This week Amy has given us the Lens-Artists challenge of Now and Then. Amy was looking at how life was before the Pandemic and how it is now. What a thought provoking topic. At first I was not sure how I would approach it. But then I thought about what I was doing in November 2019 and also November 2018. I looked at some photos and the thing that struck me the most what how much we just took for granted and will never take for granted again.
In November 2018 my husband and I were in London and we took part in a guided tour of arms and armouries . Here are a couple of photos where we are having dinner, in some amazing locations, having looked at the arms and armour at those places.
THEN
We all sat next to each other, stood next to each other and thought nothing of it. No one wore a mask. No one social distanced! We travelled in a small van/bus from one location to another; no restrictions on numbers. We thought nothing of it. We took all that for granted. That was life as we knew it.
NOW
Now the person who organizes the tours is not organizing any tours as no one would be comfortable going on them. The place where we always stay in London is struggling to make ends meet. No visitors are coming from outside England and the only visitors are business people who live outside London that stay there during the week. They have turned the dining room into a work place with internet access and work stations.
Finally, here is a photo of my loose black tea purchases in 2019. I love the little shop in Soho where I buy the tea. They sell both tea and coffee. The width of the shop might be 12 feet and the teas and coffees are stored on shelves right up to the ceiling. Space is at a premium. When the Pandemic hit and London locked down they had to close their doors. They have a big business in mail order but they stopped that as well as they said the space available for their employees to work and package the shipments was too cramped. I was worried that after 133 years in business Covid might be the end of this unique little store. But our son tells us it opened up again. He got me some gift certificates. I hope to eventually get there and use them!
HorseAddict 
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