Derbyshire 166 - Chesterfield - the new normal , Days 128 and 129 , quarantine has returned again

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The new normal. Normal in inverted commas. Will it ever be normal again ? We seem to use the word normal a lot these days but it does not mean what it used to mean. It has become normal to wonder what normal actually looks like. Being able to swim without booking a session. To go to a National Trust property without booking. To work from an office rather than from home. To go away on holiday. We have had a few weeks of something like "normal" when people have chanced their arms and booked a holiday . To Spain for some sun . And then out of the blue a rise in Covid infections and we are back to quarantine again . 14 days holed up when they return. No shopping , No work and no socialising . Airlines in a mess and Boris has just made it worse for them. No-one risking booking a holiday just in case it all goes belly up again . No-one having the faith to book to go away as they may find themselves without travel insurance . An awful feeling that life is not normal . How long will it be before we get back to normal ?

France and Germany may follow Spain just as we are thinking of our holidays . Normal may be boring but it is preferable to what we are going through at the moment .

Week 19 starting. Swimming again. The young are back and it was good to see them. The older swimmers have not returned to the pool. I wonder if they will be back some time . Getting home it was time to have coffee and try to think of somewhere to spend the day. That is the hard bit. All that thinking and we cannot think of anywhere to go to. Let's go to Grassmoor Country Park . My head said that I needed a walk and anything would be better than nothing . Heart however went the other way . Grassmoor Park - no too flat . Too boring. An old colliery site flattened and without any charm . Just a pond and a few Birch trees . I could not build up any enthusiasm . Then we got the call . It was the windscreen man . Cannot come today . It is raining . Can we rebook ? We have no luck . Rebooking is our normal . So that appointment was moved to Thursday .

Oh how I wish normal would come back . I want a bit of normal don't you .

"Rivers know this : there is no hurry. We shall get there some day." A . A Milne

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