I’m going nowhere. I’m riveted to the spot. Well, to England. I won’t even go to Wales because I’ll never remember if I’m allowed to be in a group of eight, indoors, from 3 different bubbles or in a group of 12, outdoors, from 9 different bubbles starting with 6 different letters. Nor do I care. But getting on a plane? Even though its allowed again, naaaaah.

The younger daughter came over in April from Berlin. In ‘normal times’ that would have been a long weekend. But with Germany still very locked down, with the ridiculous cost of testing before and after travel, and with bars open over here, she stayed for 5 weeks. Booked to return last Friday, on the 8.30 morning flight.

At 5.30 Thursday evening she received a text from NHS England offering her a vaccine. On Sunday. Hmmmmm.

She’s desperate for a vaccination. Travels a lot. Normally. And lives in Germany. Where you have more chance of getting eaten by a polar bear than getting vaccinated. So we decided to take the jab, change the flight. And BA, who always state, ‘flights can be cancelled up to 24 hours before departure’, were called. As it was an ‘air miles’ flight, plus 50p (that was the honest cost), we figured it a small sacrifice. We’re not currently short of air miles. Yet 12 hours before the departure time, the wonderful dude at BA just said, ‘naaaah, don’t worry, we’ll just change it to Monday, no problem’, and did so. No charge, no more air miles, no hassle. When does that happen?

So, several more tests later (the one she took Wednesday was obviously going to be outside its ‘48-hour’ window), she pitched up at Heathrow. And queues. Because Monday, yesterday, was day 1 of being allowed to travel to up to… errrr…, well up to 1 country (Portugal) which is safe to visit. And it was chaos. Queues to check test results (covid bollocks), hassle about visas (Brexit bollocks), plus all the usual airport bollocks which can always leave the most stoic suicidal. But in masks.

So I shall wait til October. When we’re booked to go to… Israel. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx