What haven't you done since the pandemic started....

[Del.Monte]

As we stare down the barrel of more possible lockdowns, enforced mask wearing etc. this Autumn, it got me thinking about what I have missed most since the pandemic kicked off back in 2020. Sad bastard that I am, it is the pub and the craic therein. Whether it's shouting at the rugby on TV, talking shite with all and sundry, studying Colette Fitzpatrick's knees on the TV3 news - over indulging on the drink, bacon fires and KitKats - I miss it all. My serious drinking days are, thankfully, long behind me and for a long time now it's quality over quantity - Guinness in the Winter (when the rugby starts) and Hop House 13 during what passes for the Summer..

I haven't been inside (or outside) a pub since March 2020, my alcohol consumption has fallen to negligible levels and while I have a more money in my pocket I don't feel remotely better for the experience. I would say that whatever the benefit to my liver, my mental health has suffered to the extent that it outweighs the former. Given that I didn't even go to the pub for the Heineken Cup final I am beginning to wonder will I ever go back.



When I took this photograph in Grogan's, South William Street, Dublin on the 6th March 2020 little did I know that it would be the last time I would be in a pub - and only for coffee and a sambo at that!

[765489]

My alcohol consumption has gone way down since the pandemic began. I used to enjoy my few pints after work 4 to 5 times a week. Most of the guys that were part of that are the same. I've been in a pub for lunch but have not gone for pints. This is a personal thing with me in that I've gotten used to not having my head in a haze most of the time or thinking what the fook was i saying last night and I'm still liking that feeling. I still have a few cans every so often at home but have not gone back to my old ways. I guess I've done the whole holding up the bar and listening to the same shit day in day out. I always think after the first few pints the conversation starts to go over old ground.

At the moment I'm still living a very basic life. I've no bells or whistles in it. I'm still enjoying it and am out a good bit as I always have been even during the pandemic. I haven't been abroad yet but at some stage, probably next year, I'll probably head to the States and do a bit of travelling about again.

I haven't been to a gig yet but thats more of a couldn't be arsed attitude. I used to go to alot of gigs but haven't really got back into that mode again yet.

I'm not really sure where my life is going at the moment but I'm ploughing ahead regardless, that's all one can do.

[Frank]

I miss the pub a lot, haven’t been in one since all this began but I don’t think I’ll ever be in one again as I have a mental block about it now and can’t do it. I drink lots at home anyway, to me alcohol isn’t an evil, but I’d love even one real pint again.

[CelticRambler]

Haven't been on a plane since a trip to Ireland in Jan 2020. Had planned to go again in September of that year with a specific project in mind, but that obviously didn't happen, and since then the overall uncertainty about what might or might not be allowed take place put the planned project on hold. Over the last few months, I've started thinking about it again, but the carry-on with airports and airlines the world over makes it a lot easier to stick to road and rail.

The other week, I received and invitation to my university class's every-five-years' reunion in September of this year, for which I would have considered taking a flight, but the date is about as perfectly inconvenient as it could be - because I'll be travelling elsewhere.

[isha]

There were a lot of things I hadn't done in a good while up to March of this year. Not that I missed much because I am very happily solitary by nature with odd bursts of socialising in between. I don't drink so pubs are nothing much to me. The kids had been coming home all over the time and that's the main thing for me.

But then my most beloved auntie died suddenly in mid March. There was no question of me not going to her wake and funeral. It was packed. Not only are we an unreasonably large family but she was a very popular woman and the whole world came to see her off. For 3 days we were stuffed into houses and church and shared cars and close conversations.

I caught a heavy dose of covid, as did many there. I'm glad I did. It took all the worry out of it. I would do it a hundred times again to be able to sit with my uncle in his grief and send her off. The covid was a virus my body fought like many other viruses it has fought (and I'm not vaccinated).

It totally broke the spell of reluctance too. After that I went to Germany in April, thus I did airports, flew in planes, went to packed cafes, restaurants, bars, on trains, and socialised closely and constantly with a big group of my kids and their partners for 2 weeks and hardly ever thought about covid. I've had groups back in the house since for long weekends. Would go in anywhere without a mask. The only thing I might feel reluctant about is massive concerts but I have never much liked huge crowds of humans in one confined space anyway so that's a win.

I hope they don't bring back lockdowns as they have caused so much pain. There are young people I know destroyed for now with mental health issues. People have lost jobs, missed diagnoses etc etc. It's sinister what is going on. I won't comply. And they can arrest me, I don't care.

[Hairy-Joe]

This may make me sound like a right boring ar$e but I can't really think of anything that I haven't done. I was not one for going to the pub or to restaurants. I've not done it since but I can't think of the last time I went for "drinks and food". It was at least 10 years ago.

I haven't flown alright since the whole think kicked off but I have travelled by ferry. I'll probably fly to Dubai later on in the year so that'll knock that off the list.

Ive cut back on some hobbies. I was into Motorsport and helped organise and run them here. Due to it being stopped, I realised that I didn't miss it. The events have started up again but I've only been to one so far, and I couldn't be bothered if I didn't go again for a while.

[95438756]

Played Elite Dangerous.
Qualified as Pilot.
Not completely crying into the pint of Guinness I'm drinking right now though, bought elite for only €10

[Fratello]

Not inclined to try meet people out. Been to a pub twice in 2.5 years.
I'd feel foolish if I brought Covid home for the sake of a couple of pints in Pub.

Most of my other stuff is back to normal but have a list of people I want to meet, mostly in Dublin, I'm 2 hours away. Was not inclined to bother with some stilted meetings previously.

[CelticRambler]

This may make me sound like a right boring ar$e but I can't really think of anything that I haven't done.

If you're a boring ar$e, then so am I - I had to think very hard to come up with something that I haven't done since lockdown.

As another who's only been to a pub about five times in my entire life, that whole aspect of "pandemic hardship" passes me by; and all my other interests have been back on the agenda for over a year now, with or without "special precautions" according to the time and place.

[Cyclepath]

I haven't been to gig in over two years and tbh I'm still not especially enamoured at the thought of standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers roaring, spittle flying etc. I recently took a flight to london for the weekend without catching anything but the increasing case numbers aren't persuading me to seek out crowds

[schmittel]

At this stage there is nothing I haven't done, but habits have definitely changed, and some things I do less regularly.

The big one, like others is the pub. I used to be a regular, little and often - 2 or 3 pints, 2 or 3 times a week in the local. Wouldn't arrange to meet anybody in particular, just pitch up and chat with the other regulars. Looking back, it was a fairly big part of my life.

Who pubs reopened, I raced back and hated it. The 2m, the table service, no sitting at the bar - there was just a general lack of atmosphere. So I didn't go much.

Then they shut again and eventually reopened, but this time I wasn't allowed in because I wasn't vaccinated, and didn't feel I was missing much.

Now the vaccine certs have been ditched, I go occasionally but more like 2 or 3 times a month than 2 or 3 times a week now. But every time I go I am disappointed that the whole vibe is nothing like it used to be.

I think pubs are well and truly fucked now to be honest.

[Cyclepath]

Now the vaccine certs have been ditched, I go occasionally but more like 2 or 3 times a month than 2 or 3 times a week now. But every time I go I am disappointed that the whole vibe is nothing like it used to be.

I think pubs are well and truly fucked now to be honest.

I must admit I was thinking the same but I was recently in the city centre on a Friday night and the place was buzzing - went for an early meal on Fade Street and when we came out of the restaurant at about 9pm it was mad! Hogans and the Market bar were heaving - to the point I had absolutely no desire to venture inside to the bar. We eventually strolled further out and had a drink on the canal at the Barge pub.

Maybe the difference is more noticeable in suburban or rural pubs? I'm not a major pub goer so I don't have much data to go on!

[95438756]

Gone anywhere else.
Slept every.night in the same house.
Well, least I didn't go to a country hotel that was run like a prison.

[CelticRambler]

Sorting through/throwing out a load of old receipts during the course of the day, I realised there's something else I haven't done since the start of lockdown: eat in McDonalds!

Call me uncouth, but on my travels I've always found it quite convenient to interrupt my sightseeing and general adventuring to call into McD's to stock up on salt and fat: you know exactly what you're getting, that it'll be properly cooked, and the price on the board is the price you'll pay (except in the good ol' USofA, of course). But one of the aspects that's most appealed to me - especially when I've done a long day's solo driving - has been the opportunity to walk up to the counter and talk to someone, then sit at a table and watch the natives. The plague of touch-screen, human-free ordering that had already spread before Covid had much reduced my enjoyment in that regard, and the last time I looked, it seemed that "drive-thru" and Deliveroo had become the mainstay of the service, with no great encouragement of seated consumption on the premises.

[Diamonds of Frost]

I would be absolutely shocked if there were lockdowns this Autumn. Then again the Government has surprised me negatively in the past. I'd probably emigrate. Well no I wouldn't really but I would want to.

I've done everything. Out and about and here and there. Shoulder to shoulder on a packed Luas, pubs, shops, holidays. What we have been through feels like a very bad dream.

[Diamonds of Frost]

At this stage there is nothing I haven't done, but habits have definitely changed, and some things I do less regularly.

The big one, like others is the pub. I used to be a regular, little and often - 2 or 3 pints, 2 or 3 times a week in the local. Wouldn't arrange to meet anybody in particular, just pitch up and chat with the other regulars. Looking back, it was a fairly big part of my life.

Who pubs reopened, I raced back and hated it. The 2m, the table service, no sitting at the bar - there was just a general lack of atmosphere. So I didn't go much.

Then they shut again and eventually reopened, but this time I wasn't allowed in because I wasn't vaccinated, and didn't feel I was missing much.

Now the vaccine certs have been ditched, I go occasionally but more like 2 or 3 times a month than 2 or 3 times a week now. But every time I go I am disappointed that the whole vibe is nothing like it used to be.

I think pubs are well and truly fucked now to be honest.

The pubs I go to are all back to pre pandemic. It depends on the pub I suppose. Some may have held on to a number of measures and you may be picking up on a cautious vibe. It will take a long time I think for many people to snap back, if they ever do. That's ok though. That's there own unique journey.

[Diamonds of Frost]

*their

[Del.Monte]

*their

Grammar Nazi.

[Berties_Horse]

Gone abroad, off to Austria in a few weeks for hiking & medicinal purposes. Medicinal in the aspect of getting free of relentless negativity for a week, happily leave the scaremongering bums behind and revel in an environment free of hypochondria.

[Diamonds of Frost]

Grammar Nazi.