Lockdown 2.0

What will be the next banana bread?

It’s hard to remember now, those days of the last lockdown, the hazy blur of weeks that melted into months. Only made distinguishable by ‘Clap for Carers’ on Thursday and Friday ‘Gins by the Bins’ with neighbours. We emerged into the summer sun, many of us having been confined to our four walls for its entirety. Some had replaced social lives with sourdough starters, the late-night kebabs with kimchi and kombucha and for others baking banana bread became a bi-weekly ritual.

We kept up with the endless Zoom quizzes, the TikTok crazes and the love story of Daisy May Cooper and her sea captain. There were the runs and walks and Joe Wicks’ PE classes, which we started with good intentions and eventually gave up choosing to champion Sir Tom Moore instead. We celebrated our National Health Service, supported man-of-the-year Marcus Rashford and watched in confusion as Piers Morgan tried to rebrand himself as the “voice of the nation.”

Jordan Firstman blessed us with his impressions and Michaela Coel captivated audiences across the globe with I May Destroy You whilst Paul Mescal melted millennial hearts. And let’s not forget the time Stanley Tucci broke the internet with his negroni, turning the “Quarantini” into a “Quarantucci” catapulting our cocktail hour into teatime (as if we needed an excuse). At last the memes of Carole Baskin have finally been exhausted and Joe Exotic feels like a distant memory, but all serve to mark the moments of this extraordinary year.

By now I think we’ve reached peak lockdown fatigue — it’s been one helluva ride. The banana bread’s been binned and we’ve all fallen off the wagon (if we were ever on?!) And whilst lockdown 2.0 feels less ominous we are all still acutely aware of what a terrible time it’s been. But it’s as well to look back at the fads and frivolity as we head into the dark winter months, to show, that even in the most difficult times there is always some light.