Forgotten how to behave in public? As Covid restrictions lift, a quick refresher on everyday encounters from shaking hands to sharing drinks

Recently, while out for drinks and sharing plates, a friend reached over and took a sip of my cocktail. There are key parts of this anecdote that still, two years into the push–pull of pandemic guidance, strike nervousness into me. They include the words “dinner”, “friend”, “sharing plates”, not to mention the thought of a bathroom where there’s nice soap but the water from the tap still comes out cold and for some reason there’s no dainty way of opening the door once you’ve washed your hands, so you just have to grab the door handle with your newly washed hand, which seems to instantly negate the point of washing the hands. But the crucial information here is that I had a very nice negroni in front of me, and they wanted to try it, so they took the glass and raised it to their lips and took a sip.

In 2019, I would not have minded. That’s because All This hadn’t happened, and I considered myself fairly normal. This is no longer true. I have forgotten how to talk to anyone. How to greet people. How to meet new people. How to sit in an office. A lot of people forgot how to talk back to me, too. Restrictions are easing up, but people aren’t necessarily doing the same. So I spoke to some experts to get some guidance.