Covid Christmas

Such high hopes for Christmas 2021 - really wanted to make it special for Etta, and spend it with friends and family in the UK for the first time in years.

The last 2 years have been spent in the Bajan sun, first with Aunty Chuck, and then with Uncle Bill.
The year before that, Etta's first, we had planned to spend a lot of it at home, but then all got sick anyway.

Couldn't happen again could it? Yes there is a new variant of Covid, but we're double vaccinated. And we even managed to get a booster in good time before flying.

To get all the testing done, paperwork together, persuade Etta this was all a good idea AND encourage her to wear a mask for hours - we were winning.

It was cold, but we made it. Good to see people, albeit with a lot of people exercising caution in the Covid cloud.

We managed delicious fish and chips on the Eastbourne seafront, drove for hours to enjoy a London curry with friends - ticking off British milestones.
Bangers and mash anyone? Etta very confused about Full English Breakfasts, adamant that they are actually dinner. And maybe they are.

Big day to come, theatre trip with the Trzs - Mary Poppins, Christmas Lights, mulled wine.
Lateral flow before we get on the train, better safe than sorry, until Jen tests positive and all plans change.........

So Jen missed out, but we still managed to make a bit of magic for our little girl, and spend some time with friends and family.

All credit and thanks to Paul, Hannah & Bea Tinton who let us hide out and housesit while they were roughing it on the ski slopes of France.
Should have been enough time for Jen to recover and then we could all spend the rest of the trip doing fun things together.
Until Etta and I started coughing. And a PCR test pre our Wales NYE trip confirmed the worst. More isolation. Great.

Noticeably fewer photos of people on this blog, partly because we spent the majority of the time on the sofa watching movies.
But also because Test and Trace are probably still monitoring.
Don't know why, some people just refuse to get infected (see Mike and Akhil at the top).

Jen and Etta managed to fly out slightly later than intended, after a bizarre couple of nights in a hotel by Heathrow.
I managed to escape after a raft of expensive tests and documents, back in time to prep apartments for guests. Full house at Three Palms for the first time.

So not the trip we intended, but we got to see some of the people that mean a lot to us.
And one day we'll look back and laugh. But not yet. Not for a long time.