Well, it’s been two years since the world as we knew it changed forever and it’s time to take a depressing/light-hearted walk down memory lane to The Before Times.
Blowing out cake birthday candles, e.g. literally breathing your hot mouth air all over a cake that everyone else would then eat.
How often we would put random things in our mouths when our hands were full – a Hop card, a receipt. (How have we lived this long?)
Speed dating. So many germs! So little time!
Does anyone else get a jolt when they watch TV/movies these days and there are no masks and no scanning, and think ‘wow, our brains are broken now’?
Having a memory or sense of time. Just come here and try and convince us it’s 2022. There’s a reason why none of us can remember how old we are anymore.
Flying internationally 🙁 (soon, though?).
That driving over the Bombay Hills and leaving Auckland was a normal thing to do, and didn’t feel like you were making a jail break.
Buying toilet paper at your leisure (and not feeling embarrassed when you’re buying it because you don’t want people to think you’re one of those people).
Shaking hands.
Holding the escalator handrail.
Opening doors without doing a weird dance to try and not touch the handle.
Not having to lube up your hands with sanitiser when entering a building like you’re about to deliver a baby.
Spending two hours a day commuting on top of your normal working day and accepting that as just a fact of life.
It being a badge of honour to turn up to work sick.
How do we feel about buffets now?
The good old ‘precedented times’ We liked those times.
When we didn’t know what PPE meant.
Wearing lipstick.
Coughing in a public place without feeling like you’re a target for glares.
Not starting every email with: ‘I hope you and your bubble are well.’ Or signing off every email with ‘Stay safe’.
Work meeting in 2019: Hair, make-up, good outfit.
Work meeting in 2020 (Zoom): A nice shirt, light make-up.
Work meeting in 2021 (Zoom): My cleanest pyjamas, wet hair.
Work meeting in 2022 (Zoom): Camera off.
