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AS this strange spring, with its beautiful weather and its global lockdown stretches towards the summer, what is it that you’ve missed most of all? For me, it’s no question. It’s the shops. And so the news that Fortnum & Mason has reopened its food hall sent the spirits soaring higher than a Nasa rocket. Go there? Just try to stop me!

For 10 weeks now, this particular shopaholic has been going cold turkey and hating every minute of it.Yes, there have been groceries and a series of grey T-shirts which for some reason I kept buying on eBay, but a real, live luxury store?

I love Fortnum & Mason. I have been going regularly since I moved to London more than 30 years ago. And its food hall is, if anything, more famous than Harrods. Its luxury hampers are sent out all over the world. Its teas are famous, as are its gourmet food items in the trademark Fortnum’s eau de Nil packaging.

If shopping were an Olympic sport, I’d be a gold medallist, and probably a multiple winner at that. So this expedition is to be taken seriously, starting with my choice of clothing: a blue Pucci shirt matches my face mask.Very tight white Ralph Lauren jeans bought in Dubrovnik last year, as an homage to when we could still travel, and yes I can still get into them. Shoes by Manolo Blahnik. It’s the first time I’ve dressed up in months. Fire up the Uber!

The streets of central London are still eerily quiet but excitement mounts as we approach the grand old lady of Piccadilly, which has been here since 1707, when it was founded by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason.

And as we approach, I can see that the Fortnum’s doormen and women are standing outside in their famous red coats, but this time they are wearing face masks. I am greeted, both outside and inside the shop, as a long lost friend.

FORTNUM’S staff have always been the epitome of professionalism and helpfulness but now it’s taken to another level. Inside the shop, they are wearing natty Fortnum’s suits and, again, face masks. The food hall is indeed open, on both the basement and the ground floor, but what is this?

I spy the doors leading to the stairs to the first floor… and they are open. I love the first floor of Fortnum & Mason. If you could bottle up luxury, that is what you would have.

Scarcely daring to hope, I creep up the stairs – and there it is! The first floor houses the most beautiful china and glasses, candles, luxury stationery, possibly the most glamorous kitchenware in the world, and it’s all here, waiting for me to buy it.

There are also foodstuffs, including hampers, teas and coffees, which is why the floor was allowed to open, as it did for the first time last week. I feel much as the Spanish conquistadors would have done had they ever discovered El Dorado.

Forget queuing at the supermarket for a measly bag of onions. This is the real life. It’s not called retail therapy for nothing. Be still my beating heart. “Can I actually buy these things?” I ask the masked shop assistant. “Yes!” she says, looking thrilled.

She seems almost as excited as I am. It has been a very odd time, she says, and I would guess that there were about five shop assistants per actual customer.

This must be how Royalty celebrities shop. The store is so browse at leisure.

“Enjoy it while you can,” cautions my lovely assistant.

There are signs on the floor signalling the two-metre distance. It’s easy today, with so few people but when the shop reopens properly, it might be a different story.

I browse the merchandise, gloat over the unbelievably gorgeous Mackenzie-Childs tableware, the Alice in Wonderland china, the tea-for-one teapots, the cake stands…

There are masks here, too, though they look more suitable for Venetian carnivals than fighting off germs, in their animal shapes and ostentatious and quiet

CHAMPAGNE LIFESTYLE: Virginia is in her element and, right, Fortnum’s staff with masks and visors

A-list I can styling (hint: and they don’t come cheap) – and what’s this I see? Champagne! I want to move in here. I don’t want to go home.

I stock up on a few necessaries and then proceed down to the food hall. There are chocolate and sweet treats in abundance on the ground floor and then it’s down to the basement for groceries, fish, meat and cheese. Fortnum’s has started selling takeaway food again, too, which in this case means beef wellington and exceedingly exotic-looking salads.

There’s pasta cooking, as well, and despite the face mask, I can smell the truffles. What a veritable joy it is to be alive.

But how is this brave new world of shopping really going to look? All