November - quarantine then lockdown.

We spent half the time driving back from Italy regretting our decision to head home. Other people were blogging from sunny Spain, posting gorgeous pictures of empty beaches on the Costa de Luz in scintillating light while we trundled northwards across the monotonous plains of northern France, dull and foggy. In the event our decision was probably sensible. Since we got back three weeks ago the virus has exploded exponentially in France and Italy. Today the BBC reported two more Italian regions were now designated 'red zones'.

Campania and Tuscany will join other regions placed under the strictest lockdown measures from Sunday. Authorities in Campania, which includes Naples, have warned that the health system there is close to collapse.

We probably over-planned for our two week quarantine Our anxiety about running out of food proved ill founded. Little wonder given that our daughter took a weekend break in Buxton a few days before we returned and bought us some essentials. Then we spent £264 in Auchun before we crossed the channel. True, most of it was liquid, but we also took the opportunity to buy fruit and veg as well. The Tesco shop pre-ordered on-line in Italy duly arrived half way through our Covid purdah. By the time two weeks had elapsed and we were allowed to go to Morrisons we only needed a basket shop, the fridge was still full of all the stuff we had overbought previously 

Morrisons, the most  exciting thing in our lives right now. In terms of getting out and about that's it for the next three weeks. At the end of week one of quarantine Boris popped up to announce the month long national lockdown. 

I  spent our two week quarantine ordering hundreds of pounds worth of timber and ironmongery in preparation for my late autumn project - to build a deck to link our new dining room to the garden. It was all a bit stressful, so easy to make an expensive mistake. When the truck from the local builders merchant arrived and the pile of wood almost filled the drive it became clear that cutting the timber by hand was not really an option. I celebrated my right to roam by heading off to B&Q to buy an industrial sized drill bit capable of making neat 12mm holes in concrete slabs. Then I found a deal on portable circular saws at Wickes - so I ordered one of those too. Though trapped Buxton, in between the usual Pennine showers we have managed to occupy ourselves.. 

The plan...

the foundations...

the frame..

boards in place...

view through the bifolds...

I am pleased with the result. Lengthways the deck is only 2cm.different to the drawing on Excel and the width within 5mm.   It's square and perfectly level . If I was on Master Chef or Strictly I might assert that I had .nailed it'. This would be wholly unfair to my trusty assistant. Gill did most of the hammering while I concentrated on drilling, sawing and swearing. It has kept us occupied for a couple of weeks during  lockdown, though progress has been slowed by shower dodging. 'Is November always this wet?' we asked ourselves. Facebook keeps telling me our recent ones were bright and sunny, plucking random photos from Seville, Cadiz, Costa de Luz, and on this day five years ago - Syracuse. 

So far as future travel plans are concerned we have had many, in rapid succession. When national lockdown was announced we became disconsolate, concluding all forays abroad this winter would be impossible. I figured we might manage a few mid-week trips in the UK over the winter months using the Caravan and Motorhome club sites. I found all year sites in Cumbria, Yorkshire, Somerset, the Cotswolds and Dorset - all near easy footpaths or cycleways. There are aspects of the club sites that annoy me, but they are reliable and in these strange times are probably safer than others. No sooner had we decided we were going to make a concerted effort to use the van in the UK over the coming months when virus infections rocketed here and Boris popped up to announce another lockdown. All sites closed.

Undeterred, inspired by  doughty folk posting images of blue skies and uncrowded Spanish beaches  to the moho Facegroup site that Gill lurks on, I began to think, well, what exactly is stopping us going back to Spain early next year? Insurance? Demise of  the Ehic card?  I swapped our annual multi-trip cover to Staysure who were offering 15 months cover for the cost of a year and had an optional add-on that covered you  for countries currently listed as 'high risk areas' by the Foreign Office. At great expense I booked a crossing from Portsmouth to Santander for 19th January - we will defy the odds and get our annual dose of vitamin D by exchanging grey Pennine skies for the blue of Andalucia...

For two days I felt suitably smug. Then Gill picked up a short piece on the English language edition of 'El Pais' mentioning that Spain was planning to demand evidence of a a negative Covid test taken within the last 72 hours for all arrivals by air or sea. Few days later advice on the Foreign Office site confirmed the new arrangements. It makes travel to Spain from the UK impossible if you live more than am an hour or two's drive from the Portsmouth or Plymouth. The crossing takes 30 hours, the ferry departs at dawn which involves an overnight stay at the docks and a five hour drive the previous evening. There is no way you could arrange a private test and have the results returned to you  within that timeframe. Thankfully we had booked the standard Brittany Ferries ticket not the budget one; we can re-arrange the crossing anytime during 2021 without incurring further charges, maybe delaying it to late December next year using it as the outward departure for 2022's winter trip to Iberia.

Still we clung on to the idea that we could travel in January. France does allow 'transit through the country ny road' as one of the exceptions to their lockdown. I plotted a swift drive from Calais to Biarritz using Camping Car Park aires. They are pre-bookable on-line, involve no human contact whatsoever, so as Covid-safe as  possible. 

Finally some good news - an ant-Covid vaccine with a planned roll-out over the next few months - all vulnerable groups to get the jab by next Easter, Matt Hancock announced. We are in the final phase of the roll-out, after over 80s, health and social care workers and the 70+ have been vaccinated.   Another conversation ensues. Maybe we should delay any foreign trips until we are vaccinated. A counter argument - we are at a greater a risk of catching covid here as in the more remote spots in Spain and Portugal we had planned to visit, perhaps we should head south in late December, returning early in the latter part of February, that way we get a vitamin C sunshine boost, arriving back before it is our turn to be vaccinated. 

Of course the thing to do in times of uncertainty is to 'take one day at a time' and not fret over things that you can't control. I know that is what measured, sensible people would do, sadly I am not one of them. I don't think I am the classic 'control freak', more an inveterate planner and risk assessor. I think I am driven not by a need to control events but by anxieties about the unforseen. Given that life is essentially unpredictable the inevitable result is a state of constant low level anxiety. No wonder i am on medication for hypertension! 

November draws to a close. On a positive note, human ingenuity is proffering a way out of our malaise, that at least is something to celebrate.

Two hours later.... All change again, Boris's 'Winter Covid Plan' hits the media. Most of the north of England is placed in tier 3, including all of Derbyshire. Effectively all non-essential travel beyond the county boundaries is banned. For all our scheming and planning right now we are in a local lockdown for the foreseeable future. Stoke-on-Trent and Stockport as exotic far-off destinations as Seville or Salamanca.

 I feel depressed.