goodbye.

Looking back it seems crazy to have been able to have done all those things when we were only a few weeks away from school closures and national lockdown.

What were you doing this time last year?

OP posts:
Waxonwaxoff0 · 28/02/2021 13:25

I was at the pub on this very day last year!

Waxonwaxoff0 · 28/02/2021 13:27

I went to the pub the following weekend too to watch the England rugby match. It was rammed. I think everyone knew it was coming so were making the most of going out.

flumposie · 28/02/2021 13:29

This time last year I was setting off for a weekend in London. I sat on overcrowded trains, went to a convention at Olympia mixing with about a thousand people , went to the theatre and tried clothes on in shops for the last time. How I avoided the virus...

BingBongToTheMoon · 28/02/2021 13:30

We were at our last ice hockey game.

bengalcat · 28/02/2021 13:31

Looking forward to going skiing 21st March - needless to say it didn’t happen ..... roll on Winter 2022

EileenGC · 28/02/2021 13:35

28th Feb 2020 I remember clearly because it was the day my baby twin cousins were born. We’d been joking as a family about them making it just in time so they could have a birthday every year instead of every 4! We all made plans to travel up for Easter or summer to meet them. Still haven’t met them and they’re a year old now Sad

I mixed with 40 people (Team A) at work during the day and in the evening joined Team B of 100 people for the evening performance, which was attended by a full house of 2,600 in the audience. I remember a few - mostly Asian tourists - wearing masks and we all mentioned how strange that looked. After the show there were about 200 of us in the teeny tiny backstage bar getting drinks... we actually kept doing that up until the 12th of March Grin Crazy how that was a year ago already.

LongPauseNoAnswer · 28/02/2021 13:40

We were skiing with friends and then we had fondue together for lunch. It’s the last time we had food with friends in 2020.

From tomorrow things ease a bit again and we can see friends, we just can’t eat out. We haven’t skied this year at all and we might not get to. French slopes are closed and Swiss slopes are packed Sad

timtam23 · 28/02/2021 13:47

I travelled 2 hours on the train to meet a friend from overseas who was on holiday in the UK. We met in a tourist destination and there were a few Asian tourists wearing masks, they stood out, as no one else was then of course. We went to a crowded café for lunch and then a couple of galleries/ museums. The train home was packed due to cancellations. The following week I was at a work conference, it was packed out, we were encouraged to use hand sanitizer but that was all. I sat in a big group with work colleagues I hadn't seen for ages and we all queued for our food in a huge huddle. I find it so strange to look back on it now

x2boys · 28/02/2021 13:48

I can't remember the exact date but just a couple of weeks before lockdown I went on a tribute evening ,thing with some friends ,full sit down meal in a hotel included the place was packed seems ludicrous now .

Monkeytennis97 · 28/02/2021 13:48

Rehearsing with my orchestras for two concerts at the beginning of March.

stopthespread · 28/02/2021 13:51

I was buying some face masks and a few extra provisions, unlike Mr Hancock, NHS and PHE Hmm

But other than that, we were so busy. Mad stressing for GCSEs that never happened, mad training for a sport that has largely been unable to take place since last March. None of it mattered in the end and we are still here...

starfish4 · 28/02/2021 13:51

I'd been up to see my student DD in Scotland. Ended up staying than longer as she had an emergency operation. Ended up being on the rush hour train, squashed in like sardines. A lot were coughing and I can remember holding my scarf under my nose!

Fuckadoodledoooo · 28/02/2021 13:53

I was in hospital on a drip for HG, when not there I was bed blind apart from when my head was in the loo

noname55 · 28/02/2021 13:57

I started following the news quite early on so I'd already stopped doing normal things. Avoiding things like soft play and the pub. I wouldn't do that if I could go back in time but there were a lot of unknowns back then!

Shosha1 · 28/02/2021 14:00

This week last year according to my FB, I was hoping I didn't get the cough that all my family and friends seem to have. I have costochonderitis amongst other things and remembering thinking it would hurt.
Funny enough the first person with the cough was my female nanny boss. She had come home in early February, after sking in Italy with the school she teaches at.
All their family got it. Dh got it as dId DS and DDIL. I was fine.

SleepingBeaut · 28/02/2021 14:00

I knew it was serious around mid feb after an extremely unusual and panicked hospital appt where I overheard things and was treated v oddly so at this point last year I’d stopped going out

Original poster
SkepticalCat · 28/02/2021 14:01

It does seem crazy to think how we were all still mixing with so many other people.

I agree that it seemed strange to see the few people who were wearing masks. The first time I wore a mask I felt quite self-conscious, but now its normal.

I'm sorry that you haven't been able to meet your twin cousins, @EileenGC

I remember seeing all the hand washing posters and advice of what to do if you'd recently travelled to Wuhan (and then a bit later the other Covid hotspots).

OP posts:
magicstar1 · 28/02/2021 14:02

DH and I were just home from a holiday in Mauritius with our friends. There were temperature tests and the plane was sprayed, and all Chinese tourists had to go through a thermal scan in the airport.

FedUpAtHomeTroels · 28/02/2021 14:08

This time last year Dd was on a ski trip, fell and broke her arm. I remember taking her to the hospital when she got back and they asked where she had been skiing (making sure it wasn't Italy) at each step on her way to fracture clinic. I was on paid leave and hadn't been anywhere but a few walks with Dh.

User133847 · 28/02/2021 14:12

A weekend in London this time a year ago (last day in Feb). Everything was still relatively normal.

Cakecrumbsinmybra · 28/02/2021 14:16

We were in the Canaries, following the news, and starting to get even more vigilant with the hand sanitizer at the breakfast buffet. That was our last trip and I can't wait to start travelling again.

LindaEllen · 28/02/2021 14:25

I remember the week before lockdown, when we were all kind of assuming this would all blow over.

Me and DP had travelled a few hours away to go to a concert. We stayed in a hotel and had a meal. We met friends and hugged them. We walked round the countryside the day after, and stopped off for Sunday lunch with no stress about the protocols or having to book etc.

We didn't know everything was going to change. It was a wonderful weekend, but we would have savoured it all the more had we known what was going to happen.

HollysBush · 28/02/2021 14:27

We had 19 friends round for a reunion and buffet.

PopsicleHustler · 28/02/2021 14:29

I was cooking a Sunday roast completely oblivious to what was about to kick off.

However we have still kept up a good lifestyle since. Even though we have been cooped up indoors, we still have stayed safe and done a lot of things to keep us busy and happy. We are a large family so always something going on.....

It's been hard, mind you but I am grateful to God that none of my family or friends have died from it. Just my little nanny who died in December of old age sadly

CornishYarg · 28/02/2021 14:30

I had two trips to London around this time last year. The first was towards the end of Feb to a comedy club with DH. I don't remember giving much if any thought to Covid. We were all sat close together in the audience.

The second trip was in early March to meet friends for a meal. I remember us all being very particular about washing our hands as soon as we arrived and regularly throughout. The scenes from Italy were hitting the media and we talked about it, but it still felt a bit removed. My train home was really busy, but DH was still commuting every day on busy trains anyway.