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Does anyone miss lockdown?

stuck in a traffic jam on way to work, trying to fit work around a client lunch, after work do, will get back at about 10pm.  I must confess this is all proving a bit much and I part of me misses the quiet streets and not having to leave the nest unless I wanted to...

I do miss the streets being quieter for pedestrian and foot traffic. I also miss not having FOMO because everything was closed. 

Cycling in central was a joy. 

I don't miss it at all, although I'm not sure where all these new cars came from. My commute was bad enough in 2019, and it's barely tolerable now.

 

Petrol station queues m5

I found it all quite interesting, living through a strange period in history and all that. also miss the roads being quiet.

But the boozers were shut so, on balance, no

I don't miss how dull it was, when all you could do was go for a walk (in LD 1 even playgrounds were closed, which wasn't easy with kids). at least the weather was nice. I do miss how quiet it was without the constant racket of traffic.

I am getting bored of being told how excited I'm supposed to be at the prospect of spending 2 hours of my day commuting.

had to go to client meeting elsewhere in the UK yesterday, left home at 7am and wasn't home till 8pm - the meeting itself was 5 hours. 

Fence Foal07 Oct 21 11:44

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I found it all quite interesting, living through a strange period in history and all that. also miss the roads being quiet.

yes was socially interesting but no one will care about it in 100 years' time other than historians. I think only really the generations that lived through the world wars can really claim to have lived in landmark parts of history. 

Having my first face-to-face client meeting next week and my first business trip abroad next month since the pandemic. Have to say part of me wishes those are still verboten.

saw my colleagues all together the other day and was interesting to note who the real vuvuzealots are (including one who put a mask on every time they stood up pretty much). seemed to divide on gender lines mostly (women being more zealous)

saw my colleagues all together the other day and was interesting to note who the real vuvuzealots are (including one who put a mask on every time they stood up pretty much).

 

Went to the pub with a m7 last night. He religiously followed the old rules about wearing a mask whenever moving through the establishment, even though he was literally the only one doing it.

"yes was socially interesting but no one will care about it in 100 years' time other than historians. I think only really the generations that lived through the world wars can really claim to have lived in landmark parts of history." 

I think that depends on the extent to which lockdowns are a catalyst for permanent  change in terms of patterns of work and travel etc.  It is too early to tell yet.

Yes and no.

Working hours became unbearable, to the point I didn’t think was possible. Working days merged into weekends, with the expectation from clients you were available 24/7 as you had nothing better to do in lockdown. Unable to unwind properly due to limited outdoor activities etc. was also tough particularly with children.  
 

I’ve been back in the office regularly since June and barely get anything done on office based days. Whilst seeing colleagues occasionally is great, it’s not worth the 1.5 hours commute each way, regular distractions and tiredness by the end of it. Not to mention clients have generally continued to WFH so still pounding your inbox 24/7 assuming you’re still available and not transitioned from the insane lockdown working habits. 

 

 

I love driving on empty roads as much as anyone else but that doesn't equate to "missing lockdown".  Lockdown per se was sh1t for all sorts of reasons (and adversely affected millions of people more than it did me personally) and no, I don't miss it.   

I don’t miss it. My mental health really struggled and after a few weeks of the LPC online, I was relieved when we got to get back into classrooms. Group work is much easier when you can communicate IRL. Breakout discussions on zoom did my head in.

I was at the pub last night and a group of teenagers put their masks on whilst moving about. TBF, we do not know their personal circumstances or those of their family at home.

Guy Crouchback07 Oct 21 12:03

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"yes was socially interesting but no one will care about it in 100 years' time other than historians. I think only really the generations that lived through the world wars can really claim to have lived in landmark parts of history." 

I think that depends on the extent to which lockdowns are a catalyst for permanent  change in terms of patterns of work and travel etc.  It is too early to tell yet.

 

yes, though our government seems keen to undo all of that with all the "get back to work" rhetoric (when they mean the office) and get off your Pelotons nonsense.

I wonder if politicians are different in craving a return to the office because they are generally sociable people whose job involves meeting with / talking to people and many / most of them are attention and status seekers who can't get that buzz if wfh (yes I'm pop psycho-analysing a diverse group of people).

It is very word but not surprising that boris is touting himself as a green prime minister while encouraging everyone to commute to do jobs they can mostly do fine at home 

I'm in Canada at the moment.

Let's see...masks everywhere indoors required, no exemptions unless under TWO YEARS OLD. Have to show vaccine papers please at every restaurant and bar.

And New Brunswick just said families cant' meet for Thanksgiving dinner this weekend because of an uptick in cases.

Do I miss this? F*** NO.

 

"

New Chimp_07 Oct 21 11:36

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You’ll have forgotten you were ever so exercised about it in a couple of years."

I'm not "exercised", I am traumatised. I will not ever get over it and I will never forgive the people who supported it.

I really wish you would quit medicine already.

it is possibly easier for English people to be over it, where things are quite normal

Scotland is still absolutely awful - despite photos of Nicola Sturgeon breaking the law, which nobody seems to care about at all

and there are a lot of people who will never have the lives they otherwise would have had if lockdown hadn't been imposed

children unborn, life partners unmet, business ventures untaken

my life is probably not altered in any practical way from the course it otherwise would have taken but I won't recover from it

can only imagine how it feels for others

exactly what Clerghers said at 5.25.  It was a fooking cruel gaslight on a governmental level.  Let's hope that my frozen ova are ok. 

:(

I had NO income for 10 months - I am so severely hampered by this.

AND I got fat :(

Let's see...masks everywhere indoors required, no exemptions unless under TWO YEARS OLD. Have to show vaccine papers please at every restaurant and bar.
 

people take them off to each though and not reinstall them per Gov. Newsom?  It’s certainly fortunate that magical barriers stop the plague at the edge of tables.  Windows all shut I assume.

I'm not "exercised", I am traumatised. I will not ever get over it and I will never forgive the people who supported it.
 

Yeah, this is the kind of thing I bet you won’t be saying in a couple of years’ time. You were wrong about everything else so why not this.

"This is a pandemic so we get to behave like monsters and call it kind"
 

“putting things nobody said in quotes is a great way to make my opponents look bad”

"my sister said to me recently "do you miss the thrill of this being illegal?""

You recently stated only idiots broke lockdown rules.

Are you an idiot? Or a liar?

Lockdown 1 was briefly interesting in a 'wtf is going on' way and I loved hanging out with my kids more during the spring and summer months. The autumn and winter lockdowns were terrible. 

It would take a really deadly variant or other freak circumstance for me to accept another proper lockdown is necessary. 

Wfh orders fine. Closing schools, shops or restaurants has to be a last resort. 

I get why they did it pre vax. They clearly got a lot wrong.

What’s amazing is how normal everything feels now. Like someone posted a little while ago, the whole lockdown period just seems like a strange dream.
 

Perhaps.  But that’s reinforced by where I am this week which is both familiar and very different.  I was speaking to US colleagues today who clearly won’t go anywhere (including wide open spaces) without masks for everyone down to small children, would clearly be more comfortable in a NBC suit and need a deradicalisation program.  Obviously guns amounting to a federal armory in their cellars are fine, though.

Despite the best efforts of the Guardian, the Telegraph and various media friendly academics, I’m very grateful that we haven’t seen the politicisation of vaccines and face masks etc that the US has seen.

I was speaking to US colleagues today who clearly won’t go anywhere (including wide open spaces) without masks for everyone down to small children, would clearly be more comfortable in a NBC suit and need a deradicalisation program. 
 

Tbh though this is the same kind of thing people posted here before the end of lockdown in the UK - that loads of people would find it impossible to accept and would be forever living as Howard Hughes-style shut-in weirdos. If that’s indeed the case it’s not really noticeable.

Miss lockdown like I miss a fooking kicking.
Not sure why the misanthropes on this thread don’t fook off to a cottage in the highlands if they loved being alone in PJs all day…
One life - live it as you like but let us normal folk get on with it…I’m so happy to be commuting, travelling and generally seeing people and living life - guess I wasn’t miserable before lockdown so glad to be back to it. 

@NewChimp, I think you underestimate how different the US is.  These aren’t all people in CA or MA.  It seems to be political in a way that it isn’t here (outside the wilder fringes).  

Despite the best efforts of the Guardian, the Telegraph and various media friendly academics, I’m very grateful that we haven’t seen the politicisation of vaccines and face masks etc that the US has seen.

Paddy the baddie agree with this. I'm choosing not to mask on the train or in shops and I don't judge those that mask up. Nobody has given me an iota of grief for my choices and I full respect the muzzled. I wack a mask on in the lift at work out of courtesy if others are doing the same.

Anyone making a big deal of this should get in the sea.

I have no idea if my colleagues or neighbours are vaxed. I would never ask. 

No drama llama. 

Mixed feelings. I just got on with it and work was so busy that I didn't really have time to contemplate. I live alone and spent protracted periods of time without face to face physical human contact. That was tough and I suspect the longer term ramifications of that have yet to fully manifest themselves. Still, gotta do what ya gotta do.

^ this exactly

Everyone I know who didn’t shit the bed has carried on exactly the same as before and don’t care what others are doing.

Everyone I know who lost their shit about Covid or, on the flip side of the same coin, about lockdowns/vax, hasn’t. 

Go figure.

Tom and cookie, you both absolutely "lost your shit"

Lol that you think you can pretend otherwise now you're vaccinated

Rates show the vaccine wearing off so let's see how long your sang froid lasts

The big lockdown of last year wasn't so bad though. Orla on Post wasn't working because she was on parental leave but was eligible (ridiculously) for government payments. I got to spend loads of time with my baby boy that I would otherwise not have and we managed to save a bit of money in a year that would have otherwise been financially tight. 

I learned how to make ramen from scratch, did loads of BBQ, lost about 6kg, found lots not new cycling routes and had a career epiphany.

So there were definite upsides from it but I'm now on lockdown again, in the most locked down city in the world, and I have to say I'm getting bored of it.

All the chavs locked in their homes? Clear roads, empty skies, no pointless life stealing commute, no disgusting unhygienic  colleagues, family time, proper sleep, time for life enhancing activities, a huge break for nature. What wasn’t to like?
 

A bit of curtailment of cultural stuff I’ll give you.

This thread doing nothing to quash the view that only antsy loners liked lockdown. 

It was shit

It's never happening again

Get on with your lives

I am reminded of somebody writing here of the joys of their paella for one, possibly the saddest (in the old fashioned meaning of the word) thread, I’ve ever seen.  The writer thought it perfectly normal.

"What wasn’t to like?"

Er people were issued with criminal penalties for walking with a cup of tea in their hand. The police took it upon themselves to follow dog walkers with drones, and inspect supermarket trolleys to check whether the purchase was 'essential'. It was illegal to go enter a friends house. 
 

everything about it was terrible 

interesting though that mr smith who loves to call people bigots and accuse them of phobia and hate, is in fact frothing with it for "chavs". How entirely predictable 

What Linda mostly said , it was unspeakably shit . We will look back on this either being very angry . Or being upset and thinking was that a dream , did it need to last that long and be so draconian. Why didn’t they just insist on those who were positive or ill shielded ?

it was fooking awful from beginning to end, and if you disagree, or would accept it in any circumstances ever again, then frankly you deserve to be locked in your house anyway 

it was fooking awful from beginning to end, and if you disagree, or would accept it in any circumstances ever again, then frankly you deserve to be locked in your house anyway 
 

It was a (mostly) timely and (mostly) proportionate public health response that prevented a much worse outcome and bought time for the amazing scientific and logistical achievement of mass vaccination. Historians will praise us.

No. I enjoyed much of LD1 for the novelty but nothing more. 
 

Being stuck in traffic again is a pain but that’s life. If I never have to use zoom again it’ll be a good day. 
 

Freedom is a beautiful thing. 

grandad what did you do during the pandemic? 

stayed at home on furlough and smoked weed and completed pornhub. smashed a few pots together on a Thursevening

not sure that's right re praise chimp

"bought time for the amazing scientific and logistical achievement of mass vaccination"

This is what comic geeks would call a "retcon"

The purpose of lockdown was to spread out infections and deaths to a level that would allegedly not swamp the nhs. The purpose was never to buy time to find a vaccine 

Yeah and now an unprecedented number of pre school age children are in hospital and the highest flu death rate in half a century is expected

Plus the totally unexpected surge in deaths by other causes

You killed people in worse (or at best equally bad) ways

I still think LD1 was the right thing to do. I don’t think the others were, but there you go. Can’t change the past. I just hope we can get through winter without anything - then the sage lobby will be truly broken. 

Of course nobody could be sure a vaccine was coming. Equally it’s facile to suggest that the vaccine just appeared from nowhere one day - obviously one possible outcome was always that a vaccine programme would bear fruit. Probably the best possible outcome, we were incredibly fortunate.

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