A blog of daily life and events before, during and after Covid Lockdown, from 2020 to 2022
Life in the UK changed for everyone in March 2020 when social distancing and isolation was imposed to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Everyone has their own stories. Life was at the same time very different and a new normality which everyone accepted and became used to. At the time no-one knew whether this new life would be permanent, and if so how we would adapt. For a long time we did not know that one day mass vaccinations would reduce the impact of Covid to that of influenza, and there was the potential for permanent social distancing and isolation.
We were in “interesting times”, with details that will be forgotten within months of “normal service” resuming, and so I wrote the story, a blog, of our experience as it happened. No-one knew how the story would end. For weeks Coronavirus had been remote, a foreign crisis which hopefully would not affect we Brits. Then UK cases started to rise, many brought back from half term European trips, and then including those with no links to travellers. Deaths increased from single to double figures. “Mass gatherings” were banned, and there was talk of forthcoming measures involving “self-isolating and “Social Distancing”, which we didn’t really fully appreciate, but no requirements to do so for the time being.
This is a diary of our subsequent experiences of the pandemic.
(Click on images to read each monthly account)
March 2020
From first precautions to full lockdown, queuing and social isolation
April 2020
The weekly shop becomes a major event. The grief of a Covid death
May 2020
Restrictions begin to be relaxed, but in a restricted sort of way.
June 2020
Continuing lockdown life. I get my first Lockdown haircut
July 2020
I return to the office and go on holiday, but Leicester remains in lockdown.
August 2020
Living with the mask culture, Eat Out To Help Out, and the rules for shopping and the pub
September 2020
Shops and pubs begin to open, but must keep to the rules. Living with Covid becomes normal, and less worthy of blog posts
October 2020
An on-the-ground assessment of how the hospitality trade is coping. The Tier system of risk is introduced
November 2020
A second lockdown is imposed, but maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
December 2020
A Covid Lockdown Christmas, but UK begins it roll-out of the Covid vaccine.
January 2021
A New Year and a new lockdown. A friend contracts Covid, and another suffers from Long Covid.
February 2021
Symptoms, testing and we get The Vaccination earlier than expected.
March 2021
One year on. Tragic and sad deaths, but the future is more positive.
April 2021
Families and friends gather again, but only outdoors, trying to keep warm in chilly Spring weather
May 2021
We receive our second vaccination. The UK moves towards normality (but not as we knew it). The Eurovision Song Contest is back
June 2021
A re-visit to North Yorkshire. Comparing the experience with a visit 1 year ago just after Lockdown 1 was lifted
July 2021
At last all official restrictions end after a 16 month journey, but in practice it is a gradual return to normality
August 2021
More vulnerability, more Covid cases, more testing, but I am proved clean
September 2021
A Cornish welcome, as long as we follow the rules. Covid risk management in shops, pubs, cafes, office and during a during funeral
November 2021
Masks off, then back on as a new Covid variant spreads across the globe
December 2021
More people known personally to us contract Covid. Looking back at 2021 and forward to 2022
January 2022
Close contacts contract Covid. A shortage of testing kits
March 2022
2 years since the first lockdown and since my first post, and it is time to post my last entry and say farewell. There has been a change of culture, but Normal Service has pretty much resumed.