Lockdown has changed so many aspects of our lives that it almost made us forget about the ‘normal times’.
It’s been two months since the UK was put into lockdown on March 23 – and it’s fair to say that we adapted and made up routines to keep ourselves going.
We asked students for the last “normal” photo they had on their phone, and here are eight pictures from before we had to come to terms with lockdowns and social distancing.
My mum’s last visit – Tia Sanders
“My mum came to see me the weekend before lockdown was announced and obviously I haven’t seen her since then.
“I was supposed to go and stay with her in April and I couldn’t, and she lives alone, she works in a care home for people with learning disabilities and she just had her birthday and I was gutted I couldn’t be with her.”
When me and my girlfriend went to a film festival – Jamie Morris
“This was from when my girlfriend and I went to a Japanese film festival at our local independent cinema (Derby QUAD), and there was a mini fairground set up outside.”
The day our restaurant had to close – Lauren Brown
“I work at Bills on Queens street, and this is the last photo I took beafore heading to Wales.
“This is all the food and drinks we donated to a foodbank.
“I remember we were watching the briefing the day restaurants closed as we were packing up for what we thought would be three months.”
The long walks on the beach – Bryony-Elissa Villiers
Bryony-Elissa Villiers)
“It was early March and lovely and quiet in the eve, now it’s rammed full of people and we can’t go to the beach now til about 7:30 in the eve.”
Back when ‘we didn’t have time’ – Faith Pring
“This photo was taken the day Clifton campus painted their rainbow road!
“I wrote the article up for Platform and managed to get it up the same day – in between running back and forth from Clifton library writing my dissertation.”
When eating out was still a thing – Alessandra Prelicz
“This picture was taken during my last weekend as a 2nd year student in the UK.
“I was eating at an Arabic restaurant with my friend, Khalid, saying “goodbye” to each other over some mezze.
“Little did I know that crowded restaurants with belly dancers will be just a fantasy for a while.”
The photoshoots with my friends – Brandon Boyd
“Before lockdown I was studying towards my media degree and during free time I would go to meet-ups with other creative people and we would do photoshoots, or go for food.
“This is an image taken in the Arboretum in Nottingham.
“I’m one of those people that doesn’t like storing pictures on my phone until I want to upload them to social media, or send them to my Nan.”
Our last weekend away as a family – Megan Chadderton
“This was taken on our last weekend away as a family in Filey.
“After this photo was taken I returned back to uni for a week but nothing felt normal, there was a weird feeling about and nobody really knew whether to stay or go home.
“I went back home to start lockdown 5 days later.
“It’s so strange to think that when posing for this photo we had no idea this would be the last normal weekend for a while!”
By Olimpia Zagnat