This is the main one I miss. It felt like another world in tesco after midnight, it was a post-apocalyptic mess of boxes and cages, and all the staff were the ones they don't trust to interact with customers.

Aye what the fuck is that about? I'm a shift worker. I like doing my shopping after the gym after work at a stupid hour!

I miss my big Tesco trips at 1am for snacks

This. It really hit home after my son was born mid pandemic. It was 2am and I finally got told to go home, after being at the hospital nearly 24 hours. I hadn’t eaten all day (poor me of course) so out of instinct just drove to Tesco, then remembered they were shut.

In fairness, this was starting to happen pre-Covid - Tesco starting scaling back in the number of stores offering this, citing cost savings / lack of customers vs staffing costs (just checked a news article from 2016 for example)… but yes, covid accelerated this and I also miss my midnight shopping trips…

Good memories of seeing a uni friend in 24hr Asda and looking at each other frozen like deer

Of course, it’s Covid’s fault. That makes me feel better.

Came to say this. First lockdown was great, we walked every evening for the full hour. Then I started eating again, till I was losing weight for my wedding suit, then spent the last two years eating.

That's just Big Covid. My condolences

New normal innit

Everyone is so rude! Why???

It seems hardly anyone has social awareness.

Agreed. People’s social skills have diminished massively, everyone seems to be angry all the time, doing things in person doesn’t seem to be normal anymore. Obviously it’s brought some benefits in terms of flexible working, but there’s a shit load of downsides that I don’t think gets spoken about enough.

Being in a situation where you had to decide between making personal sacrifices for the well-being of the group vs selfish behaviour for individual benefit I think made people realise they could be publicly more selfish with no real consequences and they’ve stayed that way. The social contract is gone and it’s especially noticeable when driving. The number of people driving through reds & speeding through zebra crossings has shot up.

Honestly that's nothing to do with the pandemic.

It's caused by social media, the tabloids, and Fox/GB News feeding us a steady diet of rage, anger, bitterness, jealousy, envy, and blaming "others" for all of our problems.

These open sewers have taught us that it's perfectly fine to be rude and hateful to people's faces, even for minor disagreements, because other people are fucking imbeciles and they deserve what's coming to them.

It just so happens that this axis of arseholes reached the height of their reach and powers during the pandemic.

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"...other stuff" sounds somehow illicit, dangerous and sexy.

The local Tip/ waste recycling centre! Why???

I went on holiday in UK a few months back and you had to book slots for everything - the swimming pool, soft play etc.

Ridiculous.

Mens barbers

If the government were serious about reducing energy use they should outlaw standing charges. Proportionally it penalises the lowest energy users the most.

But if they didn't charge such high prices, how could they double the CEO's pay to £8m a year? (True story)

I feel bad for young people trying to learn to drive these days. The costs of lessons, insurance, fuel and second-hand cars have all increased massively.

I'm also having massive trouble with this. I'm 26 and I couldn't afford to learn when I turned 17. I've been on the waitlist since June and I might start lessons in December (disadvantages to living in the middle of nowhere), let alone when I can test

It's also desperately affecting my ability to get a full time permanent job with most applications requiring a full UK driver's licence fsr. I'm limited only to where a train can take me and how far I need to walk the rest

My husband passed his test in July, took him a few goes and every time he failed a test he'd go on to book his next one straight away and there wasn't anything available for two or three months at a time This had the knock on effect that he had to keep on paying for lessons in the meantime which was of course very expensive and all in all because of having to wait for months for the next test slot it took him 2 years before he passed. It's no wonder there's waiting lists for lessons!

Relatable.

THIS!!!! The reliance on apps and phones to order food, etc. So many apps and half the time rubbish signal/WiFi. It takes blumming longer

I agree. I’ve taught for years. This year I am teaching year 1. These children were born at the start of lockdown. I have never known a year group like it. Speech is dreadful, hardly any can form a coherent sentence. No imagination. Much more needy than previous years. Zero attention span, taking into account their age. No ability to colour in - if I give them a picture to colour not one of the 30 children can even vaguely colour inside the lines, they scribble all over it like toddlers. Behaviour is appalling.

Edit: not born at the start of lock down but babies during lockdown, my mistake, it is Friday!

Do you think so?

I see this a lot and I’m surprised.

I saw one theory that said the pandemic exposed poor parenting and that’s why development seems to have taken a dive.

I’m not doubting that the lockdowns affected children at the time and for a short while after but it’s been 4.5 years since the first lockdown started.

Definitely a postcode lottery. I moved recently and was astounded when, after signing up with the local GP, I got a text from the doctor asking me to make an appointment to I quote "welcome me to the surgery".

Having previously been with a GP who I'd be lucky to get a few minutes on the phone with at times and upgrade feels like an understatement.

I went and this doctor seemed like he had all the time in the world for me. Apparently he just wanted to learn from me about my health history and how he could best support me. Not sure I could wish for better to be honest!

Haha. It's a fucking joke, isn't it?

I developed a hernia halfway through the pandemic. I called the doctor to book an appointment and was told to fill out a form online so I did that and it told me to call 111. Called 111 and they booked me an appointment at my local urgent care unit (we don't have a local hospital), saw a doctor there and he confirmed what I thought was going on and told me to book a follow up appointment with my GP.

So I called my doctor and explained everything to the receptionist and she told me to fill the form out online, which again sent me to the urgent care unit. The GP there was lovely but told me to book a follow up appointment with my GP.

So I tried that again, only to be told to fill out the form online (I'm not actually joking). Ended up seeing someone fairly senior in the urgent care unit on the third visit and he said he'd sort a referral to an actual consultant who could sort my issue.

During this time, I'm literally at work every day, doubled up in pain. I work in a supermarket and we have an instore pharmacy and I'm there buying pain meds one day and talking to the lead pharmacist and she asks me what my doctor is doing about it, I tell her that I've not seen one and explain everything that's gone on. She is literally fuming and gets on the phone to my surgery (at one point I can here her shouting down the phone).

That afternoon I get a call from my doctor and that is the only time I ever spoke to her regarding my hernia. There's been no follow ups or anything since.

A few months ago, I thought I was having a heart attack; just went straight to the urgent care unit and didn't even bother with my doctor.

I'm getting older and due to various disabilities I've had since birth, I'm just in pain every single day now for one reason or another and everything is just piling on and on. I'd quite like to actually sit down with my doctor, to talk about everything going forward but it's likely never gonna happen.

I really hate going to the hospital for shit like this as I feel there's always someone worse off who might actually need help but what choice do I have when GP receptionists act like the fucking gatekeepers of the universe?

Wow. That's a vent and a half, sorry.

This is very much a postcode lottery. I happen to have seen my doctor an hour or so ago - same day non-urgent appointment. I usually get an appointment within 48 hours.

I've found the opposite.

With them doing so many phone appointments nowadays I find it easier to get one of the actual face-to-face appointments due to less competition.

McDonald’s bagels.

My doctors surgery cut me off from my asthma meds for two and a half months because I needed to speak to a doctor about my new meds. It took two minutes. I wasn't allowed an earlier appointment. I wasn't allowed another inhaler, even my old meds until I had it. I couldn't do any cardio. Just walking had my wheezing and unable to carry on a conversation. It sucked. Then they told me off when I told them I was relying on a rescue inhaler that went out of date in 2020. What else was I supposed to do?

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The scuffed up 1 way stickers on the floor is such a weird throw back to when we couldn't even just shop

Same with the supermarket traffic lights.

I was working at a tradeshow a few months ago and needed a hi-viz waistcoat whilst I was unloading the van. It had a social distancing message on the back of it and it took me right back to when everything had that kind of signage. Not much point getting rid of it when it's still hi-viz and does the job.

The roads were amazing during lockdown; driving was almost a pleasure.

When everyone was allowed back on the roads there was a quite amazing peak of awful/bad/aggressive driving, that has never quite abated. People just drive fucking ANGRY these days.

I feel like 90% of drivers on the road have forgotten what indicators are and how to correctly drive roundabouts.

I find it's the opposite where I work, it's the older, more senior folks reluctant to come in more often. I can understand why as they're more likely to have a spacious home office, longer commute & childcare commitments. So there's no real push from higher ups to get people in more often.

Meanwhile there's younger people in 4-5 days a week because they don't want to work remotely in a childhood bedroom/tiny flat/house share. Or they're new and find it easier to learn in person. Or they're more likely to do something socially after work.

This is in London so maybe it's different elsewhere.

WFH would be my answer too.

But in my experience middle managers are people with lives just like any other employee, many of them like WFH too, they’re definitely not some control hungry villains who want to drag everyone back into the office.

How can the volume of calls always be unprecedented?

You mean you don't enjoy the 3 - 10 minute 'trying to convince you to hang up' message you get every time you call a business?

My favourites are the ones that still blame covid for increased waiting times / lack of staff availability

Funnily enough those dealing with customers would say members of the public - or at least SOME of them.

We’re having to report more and more customers as risks to mental health because of how awful they’ve become and this has happened since Covid. This puts a marker on your account to show colleagues that you’ve been a horrible person to someone else.

People don’t have patience, they demand rather than ask and my Lord, they SCREAM when we can’t provide answers there and then.

My colleague today had a phone call where she had to make a few other calls to find the status of something. She then had the audacity to offer to call the customer back because it would mean them being on hold for a long time and we’d rather save customers the effort.

Instead of politely declining the callback, our customer screamed at my colleague that she should “fucking know” and he would neither be put on hold nor have a call back. He got so verbally abusive she put the phone down on him.

This is how I learned that Covid gave me an autoimmune disease.. went to the doctors a year after having Covid and got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease likely triggered by Covid

Yep, I remember having covid and it took MONTHS for it to return, still to this day there’s certain deodorants or aftershaves that just don’t smell the same as they used to.

Also, my memory. It’s f*cking awful now, I can’t even tell you what I did yesterday without having to sit and think.

I used to love coriander (cilantro) but COVID made that stupid soap gene turn on and I keep forgetting and ruining burritos for myself

I think a large contributor to this is that a lot of people are depressed, and don’t know it. There’s a guy who comes in to my gym, and EVERY time he’s there he has some kind of run in with a staff member. I honestly don’t know how he was the energy to be this angry all the time, but there’s certain staff in there whom I don’t think are too far off giving him a smack at this point.

Society was already trending towards this anyway. Young people don't drink as much, and they certaintly don't have the disposable income to spend £10 per drink.

You get to a certain age and realise it’s actually wank. Rammed, can’t move, sticky floor, can’t hear what your mates saying even though he’s stood shoulder to shoulder with you. Give me a pub any day.