The tropical balm before the storm

his was supposed to be a piece about spending Christmas and New Year on the beach. But as the sixth week of lockdown looms, and the notion of spending this Christmas anywhere other than your front room seems fanciful, such a piece didn’t feel appropriate. So instead, I want to write about the trip of a lifetime I took with my family last December, a trip I am endlessly grateful we were able to go on before borders shut and life changed forever.

It seems unfathomable that as we swam in the sea watching the sun set over the first day of 2020, full of hopes and lofty dreams for the new decade, that about 1,800 miles north-east, a catastrophe of epic proportions was unfolding. I remember paddling in the waves as the sun sank, discussing with my husband the madness of the past 10 years – the seemingly endless elections and the upheaval of Brexit – before announcing that I hoped the next decade would be “more gentle on us. A bit slower.” I could weep for that kind of innocence now, as I think about the friends we made in Phuket who are now locked in their houses, unable even to go out and buy water without being fined by police.

The beautiful hotel we stayed at, the Anantara Mai Khao, is closed, the wonderful staff now unsure of their futures because who, honestly, is thinking about booking a holiday to Thailand right now? I want to build a time machine back to the end of last year and stay there, eating big juicy lobsters and getting my body pummelled by an incredible Thai massage therapist called Posh, who would joke that while she had much in common with her Spice

Girl namesake, sadly she wasn’t married to David Beckham.

At Anantara Mai Khao, every room is essentially its own villa, complete with pool. Ours looked

A private pool villa at the Anantara Mai Khao costs from £300 a night (anantara.com/en/ mai-khao-phuket). The resort is temporarily closed.