I've had a ridiculously sociable weekend

[LegendaryReady]

I seem to have well and truly got back to usual, without even considering the risks. That's quite a change for me and now, in the cold light of day seems quite reckless.

Saturday - I shared a car with 4 others to a sports event that I competed in with numerous others (albeit outdoors). Lunch in a cafe. We started outdoors but then it rained.

• Then I went to a museum, which was fairly quiet and people were wearing masks and distancing.

• Then 20 of us went for a curry. Very busy restaurant

Sunday - long bike ride with half a dozen friends. Coffee and cake stop. All outdoors except for toilet and ordering.

Monday - Group of six (different people to previous 2 days) train journey (masks worn) to busy seaside town to see a band play at a pub. It was outdoors but indoors for the bar and toilet. Then on to a restaurant for dinner and home on the train.

It's been a great weekend and was good to see places buzzing again. Writing it all down I also just realised how much I must have spent! It was good to "live" a bit, finally, before going back to work in school tomorrow.

I am a bit nervous about the LFT I will do tonight ahead of the return though. And also horrified at the number of contacts I will have had, if I did test positive.

I've really been very "good" until the last couple of weeks. No wonder the numbers are increasing so much I'm fully vaccinated and so are the vast majority of people I know, but despite that I think I known more currently positive people now than I have at any point in the pandemic. Thankfully though, they don't seem to be getting very ill and people are testing regularly and doing the right thing as soon as they test positive.

Have others suddenly found themselves relaxing? There were certainly lots of others doing similar to me this weekend.

@TwinMamaLlama

Long walks in the park, taking up a couple of hobbies, spending loads of time with my very nearest and dearest family, finding time to go running... I feel like I’ve done a lot more ‘living my life’ during the past 18 months than the whole commuting/socialising/etc whirlwind usually permits!

I did all those things anyway , I’ve always prioritised them things I enjoy rather than feeling forced into socialising when I don’t want to.

@TwinMamaLlama

Long walks in the park, taking up a couple of hobbies, spending loads of time with my very nearest and dearest family, finding time to go running... I feel like I’ve done a lot more ‘living my life’ during the past 18 months than the whole commuting/socialising/etc whirlwind usually permits!

It seems awful that you needed and pandemic and the whole world to lock down, people dying, families and friends separated, just so that you could get the lifestyle you wanted without asserting yourself.

Masks and SD never should've gone. I'd get rid of indoor mixing and reintroduce the Rule of Six outdoors.

Are you seriously saying the government should still be able to say who we can and can't have in our own homes and gardens @NannyAndJohn? You might be happy with that but, if we get the Lockdown with a capital L that you're so desperate for, I won't be sticking to that and nor will many others.

I work in education and have two DCs in secondary whose education was disrupted repeatedly.

Even when we could, we daren't go anywhere for fear of them having to isolate snd miss key exams. Yet still the disruption of 7 successive isolations and Covid came to our door.

Therefore, this summer, ahead of the return to the shambles of school and Covid, we've all sucked that marrow out of life.

I have three gigs lined up this weekend, all inside. I've been yo festivals recently, my kids theme parks etc.

We will hunker down again when school starts, as there are no mitigations for kids, staff or parents. That feels far more reckless to me than the OP enjoying themselves.

Glad you had a good weekend op. Ignore the doom and gloom era - some of them predicted over 100k cases a day which of course hasn't materialised.

And why is it an issue if teachers socialise? Lots of the kids they teach will be doing the same. And if it's legal (which thankfully it now is) then why shouldn't anyone see friends etc? No reason why teachers should be stopped from doing stuff everyone else is doing!

Well done you.

the 20 people for a curry would have been terrible for me as, hate going out with large groups a as take an age to get served and you always get morons who cannot remember what they ordered 20 mom's ago, but that's just standard.

I’m having fun before the joys that a new term and few mitigation’s in school occur! May hay whilst the sun shines! We are still allowed to have fun right?

Certainly not. We should all be locked down forever and no fun should be allowed again. Ever.

According to some posters anyway

My family are still shielding. Family member is on chemo. Not been out pretty much since February 2020. I’ve got a friend who comes and has a coffee in my garden, asked her to stop coming as she’s been out every day, sometimes twice a day, last week she though she might have caught the virus, fortunately not, but doesn’t seem to have stopped her.
I’m soooooo fed up, when will it stop.

Sounds like a fab weekend OP! Best of luck for the start of term!

It's nearly two weeks since we got married. 90+ people in a room and I pretty much hugged every single one of them. We've all been fine. We've been out here, there and everywhere since, crowded bars in Manchester, busy restaurants, indoors, outdoors. I've even been out singing with my choir indoors! The world hasn't imploded.
Why do people keep saying cases are through the roof? The only problem I'm currently seeing is Scotland, and even I could have predicted that because of the way they opened up after a much stricter lockdown than elsewhere. It was going to happen eventually, you can't stop the cases, only mitigate the death and serious illness risk.