Got used to this casual way of living

It’s been an odd year for us all! The first few weeks of the first lockdown were very difficult- adapting to not seeing friends and family , staying home ( I was told to shield) whilst also not having the IT skills to do my job confidently remotely. Also I had lost both my elderly parents just before Covid and my grief turned to relief that they did not have to suffer the isolation that so many elderly people have. Very mixed blessing indeed! Now with shielding ending I will be back to early starts for commuting next week and all the usual juggling! I have got used to a quieter life with comfortable clothes, so have rather mixed feelings! Shielding forced me to try supermarket deliveries, ordering more on line, communicating via teams and zoom meetings. I almost wished I had retired a year ago- whilst the idea of retirement had appalled me in the past. I even bought a sweatshirt dress - for commuting- I guess that points to a more casual way.
So a few positives with the more casual life. But I do hope we mostly get on top of Covid!

M0nica, you’re probably tight. I really hope so.

I think things will get back to normal. Covid will join the pantheon of diseases than can attack us and, in the worst case, kill us, but for which there are sophisticated medical therapies and vaccines to control.

Remember all the hype around HIV/AIDS? Still no vaccine, I admit, but therapies that control it and a near-normal life span for those with it.

Come to that, even the 1918/20 pandemic, when deaths were higher and it mainly affected those between 20 - 60s, did not have any major effect on social behaviour after the event.

There will be changes in how we live. Online shopping has made remarkable avances in the last year, and online communication. Working patterns will stay changed, more working from home, more learning from home and more socialising for those constantly on the move.

But social contact, in all its meaning, will quickly get back to normal, as controls are relaxed.

Thanks Maddyone. I do go out and will even more so in the summer as my DH won’t have it any other way, he would be abroad tomorrow if he could! Waiting to see what the ‘new normal’ will be.

BlueSky
I hope you’ll feel able to go out this summer, but as MissChateline says we might never get back to the normal we had before. Maybe we’ll have a different kind of normal. I will not accept a normal that says for example, that social distancing may stay in place for two or three years. With strangers fine, but not my family. Children need to know they are loved, not held at arm’s length because they may be too dangerous to be near.
I’m quite happy to wear masks etc but I will not be socially distancing myself from my family for ever more.

I dont think that we will ever get back to the normal that we remember. Interesting discussion on Andrew Marr programme this morning outlined how it might be in the future. This virus is here to stay for the foreseeable future and we will need to learn to live with it .

Maddyone is not that I’m frightened to go out, just that I’ve got used to it. Hopefully I’ll feel different as we get back to normal.

Maddyone, totally agree with you. I have refused to be cowed into submission. I think that there are a large number of people who will remain too terrified to ever go out again. I've done my best to live as normally as possible since March last year despite being vilified by some contributors for my approach on this site. My mental and physical health remains intact and I still haven't sanitised my shopping, mail or my partner!

As Starlyte said things are getting worse here in France not better. I have managed to get an appointment for vaccination but its been a struggle.
Like everyone else I miss my family, not seen them since 2019 and its not looking good for this year.
Fortunately I am quite self sufficient and don't mind the restrictions too much. I do miss running our small library and cafe and the socialising with members.
I do have a nagging feeling that at 75 I am missing vital time.
I sympathise with everyone who is struggling so much with all this.

BlueSky

If restrictions are going to carry on much longer, we’ll have a nation of older people who don’t want to go out ever again. I’m getting there.☹️

Judging by Gransnet, I think this has already happened. For myself, I refuse to live the rest of my life in a state of terror. I’ve had Covid and I’ve had the Pfizer vaccination. I’m not locking myself up for evermore, but if others want to do that, no one’s stopping them. For those of us who want to get back to normal, things need to open up and get moving.

our library is open for click and collect too.

, I do miss being able to browse through all sections of my library though as you find books you would never have thought of requesting.

If restrictions are going to carry on much longer, we’ll have a nation of older people who don’t want to go out ever again. I’m getting there.☹️

Those who say they’re missing their library.

Ours opened after the first lockdown for click and collect, after reserving books online.

It has been great.

I enjoyed the first lockdown, but this one, oh I am so done with it! It's been so much worse. I just want to do all the things we've been denied for so long. I will never under-estimate the freedoms that we all took for granted pre- Covid ever again. As human beings we are not meant to live like this. We're pack animals and we thrive on interaction with other humans. At the moment we're living a half life, which is not good for any of us. It's just existing really, not living. So happy that we're well on the way to being released albeit cautiously ?

Missed seeing family, and being able to go shopping and doing what I want when I want, missed having my haircut, love the fact there’s less traffic on the road, hated the fact I’ve missed hospital appointments etc, feel very sorry for so many people that are finding it hard and struggling to cope! But so glad I wake up every morning and happy my family so far haven’t fallen ill

Some positive, some negative, I miss have the GC’s staying over the occasional night, it gives my daughter a break, family bbq’s and meals with my son. I miss friends, out two nights a week in the local, catching up, banter and just having fun, having friends for meals, or at theirs. It’s talking and exchanging views with other people, the phone is not the same. DH and I rub along fine, but we’d had 24x7 with each other before when we had our first of a few six month visits to France, before we really knew anyone.
Another plus, my sons rings more often to check were ok and for a chat. On real negatives, the few I’d considered close friends don’t ring to see how you are, I’m the one who calls regularly, so that’s been noted. I’ve had online deliveries for three years, dislike real shopping, I need a hair cut, never been one for nails etc, miss the library, but ready reads is good. I’ve overseen a kitchen renovation, had long needed CBT and gained an allotment, so not all bad.

Starlyte it does sound as though things are getting bad in France. You probably know M Macron will be speaking on TV on Wednesday, and that usually means tougher restrictions. I predict another confinement, maybe even school closures. Bon courage.

I hate it now. It wasn't too bad at first, a novelty I suppose, but now, hopefully with the end in sight, I am becoming anxious and depressed. I think this is because I will soon have my second jab and hope to be free again but what about these new variants? I can see freedom being snatched from my grasp.

I live in France, where there are curfews, half lockdowns, and it's a real mess. The numbers of cases are just climbing continuously...
I've had the Covid, last March, when no one knew what it was really, got over it, eventually, though it seems to have tired me out a lot.
Now, with a 7 pm curfew where I live, TBH it doesn't make much difference to my life.
OK, it's harder to get my shopping through Drive-in, which I've done for years, as I detest shopping, and have a mobility problem.
I can't stop for a coffee when I go to town (as little as possible, it's about 15 miles away), and I do miss that when I feel the need.
We have to wear masks in towns and ALL shops, which makes it very hard to breathe or make any effort, I avoid it as much as I can. The trouble is that despite the masks, people are getting infected more and more, or maybe it's because they just do more tests, I don't know...
The schools are open still, and kids over 6 have to wear masks, which I really find unhealthy, both physically and mentally, along with Social Distancing, but only over 6!
I am lucky, as I'm in the countryside with a big garden, so even when we were on lockdown it didn't affect me much. I don't go out a lot, unless it's to a lake or forest! I read lots, watch films, listen to music, garden or DIY in the house when I can. Not really socializing at the best of times, lol!
I've started buying from farm drive shops, which have started up since the Covid, and it really is nice, fresh food. As they're going to continue, it's one great advancement there.
The only thing that really does get to me is the closed borders, as I do have my DS and GC's in England, and only hope I'll live long enough to see them again! I'm only 63, so I guess I will... There's internet too, so we do see who we talk to.
We did have the lines down for a month, no phone, no TV, no portable phone either as I'm in the mountains. I actually got used to it, and went to the village to call people.
Maybe this anti-socializing we're getting drummed into us is getting to be a habit.
In France, it's lots of promises, no action, and we're treated, IMHO, like naughty kids, if we don't stop getting sick we'll be on lockdown, sort of threats... I'm sure that if the people were treated as responsible adults, they would act more like responsible adults, but that isn't the case, at least for the majority.
I'm not on my own, we're two, so it's easier than for those who are and suffer from loneliness.
My sister, COPD, hasn't been out more than 2 or 3 times since it all began, living in the UK. Here the "at risks" have no special favours or advice given to them. If you're handicapped, you just have to work it out for yourself!
It hasn't been as well handled here as in the UK, and I can't see things improving in the near future.
The hospitals are full to breaking point, and the economy, especially for small businesses, is getting worse and worse!
My DS says England will be out of lockdown in April. Here I think it will be just beginning.
I thank my lucky stars every day for being an antisocial hermit, with a garden, and now the Spring on its way.
If I was in a flat in town, I think I'd be going mad by now.

M0nica-enjoy a well earned rest now!
What an awful year you’ve had. I’m glad things seem to be improving. Let’s hope that continues.

Nice work if you can get it. I am only now starting to enjoy the Lockdown. DD was seeking medical attention as lockdown began, in the initial panic her GP failed to order all the right tests and she became very seriously ill. So the whole of last summer was spent worrying and caring for her (she is in our bubble)

As she recovered, DH's health began to deteriorate. In the second lockdown he had a heart attack, triple bypass and then picked up a non-covid infection in hospital, which ended in three more operations and 8 weeks in hospital.

It is only now he has been home a couple of months and is beginning to be able to return to normal activities that I feel I can think about relaxing or doing anything else than worry and care for those in my family who need me.

Jillyjosie: the pandemic has allowed me to distant myself from anything that doesn't put peace into my heart. Also, it has made me lose a 20 year friendship that I put up with a lot but never got the same effort back. On a positive note my 3 year old granddaughter lives with me and I love the abundant time that I have with her.

ShelaghALLEN I agree. Such a relief to have lots of time and space to relax or to pursue hobbies. Also such a relief to realise exactly whose company to avoid in future, those non stop talkers, the people who unload on you and then fail to listen, the know it alls, the bossy boots. A few good friends is all you need. I'm happy to stay home more than ever before, lovely.

in a strange way i know what you mean, before covid i looked after my grandaughter after school 3 days a week and miss her so much, my grandsons live an hours drive away so i dont see them as much, i am thinking though that i almost feel institutionalised, i am depressed but thats me anyway, every day i make myself go out to the corner shop for a newspaper, if i didnt do that i wonder if i would actually bother getting dressed, am not on my own, my husband is not in good health for a variety of complaints, all long standing really , i think, basically, i just feel sorry for myself i am ashamed to say

"Grateful for the ongoing simplicity of it all. From a former frantically busy life I actually do love this opportunity to slow down and smell the flowers."

Yes to this comment as well...this lockdown has allowed me to smell the flowers. I used to be a busy bee prior to lockdown and now I find that I am happy being home with my family.