Freedom Day

Monday 19th July is “Freedom Day” for us Brits as the final (?) Covid restrictions are lifted so we can return to “normal” once again.
 
OK, not quite all restrictions; there are still plenty of confusing rules about foreign travel and what you need to do in terms of testing and self-isolation, but aside from that, the rules are being lifted.
 
I put ‘normal’ in quotes because what is normal for me may not be normal for you and vice versa. That’s the problem with normal – it isn’t normal for everyone. And with some confusion around what we should be doing, what we can legally do and what the government is advising us to do it is likely that there are going to be many versions of ‘normal’.

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I’m not going to comment on the wisdom of the decision to lift restrictions as I’m not an expert in virology or the management of pandemics. I understand the arguments for and against, but that doesn’t mean I’m best placed to judge whatever decisions have been reached.
 
I know there are economic benefits to be gained from the decision and I know there are health risks. I’m a big boy now and capable of managing the risks for myself, so I don’t need the government to treat me like a baby and tell me what to do all the time. If I don’t know by now what sensible behaviour is in relation to this virus, then it’s unlikely that I ever will.
 
But I also wish that the same could be said of everyone.

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But this moment provides an opportunity to reflect on how my life has been affected over the past 18 months and how it has changed – if at all.
 
It is a strange thing about humans, but as soon as you tell us we can’t do something, we all want to do that very thing.
 
I have had conversations with people who complained about not being allowed to go to a pub, knowing full well that they hadn’t set foot inside a pub for years. The same applied to people who hadn’t set foot inside a gym for years (if ever) as well. When I explained to one acquaintance that it was possible to exercise in your own home, I was told it wasn’t the same as there was no one there to motivate you.

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I have no idea what gyms she went to (none I suspect), but I have never been to a gym where anyone ever came along and tried to motivate me.

​If you attend classes with a fitness trainer at the front, that is different. But if you go to a gym just to use the equipment then you are very much on your own, motivation-wise. Personally, I found Joe Wicks quite capable of motivating me while I remained in my own living room.
 
In terms of my own life, very little changed.
 
I’m an author. I spend hours everyday in my office (my wife calls it the ‘front bedroom’) tapping away on a keyboard. That didn’t change. I also spend a lot of time reading, for pleasure and for research. That also didn’t change. I am also a publisher, so I spend a lot of time reading and editing the work of other authors and marketing our books. That, too, didn’t change.

So, on 19th July, a lot of my life isn’t going to change back to what it was before, because it didn’t change when the pandemic started anyway.

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I realise that I’m not typical of the great British public. Many people’s lives changed in big ways during the pandemic and they will continue to feel the impact of those changes for a long time after the 19th.

​For some it provided opportunities, for others it imposed restrictions. For some it provided a stimulus for change and for others it placed them in a sort of prison and for some it meant the tragic loss of a loved one. We all live different lives and, consequently, we were all affected in different ways.
 
There were things I missed in my life. There were the big, family things, like not being able to visit my family and see my grandchildren. Some were able to come and stand outside the front door while we exchanged news, but you would hardly call that a ‘family get-together’. It has made me more determined to see them more frequently. I’m not sure if that is good news for them or not.
 
I missed not being able to play golf for several months at a stretch. I’m not a very good golfer, but it forms an important part of my social life. Not being able to go around a golf course and enjoy the sort of chit-chat that golfers indulge in left a bigger hole in my life than I expected. Even on the wet, cold days, when I wouldn’t normally have played, I found myself staring wistfully out of the window wishing I could go out and play a few holes in good company.

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I missed not being able to go to watch my local rugby team play. For 8 months of the year my weekends are dominated by the sport and not being able to go along to Franklins Gardens to watch Northampton Saints play was, perhaps, the largest inconvenience after not being able to see my family.

​It was even worse when the clubs weren’t even allowed to play the sport and we had to make do with watching re-runs of previous seasons’ games on YouTube.
 
Sport actually forced a change in my behaviour. When the rugby re-started, but fans couldn’t attend matches, I finally bit the bullet and took out a subscription with a streaming service so that I could follow my team’s progress live on TV.
 
Having done that, I had to get value for my money, so I watched a whole load of other matches being contested by rival clubs. So I’m now watching far more rugby than ever before. Well, not at the moment because the club season has ended, but I’ll be maintaining my subscription for the new season so my weekends will now be even more dominated by rugby.

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Last year we had to cancel three holidays, one to Prague, one to Spain and one to Croatia. Only one of those was I really disappointed about, because the Spain trip was to visit my sister, who lives there. I don’t see a great deal of her because of the distance, so to have that taken away was a bit emotional.
 
But the other two trips I felt no sense of loss over. They were for pleasure – a nice break from routine – but they held no emotional context so there was no sense of loss. We’ll head off there at some point, when we get around to it, but this year we’re actually booked to go somewhere else and hopefully we’ll be allowed to do so. But if we aren’t, it won’t be a tragedy.

​Besides, even if we have to self-isolate on our return, that won't be a big deal (see above for reasons why).

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To the outsider, perhaps to you, it may make you think that my life is boring. Well, for you it may be, but for me it has all I want and need. I am a man of simple pleasures.
 
I have my work, I can see my family, I can play golf and I will be able to watch rugby when the new season starts. My health is pretty good (for my age) and I’ve had both my jabs, so I’m quite well protected against Covid unless a jab resistant variant turns up (which is a possibility). All being well we will be able to travel abroad this year. I don’t need anything more than that. Not really.

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