Covid Lockdown - 5 years today

Norman_Conquest

Norman_Conquest

Well-known member
Five years ago today, we were told to batten down the hatches to keep each other safe.

At times, it feels like a lifetime ago; at others, just yesterday.

What are your lockdown memories? And if faced with the same situation again, would you follow the rules?

Mainy adhered strictly to the first lockdown, driven by fear and uncertainty, but scandals like Partygate eroded trust in our leadership and I'm not so sure people would be as willing to comply today.

One of my lasting memories will be sitting on the drive celebrating the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Everyone in our grove did the same and although we adhered to social distancing, he seemed like we were socialising with others.
 
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If reports are to be believed, there is a real danger from Ebola, MPOX & bird flu. I have no idea if the 'expected' in this is just click bait or not but I've seen similar being postulated

inews.co.uk

A new pandemic is expected and the UK still isn't prepared

Five years ago the country's first national lockdown began. Now, as Ebola, Mpox and bird flu are deemed 'high risk', experts predict another major outbreak is coming
inews.co.uk inews.co.uk
 
Personal memory, I remember my son’s A level exams being abruptly cancelled and all the things he had planned for his summer being gradually cancelled. I quite enjoyed the peace and change of pace of the first lockdown. However, I’m still angry about the way the sacrifices from that were squandered, remember eat out to spread the virus about. We then had the tiers of lockdown and a further national lockdown and found out that while we had been missing out on family gatherings the powers that be had been partying. I personally would do what I felt right if another pandemic hit, but wouldn’t follow government directives like I did at the first lockdown.
 
I had never had such a good work-life balance and took the time to cook healthily and exercise. Sadly things have regressed back to pre-covid times, just don't have the time to cook healthily and exercise now. I'd still adhere to any rules should a lockdown occur again. Have kids now so would probably not want to be in the situation again having heard all the news stories as to how it affected young children negatively.
 
I had cycled to Carlisle from Alnwick and decided to get home, via the Settle and Carlisle line and Leeds / Sheffield. At Carlisle station, there was an eerie feeling, with long, almost - empty, trains, arriving and departing, to the north and the south. There was hardly anyone about, and when I got on the Carlisle-Leeds train, the guard said he didnt need to see my ticket. It suddenly felt like everyone was from Mars. I remember getting home and finding it difficult to grasp what was going on. During that time, my Mam passed away and none of us could say a proppa "goodbye". What pizzes me off was the all-day bar and partying in no.10 , whilst the rest of us did as we were told.

I took this foto before being one of three passengers to head down the S&C:

S&C Carlisle 3.JPG
 
Did a fair bit of online stuff through zoom etc probably wrote a lot more and ended up doing a lot of walking.

If it happened again.. I don’t think most would bother.. had a massive detrimental effect to venues and younger folks going out.. knowing how to go out.

Was speaking to someone a few months ago about how the etiquette of gigs seemed to have gone out of the window with younger crowds.
 
Assuming that the "rules" were backed by scientific thinking and evidence of course I would adhere to them. The prawns saying that the rules were over draconian would do well to remember that it was an unprecedented situation and the initial "science" was what gave us those "rules". I suspect that the "rules" would be different if faced with a flare up of a SARS type virus in the future. But who knows, the fact that a virus had swept the globe should scare people to behave with caution.

As for myself, it changed the way I worked. Although I worked throughout even getting a permission to travel letter because the company I worked for. I never went back into the office 8x5 again. I went in as required and we all learned to Zoom/Teams/etc. Retired now and my Dad made it through COVID but it affected him badly in that he lost confidence in going out and became almost house bound, passing away in 23 with heart failure. I was unable to attend a few funerals that I otherwise would have and significant birthdays "0s" went unmarked.

I don't think I'll see the like again (I hope not) but future generations will no doubt think that it can't happen again in their "more advanced" times...
 
I just can’t get past the fact it was a shti show with dreadful consequences for some people.

I do accept it was hard.

Stay at home, wear a mask, don’t mix but…
if you go out to a pub for food we will give you 50% off
And it’s ok to travel to Bernard Castle to get your eyes tested
And it’s ok to send the unvaccinated elderly back to care homes

I do not believe the scientists were happy with those three examples.

If something like this happens again I fear public trust will be destroyed.
 
My partner was pregnant at the time and there was constant scare stories about the effect the virus could have on pregnancy that caused a lot of worry.
My job meant that I was still working full time just from home, so I had more free time as no commuting but still felt full on. If anything my job was the busiest it ever was.
We went for a lot more walks as there was little to do and that was peaceful.

The hardest part was probably after my Daughter was born. She spent 4 weeks in NICU so we would be spending most days in the hospital masked up. It was so odd not seeing doctors and nurses faces who were telling us about whether our daughter would live or not. We had to wear masks in the room so our Daughter only saw our faces for brief periods. We couldn’t see any family members so would go home to an empty house and just wollow on our own.
 
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For myself and the Mrs it was a mix of feeling a bit scared and being closer than we ever were.
Scared going for shopping the first week where people were leaning over us to get stuff and not taking any notice of staying 2 mtrs away. By the 3rd week it was much better and was well sorted by the supermarkets.
Health was much better as we went walking everyday and cooked, not a takeaway in sight. Weight went down too.
Strange when I remember it all. Seems a lifetime away now.
 
Scrug said:
My lockdown memories, spending most of my time in the garden with a beer, taking my dog on walks and generally baking in the sun.

It was probably the best time of my life and made me realise how little I need to be happy.
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Came here to say something similar, terrible for some people, worrying at the start. But I got a nice month off work spent with the missus and kids. Was decent weather as well I remember
 
WFH anyway, so no change there.
Plenty of cycling, riding down the middle of Yarm high street with no cars around.
Two big birthday celebrations cancelled.
Queueing to get into a supermarket and trying to keep to the two metre rule.
Then the sense of betrayal after finding that those b***ds in Downing St were ignoring all of the rules.
 
It was an awful time at first. My daughter had to decide whether she was going to stay at home with us or move in with her boyfriend. She chose the latter and it nearly broke the Mrs as we were restricted to seeing her stood at the end of the drive. The FiL died of cancer at the beginning of July, up until then he'd been in hospital and he couldn't have visitors. His funeral service consisted of a dozen chairs spaced apart. My Mrs was never a political animal but when she later found out about Johnson and Partygate she hit the roof. One of the most annoying things for me was having to go to work and the risks associated with that. I wasn't a key worker but was working in a key industry so had no option other than to go into work every day. I remember getting on the A19 Northbound at about 7:15 every morning and there was hardly another vehicle on the road. I had to carry a letter from my employer in case the police stopped me. The wife is a civil servant working in the DWP, she too had to go into the office every day to make sure benefit claimants received their entitlement. Being the conscientious type she worked bloody hard and I often think how rewarding she found the experience being able to help folk less fortunate. A negative however was that most of our cul de sac seemed to be on furlough. In the summer they'd be out every night sat on deckchairs drinking and chatting until late. Of course we needed to have our bedroom windows open because of the heat but rather than complain and create bad feeling we just had to lump it.
 
Given I was on furlough, I'm not a particularly active or sociable person, and I was living with my partner, I actually found most of lockdown simple to deal with, I'd go as far as saying I enjoyed it for decent periods of it.
At the start, the weather was beautiful, I ate well and had plenty of nice drinks, watched a lot of TV/films, played RPGs and I was young enough that I didn't really have any fear for my life.

Obviously I appreciate that I had a much better time than many, those who worked on the frontline or lived alone without a support network must have been through hell, and older people and those with weakened immune systems would understandably have been far more scared.

I stuck to the rules strictly except for visiting my terminally ill Dad a handful of times when it became obvious he was about to die, which I think most people would understand.
That whole period of lockdown was obviously very, very difficult for me, but I actually think it was made easier by not having to work or interact with people giving me condolences or talking about it.

It was still upsetting plenty of times after lockdown ended with people talking about him to me, and that was months after he died, so it would definitely have been much tougher when it had just happened.

The funeral was absolutely miserable though, a small handful of attendees, and straight back to sitting in the flat with my partner.
A lot of people missed out on a chance to say goodbye there.

I'd stick to the rules again if we entered another lockdown, though I'm hoping it never happens again, but I'd be a lot more worried about keeping up with my mortgage and I think that there'd be a lot more pushback from people today, especially with how prevelant anti-vaxxers seem to be.
 
Littlefella68 said:
Came here to say something similar, terrible for some people, worrying at the start. But I got a nice month off work spent with the missus and kids. Was decent weather as well I remember
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It was glorious, closest I’ve come to changing ethnicity.

It genuinely changed me. I know it was horrific and a lot of people lost loved ones so I’m always conflicted when I say that I miss it. I loved every second of that lockdown.
 
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