JUST SAYING

It’s all very well being allowed to travel again – but can we remember how to do it? Chris Leadbeater really can’t

It is remarkable how quickly we forget. Almost exactly a week ago – assuming you are reading this column on its day of publication, and aren’t looking at it distractedly as you place it in the cat’s litter tray at some point in July (or using it to gauge the date and year, just before you inadvertently break up your parents in your own personal remake of Back to the Future) – I was preparing to depart on a week-long trip for the first time in 10 months. And realising, with bemusement, that I had completely lost track of what I was supposed to do.

This is a very silly admission for a travel journalist to make. Prior to the pandemic, I was out of the house and out of the country at least once a month – and I had a well-rehearsed procedure which ensured that I never had to think too much before leaving. I have two travel bags – one for carry-on, one for the hold – that exist in a constant state of being 75 per cent packed. I simply add in the last 25 per cent of stuff, and head to the airport. Easy.

But after so long in frozen animation, I am out of practice. I’m an unfocused footballer in pre-season training, huff-puffing about the pitch, and unsure who to mark at corner drills.

Where was the phonecharger that is always in one of those bags? (In a wall socket in the spare room, behind a pile of clothes, of course.) Where are the fiddly semi-essentials of time away – the eco water bottle, the security-friendly minitoothpaste, the mosquito spray? (Scattered to the seven continents, apparently.) Why was one of my young son’s socks in my camera case? (No idea whatsoever.) What was my name, where was I going and why?

I can now answer the last

I had a procedure which ensured that I never had to think too much before leaving

three questions – the gist being “on a cruise entirely in UK waters, to be covered in a later edition of this paper”. The relatively limited scope of this trip is a reminder of the restrictions we are still living with – and yet, being able to travel again is a hint that some version of normality is resuming. We just need to remember how to do it.