‘I didn’t really like loud restaurants, but now I’d love to be surrounded by noise’
Sir Christopher Meyer, broadcaster, commentator and former British ambassador to the US and Germany
At first, lockdown had the interest of novelty. Initially I quite enjoyed it, because I was writing a book and I could get on with it, and because if I didn’t want to see people I didn’t have to, and all that kind of thing. But now, almost a year later, it’s outworn its attractions.
I’ve always enjoyed the company of people, lots of people, and that’s what I miss. I miss noisy and crowded restaurants. I miss travel. I miss certain places in France and Greece. I miss my children and all these things. I just need human company, and I think my wife Catherine feels exactly the same thing.
There are three or four things I think of a lot. One of them is a place in the Swiss Alps called Mürren, which looks on to the Jungfrau and the Eiger. You can sit in a terrace restaurant, with carousing Swiss and Germans behind you, and you can look out over the valley, and there is the setting sun flashing its lights on the Jungfrau and the Eiger, and behind you the noise gets louder and louder, then the booze comes, and the food. I love that.
My wife and I have spent lockdown playing backgammon in our flat in London. We mixed with our kids the last time we were allowed to, and that was very welcome. But there is this idea of ambient noise, which I never thought I would appreciate. Before lockdown, before the pandemic, I didn’t really like loud restaurants, but now I’d love to be surrounded by noise.