MrBiffo
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BLOG: IS IT WORTH IT?
🕑 Added 2021-08-18 08:59:17 +0000 UTCI was pretty vocal early on about the wave of Covid badness heading our way, yelling at people to take the warning signs seriously. Friends and family who were still carrying on as normal in February and March last year all ended up on the receiving bulb of my ire.
We visited my daughter's in-laws the weekend before the first lockdown, and we were shocked by how oblivious they seemed to what was looming. All the while we were trying to engage in the small talk, when down in London another of our kids was showing Covid symptoms, and self-isolating at her uni.
Remember how surreal that time was? How scary? The empty supermarket shelves. The quiet streets. The not knowing how deadly this thing was. The panic.
I've been a member of a couple of Covid Reddits ever since the very first days of the pandemic. When I joined, there were just a few thousand members. Now there is close to 100,000 in one and 2.5 million in another. For the most part, they've been really solid communities of people who took Covid seriously.
I've checked in every evening for the reaction to the latest figures, due to there being a number of people on there who were able to decipher them, compare them against recent trends, and basically just enlighten the news in a way that most media outlets don't have the time or inclination to do.
Anyway, over the past few weeks, since the Covid restrictions lifted in the UK, more and more members are saying goodbye to the group. They're no longer checking the daily figures, and want to get back to something approaching how life used to be lived before this nightmare began. They want to try living in a Covid world, rather than just existing in one.
I never thought I'd say it while cases are still as high as they are, but I'm in kind of the same place now. I've gone from being ultra-cautious... to craving the way things were, and accepting we need to live alongside Covid.
We basically never left the house in 2020, and for most of 2021, but over the past month or so we've begun going out and doing things, and seeing people, and I've noticed that it has made me feel better.
I was scared at first. We went to the pub with friends, then did a day trip to the Science Museum, both of which were absolutely heaving. I was convinced I was going to get something. Not necessarily Covid, but just a cold or... whatever. But with the masks and the hand sanitiser and the not taking unnecessary risks, we've thus far been okay. As have those we went with.
When we did get Covid it was because our daughter brought it home from school, not because somebody had coughed near us in a supermarket.
We've seen family, seeing more friends this weekend, and... socialising again has made me realise how much I missed seeing people. Not just people, but seeing something other than the inside of my house or a supermarket. And now I don't want to go back to how we were living before, and I say that as one of those people who LOVED that first lockdown.
Sanja and I have had Covid. Quite a few of our family has had Covid. We know what it's like. Fortunately, nobody we know has died from it - the closest we've come was the guy who ran a minimart at the bottom of our road, and a friend's father. Both elderly people.
But we've been double-vaxxed, we wear masks indoors, we hand sanitise like we've an unlimited supply... in short, we don't take necessary risks. We do what we have to in order to offset some of the anxiety about catching Covid. Having been through our own journey over the past 18 months, we're able to weigh up the benefits of clawing back some degree of normality versus the downsides of getting Covid.
Again.
Or spreading it to somebody we care about.
And I guess, we've reached the point where, having accepted that Covid isn't going to go away, ever, and that the vaccines won't eradicate it - just lower significantly the chances of getting really sick from it - we don't want to keep hiding away for the rest of our lives. I hate to say it, but it might be the only thing I've ever, and will ever, agree with Boris Johnson about. If not now... when? Covid is here to stay. Our world has changed fundamentally. I've come to accept that, and stopped waiting for it to magically go away.
The big test for me - and I know it's something some of you are weighing up with regards to the imminent Digi Live - will be whether we still go and see Marillion in November. It's two nights. One of them is seated, which I'm kind of okay with, but the other is a standing show, and the idea of being shoulder-to-shoulder with people does still give me pause.
Obviously, it's also going to depend on where we're at in terms of cases and variants, and all of that. But at the current level, if it stays roughly around where we're at, I'd probably take the chance. It's like... I wouldn't do bungee jumping ever. Unless, say, there was, I dunno, £500 waiting for me at the end of it.
It's the same decisions we, as individuals, have to make every time we do a thing these days; it's it worth it... to me? And it might be that this is now a question we must ask for the rest of our lives, whenever we want to do something.
Paul
Comments
Pete Pyjamas
Man this is a tricky topic. I live in New Zealand, and for the last 6 months, we've been basically life as "pre-covid normal"…unless we wanted to leave our ivory tower, in which case we are $h!t out of luck (at least if we wanted to come home again!) This all changed in the last 48 hours – 1 new case popped up, entire country in proper hardcore lockdown within hours. But even before then…*especially* before then, it was beginning to get to me. Check the media, and NZ is held up as this glowing example of dealing with things right….but what is eating at me is the fact there is no end in sight. Vaccinations have been slow, but you don’t grumble, because it would seem churlish to grumble when we had zero cases, whilst other countries grappled with thousands deaths each day. But here we are with our plan in place to get the majority of the population vaccinated by year end, then think about opening up borders sometime in 2022…. But it just seems like the government is never gonna be happy with just opening the doors and living with the fact that we will have to deal with covid in the community – even after everyone's vaccinated – and that’s when our troubles *really* begin, because people don’t have the ability to make their own choices, take their own risks, weigh up their own values. It's basically shaping up to be a nation-wide real-life version of "The Prisoner" I'd love to get to a Marillo gig somepoint soon – but even the 2002 weekends would be way too optimistic for me to take a punt on. But put that into perspective. I spoke to a workmate this morning. Hes originally from South Africa. He was speaking to his mum on the weekend and came to the conclusion that they would probably never see each other again. And I've been on the verge of tears ever since. My 2 cents: Go to the gig. And at some point during the evening, turn around and look at all the other people in the audience. Because every one of them will have had similar thoughts to yours before heading out for the evening. I'd place a fair bet that it'll bring you to more tears to your eye than if Marillion played a "Holidays in Eden – Deserve - If my heart were a ball" medley. I hope Digi-live goes well for you too - not only because you deserve it, but because people need that bright spot to look for, and believe me, they *really* need that now. Even if its only to laugh at a grown man in a baked bean costume.
Alastair Ward
"it might be the only thing I've ever, and will ever, agree with Boris Johnson about". Don't get carried away thinking Johnson's had a good idea. People who go on about living with Covid don't always seem like they're suggesting take any precautions. I'm a lot more comfortable about having a family get-together with my parents and sisters now because we know we're all double vaccinated and haven't been risking pushing things. I think it's fair enough to look at things now and reconsider how to go about day to day life.
Stephen Cross
The issue I’ve had is that as freedom day struck I got a bad eye (getting a lot better now but still not 100%) so it’s kind of made me go back into close to lockdown. But I can go to the football. Weird
Dave Graves
Tough one. I believe in personal choice and personal responsibility. I also believe we have to live with this thing forever. It will become a background noise flu, just like Spanish flu did. One of the many that float around and make people ill and kill. We've all got to die at some point, and what point is life if lived in perpetual fear of a virus? I am vaxxed, I wear the mask and wash my hands. I'm aware others don't and that's there choice. I'd only really object to someone's behaviour if they were sat on the tube or other confined space, coughing and hacking away with no mask and not covering their mouths etc. I will strongly object to an interfering person who challenges me in a stupid place i.e. I'm walking on a footpath and they walk past and demand I wear a mask. A polite rebuttal will follow. It's all common sense. Most of us reading this post will likely have that ability to judge individual situations and take appropriate risks...what do we do with those who are lacking the IQ and/or EQ to play their part?
John Miller
Totally agree with everything you've said. I'm double-jabbed and I'm still careful. But in the last week I've been down to London to see the Gorillaz at the O2 with 20,000 people and got to the front of the mosh pit, spent my 50th Birthday at a theme park and had a lovely meal out with my family. All things I took for granted up until 18 months ago, but now it feels so good and uplifting. And now very much looking forward to Digi Live in 2 weeks👍
Stephen Cross
I’ve been to the football and the standing ones felt a bit more distancey. It’s the going back through tunnels etc that’s a bit dodgy
WhatHoSnorkers
Digi Live will be my first BIG thing I'm going to... and the furthest away from my house I've been since March 2020. I've been out a few times but I need to stop being a recluse as I'm turning into late period Howard Hughes.
Nick
I think I agree. I wasn’t as isolated as many during the lockdowns because I still needed to travel into work most days, I enjoyed the lack of traffic, but it’s nice to be back to doing some things. I’m cautious, and very cautious about making presumptions of risk for other people, but mainly fine about going about my day.
The Nitroglycerin Child
Very thoughtful blog (as always to be fair). I've come to the she conclusion recently. It's not for anywhere, so we're just going to have to try and steal the moments of joy that we can, whilst not being silly about safety. Also, never heard the phrase "bulb of my ire" and am very pleased that it is now in my lexicon. Thank you
Si Forster
Thanks for this. Both living and working on my own (global corp I work for used Covid as an excuse to ramp up their restructuring so all my colleagues were made redundant last year, think they forgot me) has utterly shredded my MH and attempting to shop last week without a mask to see if I could left me in tears. It’s going to be a while. But… next month I am - hopefully - going to see my best friend in Switzerland with all the hoops I need to jump through, and I can’t wait. So apologies for the initial down-ness of the above, but I hope Digi Live will be awesome for everyone, and the marillion gigs great for you - it’s the one-off nature of being part of a community or even just someone else that’ll bring us all back to normality again. All the best to all x
PJ Close
Digi Live and Shang-Chi both happen the same weekend, and will be my first trips back into busier social settings since this whole thing started. I had my second shot a few weeks ago, so at this point I'm about as vaccinated as I'm gonna get. Like you guys I'm still masking up indoors (including at work...I work in a charity shop, so dealing with the public is unavoidable) and using hand sanitiser etc. I'm not a particularly social animal at the best of times, so things like pubs and clubs just aren't places I intend to be going anytime soon anyway. I really miss going to gigs, but being that closely packed with that many other people isn't a step I'm ready to take just yet. I just intend to keep taking basic precautions, avoid licking doorknobs for the foreseeable, and try and get back to *some* kind of normality.
