So where were you?

[GrannyJen]

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of Boris Johnson's statement to the nation, a statement that 7 days later would begin an enforced lockdown with 2 days after that the coronavirus act being brought into law giving lockdown legal force.

This is part of what he said ... :

So, second, now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel. We need people to start working from home where they possibly can. And you should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.".

I found it most chilling. At the time I was camping near to Duxford, attending a reunion at Duxford and seeing the museum over a 5 day period. One part of the museum I stopped at for a long time was the hangar exhibiting the Lysander, the little aeroplane that my uncle flew during the war dropping people off in occupied France.

Somehow to me Bojo's words became all mixed up in my head with those of Neville Chamberlin announcing a state of war now exists between Germany and Great Britain. My sozzled historian brain you must blame for that.

Either way two days later and we were prematurely home, waiting for the lockdown announcement.

So where were you, and your reaction?

 

[jts46]

New Zealand, returning a borrowed Cali, Friday 20th flight from Auckland to Singapore to Heathrow.
Picked up our own Cali which our friends from NZ had borrowed, drove home to Derbyshire on deserted roads 21st March.
Daughter managed to buy us a few supplies, been locked down on & off since.

 

[andyinluton]

I remember at the time thinking that it must have been like this when war was declared.

We had got daughter back from uni the day before as we had been watching closely what was happening in other countries & thought if its going to be like that, she would be better off at home.

This was our Sainsbury superstore on the 17th. I'd been sent out with a long list & youngest daughter - family of 6 means our weekly shop looks like most peoples panic buying.
There wasn't anything edible left in the store. I had to take a photo as the wife didn't believe me.

 

[Ocean Spirit]

Looking for toilet rolls.

Actually at home I knew it was coming of course and had been out and bought a guitar the day before the shops were forced to close just for something to learn throughout the period. I've stuck with it but after an initial rush of 5 or 6 chords and a number of 3 chord songs accomplished the curve started to level off and progress has been much slower.

 

[clarinetbcn]

On Thursday March 12th, after a week hiking in the Atlas mountains my brother and I got the last flight from Marrakech to Barcelona before Morocco cut off air travel with Spain due to Spain's exploding crisis. We had spent the day in Marrakech in the hotel, since after a week of no internet we read the news and decided not to mix shoulder to shoulder with the throngs of people from all over the world who were out on the street. I was deeply shocked to arrive home in Barcelona to see everybody out on the street as if all were completely normal, even though parts of Madrid were already on lockdown. On Friday the government changed course and announced a severe national lockdown starting Friday night at midnight. My brother had his return flight to California on Monday, and no airline was answering the phone, so we went to the airport and pleaded. Thanks to a very helpful and terribly overwhelmed reservation agent who was dropped into the position of aiding all the airlines' customers when the airlines shut their offices, my brother miraculously got a flight Friday night, so he was able to go home to his wife instead of spending the next two months locked in the house with me.

I still exchange messages with a mountain guide I met when we were in Morocco. Like all of his fellow guides, he has no work and is back in his mountain village with his family.

 

[David Eccles]

Hurriedly looking for my copy of the of the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide ...

 

[Lightning]

Parked up by this lake in Finland. Could have been worse.

 

[GrannyJen]

I remember at the time thinking that it must have been like this when war was declared.

We had got daughter back from uni the day before as we had been watching closely what was happening in other countries & thought if its going to be like that, she would be better off at home.

This was our Sainsbury superstore on the 17th. I'd been sent out with a long list & youngest daughter - family of 6 means our weekly shop looks like most peoples panic buying.
There wasn't anything edible left in the store. I had to take a photo as the wife didn't believe me.
View attachment 75107

That photograph is worth keeping.

I once went to an Eastern European country prior to their admittance to the EU and was shocked to find empty shelves like that. I have seen less barren supermarket shelves in war torn Rwanda.

 

[bob_summers]

This photo was from today 2020! As I recall, Madrid locked down the day before, then us. I thought, pshaw this’ll blow over in a fortnight and went for a ride. Didn’t like it: don’t usually see anyone up there (that’s Hendaye, France in the background) but that day was surreal and riding back into town was like 28 Days Later. Spanish lockdown was heavy. No exercise allowance, only reason to leave home was medical emergency, caring , or to go to the nearest shop which in our case is downstairs…
We were confined to our 2 bed city centre flat until early May. Still doesn’t seem real!

 

[Dr-Snickers]

I genuinely don’t remember. I’m not being flippant at all; those first few months of 2020 are just a complete blur. We took things very seriously at my practice from when we first started reading reports in January. We lwere working every hour covering the surgery, trying to identify high risk patients, setting up COVID assessment clinics, supporting very scared staff and trying to locate non existent PPE.

I just remember constantly thinking, please let them lockdown today and they just kept putting it off, with the sense of dread amongst my medical colleagues making us all feel very scared.

 

[GrannyJen]

This photo was from today 2020! As I recall, Madrid locked down the day before, then us. I thought, pshaw this’ll blow over in a fortnight and went for a ride. Didn’t like it: don’t usually see anyone up there (that’s Hendaye, France in the background) but that day was surreal and riding back into town was like 28 Days Later. Spanish lockdown was heavy. No exercise allowance, only reason to leave home was medical emergency, caring , or to go to the nearest shop which in our case is downstairs…
We were confined to our 2 bed city centre flat until early May. Still doesn’t seem real!

View attachment 75111

How unreal.

locked up without leave to go out. We at least could walk, run, cycle from our homes.

Fabulous views!!

 

[GrannyJen]

I genuinely don’t remember. I’m not being flippant at all; those first few months of 2020 are just a complete blur. We took things very seriously at my practice from when we first started reading reports in January. We lwere working every hour covering the surgery, trying to identify high risk patients, setting up COVID assessment clinics, supporting very scared staff and trying to locate non existent PPE.

I just remember constantly thinking, please let them lockdown today and they just kept putting it off, with the sense of dread amongst my medical colleagues making us all feel very scared.

A surreal time.

I think we were all screaming for lockdown and all we kept hearing was "we are following the science".

No political comment intended, it was just a surreal time as we seem to have drifted into a disaster.

 

[clarinetbcn]

How unreal.

locked up without leave to go out. We at least could walk, run, cycle from our homes.

Fabulous views!!

I spent 6 weeks running up and down the 6 floors of stairs of my building 2 by 2 for exercise (even that was officially prohibited, but my neighbors gave me the OK), until one day I decided to break the rules and go on the roof to run, and discovered the entire city on the rooftops doing yoga, reading, jogging, cooking BBQ, drinking GTs...

 

[GrannyJen]

I spent 6 weeks running up and down the 6 floors of stairs of my building 2 by 2 for exercise (even that was officially prohibited), until one day I decided to break the rules and go on the roof to run, and discovered the entire city on the rooftops doing yoga, reading, jogging, cooking BBQ, drinking GTs...

Unbelievable.

I feel totally spoilt, going out every day and running alongside the sea.

I think anything less and I would go quietly nuts

 

[AlisonF]

I genuinely don’t remember. I’m not being flippant at all; those first few months of 2020 are just a complete blur. We took things very seriously at my practice from when we first started reading reports in January. We lwere working every hour covering the surgery, trying to identify high risk patients, setting up COVID assessment clinics, supporting very scared staff and trying to locate non existent PPE.

I just remember constantly thinking, please let them lockdown today and they just kept putting it off, with the sense of dread amongst my medical colleagues making us all feel very scared.

Me too. Fortunately I’m not working. My poor dogs have done the same walk day in and day out since end January last year.
I worked for a senior manager in a UK gas & oil company in 2005/6. Our UK head was called into #10 to ask what our plans were for a pandemic. That was a learning experience... So I knew what needed to be done 15years later, but sadly, I did not think it was being taken seriously. I decided to stop seeing friends (a couple had just had holidays in Dubai and New Zealand) and feigned being busy when they wanted to catch up. And have been doing the same ever since. And will continue to do so moving forward.

 

[The Blue Merle]

Waiting on completion of my new home, managed to complete on 20.3.20
The owner left loo roll too

 

[BerndRos]

Waiting on completion of my new home, managed to complete on 20.3.20
The owner left loo roll too

Lucky you.

Light Bulbs as well !

The most outrageous thing I experienced is a seller cutting up and rolling up and taking away the turf from the garden.

Close on 40 years as a Conveyancing Lawyer.

 

[Bellcrew]

Lucky you.

Light Bulbs as well !

The most outrageous thing I experienced is a seller cutting up and rolling up and taking away the turf from the garden.

Close on 40 years as a Conveyancing Lawyer.

That "cheeky offer" often breeds resentment and then of course some folk are just weird.

 

[Hamish S]

The week before lockdown one I was at home dreaming of my knew T6.1 knowing she was at the docks in the UK awaiting transport to dealer. On the following Monday morning, panicking that lockdown was imminent, I checked with VW chat to discover she was at the dealers so duly phoned them and they confirmed she was there and asked when would I like to pick her up. That evening lockdown came and allowing for the delays caused by the change in tax rates meant that I eventually picked her up on the 1st July. Mind you the tax change did save me a few quid.

 

[GrannyJen]

The week before lockdown one I was at home dreaming of my knew T6.1 knowing she was at the docks in the UK awaiting transport to dealer. On the following Monday morning, panicking that lockdown was imminent, I checked with VW chat to discover she was at the dealers so duly phoned them and they confirmed she was there and asked when would I like to pick her up. That evening lockdown came and allowing for the delays caused by the change in tax rates meant that I eventually picked her up on the 1st July. Mind you the tax change did save me a few quid.

Good grief!!

Knowing there was a new Cali waiting must have driven you nuts through lockdown!!

 

[Alform]

On the last day of a cruise wondering if the flight from Miami would be going . The picture is of the crew who said they were being sent home when we returned in the morning. 15th March

 

[Barbara]

March 13th - Watching a campsite and a traffic free road from our one bedroom apartment in Spain. The camp site was closed and all the campers had to leave. We were already in Spain’s lockdown.

We were only allowed to go shopping at our nearest supermarket and this was only one person from each household. Luckily we could see the supermarket from the apartment and I went when I could tell that there would be only very few people there: often only 1 or 2 customers and always very well stocked.

There were police at entrances to the town and patrolling the streets. By May 6th were also could go out in our allocated exercise time depending on your age.

Eventually bars opened outside and we could leave the town to go to the dentist but still could not go far. At the end of May no ferries but we were allowed to travel via France to UK as we had a channel tunnel booking and were going to our place of habitual residence. The trip home was yet another adventure and a talking point!

Things were not all bad, we had wine delivered by courier and a battery charger by amazon as the van had sat in a garage discharging.

 

[Skylark2.0]

I should have been flying to Boston but thankfully it was cancelled about 10 days before. We warned our son that he would be picked up from Uni the next week with all his stuff! Then found a remote wood to go for a birdwatching walk followed by a picnic in the van. We had allioli and bread having realised that our planned Silver wedding anniversary trip to Majorca wasn't happening anymore.
We could see the lockdown unfolding and we were relieved when it finally happened, even if it should have been weeks before.

 

[Amarillo]

Smugly sitting cross legged on my stash of “buy one get one free” 48 packs of bog paper from Macro, pondering where I could buy chickens for a reliable and steady source of protein for two growing boys.

 

[Hamish S]

Good grief!!

Knowing there was a new Cali waiting must have driven you nuts through lockdown!!

It sure did and I have to admit I didn't do myself any favours with SWMBO by constantly saying if I had the van at least I could play with it...... and just to make thinks worse last Monday someone T-boned the drivers side. Font door, "B" pillar and sliding door are all a mess. Now moaning about when will I get it back. Only £12.5k worth of damage. Keep looking on We Connect to make sure she is inside the menders and not left outside.