“Literally everyone on the conference call would have been able to see”
A few weeks ago, we asked for your lockdown confessions. It turns out some of you have a lot to get off your chest.
We’ve all had to sacrifice a lot while being stuck indoors. Some of you have new guilty secrets you wanted to share. And some of you have engaged in rule-breaking while others were behaving themselves.
We are definitely not condoning any of it.
Here are six of our readers’ stories – we’ve chosen to keep them anonymous.
I submitted a presentation I had from work for my son’s homework as he had forgotten to do it. He got amazing feedback!
My son’s in Year Nine and he had some home-school work to do. Normally I would help out but I was busy with lots of other things that day, and he had a presentation that was overdue.
I teach IT for apprentices so I just gave him a presentation one of them did and told him to adapt that. But he didn’t change it – he just changed the name on the front.
His teacher acted like it was the best piece of work they’d ever seen. It got full marks on the feedback and made it into the school newsletter.
Now not only do I have a lot to do with the home-schooling work, but I have guilt as well on top of that.
This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. My son is really happy about it. I’ve told him it’s a one-off and never happening again.
I’ve religiously disinfected the groceries in my weekly supermarket delivery – except for the items I take over to my mother-in-law
“I do feel guilty – I’m not trying to bump her off”
I’m lucky enough to get groceries delivered and I bring some over to my elderly mother-in-law.
It’s all such a palaver – washing everything and making sure it’s all hygienic. So I’ve just been bunging hers into a bag and taking it round. She’s been going out so I sort of feel like if she gets coronavirus, it could be from anywhere.
I do feel guilty. I’m not trying to bump her off. She’s never asked me if I’ve disinfected everything before I’ve taken it to her. If she did, I would tell her.
I’m classed as vulnerable so I am being ultra, ultra paranoid. It just takes forever to unload everything and disinfect it and put it all away. So I just think “I’m going to do mine and leave her to disinfect hers if she wants.”
Read more of your lockdown stories
I drove to my grandparents’ house to deliver an “essential” birthday cake
It was both of my sons’ birthdays at the beginning of April and obviously we weren’t supposed to be making any journeys other than essential ones but I delivered my grandparents some of their birthday cake – it was a bit of a knock-and-run.
Usually we have big family gatherings and all the rest of it but obviously that wasn’t possible this year.
Looking back I suppose if everyone had done that we could be in a different situation but I don’t feel that bad about it – it meant a lot to my grandparents. They’re very sociable and obviously they’ve been completely isolating so I think getting the cake did cheer them up.
I flashed my naked boobs at my hubby whilst he was on a work video call, forgetting that he was sitting in front of a mirror
My husband is working from home during the lockdown. His office is full of boring stuffy shirts who are also working from home and I thought it would be hilarious one day while he was on quite an important teleconference meeting to burst into the office, pull my top up and waggle my boobs at him. It wasn’t a quick flash – it was a prolonged, bouncing episode that was probably quite horrible to behold.
Then I realised that he has quite a big mirror behind his head and I was standing facing him, behind his computer screen, performing.
Literally everyone who was on the conference call would have been able to see the reflection behind his head. They had a full-on full monty.
It was horrifying when I realised everyone could see.
They were all too polite to say anything but they can’t have not seen. I think there was some sniggering. My husband was pretending nothing had happened. He didn’t find it remotely funny at the time, but afterwards he found it a bit funny.
I’ve got really drunk to forget how lonely I am
“It’s kind of sad”
I live alone in my flat so the only times I see people are when I get a delivery at the concierge. It’s quite lonely sometimes. I video chat with my friends frequently but it’s not the same as having them here.
I discovered this wine website which has good wines for a very good price. I bought a lot of them.
When I feel sad because of loneliness I have one glass of wine, or two, or sometimes the whole bottle.
It’s kind of sad but then I think it’s just like when we were allowed to go to bars on a Friday night. The big difference is that the bar is now my home and there is no crowd of people.
We formed an isolation bubble with two friends
I live in a flat with a housemate and he has a very close friend who lives down the road on his own and another friend who lives up the road also on her own, so we were doing a sort of isolation bubble.
It started with just going for walks and then we had a barbecue in one of their gardens and then I had a birthday and invited them round to dinner at my house.
We met up maybe about four times in total. Three out of those times were birthdays.
It sort of seemed justified because for people who live on their own I think it’s really, really hard for them. But then I know everyone probably has a justification for their lockdown breaches so I have had a bit of a pang of guilt.
*Illustrations by Irene de la Torre
