So where had you planned to go on holiday this year?

Don’t give up on your thwarted travel plans – times are tough but persistence might just pay off, writes Laura Fowler

At a Rule-of-Six dinner just before lockdown, my father listed all the holidays he and my mum haven’t been on this year. First there was Jersey in March, cancelled because Jet2 stopped flying there. Then they booked Madeira – cancelled because the tour operator went bust. Ditto Santorini – you can see where this is going. I’ll cut to the chase: seven holidays booked this year – all cancelled, cancelled, cancelled. Seven!

As he talked, I tried to concentrate and make sympathetic noises in the appropriate places , but it was hard because what I was really thinking was MAYBE JUST STOP BOOKING HOLIDAYS! Of course they keep getting cancelled – there’s a pandemic on! Why this insistence on getting away for the sake of a Greek salad beside the sea? Just sit tight and do the garden until it’s all blown over!

My parents aren’t the only ones. Thwarted travel is a trending topic of conversation. My hairdresser, at an inter-lockdown appointment, asked if I had been hoping to get away anywhere nice this year. Outside the school gates, parents are discussing where they didn’t go in half term. Friends share tales of risibly bad timing and much-scuppered plans for milestone birthday celebrations abroad. (Here’s a tip: spouting on about your well-timed break to some Mediterranean coast won’t win you any friends.)

Indeed, there is little else to talk about, in terms of travel. In the current climate, the only certainty is that you will not be going on holiday right now.

As my father worked his way through the list, I began to admire these septuagenarians’ dogged determination to see the world, come what may.

In the end, their persistence paid off. They made it to Crete just before second

My hairdresser asked if I’d been hoping to get away anywhere nice this year

lockdown. A small triumph of hope over Covid-19.

“Worth the wait!” they wrote on a WhatsApp postcard, picturing blue skies and red wine and Greek salad by the sea.

That’s the thing – it always is. So if at first you don’t make it, rebook, rebook, and rebook again. It will be worth the wait.