All the fun of the fair!
Two unusual and exciting things have happened to me this week.
The first thing that happened was my self-catering holiday. You
are allowed that in the new COVID easing of rules. However, everyone must have
had the same idea because there were queues on the motorway over to the
seaside.
People who have been shielding can go out now, but we must
take extra care. I did not go in the shops or walk on the prom or even go on
the temptingly sandy beach. I did not stand in the fish and chip queue, where people
spread out, leaning against the wall prodding their mobiles, until it was their
turn. I did not sit outside the unisex hairdressers on jaunty red plastic seats
alongside the people, with unruly hair, hoping for miracles. My hair is still
waiting for that transformation after the cruel cut of the kitchen scissors. I
did not join queues here.
Instead, I watched the fun fair with its blow-up bouncy
castle and jolly roundabouts hoping to tempt ‘treat starved’ children. And I went
on a cliff top walk. The first in over a year.
I wore my mask even though I was outside. I saw people going
along the well-worn track, we were all off to see the seabirds nesting on the
rocky cliff ledges. I gazed at the white and black gannets with eyes as blue as
the sky. They flew over the sea, keeping together in arrow lines, to their
precarious nests of seaweed. I heard the screaming gulls and smelt the fishy
smell of their busy lives.
But just as my mask was misting up my glasses, in the evening
light, I saw a white shadow over the fields. It was a barn owl hawking for
food. I wanted to watch this mysterious bird. Finally, I took my mask off, we
were in the open after all and no one was nearby. I was just in time to see the
owl clearly, with its own mask-like face, swooping west into the evening sun.
On our way back we saw people sitting outside pubs at picnic
tables, their coats zipped and hoods up. Not ideal, but they looked to be
enjoying themselves all the same. There were lights on in socially distanced
caravans occupied for the first time in three months.
I came back after a few days because I had an important
appointment and that was my second exciting event. My follow-up jab.
This was the day I had been waiting for in a virtual vaccination
queue for three months. Hand gel, mask on and then straight to the cubicle for
my injection – and perhaps more freedom?
(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)
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