A year since the last weekend of normality - can you remember what you did?

[TheVampiresWife]

Well, relative normality anyway. The last before lockdown, the last night the pubs were open. Can you remember what you were doing? For me, nothing more exciting than desperately trying to buy basic food but all the shelves were empty. My local pubs were absolutely packed and I admit I was tempted to join them for one last hurrah but thought better of it. We also opened our kitchen bar on the Saturday night and made a 'quarantunes' playlist - there was a surreal sense of novelty about everything.

It's also a year since we were told that BJ was confident we'd send this thing packing in twelve weeks. I think (however naive it seems now, and how disbelieving I am of the government usually) I sort of held into that thought to keep me sane - goodness knows how I'd have felt if I'd known we'd still be in lockdown a year later. Probably for the best that I didn't!

We'd been ill with covid since the 16th.

Spent the day going for the first of many Fucking Walks and wistfully watching all the empty buses go by on an otherwise almost silent main road with Ds1 - we'd had our last day riding around the region the weekend before. It was so eerie.

DS had county trials for rugby. Sadly they have not played a game since. We spent a very cold,wet Sunday watching.
I had already been told that lockdown was definitely going ahead the following day but couldn’t tell anyone.

Wales had told us what was coming so had done extra shopping, mother's day cancellation we'd been tucked up tight for nearly two weeks. I remember the sick feeling I felt, had trouble sleeping 100k dead they kept saying, the fear lasted a while but waned as the weather improved

I honestly don’t know! I was at the end of 2 weeks sick leave following surgery so don’t think I did very much.

I celebrated communion wearing plastic gloves - we were still singing, which feels unbelievable now.

I also bought some Dettol surface wipes in Savers because I just happened to see them, and felt vaguely guilty because I don’t normally buy them.

Started maternity leave for my first baby

I don’t think it was normal. I hadn’t been into the office since the 4th as I knew I was very high risk due to immunosuppressant drugs. I couldn’t believe my eyes when immediately after Boris said the pubs had to close my neighbours practically ran down the road for a last booze up. The place must have been a seething pit of contagion given the massive ridiculous race meeting which had taken place 5 miles down the road.

My oldest had finished school in the Tuesday before the main shutdown as her year didn't have enough teachers.

When I picked my youngest up on the Thursday she had a fever and zonked on the sofa the minute we were in the door. So that was us isolating from then in case. She missed her last day at school with all her friends.

I had been commuting to London and had some weird headache and sore throat that dragged on for about 10 days - this started a week before her fever. I still wonder if it was Covid - oldest dd barely ate for 3 days a week after youngest had fever so we all had something odd going on at that time whatever it was!

I had been prepared and been shopping earlier that week when I had a day off so we weren't too bad for food. Just had to get neighbours to get some fresh stuff.

We had a take away on the Friday night and I picked it up just after Boris had announced the closure of pubs/hospitality the woman who was working in there was so upset remember it felt so surreal, then going shopping at 9am the following day much more earlier than usual due to panic buying and wondering if we would be able to get anything, Mother's Day visited DHs mum and stood outside as he was worried about infecting her. That whole weekend felt anything but normal.

Dd had arrived home a year ago yesterday bearing pasta and rice. We’d just moved house, her bed ha arrived and the carpet out in but I was scrambling to find some curtains that fitted the windows.

Ds finished school for good exactly a year ago. They took photos and he walked home. They had a sing in the music room, singing the songs for the concert that never took place.

He had a bit of a panic attack, he’s autistic and didn’t know how he’d cope. I asked him to stay in and not go out with his friends.

Over the weekend we didn’t do much, we were in the middle of building works and worried about whether it was safe to continue to have the builders in. I went to my mums and we swopped toilet rolls for bread.

There was a strange feeling about everything.

Also remember the schools closed a year ago today, I'll never forget that last morning dropping DD off, so many children off felt so eerie wondering when they would next be back

Cleared out the fucking loft. The number of times since that I've wished I'd saved it to do during lockdown and gone out raving instead...

Yes, because a photo of it came up in my memories. It was my first weekend of 'staying in' and I spent it in my room doing group video calls with family and constantly washing my hands

One thing I do remember was queuing for 30 mins at McDonalds drive through for Ds as they were closing. He has a restricted diet and he wanted one last happy meal. I was panicking because I couldn’t get hold of some specific foods he eats.

We'd already been voluntarily locked down for three weeks.

DP was terribly unwell; his temperature was very high and I posted on here for advice.

I was nearing the end of the first trimester and thankfully didn’t get sick myself. All was well.

It was the Friday before rather than the weekend - I had a work trip to North Wales. The place I was visiting was starting to go into lockdown mode but as i had already left I was allowed in but the doors were basically locked behind me. I remember hearing the news on the way home, it was very surreal at the time.

@Boredsillyathome

Also remember the schools closed a year ago today, I'll never forget that last morning dropping DD off, so many children off felt so eerie wondering when they would next be back

I cried coming out of the school grounds and the caretaker wanted to hug me but couldn't because 2m distancing was already recommended. We sort of flapped our arms in the air at each other.

Parkrun was already cancelled. We went to the usual park a bit later than our normal time, but the park was really busying up and we left quite soon as it wasn't very relaxing. Combination of lack of activities and the first sunshine of spring which had been bloody scarce for 6+ months.

It was a vile week. DH came home from the office 12th March, and 16th-22nd my life's routines just totally unravelled a bit more each day.

I did a good 10k run the Sunday evening before Boris' announcement just incase things were going to be as awful as Spain. Thank goodness that remained relatively unconstrained or I'd be on ongoing prescriptions by now, and it's been tough enough surviving the winter without.

went to work (supermarket) ,probably cried yet again due to the the panic buying

Friday night I had the last night in the pub, Saturday I went to work and a mad dash to Iceland to get whatever was left, Sunday I had mother's day lunch with my mum. Monday I went to work as normal, what I didnt know when I left that evening was that I'd never walk through those doors again

I already had Covid and, 10 days on from my first temperature, was getting increasingly unwell. With almost zero medical support, and struggling to breathe at nights, I was posting on the lungs thread here as my support and lifeline.

A year on, I’m extremely grateful to be here but terrified of ever being that ill again.

I also remember Ds had non uniform day for his last day. Due to staff shortages only years 11 & 13 were in school. He wore a t shirt with the slogan Hasa Diga Eebowai which I felt summed things up perfectly.

@Skysblue

By this time last year, I’d already deregistered my child from school weeks earlier, and OH had already been working from home since February at the request of his office who are quite a bit more intelligent than the British government.

I don’t understand people who were still waiting for BJ to tell them what to do in March 2020, while the Italian PM was on our news begging us not to follow Italy’s example.

I really hate the Government’s rewriting of history that claims ‘we had no way to know how bad this was going to be’.

We knew.

This ☝️

And clearly by all the stories on this thread of 'one last night clubbing/bowling/eating out' the UK public were not listening to the Italian PM either.

I'm in Aus. Before this weekend we had removed DC from school and nursery, dh was WFH and I told my company I wouldn't be coming into the office as I had to take PT to get there.

All this 'we couldn't have known' and 'so glad I had one last hurrah' is really why the UK got into the state it did.

Our last normal weekend was the week before. Even then I didn’t want to go.