I need a beach, not a picnic in the rain

ORGANISING holidays is never entirely straightforward. But nothing competes with the confusion and turmoil around this year’s plans. A-ha! Of course, that’s it. The clue is in the word ‘plans’. Plans are yesterday’s baby. They feature little in the current world. There are, of course, many who think i t’s insanity to even attempt to leave the UK. Why not take a rain check – an apt phrase – and fix a staycation instead? But while our countryside does indeed have beautiful landscapes and some breathtaking beaches, for me that’s not the point. The point is to be somewhere you don’t have to check the weather app before planning a picnic, where the scents and sights are unfamiliar, where the very journey makes you feel that you’re going on holiday rather than taking a short break from home.

Will that happen? The jury is still out. So many planes and trains are being cancelled that it’s beginning to look like common sense rather than extravagant lunacy to doublebook if you want to be sure of getting to your destination.

We’re now hoping to escape to France in a few weeks but what happens if our part of North London, already marked a potential hotspot, goes back into lockdown?

Will we be allowed out? And will border control at Marseilles be au courant with the infection rate in NW6?