January 2020-what were we thinking?

Well I didn't geekesse and never imagined it was still something to cause concern and disruption 2.5 years later.

I was due to fly to visit my Dad, we talked about it a lot as we were both concerned. We eventually cancelled and then lock down happened.

Both of us had seen hints of information coming out of China that things were much worse than they claimed. Both of us saw the lockdown coming.

But people were dying by the thousand - no vaccine, no known treatment, it was pretty terrifying. I think we did the only thing we could at that time

I can remember watching the news and seeing people in Italy singing on their balconies as they were in lockdown. I remember thinking how awful it was. It never occurred to me that it would come here. How naive.

I was in Dubai Jan 2020..for the birth of my daughters second baby...we watched the news re China and then horrendous footage from Italy..I left on February 12th...lots of masks being worn in the airport...still wasnt really taking in how serious it was...said see you in April to my daughter and family....and then Wham!!!...lockdown, fear....life as we all knew it disappeared...didn't see my Dubai family until August 2021....should have also been going to son in Oz ....but wasn't possible....I would hate for any of us to have to go through those times again...

We met DS and family in York that February, shortly after the two first cases in the UK were found there. At the time we were more worried about the floods than the virus. There was little information at the time and the seriousness of the situation only emerged over the next few weeks.

I remember being told of the first lockdown and that it would be for three weeks. I remember saying, 'Three weeks?! Don't be ridiculous!'. Little did I know

I remember wishing they would stop talking about a virus on the news everyday. It was really boring!!

And why were people starting to wear masks. It would never amount to anything.

It's a good thing we didn't know what was to happen just a few weeks later.

In January, I started teaching my students how to use Teams and put all their resources online. My colleagues told me I was doom-mongering, and I was strongly advised by bosses to stop catastrophising. When lockdown came, I was ready for it. They weren’t.

I remember the first inkling of what was to come. I was reading a newspaper in Costa saying over 70s were advised to stay at home. Some friends just laughed and said just as if we would do that. Little did we know.

First few days of February I ordered N95 and FFP2 masks for all the members of my family who would "let" me. Some thought I was mad but actually I didn't care.