A new week of lockdown. Same as the last one but the weather is a little milder. Lulling us into a false sense of security. Not mild enough for us to be breathing in deeply the sweet new smell of spring. It will be some time before we can enjoy that.
When spring does arrive this year we will all have different expectations. Hopes. The hope that life will return to normal or at least as near normal as if can be after what will have been at least a year of pestilent disruption. You feel that had Samuel Pepys been alive today he would have been in his element. Bring out your dead.
Can we even remember what spring is all about? Interminable darkness has that effect on the brain. The candle has been lit but it still flickers in an ill wind (I’m on a roll here 🙂 )
This morning is the first working week proper. Last week there were quite a few folk still on holiday and productivity levels were down. Mentally I have prepared myself for invigoration. Energy levels must be high starting the new year. Run don’t walk. Set the year up for success. Whatever your definition of success.
There is no point in planning anything before Easter. We might as well be on Mars, or the moon if that is more convenient. Easier to get to as it is nearer but to all intents and purposes equally remote. I’m expecting things to pick up big time as soon as the end of lockdown is announced. Especially Anne’s Vans campervan bookings.
I’ve been looking at the Caribbean for Spring 2022 but other than a bit of general planning there isn’t much point in firming things up yet. Flight schedules are disrupted and even for later this year they haven’t been published yet.
Other than the three week jaunt to California which is so long ago it feels like something I read in a history book, last year our holiday was a week in wet North Wales. A good time was had but the CV restrictions did impinge on it a little. Things like not being able to stand at the bar and reduced menus. We stayed in Portmeirion for a couple of nights. It felt strange seeing the day visitors stream in at 10am. I think we would like to stay there again. Do the steam railway up to Blaenau Ffestiniog n stuff. This year I sense the already booked trip to Rome in June will not take place. Can’t see the European Football people letting spectators in to watch Italy v Wales which is the purpose of going. We might take a van somewhere in the UK. See how it goes.
In the meantime we await the invitation to be vaccinated. There is a vaccination centre in the hospital social club around the corner from our house and our GP has also been set up for the same. Spoilt for choice as opposed to if we were invited to one of the seven super hubs or whatever they are called. The nearest one for us is at Birmingham’s Millennium Point which is 100 miles and a two hour drive away. If that was the only choice on offer I guess it would have to be hello Brum.
Sand flows through the glass…