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I’m still hoping we can go to Europe this summer.
I have a feeling that Boris will bottle the unpopular decision as usual, so yes, you may be allowed once the third wave in Europe has eased.
A year already! I'd better start thinking of changing my mask.
Having surpassed herself by preempting the toilet paper shortage (based on friends and collegues in HK and Aus), my better half undid all her good work by saying that all crises end up causing a fuel buying panic, and insisted we filled both cars with diesel, at full price.
Said tanks of diesel lasted until June in my car, July in hers.
We saw some music on the 9th and were staying in the same Holiday Inn as the Madrid side (kin annoying, we're not even football fans) then my mrs went through Cheltenham with plenty of pissed racegoers off and on the train. We locked down on the 11th and remained so. Before the official lockdown I was heeding that idiotic Japanese advice about bogroll and pasta with regular walks round the Co-op up till 23rd. Thought being locked down would drive me up the wall but it hasn't been too bad. Reckon my pattern of movements, location and MO is not going to be the same. Lockdown has given time to think, consider and reflect on time and money wasted in the past and hopefully not to be repeated
It’s not how I felt 12 months ago, it was obviously too little too late and as pointed out above the government was criticised for that at the time. We thought we could manage with bluster and British exceptionalism and ‘herd immunity’. Did you forget about Boris failing to attend 5 COBRA meetings about the situation, or boasting about shaking hands with everyone in a COVID ward?
It’s got nothing to do with hindsight, it was obviously stupid at the time. The late lockdown and the Christmas lifting are reckoned to have killed around 30,000 people apiece. We only recently introduced travel restrictions FFS and now if you have a second home abroad you’re allowed to go over to ‘manage’ it.
If you didn't feel that way 12 months ago, then you didn't, other opinions are available. If you were screaming from the roof tops back in Feb 2020 that we should be in lockdown then good for you.
You seem to want to paint me as some kind of Boris cheering idiot for daring to say that, on the 23rd of March 2020 I thought the restrictions and actions announced by the Government that day were a good idea.
I could argue, if I wanted to that, Boris didn't visit a Covid ward, he visited a hospital hundreds of miles away from the nearest confirmed covid patient and shock hands with people on the day the Government advisors started to advise to stop shaking hands. or that we had no idea that he'd avoided Cobra until months after the fact (around May 2020) but then, I'd be defending Boris bloody Johnson because talking on the internet is so ****ing binary.
Just come back from a day trip to Coniston on the 22nd to the news that we wouldn't be going to work the next day.
Just looked back at some photos and I'd forgotten how wonderful the weather was this time last year.
Year started off so well, I got married then just before lockdown I was offered a new job which was a shift away from teaching. Lockdown hit and I must admit I really enjoyed it. I like my own company and hate forced social events, so luckily none of those. I'd already been working at home for a few weeks as schools cancelled museum sessions etc. The weather was amazing, so I did loads of outdoor jobs, plenty of BBQs too.
A few weeks in to lockdown our old boxer was diagnosed with cancer, which really hit me. We'd only had him three years as a rescue and he really was my best mate. The one good thing with lockdown and working from home was that I got to spend so much time with him. Unfortunately he passed in September and working from home after that has been a mental ball ache. I've hated it. Even today I had a massive sob because he wasn't behind me snoring on his sofa as I work.
However. We are expecting our first child in August, plus hopefully seeing friends and family we have not seen since our wedding as they live at the other end of the country.
I always take a trip at this time of year, it's the end of my busy period at work.
Last year I was wild camping solo near Pike O Blisco, was the 2nd night of a 2 night trip, started in Langdale. Monday I walked from there over Old Man of Coniston before dropping down to pick up the van. Found out what happened when I eventually got phone signal
Heard that Snowdon was rammed, it was really quiet where I was. That was an ace trip!
This year I'm relocating to the countryside instead!
Day 2 of a trip to the Lake District. Cut it short to drive home straight after Johnson's announcement.
As slackboy says, the weather was stunning considering how wet the winter had been.
I drove to Manchester and back from Brighton to get my son back from uni.
I’d already forbidden my parents three weeks previously from leaving their house because the virus would very likely kill them due to their health conditions. Even with the low fatality rate I knew that tens of thousands would die from it. If our moron of a prime minister hadn’t been so gung-ho about many more wouldn’t have caught it and died.
But I definitely underestimated the duration, thinking that life would return to normal sooner. I know better now. The vaccine development and delivery has been impressive.
We had a one month old, I had been working on Covid preparation and response for 2 months previous (big organisation which had been on the frontline from the start). I had predicted a significant impact (not as big as we have seen) and hadn't been believed by some colleagues (it will be done in 3 months, we won't have waves, what are you on about). Employer is now one of the largest users of furlough (i havent had more than 3 days personally and worked flat out for first 6 months and last 3 months) and has had to make significant reductions in staff and costs. Future is tied into Govt plans for international travel.
Our baby hasn't yet seen one set of grandparents and family (abroad) and not even met some of my siblings.
Looking at the decisions over the last 12 months, some have been sensible but many have been based on money and not on peoples lives (IMO). Early lockdown and more dramatic border controls would probably have saved more lives and money in the long run. As an island, its hard to see how we got it so different to Aus and NZ but they are a lot further away from their respective neighbours...
@P-Jay - sorry wasn't meaning to have a go and you're right we didn't know about all the stuff I referred to at the time.
I guess I was hyper aware/critical at the time due to my partner being an organ transplant patient so being in a very high risk category, my mum having worked in a senior role in public health, and seeing the FO not even advising against travel to the stricken areas of Italy long after my folks had (quite rightly imo) cancelled their trip there at the end of feb/start of march
I remember clearly they couldn't claim on their travel insurance because the advice was it was still fine to go.
Our home had already been under isolation, due to my better half having a continuous cough after waking once I'd already gone to work the previous Tuesday, which was blatently obvious within minutes of arriving home. I felt really rough for a day the weekend after, before then discovering z4+ effort rides left me wrecked for days.
Hard to believe we are both still struggling with long Covid a year on, especially my partner, who has been unable to work more than half of the last year.
All because we think someone decided to use the bus that my partner uses to get to work, coughing their guts up all the way in.
So angry, frustrated and unsure about our future at the mo.
Was a bit earlier in Spain. Madrid locked down the day before us so went for a long ride as I figured it'd be my last for a couple of weeks :/
As you probably know, exercise wasn't permitted in lockdown 1 here so it was more like a couple of months
https://twitter.com/b0b_summers/status/1370699845518962691?s=09
No worries, I promised myself I would stop getting involved in arguments on STW and I could have communicated better myself.
✌️
Working in an NHS laboratory & have been every day barring A/L ever since. Thinking at the time whether I was going to survive and just how bad it was going to get. I made a will & told my close relatives what my funeral plans should be.
A week later listening to my OH coughing and struggling to breathe was the scariest part.
Can’t recall what I was doing but I do remember thinking ( probably out loud )
ABOUT ****IN TIME
When the 1st ( partial ) lockdown was announced
Had already warned my elderly parents against mixing in crowds, they understood and didn’t, then mum had to sheild,which she hated but put up with
And I had missed 2 gigs by then out of an abundance of caution.....
I was working my arse off getting the hospital set up for the droves of patients we knew were coming. Lockdown day is not the thing I do much remember, but the first time I saw a patient with COVID, and the look of fear in colleagues faces who were having to deal with this new disease they had no idea how to treat, or if it would kill them
Was worried that people were not taking this seriously
I loved the quietness and stillness of first lock down and I could drive 25miles to work at an avg speed of approx 55 mph as to the usual 25mph and mpg went up not down.
Interesting reading peoples memories and thoughts in this thread. If you'd told me that a year on I'd have just had my first vaccination I'd not have believed you. If you'd told me me kids would be testing themselves twice a week so they could go to school, I'd not have believed that either.
Been an incredibly tough year for so many.
Eve of the first lockdown I had not long since been to the last mass sporting event in Scotland - the France rugby game. It was a birthday present for my dad to get tickets and some of my Dutch family came over for the game. I knew the lockdowns were coming indeed it was touch and go if the game would go ahead.
I was also shitting my pants at the prospect of working in hospitals with covid and started a thread on here for support which helped me a lot.
I have just reread that support thread
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/healthcare-workers-how-you-feeling-what-are-you-anticipating/
We have come a long way in a year. I just want again to thank those who gave me the support I needed on that thread - it helped a lot
I was on annual leave, using up my hols and planning a hired camper van trip up to Torridon and farther north. I'd just retired and was planning to go back part time to fund trips like that. I was working in an Operating theatre, having left ITU a couple of years ago because I really didn't want to work there anymore.
I got an apologetic phone call, sorry to disturb you... When you come back, you're going to work on ITU.
I did 4 months on nights in the first wave. I watched the deaths begin to mount up, some people that I knew, some staff from my hospital.
I think... I coped with it better than most; I had many years experience and was in the position of having more experience than just about everyone else. I'd trained or worked with most of the senior staff and as a consequence could basically relax, do my job and take the piss. I was also very used to death and dying and still had that emotional detachment.
Went back again during the second November wave and was angry that despite 3 months notice, very little was done to prepare for it and as a consequence the workload doubled and even tripled. I went back to theatre over Christmas and would prefer not to have to go back to ITU again.
The NHS from my perspective has changed, it still retains a core of superb, dedicated people who have been asked to step up and have done so. However, a large proportion of those will and have realised that they are only of value when the shit hits the fan and will move on as a result.