Let’s do this together

“Part of being a grown-up is that every day you have to choose between going out at night or staying home, and it is one of life’s unhappy truths that there is not enough time to do both,” said the late, great Nora Ephron.

When in doubt, I turn to screenwriter Nora, who is my patron saint of quotes. She wrote some of the best known 80s rom-coms such as Sleepless in Seattle, but she was also wise about everything, from divorce (unlike love, it lasts a lifetime) to life with teenagers (get a dog so that someone at least in the house is happy to see you).

But her advice on having to find time to go out is particularly relevant now, especially when we’ve been inside for the best part of a year.

Trouble is, after going out a few times, and trying to have “fun”, I’ve now decided it’s not as much fun as I remembered.

Plus it takes so much effort to arrange – from the rucksack of extra clothing (when it rains, gales and sunshines all in the space of the same 10 minutes) to the booking-in process and the scanning of QR codes (which I still don’t fully understand).

Putting out restaurant tables and chairs in the streets may look very continental in this country, but we have to face facts, we can only do Mediterranean living for two months of the year. The rest of the time we need to stay inside and make soup.

After filling my “roadmap out of lockdown” diary with a social whirl, I’ve suddenly developed a bad case of staying-inside-itis, and my whirl has become more of a sedate walk, because I preferred it when I just met mates for a wander with the dog.

When you think about it, walking is the perfect event for socialising – you get properly dressed for the weather rather than prancing around in a pair of crippling heels, nobody has more than an hour’s worth of interesting chat in them anyway, and you get fit… rather than fat on hangover carbs to cure your tiredness the next day.

Anyone for a walk? I’ll get my coat…

PS, thank you to those who wrote asking after his pug-ship’s health. The large daily dose of steroids is making Boris sleepy and a bit withdrawn, but it’s only for 10 days until his big op next Monday, so he’s also giving me a good excuse to stay in for cuddles on the sofa. And no, we don’t have any “keep furniture nice” rules – otherwise I’d have had to ban The Dark Lord years ago.

■ Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.