I’ll keep on masking up as we edge to normality

ISTILL remember the first time I wore a face mask to go shopping. It was around two years ago, deep into the first lockdown, and while they had yet to become law, masks were becoming increasingly common as the scale of the pandemic began to reveal itself. It felt like the right thing to do.

I felt self-conscious and hot, paranoid about touching the thing as I scurried round one-way supermarket lanes, worried I would trip as I couldn’t see the floor. How long ago it seems.

It’s safe to say I have not left the house once without a face mask since. Heavens, I even wore one on my wedding day. It was hand stitched in ivory satin, but still.

On Monday, wearing a face mask will become guidance in Scotland, the last legal Covid restriction to be dropped. It is a watershed moment, although it doesn’t really feel like it. The gradual easing of restrictions has felt more like a long series of hurdles to be cleared, any sense of jubilation or ‘it’s over’ celebration slipping by as we faced down the next tranche of regulations.

For most though, I suspect Monday’s edict will come as a relief. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had just about enough of face masks.

They are fiddly and restrictive. They make communication hard and human contact harder. They are downright uncomfortable, particularly as the weather becomes warmer.

I say all this as one of the lucky ones. For retail and hospitality workers, those cutting hair or driving buses, and of course our tireless frontline health workers, masks have been part of daily life for a very long time.

A few weeks back at the hairdresser I fell into conversation with the salon owner. She was keen to canvass opinion on how her customers felt about masks, as the date for dropping them approached. Would I feel safe having my hair cut by a mask-less hairdresser? I told her yes, and she visibly relaxed.

Her staff were struggling she said. Wearing a mask for eight hours a day for 18 months had taken a toll. Some

OH, how I love this time of year. The days are getting longer, tomorrow it will be deemed perfectly acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast and it’s officially warm enough to leave the house without a pair of 100 denier tights. Whisper it, but I do believe summer is finally on the way.

ACCORDING to a Japanese study, cats may know their owners’ names. If that really is the case I have a sneaking suspicion our cat thinks my husband is called ‘Could You Put That In The Dishwasher?’, while my name is ‘Would you like another G&T?’ had skin issues. Some had experienced panic attacks, convinced they could not breathe. The impact had been both physical and mental, and they couldn’t wait to get rid of the things.

I imagine it’s a scenario that’s being played out across the country right now. And to be honest, you need only take a stroll through the shops and train stations of Glasgow city centre this weekend to realise that many have ditched the masks already.

The law may not have changed yet but, with no policing, many have taken things into their own hands. As far as they’re concerned, Covid is over.

But it’s not over, not really. Cases are still high, as are deaths. Thousands are suffering the effects of Long Covid. And we are now, officially, ‘living with Covid’, even though some are still clearly dying with it.

THERE is a sense now that everything is ‘back to normal’ and yet by the same token everything has changed. Times are incredibly tough. The cost of living is through the roof.

We learnt this week that an astonishing one in four Scots is out of work, and many businesses have folded. The pandemic has changed how we live and work forever. Less definably, we are also changed as individuals by everything we have been through in the past two years.

Meanwhile, Covid continues to stalk the land. For most it will feel like flu. Others will not be so lucky. The booster programme is pushing forward with the fourth jab, and the threat of a new, vaccine-resistant strain still lurks.

For these reasons – and I suspect I will not be alone here – I do not plan on dropping my own face mask edict completely. I will still wear a mask on public transport and in crowded places. I will probably still wear one in shops too, if I feel it’s necessary.

At the same time, I do not judge anyone who decides to bin every last mask they’ve ever owned, particularly those who’ve worn them every day.

For the first time in two years we have a choice. And in these strange new times, maybe that’s the closest to ‘normal’ we can ask for.