Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Covid

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

Normal life is back

570 replies

ExmoorValley · 10/08/2021 13:26

I don't know about you but life where I am is pretty much back to normal, masks in shops falling rapidly. People having a good time. Covid barely gets mentioned now. (and yes I know people are still catching it and a tiny proportion will die)

It feels great. So what happened to the 200,000 cases a day doom scenario peddlers on here? They seem rather quiet.......

OP posts:
PizzaCrust · 10/08/2021 15:52

Doesn’t feel normal for myself at all.

Still have to wear a mask for my full shift (customer facing role) and it’s been horrendous over summer. People going off sick left and right due to Covid symptoms. A lot of places are booking only which is fine but kind of difficult when the weather is so changeable.

A few weeks ago one of our local hospitals hit capacity and were begging any qualified staff to please come in and help.

It’s better than it was before but, no. It isn’t over.

QueenofKattegat · 10/08/2021 15:56

Just come back from a UK break and it felt very normal. Fantastically normal to be honest. We were in a bar listening to live music every night. Going into whichever pub, restaurant or cafe we fancied without having to have booked in advance. Even in a nightclub on Friday night! It was actually quite emotional at times.

pollylocketpickedapocket · 10/08/2021 16:04

@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo

We've had Covid in our house for the last 3 weeks - today was my first day out of the house.

I was amazed to see only a handful of masks in the shop.

We are are double-vaxxed and were hit quite hard with Covid.

Literally the only people who suffer badly, despite being double jabbed, are on mn. In real life the double jabbed are sharing homes with Covid positive cases and not even testing positive....
Oblahdeeoblahdoe · 10/08/2021 16:07

I know more people with Covid now than at any other time since the pandemic started.

shinynewapple21 · 10/08/2021 16:48

I think it's a difficult time at the moment in a way .

As more people are dropping masks it encourages others to go mask free . Me included . I have eaten inside restaurants and attended a sports event and felt more relaxed to drop the mask I was sure I would continue wearing .

Today I hear of a friend's relatives who have Covid , double jabbed and sounding quite unwell .

It's made me think again to be honest . Perhaps we need to continue being more careful for a little while longer.

shinynewapple21 · 10/08/2021 16:50

Come on @pollylocketpickedapocket that is simply not true !!

emmathedilemma · 10/08/2021 16:52

@beastlyslumber

I wish. I'm in Scotland :(
This!!
MirandaWest · 10/08/2021 16:58

Here there’s more than 50% of people wearing masks inside. And cases are rising in my local area. Doesn’t feel particularly back to normal tbh

LST · 10/08/2021 16:59

@shinynewapple21

Come on *@pollylocketpickedapocket* that is simply not true !!
I don't know. The very few people I know who have tested positive have had little or no symptoms and the people in the household haven't caught it. No one in my family have knowingly had it apart from my bed bound 90 year old nan who lives in a care home. The only reason they knew she had it was because she had a test before being vaccinated and it came back positive. She had no symptoms either. I am not denying it isn't worse for others but it's not what I have seen.
ExmoorValley · 10/08/2021 17:10

@LadyPenelope68

What a goady thread. How pathetic.
In what way exactly?
OP posts:
newnortherner111 · 10/08/2021 17:10

Life is not fully back to normal, even though cases are lower now than a few weeks ago. We still have no justice for those who died needlessly as well.

PicsInRed · 10/08/2021 17:11

Extinction rebellion will go back to gluing themselves to things, blocking traffic and stopping working class people from using green public transport to get to work in the morning.

Greenmarmalade · 10/08/2021 17:12

I don’t feel normal. Still working from home.

OliveTree75 · 10/08/2021 17:14

Literally the only people who suffer badly, despite being double jabbed, are on mn.
In real life the double jabbed are sharing homes with Covid positive cases and not even testing positive....

This is my experience too

dementedma · 10/08/2021 17:15

We're in Scotland and going to be masked for the foreseeable future. No normal here

shinynewapple21 · 10/08/2021 17:18

@LST maybe (like all things) it depends on where you live and people's ages. We are in a built up area in Midlands and in our 50s so perhaps more likely to get poorly than someone in their 30s. Didn't expect it after the vaccination though . That's why I was commenting

Lucidas · 10/08/2021 17:18

In my area the vast majority are still wearing masks in shops and supermarkets. Less so I’m children’s stay and play groups etc, which i don’t mind since babies and young children need to see faces.

MargosKaftan · 10/08/2021 17:22

Was at Bluewater yesterday, reckon it was about 50/50 masks /maskless. Interestingly, it seemed to be younger people in masks.

DaisyWaldron · 10/08/2021 17:27

I'm feeling somewhere in between. I'm not comfortable indoors with people who aren't wearing masks, but pretty much everywhere I go the vast majority of people do wear masks, and I avoid the places where they don't. I've enjoyed outside socialising with friends and indoor socialising after lateral flow tests. I work in a public facing job, and masks are compulsory for all staff without medical exemptions at my workplace. Most customers wear masks, which I'm glad about. So things aren't exactly as they were before, but I can do most things I want to do, and it feels sustainable.

The main thing that's not back to normal for me is that I miss my dad, but neither if us drive and he's not comfortable with train travel now that masks aren't compulsory, so I still don't get to see him. My workplace has been pretty badly affected in terms of staffing recently with several people catching Covid and several others having to isolate, so we've had a lot of absences, and a couple of people are struggling with the after effects of the illness. And locally, the ICU has a third of the numbers it did at the peak of Covid, which is obviously a huge improvement, but not an insignificant number of cases either, and that also has knock-on effects for other forms of healthcare.

So I'd say that I'm very glad that things aren't worse, and also glad that this goes along with being able to do most of the fun things again.

I think that things as they are are pretty good, in that there's generally scope for less cautious people to do more of the things that they want to do while there are still places that accommodate people who want to be more cautious, so people are mostly able to go about their daily lives with a level of risk that is appropriate to their individual circumstances without having to miss out on much.

shivermetimbers77 · 10/08/2021 17:33

I work for the nhs and currently have more colleagues and patients sick with covid than at any point in the pandemic: and pretty unwell despite being double jabbed. I can completely see why people want to return to normality , but we really aren’t out of the woods yet.

kowari · 10/08/2021 17:39

@Generalpost

We now have all the have you been jabbed/your selfish /anti vax/ would you leave your partner if she/he has not been jabbed? / would you end your friendship if the friend has not been jabbed? Would you let someone not vaccinated in your house. Covid passports .
Yes, I think some people just like the drama. Anti-vax is also thrown around far too much, when DS was a baby it meant people who didn't want their children to have any vaccinations, not just being hesitant about one. A colleague was going on about covid passports a year ago and was labelled a conspiracy theorist.
BlueBlancmange · 10/08/2021 17:52

@Rosehip10

Some have discretly name changed.
Do you know this or just assuming? I'm genuinely intrigued. I do know they tend to have a particular style of writing.
BogRollBOGOF · 10/08/2021 18:02

I'm struggling with the on-going pre-booking malarky. We've not managed to do much yet this summer as week 1 was keeping a low profile in order not to sabbotage our "holiday" in week 2 (that destinationwas interestingly like June 2020 with max autumn mask factor). I have now got some outings in place, but I miss spontenaity. The DCs and I are also done in with outings to the park. Any park. Only having parks as an option for so much of the past 12m has really zapped us. It's hard to find the motivation to get into gear and get out.

I've got some running races booked into the autumn, but a small one has just cancelled again because they were struggling against competion from bigger spring races being deferred. Nearly 18m of events constantly being deferred or cancelled repeatedly has utterly quenched my ability to anticipate events.
I am absolutely loving the return of parkrun though. That really does feel proper normal and alive. I nearly cried with happiness the first week we went back to the juniors i. April!

I know a lot of it's in my head and hopefully I can shift into a better mental gear in the next couple of weeks as there is more to do. I'm very glad that opportunities have improved but it's still not a true normal and the mental adaption takes time to catch up after this long.

DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo · 10/08/2021 18:04

@pollylocketpickedapocket

I wish we'd been as lucky.

LST · 10/08/2021 18:08

@Greenmarmalade

I don’t feel normal. Still working from home.
That is now hopefully my normal! I hope to never need to go back ft to the office