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 put new brakes on the car, bought toilet roll and stayed local for a walk. I also threw a little leaving school party for my year 11 for just the 4 of us and it felt strange and weird.

Went out with 8 out my friends to a busy restaurant then on to a very lively bar that was packed to the rafters. Looking back, it couldn't have been more perfect, I can't see things returning to that level of craziness again.

I was recovering from surgery and had been unable to walk for several months prior to it. Weirdly, lockdown brought freedom for me as I walked daily and gained strength.

I was ill with a virus. Possibly Covid.

I think I was frantically trying to get on Ocado in a queue of 250k, to get the shopping which I've had delivered every Saturday for years.

I used to go on the app Thursday afternoon and do the shopping for delivery Saturday, do you remember those days ?

Thankfully they did get they're act together after a good few weeks.

I went for a scan at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, I'd never been before, not a hand sanitiser in sight, due to the Ocado situation I called at Morrison's which had been stripped bare and buying restrictions were on.

I had lost half my work in one fell swoop and a friend was in ITU with covid. We packed up a picnic and drove into the countryside away from everyone else and went for a walk.

Although I'm a rational person I think, I imagined covid all over the ground where we were sitting, images of chinese authorities virus fogging everywhere outside had wormed their way into my head. So I made sure we didn't touch the ground and used lots of gel.

We were already locked down from over a week before. We'd bought extra bits, set up deliveries for elderly rekatives, cancelled pre-school (he hasn't started), bought oximeters for us and some relatives. I'd spent hours finding toilet roll and fresh deliveries for someone who looks after care homes. The road WhatsApp group had been extended and lots of offers of support for anyone. I think it was another week before I found handgel to buy, then bought for the road. Nothing was remotely normal except that we have the same routine every evening for DS and us.

I was returning from work in the Carribean.
When we landed at Heathrow it was earily quiet. But the ‘lock down’ we’d been told to expect hasn’t happened.
We simply jumped on the train home. Got a taxi from the station.
Odd to say the least.

*that should say he haDn't started, he has since

I was grieving (still am) for my sibling who we lost very suddenly and laid to rest just before lockdown hit. We were very lucky because there were no restrictions on funerals then. My other sibling was visiting from a long way away, we went a lovely long walk along a local beach and they'd have left to travel home today.
It feels strange thinking that my sibling knew nothing of covid, they struggled greatly with their mental health and would have found this last year incredibly difficult.

I think it was the last weekend (but it might have been the one before) - I went to visit my friend in Scotland for a long weekend. We drove up the coast and had fish and chips on the beach and then went to her cottage overlooking Loch Tay. We did some walks over the hills and pottered about going into craft and furniture stores and delis. Lovely food and wine, playing games and chats by the fire. It was blooming lovely.

I was also lucky because I got a long weekend in Madrid in January, and had a minor op in February (gallbladder removed) so I packed it in before lockdown.

I was so anxious and scared I couldn't eat or sleep. That weekend was one of the worst of my life I literally thought it could be the end of the world! Was so scared.
Spent the Friday adding things to my milkman order and panic buying flour from a mill in the cotswolds 🤦‍♀️ironically it took weeks to arrive and by that point you could get flour in Sainsbury's again! DH so took the piss when this huge box of flour turned Up in may !!
I couldn't go in any shops as the panic buying was freaking me out so we had chips in the park in town and watched a lot of this country that weekend to take our minds off things. On the Sunday we went for a walk and the weather was lovely but already things like going on the playground with the kids felt risky .
Weirdly when actual lockdown began I felt better and adapted pretty quickly - the good weather definitely helped and that people were sticking to the rules - I think that week before lockdown was scary as it felt quite anarchic with empty shops though in hindsight people were scared
It's hard to believe the first Thursday clap was 26 March last year and that we went from nurses crying about empty shops to quite a 'feel good ' time with rainbows in windows, joe wicks, banana bread and tiger king

7 days into the 14 self isolation. Testing out the Brexit stash. Grateful that I got it sorted before things went bonkers in the shops. I was shopping less in the run up to lockdown. Glad that I had hot the kids out of school. As it turns out, I went down with a bad cough and was quite breathless.

Had GOT. Fucking auto correct.

Gyms, pubs, restaurants and clubs closed on the 20th. I was in the gym when it was announced so didn't have chance to arrange anything. I think I had a walk to the shop with my sister on the Saturday (21st). That was about it.

Went shopping to get craft supplies for the children and some last bits and pieces from town. It felt incredibly weird being out. On the Monday only four of us were still working and only a handful of children attending.

The first lockdown had a very different feel to it than the months after it ended.

We hired bikes at our local forest park. I remember thinking it would probably be the last day out for a while and I was surprised the bike hire was open, I rang in advance to check.

On the date of posting it was day 7 of self isolation. I had been in bed all week self isolating from DH after getting a fever and various other symptoms the weekend before. I was feeling recovered enough to feel stir crazy, but after I came out of isolation the next day I didn't have the energy to do much anyway.

Didn't do anything. We already sort of felt in lockdown. DH had been working from home anyway as his work was doing a rota to reduce numbers in the office and he was in the first group due to stay home. I think he'd been home for nearly 2 weeks by this point and they'd actually pulled the second half of the office home after a week.

DD had been off school all week as they didn't have enough staff. I think my last actual normal thing had been the Monday where I met a friend in an empty cafe and chatted to the very worried owner. It was really odd and we figured it would be a long time before we saw each other again.

Facebook memories has just given me a photo of Den number 1 the DDs built.
Elder DD did not use a bed for 150 nights straight.

We had been sent home to WFH much earlier. Some friends and family were initially convinced that it was a total overreaction... and then, eventually, everyone else caught up.

I was already WFH - and thought I would be for the next fortnight .

Already WFH since two days - now it looks permanent.

@FinallyHere

We had been sent home to WFH much earlier. Some friends and family were initially convinced that it was a total overreaction... and then, eventually, everyone else caught up.

Yeah, we had that.

Our office was closed up the third week of February and for almost a month, the reaction we got from from many people was amused incredulity.