The Mock Turtle

Yeah, exactly Bean. I keep thinking about the odd times I've been to big sporting events, like when Mo won at the world championships in London and it was this wall of sound and energy and PEOPLE and it was so exciting. Genuinely some of the highlights of my life. I want to be part of a big crowd. People have been coming together in big crowds to have a shared experience since, like, forever. Its really basic human-ing.

The little things I miss are just being able to do something, whether it be a meal, a visit to a NT property, a day out somewhere, without it having to be planned like a military operation.

I’m very keen on planning, but it’s all too much now.

Beab, it’s 4 years since we went to see Brendan Cole in a very nice crowd of ladies of a certain age.

We’ve got rugby league World Cup tickets for this autumn and for the first time I’m starting to feel like it might actually happen.

My sister has got us tickets to the Shrewsbury flower show in August. I am cautiously optimistic of being able to go and see the women's football again this year too.

That was a nice evening, Pip.

I was meant to see The Killers last May, its been rescheduled to this June but I'm not sure it'll go ahead. We also have Paul Weller in July, this makes me a bit more nervous as its indoors, the Killers is a stadium gig. Although Weller is getting on a bit so he might be more risk averse!

We’re meant to be seeing Lady Gaga this June. I’ve not even thought about that.

I'm supposed to be seeing The Killers in May as well, one of my work friends reminded me by mentioning the gig on a lunch gang social Teams yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I should be Jab-1-ed by then but the idea of it feels quite daunting, as if I'd be going from 0-60 in the blink of an eye. I feel I've become almost institutionalised as a stay-at-home now, not agoraphobic as such but my brain seems to shy away from thinking about 'normal' things and activities.

I hope that Elbow reschedule their tour. We were meant to see them in May last year.

I know what you mean, Hippy. I actually feel a bit nervous about 'normal' whatever that ends up being.

I cannot contemplate a big crowd...it would make me quite anxious I think.

I have the past two birthday presents from J on reschedule. Billy Bragg and the Boomtown Rats gigs. Both have already been bumped (twice in the case of the Rats), and I don’t know when or if they will go ahead. I have faith that Billy Bragg will be able to perform in October if it’s deemed safe, but some of the Rats will have been drawing pensions for ages

I miss going out to eat and sitting around with my sister with a glass of vino

I really want to lie on a beach somewhere, too

We’re supposed to be seeing the Killers too and Simple Minds, both rescheduled from last year.

H1ppychick wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:13 am I feel I've become almost institutionalised as a stay-at-home now, not agoraphobic as such but my brain seems to shy away from thinking about 'normal' things and activities.

I feel exactly the same. I sort of want to do more stuff but at the same time feel like I never want to do anything again.

I'm the same, on one hand I would love to go see Alanis Morissette and Garbage on their rescheduled tour this year, but I can imagine it being panic-inducing. I think we will have to be rescheduled again anyway, because vaccination is soooo far behind (6 months!) in Canada. It's really depressing.

Lola wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 5:22 pm

H1ppychick wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:13 am I feel I've become almost institutionalised as a stay-at-home now, not agoraphobic as such but my brain seems to shy away from thinking about 'normal' things and activities.

I feel exactly the same. I sort of want to do more stuff but at the same time feel like I never want to do anything again.

Me too. I am sure I'll come round but at the moment the idea of it all - especially over excitable crowds - feels too much. Also just the way that my head works is that I have to focus on the here and now if it's not great, I can't let myself daydream about what might be a) in case it doesn't happen and then I'll be miserable and b) because it stops me making the best of now. I've just got to keep my eye on the hill I'm climbing, I can't go off thinking about the field afterwards or I'll not make it up the hill.

I miss going to meetings and occasionally having biscuits and tea and coffee there. And trying to work out how many biscuits you can have without getting the side eye from senior people.

The imagine-a-big-crowd is my favourite trend on TikTok. Someone will play a song that sounds amazing live, the kind that everyone screams along with and you are to imagine you're there, having the night of your life etc. They usually make me cry. I cannot wait.

I can't wait to have one of those days/nights where you don't mean to stay long. One of those Saturday afternoons when I pop to the pub next door and its blazing sunshine and we make our friends and their kids meet us, completely last minute, and we sit outside in the sun whilst the children run around outside, climbing the trees etc and we decide to all get dinner there then stay till dark before going home with a mild sunburn on our faces. That feels like another planet, let alone lifetime.

The idea of socialising makes me feel so, so tired but I know that is because I've become institutionalised and it will pass.

Kenickie wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:18 pm I miss going to meetings and occasionally having biscuits and tea and coffee there. And trying to work out how many biscuits you can have without getting the side eye from senior people.

I find that quite stressful, as I'm naturally greedy and want loads.

I can't stand it when no one else eats, or they take two grapes and apologise for being "naughty". I just want to upend the plate of biscuits into my face and really have to restrain myself. It actually makes me a bit miserable, seeing all those nice extra chocolately M&S biscuits sat there, but I've already had three

Just going down the beach. It's only about 12 miles away but didn't get to it in 2019 because both me and Mr Speedy had big work projects on. Then last year obviously didn't make it. So it's probably going to be 2 1/2 years before we get to it.

Sometimes my only contribution to a meeting is reducing the biscuit pile. :consumateprofessional: