Yep, as a Kiwi living in UK I actually went back to NZ to redo my visa about December 2019, then that was all sorted and I returned about late Jan-early Feb 2020.

I had a stopover in Bangkok and _everyone_ was wearing masks. Not just Asian people, _everyone_. And that's when I was like "oh...this covid thing in the news is gonna be a bit bigger than we thought".

Then I land in the UK after that and all my friends & colleagues either haven't heard of covid or aren't really bothered by it ("it won't come here"). Was back at work for 2 weeks, then the first lockdown hit.

And we had lockdown, after lockdown, after lockdown. I would walk to the supermarket (the one thing we were allowed to do as per the rules) and be walking past parks filled with moron families socialising in the middle of lockdown.

The UK had so many long lockdowns because people here are quite selfish and cannot follow rules - and before people take offence - this is in contrast with NZ culture. There's much more "me me me" and "mine mine mine" culture here in the UK.