Holiday’s were never a luxury in our household, more like a necessity. When we were younger I can remember Mum & Dad packing all three kids (plus luggage) into the back of the little yellow mini we had at the time, to drive to see my Grandparents in Switzerland. To save money (and a few grey hairs) we would stop off in Germany – no fancy hotels – just a tent!
Selling holidays was a natural step for me and I sold cottages and villa’s for many years (pressing that sunshine button) and my last job was working for my favourite airline – Jet2!
Covid changed everything for the holiday industry, can we go, where can we go, what do we do when we get there and God forbid what happens if everything changes mid way through.
Slowly but surely planes are taking to the sky again and last week I was one of those passengers. Still not easy and things did go wrong – not for me but for my friend Liesl when the NHS app was not updated with both her vaccines and she was not allowed on the flight.
Things were resolved (in a fashion) but not until the following day. But the one thing you can be sure of when you leave a cold Leeds Bradford Airport is that when you arrive at the airport in Fuerteventura on an October afternoon the heat will invariably hit you and continue for most of the week.
And that’s what most of us want – to be taken away from the normality of life just for a short while.
My treatment is a 3 week cycle with one week off and after landing I will have my bloods taken Wednesday (today) at the hospital with meds and injections Thursday – even though I can’t say that I felt 100% most of the time with aches and pains and general lethargy I ate well, had a few cocktails and even went on a boat trip – that reminded me that I probably don’t have the sea legs I once had!
Masks and sanitiser are the norm abroad, much more so than the UK as they don’t seem to be up to our vaccine programme so are much more cautious. It’s also sad that when strolling about bars and restaurants which would once be full of people are quiet with some closed altogether. A reminder that while Staycation is great for our economy if we don’t get back to overseas travel many more businesses will suffer.
On a lighter note I finished my Channel Challenge of 21 miles – had 3 days to do 2 1/2 miles and did it quite easily, residents of the hotel were suitably impressed when I was first in the pool every morning to do my laps – that stopped once the challenge finished.
So where next?
Have a few things planned. A fish and chip supper along the Leeds Liverpool Canal with Mum on Friday, a meet up with friends in the Peak District at the end of October and Scotland with more friends to see Steps in Concert in November.
My advise for anyone. Just do it.
**** Blog written 12.10.21 at 17.04 on the plane coming home ****
canmollyrun 