We're not going on a summer holiday

 

SORRY CLIFF, YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE SONG

"We're all going on a summer holiday" sang Cliff Richard in '63.  It wasn't a song to play in 2020.  But was that really so awful?  The idea of the annual holiday away is, in historical terms, a very recent phenomenon

I admit we were lucky, having been able to make trips to Dublin and London, and three times through to Glasgow, for music gigs in January and February.  So I can count those pre lockdown excursions across the city boundary on the fingers of one hand.  And, on the other hand, I can do the same for the rest of the year.  Two of those were brief crossings into East Lothian, when I was practising for Kiltwalk.  Another two went in the other,  a mile or so into West Lothian, to pick fruit on a farm.  And the last one?  That was our summer holiday.

In mid September, on Barbara's birthday, we gave the car a rare outing and headed off to Dunbar - a massive distance of 30 miles...  The sun shone upon us, the sky stayed universally blue, and social distancing was observed by all.  We ate high tea in a courtyard, walked along the harbour, watched the waves hitting the seawall, enjoying the simple pleasure of not being where we were the rest of the time.  Then we drove to North Berwick, sat atop the headland looking out to sea and reading our books.  And home again.

Do I feel short changed?  Not at all.  It was a glorious day, enjoyable for the most obvious of reasons, and as much a provider of fond memories as Lisbon or Rome would have done.  

Nor do I feel hard done by being restricted not just to the city, but to my own locale much of the time.  There's been time to notice new things, explore previously ignored side streets, enjoy this place in a way I might not have done before.  (OK, it helps to be living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world...)  

I sometimes feel bad about thinking this way, and am cognisant of the dangers of sounding smug, because so many people have had such a terrible time in 2020, and that situation looks like continuing deep into the new year.  But if you're fortunate enough not to have been hit by the health and financial and stress problems that the pandemic has dumped on society, then it isn't that hard to adjust your mental horizons to feel no sense of loss at the lack of any new physical ones.  We humans are adaptable creatures after all, it's what makes us such evolutionary successes.   In challenging times we can find surprising ways to meet the challenge.