The world under thread of the Corona virus is like my own version of utopia. I know it’s unreal and won’t last but it had brought so many good things.
When the virus really hit whole of Europe and people started to take it seriously and begin to self isolate, I was over the moon. I loved the empty streets and shops, and not having to find excuses of why I can’t hang with someone, when I just don’t feel like it. For those few weeks when the weather was shit and everyone stayed home, I was right at peace with it all.
I’m a countryside girl, an introvert and need space around me, but have chosen to live in the city because it does have it advantages like shops being close. I do enjoy my little ivory tower, but when I descent from it, there is normally too many people around for my liking.
I do not enjoy social places where you are cramped inside walls or rounded by a fence, it feels like pigs going to slaughter. I would happily sit in a terrace, having a drink and enjoying the sun, if the place wasn’t so growded with other people. The summer has really made people mostly forget about Covid19 and it’s almost business as usual. I already started to miss the social isolation times. There are still some restrictions with bars and restaurants I think, and movie theaters are opening up in a couple days, but it doesn’t show much in daily life.
There are some rainy days coming so I’m feeling going to the movies, and to my absolute delight, I noticed they have some restrictions that will be put on place after they open. They’ll only sell a fraction of the tickets compared to how many seats there are, and place everyone at a distance from each other. That is as close to the dream of having a movie theater all to myself I can get! Perfect!
I’m overjoyed. Please never let this practice go away and can we have the same for every public place. I’m living in my dream world.
It's nice to have some space and as someone who also isn't real keen on other people or crowds I agree. Lockdown has been good. I love it when there's no one else at the cinema when we go...And few people anywhere I go. This is why we spend so much time in the countryside.
What kind of area do you live in? How crowded is it and is the nature far away?
I live in Adelaide, about 1 million people. 10 minutes from me is the beach, 10 minutes from me is wilderness and 10 minutes from me is the city. So, pretty well placed. There's only about 1.3 million in the whole State of South Australia, and it's big, so there's plenty of places to go to get away from people.Most of it is unpopulated.
Both of these places are close to me. The beach well under 10 minutes away, the landscape is where I cull, 10 minutes from my house.
That’s really nice! And good pictures, are they yours?
Yeah, I took them.
And you are always so hard on yourself about the photographs you take, totally unnecessary!
Well, sometimes I get lucky Eve. It's all fluke. 🙂
Lol looks like a game of minesweeper
Parasite was a great movie, enjoy the distance! :D
Good, it was the only one that seemed interesting, along with the Gentleman, but that I’ve already seen.
Glad you're still living the dream! I was having such a great time with the slow-down. Then we had some house problems that needed attention and work started picking up again. Now it's over and it feels like I've been too busy to enjoy it.
I know what you mean. For extroverts it has probably been a really awful experience, but personally I have not really felt much inconvenience. Of course for those who have lost loved ones, it must have been terrible not even being able to have a proper funeral.
The thing I miss now is the slower pace of life under full lock-down, I noticed drivers were driving slower, because there were no traffic jams, people were more friendly, had more time to stop and chat on the street or to neighbours (2M apart of course). Pollution decreased, as did CO2, and here in Britain we had lovely sunny weather, which meant most of the significantly reduced power consumption could come from solar and wind generation; a lesson for climate change deniers/fossil fuel lobbyists that in fact you can have renewable energy generation at mass scale.
I agree somewhat but I miss the social interacting and the odd smile from random passers by. The occasional live gig and wow a festival but alas it'll come back 💯🐒
I've found myself becoming progressively more introverted in the recent 3-5 years. Partly it has been forced upon me by circumstances but not meeting a whole lot folks face to face seems to bother me less and less as the years go by. If this thing continues much longer, it will wreck the economy in a lot of places and it's going to have serious ramifications everywhere. But the social side of how the epidemic has been responded to is something that I cannot say I'm bothered by too much.
I know this situation can really shit on the economy, that is why I called it utopia, the good parts of it are fantastic. I hope in the long run we come back towards village life and aren’t so damn global. I don’t think the nature and our mental health can survive globalisation anymore. It’s unnatural.
You have a point. Also, the heavy use of telecommunication recently introduced at a large scale makes a lot of sense environmentally. If this means that more people will eschew living in the largest cities, I will stand to benefit from that because my wife and I own a house in a city that hasn't been growing too much in the recent decades. If the increase of distant working causes people to want space around them again, there will be growth and higher property values where I live.
I think manufacturing will become more local but not necessarily in any kind of primitive way. More sophisticated 3D-printing among other advances in automation will bring manufacturing closer to the consumer.
I never was one to socialize. I can do it short-term if I have to....work mostly. But I go home and very rarely go out. I mean, I'm not a leper either. Fairly handsome, intelligent, not overweight and a good listener. But people are annoying if you are around them for too long. Plus they always want something or want to come over. No thanks.