I’m wishing for a new year like the ones we used to know!

IT is a fair few years since I wrote the first “Old Codger” column and I was trying to count how many Christmas Days have passed by since then. It was certainly long before anyone in the world had heard of an epidemic called Covid-19, and my life has moved on quite a bit since then.

We all have a lot of new words in the English vocabulary that are now in common use – and are likely to remain in use for many years to come unless the BBC start to remove them.

Pandemic is a word that was strange to me, but I have been told it is not that new. For around 100 years now, we have all had to cope with outbreaks of influenza, commonly called the flu. It has managed to kill a few people over the years and still does, although I think the Covid pandemic will become the major problem that we will now have to live with each winter. Next year, maybe we will find that we are offered a combined flu and Covid injection in the autumn!

Covid has changed the Christmas celebrations that senior management and I have always enjoyed over the 55 years since we married. (Those were the days when it was considered normal to get married before living together!). For the early times after we got married we either went to one or other of our parents for Christmas Day until we had the children and then grandparents came to us for the day.

Senior management was the prime cook for Christmas Day and arguably still is, as Christmas 2020 saw us in lockdown and dining on our own, and this year we decided to avoid any risks by again spending Christmas Day without our families joining in. I dread to accept that next year in all probability will be the same again.

We are now stuck with the expectation that this pandemic may well be no different than the flu and will be with us for many years.

However, I personally believe we will have to learn to live with it as we do the flu and thereafter get our injections before getting on and enjoying the festive times without any panics.

By next year I am hoping the Government will have developed a proper strategy to handle the Covid virus. Once we get used to the word “strategy”, we can again get used to the term “road map” for when we go forth in our car. We can also abandon the word “jab” and return to the correct English word of “vaccination” for the administration of whatever medication it is decided can best control the virus.

As far as my wish for the new year, I have a number. The last few words told you I wanted to see a return to proper English when we discuss this virus in the future. If that is beyond Boris then maybe it is time we changed to a more adult Prime Minister! My second wish is that all children can return in the new year to full time education in the classroom and can stay there until they have all completed their exams in the summer.

I also wish for the air routes to fully open up so families can again enjoy their holidays in the warmer climates. But most of all I shall wish all those reading this column a very happy and safe new year so you can spend all the time you want with your families.

Finally, I will share my wish that this is the last time this dreadful virus will disrupt the festive season because we will otherwise soon have children growing up who have never seen a normal family Christmas just like those I and my children have had for many years.

Happy new year to you all.

I dread to accept that next year in all probability will be the same again.