Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Where were you when...?

29 replies

Jourdain11 · 09/08/2021 23:33

First / second / Christmas lockdown were announced.

I feel like they must be "I remember where I was" moments, like Chamberlain declaring war or 9/11.

For Lockdown 1, I had collected DC from last day of school and we were in the park with a load of other kids and parents doing the same. Watched it on someone's phone and the signal was crap.

DH was at the pub!

Although I think that was not actually full lockdown announcement, IIRC that came the Monday after?

Lockdown 2 I actually can't remember - but I know DC were at a Halloween trick or treat thingy and I remember the announcement was sooo delayed that we were on the way back by the time it was confirmed. So probably actually missed the announcement.

Christmas lockdown - urgh, shopping at Oxford Street having intended to do it all last minute! Ended up having to do a massive dash round and it started absolutely lashing rain.

Unfortunately makes us sound quite frivolous as a family!!

OP posts:
Howshouldibehave · 09/08/2021 23:36

The only announcement I really remember was the one saying schools would be closing and exams cancelled-that was a Wednesday at about 5pm as DC was at work and I sent a stunned text to explain!

The one cancelling Christmas was a Saturday evening and we were watching the telly in the lounge-both v pissed off!

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 09/08/2021 23:42

Schools closing announcement i was at school in the heads office.
1st lockdown announcement i was at my desk recording a lesson video, child watches watching telly, partner had gone to Lidl for booze.
2nd i was in Cornwall with my parents watching TV. When we left the next day we did 'last hugs for ages'.
3rd i didn't watch, my school was already closed, I was recording video lessons again.

Wellbythebloodyhell · 09/08/2021 23:51

Schools closing announcement was actually at a birthday party at a soft play centre, some of the parents had already withdrawn their dc from school and didn't attend the party by that point. Actual lockdown was announced about an hour after I locked the shop I was managing unbeknownst to me for the last time.

IndigoC · 09/08/2021 23:52

I don’t remember the announcement for the March lockdown.

I vividly recall the press conference for the winter one, though. We’d driven down to Dungeness and were sitting in the car at dusk, listening to the radio. It was a bleak day in a forbidding, windswept place, and I remember this sinking feeling as they detailed how much worse the Alpha variant was. I knew it was going to be a very bad winter.

CornishYarg · 10/08/2021 02:30

For Boris's TV announcement of the 1st lockdown on 23rd March, DH and I watched it at home. It wasn't really a big surprise; the week before had been one shock after another however. Panic buying starting around the weekend of 14th/15th, the idea of shielding announced on the 16th (which initially looked like it might include me), the enormity of it all dawning on me on the 17th, school closures announced on the 18th, schools, pubs and restaurants closing on the 20th, people moaning about others going to beauty spots for a walk on Mothers Day on the 22nd (the start of a national pastime of moaning about people doing things that were allowed!).

2nd lockdown, we were eating a Halloween themed dinner before heading out for a walk in the woods in the dark. Just felt relieved schools were staying open.

3rd lockdown: I remember the announcement on 19th Dec that we couldn't see anyone on Xmas day (SE). We were planning to go out to see the Xmas lights but DS and I ended up in tears. Don't remember the lockdown announcement in Jan. We were already in Tier 4 with schools closed so it made no difference to us.

XenoBitch · 10/08/2021 02:42

I remember before lockdown 1 was announced and we were told not to kill our mum's on mother's day by visiting them. I went to see mine..am not sorry at all about that. I refused to watch the news... and my DM text me just saying "we are in lockdown".

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 10/08/2021 02:50

In the pub/no idea/no idea

hellcatspangle · 10/08/2021 02:52

We were at home that evening watching the tv - dd was at her flat the other end of the country with a bag packed to come and stay for three weeks if it got announced. She's still here.

HungryHippo11 · 10/08/2021 03:15
  1. At home in bed. It was only 8pm or something but I just had a baby (that day!)
  1. Don't remember but it had been in the news for days so I probably didn't watch the announcement
  1. In the pub having dinner with my mum and SIL. We were tier 2 up to then.
User7458 · 10/08/2021 06:46

At home as they were all early evening

Knittingupastorm · 10/08/2021 06:55

The first lockdown announcement was the weekend I think, announcing it for that Monday. We were at PILs having just temporarily moved in so we could continue wfh while DD’s nursery was closed because they could help with childcare. We didn’t think we’d be there for more than 2 months!

StealthPolarBear · 10/08/2021 06:58

For the first one I'd driven back from school with the children, started to make preparations as we all knew what was coming.
The second one was my birthday, I'd havld a zoom party with my family (we weren't allowed to meet indoors) and was drinking wine and eating birthday cake while watching the PM. That's the one where I felt most dread.
Chriatmas one passed me by.

MrsSkylerWhite · 10/08/2021 07:00

At home with CEV husband and our son, where we’d been for some time because we saw it coming weeks before Johnson woke up.

Skybluepinkgiraffe · 10/08/2021 07:08

I was isolating at home in March, with symptoms that may or may not have been covid. I wasn't surprised in the least as I'd been following some of the more sensible threads on here (Westminstenders on the Brexit board) and there was a facts and figures thread too.

The other ones? Just going about my day (carer) and again not surprised as I'd been listening to podcasts which were interviewing scientists. I remember them discussing the figures going up and advocating a short circuit break in September, but our government really like to do things at the last possible minute.
See also: climate change.

Caramellatteplease · 10/08/2021 07:09

I dont remember the lockdown announcements because by then in all cases we had already locked down unofficially by at least a week.

What I do remember very distinctly was Chris Witty saying the percentage of people infected with covid who needed ventilation and the number of ICU beds we had. I remember doing the sums on a bit of paper and realising what a small proportion of the population had to be infected before ICU was overrun.

And then I wondered whether DS (CEV) with his multiple medical issues would even be treated in that scenario. NICE guidelines confirming my suspicions came in 3 weeks later.

And rushing out to get a stock of bleach paracetamol loo roll and dried goods. That was about 2 weeks before panic buying properly kicked off.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 10/08/2021 07:13

First one...
Isolating at home. School had sent DD2 one for coughing on the Wednesday (a cough she had had since a strange virus in the December) and DH had been sent home by work after their last minute "escape" from France where they made the last ferry by the skin of their teeth.

I can't really remember the others. The January school closure I remember going upstairs to tell DDs that they weren't going to school the next day... their school had had an Inset on the Monday so they hadn't returned.

MarshaBradyo · 10/08/2021 07:15

The one I remember most is waiting to hear whether nurseries would close in second school closure lockdown.

Tg they didn’t and we were at private nursery rather than school one

MarshaBradyo · 10/08/2021 07:16

For the first hearing the phrase stay at home felt a big deal - which it was

ginsparkles · 10/08/2021 07:25

First announcement I remember vividly. It was the Monday and I had gone home from work with a plan for preparing the shop to close the next day with my colleague and our owner was planning to come at the end of the day so I wasn't the one shutting the shop for the last time in who knew how long. I sat at home and watched the announcement and then got a message from the owner telling me to stay at home, and he would do everything tomorrow. It was weird and eerie.

The others I don't remember so much, by then everything was being reported before the announcements so I would be following the news channels through the course of the day.

ivykaty44 · 10/08/2021 07:47

In the hospital with someone getting a terminal illness diagnosis
Tbh lockdown wasn’t high on my agenda,
We went home and I’m not sure that the lockdown made much difference

Standrewsschool · 10/08/2021 07:49

First lockdown I was poorly in bed with suspected corona virus (as it was generally referred to then). So we locked down a week before most people. I was of work for six weeks.

Don’t remember the other times. It all seem to blur into one.

Geamhradh · 10/08/2021 07:53

9/3 Italy at home.
We knew something was coming after Lombardia was placed in lockdown the day before, and the mass exodus from the north sparked the national lockdown.

That's the only real one we've had apart from 3 days at Christmas when we couldn't leave our own town.

SquirryTheSquirrel · 10/08/2021 07:53

I watched most of the big announcements live on TV but, similar to a pp, they have blurred into one.

Was it Christmas 2020 when Johnson was really late to the briefing - at least an hour after it was supposed to happen?

chergar · 10/08/2021 08:20

I don't really remember the second or third lockdown announcements.

The first one we kinda knew it was coming and had been told schools would close on the Friday, watched the Sunday night announcement and it felt so surreal

Original poster
Jourdain11 · 10/08/2021 08:24

@SquirryTheSquirrel

I watched most of the big announcements live on TV but, similar to a pp, they have blurred into one.

Was it Christmas 2020 when Johnson was really late to the briefing - at least an hour after it was supposed to happen?

He might have been late at Christmas but he was reaaaaally late at Halloween. I thought maybe he was getting dressed up as a pumpkin or something. It was supposed to be at 4pm, IIRC, and ended up being at about 8! That was the one with the interesting data modelling.
OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread