Yesterday was an interesting day.. I’ve REALLY missed a bit of spontaneity since lockdown. You haven’t been able to pop out for Brunch or charge up to Alton Towers for some rollercoasters. We’ve been, well.. locked down – I feel like I’ve spent many months sat at home in a zero gravity recliner !

Obviously, this weekend things have changed a little, places are slowly opening – I’m actually pleased. It will be good to have a slightly more ‘normal’ life – well a ‘new normal’ life.

Something both me and Vicki love is a trip to Shake Shack. If it’s New York, Chicago, or, well London – the Shroom Burger is AMAZING no matter where in the world it’s consumed. We decided to take a little trip down to Westfield Stratford for a Shroom Burger and Cheesy Chips. It’s our first time out in a semi-lifted lockdown world. We’ve done runs to the supermarket, and a little lockdown picnic with James. However going into London is something we hadn’t done since February.

Our plan was to grab a Shake Shack and then have a little wander around the shops.

Once we got there, everything looked great, they’d got a one-way system in place, entry and exit points of the shopping centre were clearly marked, they had stickers everywhere on the ground pointing everyone in the right direction. It all seemed fabulous.

As we walked around in the outside, it seemed okay, a few people were not really paying attention but nothing too stressful.

Shake Shack had a good system in place, lots of closed tables to maintain a social distance, and everyone was being very respectful of that. It really felt like everyone was understanding.

Then we went inside.

Christ. It was stressful. Each side of the mall had ‘lanes’, stickers on the floor point the direction you should be walking in, literally every few metres. It really couldn’t be clearer. No one seemed to be paying attention though. It was so frustrating – I lost count of the number of people literally walking into us, all because they didn’t want to walk in their lane. There were a lot of people wearing masks, however, it seemed that those wearing masks seemed to think that they were allowed to walk at whomever they liked.

Honestly, it was so frustrating – Westfield and all the shops had clearly put so much effort in to make people safe. No one seemed to care though. It was just like normal, with some stickers on the floor and a few people wearing masks.

COVID-19 isn’t REALLY the problem. It was to start with, and it’s infected MILLIONS, but – instead of curing it, we’ve lessened it, we’ve taken away the power it has. Staying indoors, staying away from each other has done wonders. We can’t all be hermits forever, so going back into the world at some point is needed. However, if we carry on like it’s all normal, and we can stare down at our phones, crashing into folk – so caught up in our own minds that we’re not looking out for each other – it WILL come back.

I am really fucking anxious every single time I go out to the supermarket, I’m really nervous being around people. I know I should go out, buy things, support businesses, and I’m absolutely cool with queueing up, waiting my turn, and staying as far away from others as possible. This all goes to pot when other people don’t do the same, and this is what could really fuck us over – and I’m truly scared that it will.

I’ve got my first haircut in over four months tomorrow. I can’t wait to get it sorted. I can’t wait to sit and talk to the wonderful Rachael and have a little slice of normal. Obviously she’s going to be in full PPE, there won’t be others around us, I can’t take my bag in, I’ll have to ring a doorbell and wait to be collected, I’m going to have to sit in a face mask. It’s really NOT going to be normal. However, I want a tiny bit of life before COVID back, and if I have to jump through hoops to keep me and my family safe, plus Rachael and hers – I will absolutely do it.

I hope that people get better. I hope they start paying attention.

They won’t.

We’re fucked.

0 thoughts on “I’m not convinced COVID-19 is the problem…

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