If someone said to you last March...

[Wowcherarestalkingme]

That this would go on for another 16 months would you have believed them? Did you think a year ago that schools would still be closed, businesses going under left and right and still having to wear face masks all the time?
Do you think it would have affected your behaviour in the first lock down?
I was just thinking today that it’s coming up to a year when lockdown was first announced and I truly believed at the time it would all have blown over by Christmas. Never did I think we would still be where we are a year on. And thank goodness for the vaccine!! Just interested in peoples thoughts on how they felt a year ago to now really

I remember posting that it would go on over a year and loads of people calling me a doom monger

Was so obvious this shit would rumble on

Also in obvious posts - there's a third wave coming (may already be touching us) - are we going to beat it time wise by vaccinating ?

We have watched a lot of Netflix over the last 12 mnths and seen a fare few world disaster movies. One thing that stands out is Hollywood’s take on human reaction. Gridlocked roads general unrest and mass luring. I commented to DH how wrong they have got it.
Reality, queuing politely outside supermarkets and weekly clapping sessions. Singing with your neighbours and endless zoom quizzes.

Looting not luring

@Angrymum22

We have watched a lot of Netflix over the last 12 mnths and seen a fare few world disaster movies. One thing that stands out is Hollywood’s take on human reaction. Gridlocked roads general unrest and mass luring. I commented to DH how wrong they have got it. Reality, queuing politely outside supermarkets and weekly clapping sessions. Singing with your neighbours and endless zoom quizzes.

Yeah, doesn't make for quite such an exciting film, does it

"Oh no! We're going into another lockdown!! How will the populace react???"

"They'll whinge about wearing masks and argue over who gets to see Granny at Christmas"

Also in obvious posts - there's a third wave coming (may already be touching us)

Where is the evidence that a third wave may already be touching us?
Not saying it won’t happen, just wondering what the evidence is?
The React study shows a slowing in the decline but it only goes up until the 23rd Feb. At that same point the ‘real time’ data (Zoe app, NHS triage numbers etc) showed a slowing in the decline, but it has since increased again.

@Angrymum22

We have watched a lot of Netflix over the last 12 mnths and seen a fare few world disaster movies. One thing that stands out is Hollywood’s take on human reaction. Gridlocked roads general unrest and mass luring. I commented to DH how wrong they have got it. Reality, queuing politely outside supermarkets and weekly clapping sessions. Singing with your neighbours and endless zoom quizzes.

If we’re fed and housed it’s not too bad.

Any of that stops though can get hairy. Rubbish on streets too

Also in obvious posts - there's a third wave coming (may already be touching us)

What does the third wave do in your view? If vaccines are working

Reality, queuing politely outside supermarkets and weekly clapping sessions. Singing with your neighbours and endless zoom quizzes

Glad that’s not my reality 😂. No clapping, no singing with my neighbours and I bloody hate zoom. Just gritted teeth and hoping I get back to real life soon.

No, I never thought it would go on this long.

I think I told someone in Feb that we would be facing a huge recession like the one I experienced as an 11 year old child living in a country where SARS was spreading (missed some school cos of that!). They laughed at me.

I thought it was going to be like SARS and would last 2 years. I thought travel would be curtailed and we wouldk be doing temperature checks and wearing masks but people would still go to work (but kids would be kept at home). Didn't expect the restaurants and shops to close.

I didn’t think they’d close schools again to same dc based on jobs but hard to do it another way.

Glad that’s coming to an end again

I did, hence I spent at least 3 days crying, saying it was going to go on and on.

I was sad then, I'm just angry and sweary now.

I remember feeling really pessimistic from quite early on, I had cancelled travel in February and was really annoyed about the half term travelling. I think I would have accepted the possibility of it lasting this long, I was generally worrying about the unknown and the potential enormity.

It always looked complicated to me, and that still pisses me off the most - so many people pretending it is simple.

Yeah I never thought I’d see a scenario where 60% of my children’s peers would be at school socialising freely with their friends and being taught by an actual teacher when it was illegal for mine to see other children for 9 weeks and had to make do with me trying to teach them and work full time at the same time, but here we are!

We were talking about this at work this week.

I drafted a memo for one of the directors to send to staff. Taken from the PHE website it said that unless you had been in lose contact with someone from high risk country ie China or Italy then the risk was low, so we should carry on as normal.

I read a thread on here two weeks before lockdown which was talking about stocking up because they might shut the shops. Not sure I really believed it but I’d just been paid so did a big monthly shop just in case. Just as well as the next time I went the shelves were stripped bare.

Definitely didn’t think it would last this long, it was probably only about end of April that I realised we were in for the long haul.

I thought 2 weeks! I wouldn't have believed it.

I did have a very impassioned conversation with my parents not to come to London (they were mid travel here from Aus) at about the time Ferguson said 500k deaths.

I remember saying nothing will be open and you won’t get home

What scares me is it not being over in June like they are suggesting dependent on cases. The government have built our hopes up before and moved the goal posts. I honestly don't think I could keep up with it much longer.

DP and I sat down at the start and said we thought (given previous pandemics) that we were looking at two years to get out of it all. We planned accordingly, including changing jobs, to try and futureproof ourselves. Despite all that, I'll never forget going out for my one walk one evening and the town just being completely dead, like it had been abandoned.

Yes because I started reading about Spanish flu that lasted years and had several waves.

I was amazed many people thought it would be over quickly.

I also remember doing the sums over and over when they were talking about herd immunity (without a virus)

65m people, 80% chance of getting it, 1% death rate of those that catch it is 520,000 people.

I must have done that sum about 5 times on my calculator checking and rechecking astounded that this was a plan.

Germany, France and Italy started third wave

Guessing we're 4-6 weeks behind? That's what we've been so far. Hopefully we can outrun it by vaccinating ...

@MrBullinaChinaShop

Reality, queuing politely outside supermarkets and weekly clapping sessions. Singing with your neighbours and endless zoom quizzes

Glad that’s not my reality 😂. No clapping, no singing with my neighbours and I bloody hate zoom. Just gritted teeth and hoping I get back to real life soon.

That sounds depressing. I literally would not have made it through this fucking nightmare without my neighbours. We only sang when there was a birthday and that was more for the kids but chatting over the road on a Thurs evening or taking out the rubbish was so nice. I’m sure you’re too cool for all of that but sounds like you could have used some support too.

"If people had been given the scenario of what was going to happen in advance on a thread, I wonder how many replies would have said that will never happen and there would be civil unrest, whearas in reality everyone has mostly been complient."

That's really funny because about a month before it all kicked off...I specifically remember a thread where someone suggested what could happen in a pandemic/disaster etc and they mentioned EVERYTHING shutting down. Ppl were all..."well we have to work OP" "how would they police our free time OP?" "How would they enforce that OP?" "Children have to go to school OP, otherwise how would I Work?" Etc etc..., and then a month later....bang! I think that OP knew something we didn't to be honest!!

I find the idea of singing with my neighbours depressing. We’re all different 🤷🏻‍♀️.
I’m not ‘cool’ at all. I hate interacting with people over screens and I find the idea of singing with my neighbours excruciating.
My way of coping is to keep my head down and grit my teeth. Yours is to sing with neighbours, clap on your doorstep and have zoom quizzes. Doesn’t make you right and me wrong.