The world is ready to take one small step toward normal life

Ihave been riveted by the images being beamed back from Mars this week. One 360-degree photo, stitched together from stills taken from NASA’S Perseverance rover, gave you the sensation of standing on the red planet’s surface. They even had audio where you could pick out the sound of an alien breeze.

Maybe it’s because I’ve barely been further than my local Co-op in the past six months, but I felt quite emotional looking up at the Martian sky, 34 million miles away.

Thanks to the internet, NASA were able to take us all on that journey with them. It made me think how much more difficult lockdown would have been if it had happened before the dawn of the internet.

Yes, we’ve been stuck at home, but at least we’ve been able to see each other on video calls, while social media has given us a platform to share our highs and lows over the past year.

Thankfully, we took a small step towards freedom this week with the announcement that the stay-at-home restrictions could be lifted by April 5.

With the end now in sight, we are able to make tentative plans and even think about booking a holiday.

Realistically this summer will be all about the staycation – but even that seems exotic right now.

In this week’s travel pages (22&23), we take a tour of the stunning Scottish locations that have inspired some of the greatest literary works of recent times. So, while we wait for tourism to open up again, we can always go exploring through the pages of a book.

And if you are feeling very adventurous, why not log onto www. nasa.gov and take a trip to Mars?