Not just new normal, but a better one

ON the long and winding road back to Normalton, I took a happy step to a favourite watering hole.

It’s almost four months since I set foot in Skipton Working Men’s Club, a home from home seven miles away. Its big picture windows have a magnificent view of the Yorkshire Dales, or part of it – the windtunnel that masquerades as a bus station.

From the comfort of the club you can see the bus on which you should be going home departing and think of your excuse for missing it.

There are changes, seating only,

HAPPY Our Paul enjoys a bitter no standing at the bar. And notices ask you to avoid shouting, singing and unnecessary contact.

You must sign in with your name and phone number. I see no Michael and Minnie Mouse, or E Presley. People are taking this lockdown emergence business seriously.

But who wouldn’t for John Smith’s Smooth at £2.45 a pint?

The High Street is closed to traffic on three market days, restoring the event to its traditional style, with stalls looking out into the road not on to the overcrowded pavements.

The tourists are back, mostly, but I notice fewer white hairs and bald heads on the 66 bus from Keighley.

“We’ll never go back to normal,” said a wiseacre in Early Doors, my favourite micropub. But who wants to go back to an exact replica of pre-pandemonium?

Surely we can improve on that. Not just a new normal, a better one.