So we've decided to return to Europe after going home for a month. The daughter has gotten into Heidelberg Uni, her partner will be studying in France and I will live like a gypsy for a while longer. We have it all planned but the world as we knew it will suddenly change and the doors will start to bang shut in the sudden uptake of wind that is Covid. But we don't know this yet.
We arrive home and catch up with friends, we go out for dinners, dine at people's houses and live life the way we have always lived it. Strange to think of it now, writing this from across the time wave of 2022. I had a pre-sixtieth cocktail party with a crowd of people; we went to a Mardi Gras party, visited friends in Canberra and had a huge full moon event with our witches.
When I was in Venice, a girl from Hong Kong messaged me about the room that was being vacated. I hesitated as this Covid virus seemed to have an epicentre in China but she said her and her family had been wearing masks and hadn't left their home for a month. It should have dawned on me then that this was more than a flu virus but even though I thought twice about taking her on, I merrily went on my way and told her to come.
She arrived a week after we returned in a cloud of disinfectant and with a box of masks, and still it didn't fully sink in. Another girl also moved in as another tenant left and I had to worry about her as her boyfriend's mother had just returned from Beijing.
And then we started hearing about the deaths in Milan and the spread of Coronavirus in Italy and other countries. We talked about what we should do, we decided to leave but not go straight to Italy as I didn't want to put my sister-in-law, a heavy smoker, in danger. We were sure it would blow over in a month or so. My daughter was going to meet her partner in France, I decided to go straight to London which is where I was going to after Italy.
In between all this, I had some medical tests done to make sure all was well for the trip and one of the samples came back with an issue so that had to be dealt with. Things started to unravel, especially when the results came through negative only two days before I was due to leave.
But being the determined woman I am, I re-packed my bags, left me house in the loving hands of my friends and made it to the airport and then just inside customs I realised I still had the car and house keys and luckily they allowed me go back out with an escort to give them to my sister who had gone for a coffee rather than leaving the airport. By then I was extremely anxious. Of course, I was summoned over to have my bags searched and dusted for drugs, as per usual. I couldn't wait to get onto the plane and have my first drink, only to remember that Qatar handed out drinks after you had your meal! I was also placed between two lovely men, an architect from Sicily and an Aussie returning to work in London. I had to tell them that due to the fact that I was nervous from the key episode and from the Covid issue, that I'd have to frequent the toilet. They were so lovely and I took it in turns to exit from both sides so they weren't too inconvenienced. The perks of being almost 60, I would have been so embarassed to discuss the situation when I was young, especially with men.
I finally arrive exhausted to London at the ungodly hour of 6.30 am and my room won't be ready until 3! I drop off my bags and walk through a beautiful wintry park and decide to hang out at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's stunning and I wake briefly from my exhaustion.
Then I collapse into a cafe for caffeine purposes and I receive a free biscuit. London so far has been welcoming. Then I go to a pub for lunch and order a stuffed potato which takes so long that they come and apologise and say I can have anything off the menu, whatever price! I choose the warm brie with cranberries, nuts and fresh bread. Bolstered I wander next to Harrods, take a few snaps but I'm too tired to appreciate the beauty of this place, I'll have to return.
I go for another cafe stop (because it's still only 2 pm), to a pink confection of a cafe, smothered in flowers and pink and run by beautiful Russian blondes, male and female, loaded down with thick gold jewellery and I have an expensive but glorious Macaron.
Next day, after a decent sleep, I'm off to Camden Market by bus. A pick me up good coffee and a wander through but it's so quiet and a lot of shops haven't opened so I head back to Liberty which is always glorious. Sadly, I can't afford anything but window shopping is enough. I then get an Uber to Leadenhall which is on the Instagram hit list but it's under renovation.
Then I walk forever thinking I'm heading in the right direction but then double back thinking I'm not but it's worth the walk because the modern buildings in London are amazing. Then I decide to get an Uber home as it's now raining and he heads back the way I was going! Need to use Google maps more. He's Romanian and left in the midst of the communist conversion because it was too hard and he was left with nothing so he worked his way through Europe cleaning shoes, sleeping in hay barns, stealing vegetables from gardens and then made it to London, married and adopted three Romanian children and made a life here and is very happy with his lot.
After that I find a pub near my hotel, the pubs here are so beautiful! The food good, reasonably cheap. I fuel up for tomorrow's trip to Cambridge.
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