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KitLily
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26 Jul 2022, 2:46 am

I don't like it now the world has gone back to 'normal.'

In lockdown everyone was working from home, like me. Everyone was anxious and lonely, like me. For once, I fitted in and was normal and part of the human race.

I could see and hear my neighbours and wave to them. All the houses nearby were occupied all day instead of empty. When I went for my daily walk, if I saw another human they were keen to say hello and be friendly. There was a sense of community. The world was quiet without endless cars, planes etc. buzzing around.

Now everyone has moved on, back to living exciting lives, it's noisy and busy, I'm the odd one out again.

If life was like lockdown (without millions of people dying of course), I'd like it better.


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temp1234
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26 Jul 2022, 3:02 am

I absolutely agree with you. I love Corona virus for having made life a lot easier for me. Working from home was so much better and I was even able to do a course online, which is normally not offered online. My life improved thanks to the virus. I'm very sad now that everything is going back to normal. I hope some other virus emerge to do the same magic.



KitLily
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26 Jul 2022, 4:20 am

temp1234 wrote:
I absolutely agree with you. I love Corona virus for having made life a lot easier for me. Working from home was so much better and I was even able to do a course online, which is normally not offered online. My life improved thanks to the virus. I'm very sad now that everything is going back to normal. I hope some other virus emerge to do the same magic.


Obviously I didn't like millions of people dying but it would be nice if we could have a quiet, friendly world again where people aren't rushing around. Where more people are at home in the daytime so we can build proper communities again. I got to know my neighbours better during lockdown, luckily that has continued.

I wonder if some day, due to viruses, they will stop international flights and travelling so they don't spread viruses all over the world. Then we can all be local again.


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Joe90
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26 Jul 2022, 4:39 am

I didn't like lockdown. Although I don't like crowds, when I went to the pharmacy to pick up my medication during the first lockdown the streets felt all strange and creepy. I sort of wanted the crowds back! Also remembering to stick to the rules was difficult too.

I do kind of miss wearing masks though. I don't like being the only one wearing a mask because I don't like people looking at me.


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KitLily
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26 Jul 2022, 4:46 am

Joe90 wrote:
I didn't like lockdown. Although I don't like crowds, when I went to the pharmacy to pick up my medication during the first lockdown the streets felt all strange and creepy. I sort of wanted the crowds back! Also remembering to stick to the rules was difficult too.

I do kind of miss wearing masks though. I don't like being the only one wearing a mask because I don't like people looking at me.


Yes it was a bit creepy but at least I didn't have to deal with random strangers commenting about me.

I agree the masks were good in a way because they hid my face so no one noticed if I was somehow making the 'wrong' expression. My eyes are good at making expressions but the rest of my face isn't, and people generally take offence. I've no idea why, I'm always trying to look pleasant and not get resting b.i.t.c.h face!


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26 Jul 2022, 5:01 am

Due to the laws passed in my own state removing power from our governor to issue some statewide health mandates, I don't want to know what will happen in the US should another huge wave or disease hit. Too many people here only care about themselves & don't consider the impact on others. We've been wearing N95s or Korean 94s ever since people became lax at mask enforcement or removed the req entirely. We'll eat out, but only at restaurants & hours with a low number of people inside.



KitLily
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26 Jul 2022, 5:09 am

Blue_Star wrote:
Due to the laws passed in my own state removing power from our governor to issue some statewide health mandates, I don't want to know what will happen in the US should another huge wave or disease hit. Too many people here only care about themselves & don't consider the impact on others. We've been wearing N95s or Korean 94s ever since people became lax at mask enforcement or removed the req entirely. We'll eat out, but only at restaurants & hours with a low number of people inside.


Yes, same in the UK. Our government doesn't care about us, they did lockdown too late, they broke their own laws while people died alone, they are constantly complaining about having to do lockdown instead of prioritising the economy. They were even telling us not to be snowflakes about the heatwave and get out there in the sun :roll:

Luckily when Covid first hit in March 2020, sensible people ignored the government and shut down big events before they were told to.

Hopefully when another virus arrives, we'll have a different government :roll:


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ToughDiamond
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26 Jul 2022, 6:31 am

I was in Arkansas where there never was much of a lockdown, as the governor seemed to feel that business survival was more important than human lives, but Wal-Mart expanded its kerbside pickup service and that was a good experience compared to going into their store with its crowds and horrible lighting. I'm retired so I don't know what happened to working people. It was nice to feel that there was an excuse to be reclusive but the locals tended to increasingly see it as a "loony left" conspiracy, being rather right-wing themselves, so that didn't last long.

I don't know what it would have been like if I'd been in the UK when the pandemic was at its worst. Looking at the news, things were more authoritarian there, and I expect I'd have hated my outdoor exercise being restricted to one walk per day. They said the police would use common sense, but there were cases where they clearly didn't know what they were doing. Still, if I'd been working, it would have been good to get all that free time off. The UK is too crowded to have kerbside pickup and the grocery delivery services were said to be buckling under the high demand, so I'd have probably had to take risks just to get food. But there was a better consensus on the need for lockdowns, so my reclusiveness would probably have been better accepted. I liked the idea that working from home was becoming normal, and there was some hope that the changes would be permanent as people realised they didn't really need to commute so much, but business interests rolled all that back because the town centre shops wanted their captive market of office workers back and the company bosses didn't want their own premises to be largely unused.

But the lockdown rules impacted on me quite badly because I was stuck in Arkansas for 30 months and couldn't travel to the UK to fix the bureaucratic problems that were accumulating there. Transatlantic travel is difficult for me at the best of times, but with the extra layer of red tape (Covid tests, proof of vaccination status, etc., all changing at the drop of a hat) it would have been a nightmare. I have a lot of difficulty dealing with bureaucracy. So when I finally arrived in the UK I had a stack of scary tasks to work through - getting gas and electricity meter readings submitted and accepted (I'd been paying their estimated bills and was in credit), getting online access back for some of my bank accounts (some of them wouldn't let me in without a call to my UK landline or a text message to a phone that only worked in the UK), renewing my pensioner's free bus pass, arranging dental and eye checks. I always swore I'd never let my life get so filled with such boring, stressful things, but I had no choice.

So overall I do rather wish Covid had never happened. Even the acceptability of reclusive behaviour wasn't much use to me. I don't like being alone for too long, and the lockdown thing would have made it even harder for me to create and maintain any kind of social life. But I did feel rather smug when I read about how the NTs were beside themselves when they couldn't go to the pub etc. Maybe it gave them a glimpse of how I feel most days as an Aspie, cut off from social stuff. It was something of an equaliser, for a little while.



ToughDiamond
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26 Jul 2022, 6:39 am

KitLily wrote:
Our government doesn't care about us, they did lockdown too late, they broke their own laws while people died alone, they are constantly complaining about having to do lockdown instead of prioritising the economy. They were even telling us not to be snowflakes about the heatwave and get out there in the sun :roll:

I remember their "eat out to help out" campaign, and all those business leaders who made it clear that they'd rather let people die than let their businesses die. The pandemic exposed fundamental weaknesses in the free market system - e.g. that if people stop buying stuff they don't really need, the whole economy goes south.



Edna3362
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26 Jul 2022, 6:57 am

Didn't matter from where I came from, for complicated reasons.
It's not turning "normal" here -- it's the inverse now in my current region.


Personally I cannot relate.
I do not see it as some equalizer, I see it as a way to sense contrast.

Lockdown or no lockdown, things just get too old and I'm bored.
And lockdown or no lockdown, if it gets in my way of how I progress or grow, then I don't want to.

Yeah, even technically as a frontliner, with lighter workloads...
Noisy and crowded is a non-factor to me in life. It's the same sort of stress altogether after a while.


The only thing I like about the lockdown is seeing contrasts. I need to see the contrasts in everyone.

Before lockdown, I'm sick of seeing the same thing and no contrast.
Until the lockdown -- there I see a contrast beyond myself and I like it...

And then, I got sick of the same scale of contrast after a while, so I have to wait until lockdowns over to see another contrast.


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FleaOfTheChill
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26 Jul 2022, 7:30 am

I liked the lockdown. In general, I'd rather stay in my house than leave for whatever reason, and the lockdown was the ultimate free pass for me to stay home and not have anyone give me crap for it. It was beautiful. That part of it, I do miss.



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26 Jul 2022, 7:34 am

I definitely miss it. I liked being able to stay home, not see people, and engage in special interests.


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ToughDiamond
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26 Jul 2022, 8:19 am

Edna3362 wrote:
I do not see it as some equalizer, I see it as a way to sense contrast.

I think the only "equalizing" thing was that the NTs were as grounded as I was. That and some over-optimistic notion that the pandemic would somehow lead to the demise of free-market ideology, maybe like WW2 when everything got nationalised into a command economy and unnecessary goods and services were mostly discontinued. But it never happened.



Double Retired
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26 Jul 2022, 10:11 am

I have mixed feelings about it but, effectively, I'm still living as if there is a lock-down. I seldom leave home. I choose to wear a mask when I am not home (and think it is kind of entertaining that I can wear a mask when I go into a bank!).

My ADHD bride has been getting more active, though. And we both had COVID in June because of that. :?

But I am very clearly INTJ so I rather like hiding at home!

I do miss fast food, though. I don't want to eat it in my car or bring it home...the ambience would be wrong. I miss eating it in the "restaurant". I briefly started doing that again in July 2021 when the local Pandemic numbers were looking good—the numbers don't look that good anymore so I've gone back into hiding.


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babybird
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26 Jul 2022, 10:26 am

I didn't really mind the lockdown. I earned quite a lot of money because everyone was at home and it was just so easy to contact people and for people to contact me so it was good for that. Coming out of the lockdown was a bit of a challenge as people's daily routines changed so my hours of work had to change to reflect that.

I also enjoyed cycling on completely empty roads during the first lockdown. It was just so peaceful.

I met my bf during lockdown as well (through my work) so that was good and our first meeting was just as restrictions were being lifted. So I have quite a lot to thank the pandemic and the lockdowns for but I'm living life again now so I'm more than happy to put it all behind me.


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KitLily
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26 Jul 2022, 10:39 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
I was in Arkansas where there never was much of a lockdown, as the governor seemed to feel that business survival was more important than human lives...It was nice to feel that there was an excuse to be reclusive but the locals tended to increasingly see it as a "loony left" conspiracy, being rather right-wing themselves, so that didn't last long.

I don't know what it would have been like if I'd been in the UK when the pandemic was at its worst. Looking at the news, things were more authoritarian there, and I expect I'd have hated my outdoor exercise being restricted to one walk per day. They said the police would use common sense, but there were cases where they clearly didn't know what they were doing... The UK is too crowded to have kerbside pickup and the grocery delivery services were said to be buckling under the high demand... I liked the idea that working from home was becoming normal, and there was some hope that the changes would be permanent as people realised they didn't really need to commute so much, but business interests rolled all that back because the town centre shops wanted their captive market of office workers back and the company bosses didn't want their own premises to be largely unused.

But I did feel rather smug when I read about how the NTs were beside themselves when they couldn't go to the pub etc. Maybe it gave them a glimpse of how I feel most days as an Aspie, cut off from social stuff. It was something of an equaliser, for a little while.



Yes, lots and lots of people in Britain, including many in the government, thought business was more important than human lives. They still do. And they think Covid was a loony left conspiracy and still do :roll: :?

The police didn't know what they were doing, and a police officer pretended that he was arresting a woman for breaking lockdown but instead kidnapped and murdered her. VERY scary indeed.

Yes, grocery delivery was buckling, the shops were shutting to restock all the time. We couldn't get grocery deliveries because we weren't high risk etc. It was chaos. I was very glad I had been growing my own tomatoes and potatoes for a couple of years.

I agree, I wish working from home would become more common and therefore less commuting, for community and environmental reasons, but the anti covid and anti environmentalists won that battle :roll:

Haha the NTs going mad because they couldn't go to the pub etc. :lol: I agree that it did make me feel that at last they realised what it's like to be an isolated autistic, cut off from social lives. Mwah hahaha.

God knows what'll happen when a more serious virus comes along. Because it will...


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