With lockdown restrictions easing (possibly, but hopefully not temporarily) how are you guys feeling about returning to 'the old ways'? I've met up with a few friends in gardens and the like, and I'm waiting on the chance to see my family (they're all an overnight stay away) but I more mean other things we used to do in the old times.
I had a list of stuff I wanted to do but now I'm finding that now some of them are possible I'm slightly hesitant to get stuck into them. I've not yet been brave enough to visit a pub, although Mrs. Boots is talking about a Sunday dinner at one maybe... I've been planning on getting another tattoo for almost a year, but now I'm hesitant to book an appointment as I re-emerge, blinking into the light of society.
Other activities I love, like live music, isn't back on yet but I'm feeling twitchy about them at the moment too. A festival I usually attend is selling tickets but my current feeling there is no way do I want to be around that many people. I was looking at the Thought Bubble website yesterday and feeling slightly the same.
I suspect right now the sheer company of other people is enough. But are you all out and about at oubs and the like, or still a bunch of shut-ins? What are you looking forward to doing?
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 21 April, 2021, 04:09:08 PM
What are you looking forward to doing?
Sit down meals in our three favourite restaurants (one English, one Cantonese, one Indian, not a one of 'em with outdoor space), going to the cinema again.
I've managed to procure a couple of adjacent tables in the beer garden of a pub equi-distant from the homes of the people we most frequently went boozing with in the Before Times, and we can seat everyone at those without breaking any of the current covid rules, so we've organised a synchronised skive and we're all taking next Thursday afternoon off and going for a beer. Such a simple thing, but I
cannot wait. We've only seen one of these people in person once since last March.
As for Thought Bubble... I booked a (refundable!) hotel room before Christmas, as psychological marker for better times in the future. It'll either happen, or it won't. I should long-since have been double-vaccinated by then, which reduces the covid risks to more-or-less flu, and if that means it would basically be one more variety of Con Crud then I'm prepared to chance it. :)
Still further in the future, we had planned to go away last Christmas but, for obvious reasons, couldn't, so I rolled over the booking for a
lovely holiday home in Whitby to the same dates this year and I very much hope it'll happen this time.
Short-term, I'm looking forward to my kid being able to go on playdates again with children in her class. Beyond that, I'm hoping that I'll get a vaccine within the next month or so and so by the summer will be able to properly visit my parents again, and perhaps that mini-IP will be able to visit them herself too. The year before last, she had an amazing summer with them, doing all kinds of things. Last year, they were on Skype quite a lot. I'm hoping for more of the former than the latter.
I've not booked anything, but I'd go to Thought Bubble if it happens. Music-wise, it looks like it'll be my second festival-free summer in thirty odd years, unless some smaller local ones manage to take place later in the year, but all the big ones I often go to (Green Man, Blue Dot) are off.
Not been to any pubs or restaurants since they reopened (the sight of people sitting shivering in coats and hats last Monday did not tempt me, and they either have prebooking or long queues, which makes going for a simple pint a bit of a palaver). However, I am meeting up with a fellow boarder next week for a few beers, and trying to fix a suitable date for a barbecue with my usual gang of mates.
I'm looking forward to going to my favourite restaurant (Thai street food) and then an independent cinema to see some arthouse foreign film.
Not being going to either in the first week of reopening though - I'll let all the lunatics and window lickers get it out of their system before I venture there.
My daughter's girl scout troop met up in person for the first time in over a year, at an outdoor play-park. The troop's parents are all vaccinated. All the olds are vaccinated.
She was really happy. I had a weep that I didn't know was coming.
Quote from: Funt Solo on 21 April, 2021, 06:51:36 PM
I had a weep that I didn't know was coming.
I very nearly had a little cry sitting outside the pub with a pint last week. Just sitting there, with other people around having a nice time. I was suddenly struck by what a long time it had been since anything felt normal. Had a small sniffle; pretended it was hayfever and then ordered another pint. :)
I tease my wife about her family (which is huge) but I've missed the big gatherings they had several times a year. Usually there's a big one in June and I'm hopeful that we can at least get close enough to wave a pint at one another.
Quote from: von Boom on 22 April, 2021, 12:20:44 AM
I tease my wife about her family (which is huge) but I've missed the big gatherings they had several times a year. Usually there's a big one in June and I'm hopeful that we can at least get close enough to wave a pint at one another.
We've had a 50th, a 60th and a 90th birthday, a sad death and two new babies (well one and a half: great-niece number two is still baking for a few months) in our family this year. We're planning one mahoosive clan gathering later in the year to commemorate them all at once.
Oh and a possible camping trip for the end of May at Shell Island (AKA shellsuit island - Europe's biggest campsite on the mid-wales coast, where every scally family or gang of mates with a tent from Liverpool and Manchester heads to every summer weekend)
Quote from: Funt Solo on 21 April, 2021, 06:51:36 PM
She was really happy. I had a weep that I didn't know was coming.
This is really sweet.
A barbecue is a cool idea if the weather stays on the nicer side. I'm vegetarian but I might be able to tempt some of my carnivore mates over.
Tonight, myself and Mrs Bolt are visiting Chance & Counters (https://www.chanceandcounters.com/birmingham/) in Brum.
'Tis my 51st today and the first time we will have been 'out' for quite a while. We are both lucky enough to be double vacc'd and the reduced opening hours required because we will be outside make it quite an event.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 22 April, 2021, 10:57:47 AM
Tonight, myself and Mrs Bolt are visiting Chance & Counters (https://www.chanceandcounters.com/birmingham/) in Brum.
What a fantastic idea! Hope you have a great day, Bolt!
(As it happens, it's my 52nd tomorrow, which we'll be marking with an early finish from work and a maHOOsive curry delivery, timed to coincide with our return from the pub. :) )
Unfortunately for me, the only activity the local assembly is permitting is throwing petrol bombs and masonry at the police. Not really my thing.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 22 April, 2021, 10:57:47 AM
'Tis my 51st today
Many Happy Returns dude! Enjoy the visit!
Happy Birthday Bolt-01 and happy birhtday tomorrow Jim.
Alas my activities now freedom has returned largely rota around taking children to various sporting activities now they can again!
Oh and I'm returning to my comic shop for the first time this weekend. I'm in training now to enable me to carry the MASSIVE haul back...
Happy birthdays all round! I hope they're good ones.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 22 April, 2021, 10:57:47 AM
'Tis my 51st today
Happy Birthday! I hope whatever you wish for comes true. Same for Jim!
Happy Birthdays, Bolt & Jim. Hope that they're good ones.
And as someone who is still trapped in Lockdown here in the Emerald Isle, all I can say is that I am not one bit jealous of all you good, free folk over there. Nope! Not one bit at all, at all. :)
Quote from: paddykafka on 22 April, 2021, 01:41:42 PM
Happy Birthdays, Bolt & Jim. Hope that they're good ones.
And as someone who is still trapped in Lockdown here in the Emerald Isle, all I can say is that I am not one bit jealous of all you good, free folk over there. Nope! Not one bit at all, at all. :)
Thanks, PK (and everyone else)!
TBH, I think we've at least one more UK lockdown in the future — the Tories were
very slow off the mark with the recent Indian covid variant and have shown right through this that they'll happily trade public safety for opinion poll boosts, regardless of the science. No one will be happier than me if they
don't fuck this up, but their track record to date doesn't fill me with confidence.
Happy Birthday to the old folks* - Bolt (lang may yer small press) and Jim (lang may your letters differentiate in a subtle yet dynamic manner).
*I may be turning the more youthful of those two ages myself, later in the year
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 22 April, 2021, 01:50:55 PM
I think we've at least one more UK lockdown in the future — the Tories were very slow off the mark with the recent Indian covid variant and have shown right through this that they'll happily trade public safety for opinion poll boosts, regardless of the science. No one will be happier than me if they don't fuck this up, but their track record to date doesn't fill me with confidence.
My lady is NHS and she thinks this is an
extremely strong possibility but it's all still very unknown at the moment. The only certainty is that the Tories will do nothing unil way past the right time to act.
For now though, with sensible precautions taken, we should enjoy what freedom we have (sorry Irish Squaxx!) and birthdays all the more.