Here comes the fun.. but be sensible

IT’S been a long time coming but from tomorrow life will start a slow return to normal.

As the clocks go forward – hope you remembered that – and the evenings get brighter, it is already beginning to feel like the dawning of a new age of freedom.

It’s an exultant sense of joy which holds the promise of a hedonistic summer, with a mood echoing the Swinging Sixties and the Roaring Twenties.

Our “prison doors” will be flung open and outdoor gatherings will be allowed, although still with social distancing rules.

Hopes

Tennis courts, open-air swimming pools and golf courses will be reopening, and outdoor amateur sports like footie which underpin so much of our intertwined neighbourhoods can get back under way.

It’s only a first step – pubs, bars and restaurants will stay closed, for now, and jetting off to the sun remains a no-no.

But it’s a start that will raise the spirits and hopes of the nation after a year of on-off lockdown which has tested our endurance – not least that of the pandemic heroes in the NHS.

It is a time for fun and we deserve to enjoy it as much as possible. But it’s also a time for caution and responsibility.

Many countries in Europe are on the cusp of a third wave, virus variants are causing concern.

After all the sacrifice we have made, let’s not throw it all away by tearing up the remaining rules with reckless abandon.

So have fun – but be careful out there. It’s not all over yet.