#lastnormalphoto

This week, the UK marked a rather depressing milestone - we have officially been in lockdown for a year. Yep, it’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year now since the COVID-19 pandemic first affected our lives. Bare shelves in supermarkets (i.e., panic buying pasta and loo roll), uni going online (i.e., seminars in bed with cheese), and streets so empty you could walk right down the middle of them - when you look back, last March seems like a blur. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether it happened five years ago or last week. We’re still doing pretty much the same thing we were this time last year.

Luckily, we didn’t commemorate this anniversary with a clap. Instead, landmarks were lit in yellow, and a minutes’ silence was held to remind us of the lives and time lost to this virus. Online, people on Twitter have been reflecting on our pre-Covid lives by using the #lastnormalphoto, to remind us all of a time when being shoulder-to-shoulder with sweaty strangers on the dancefloor was completely normal, and you could be lined up at the bar ordering double G+T’s without worrying about the last time the surfaces were sanitized!

We thought we’d share a few pics from our own Twitter feed, of life when things were simpler (*cry*).

Here’s one from literally 24 hours before our lives changed:

 

And here’s a lil reminder of what we were doing on a typical pre-Covid night out (just me?!):

 

 

And do you remember lasers?!?

 

 

It’s sad to look back on a time when COVID-19 was a rumour rather than a reality, but with restrictions easing and pubs set to reopen for outside service on the 12th April, we’re hoping that we can all be together again very soon! We can’t wait to get back to raving.

Words by: Rebecca Clayton