Remember how exciting it used to be to arrive at the airport, just waiting in line for a few minutes to check in, go through passport control, take a walk through duty free, go to the boarding gate and find your seat in the plane where there would be plenty of knee room and you were up and down full of anticipation? I loved it.
It is no longer like that and has not been for a while. But the images of hordes of people desperately looking for a vacation in the sun and lining up this week to check-in at Heathrow got me to check the destinations on my bucket list.
The first on this list – Kolkata, India – is certainly not going to happen, and not just because of the fear of Covid.
I really wanted to see where my parents had lived for a few years since I was denied the chance as a young teenager.
Jenni Murray (pictured) checked out the destinations on her bucket list this week, but when the journey resumes, she vows never to fly again
Papa’s company wouldn’t fly me back and forth on vacation, but would agree to send me to boarding school in Darjeeling. I refused, preferring to go to Barnsley Girls’ High School and stay with my grandparents, but the longing to see what my parents had told me about India never went away.
I wanted to go to the market where Mama had done her shopping and visit the villa with the beautiful garden, where she grappled with her guilt of having servants. As an independent ex-working-class patriot, she found it difficult to expect anyone else to cook.
But even if India shakes off the worst of the pandemic, I can’t see myself visiting.
The thought of sharing an enclosed cubicle with people so sure that it is all over that they refuse to wear a mask is a factor. But it is more of the sheer horror of negotiating the airport.
This terrible prospect narrowed my list to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and maybe France, but only on condition that a car trip is possible.
Before Covid, it was hard enough. I remember traveling to France via Amsterdam a few years ago to attend my best friend’s daughter’s wedding.
Hours of check-in and security. Fear of whether cosmetics could be confiscated if they were more than 100 ml. The humiliation of taking off your shoes and apologizing for setting off scanner alarms with the huge amount of metal that holds me together after hip, ankle and humerus surgery.
Jenni admits she dreads the thought of sharing an enclosed cubicle with people who refuse to wear a mask. Pictured: A plane landing at Heathrow Airport
Then you drag from one flight to the next through Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. In all honesty, I might as well have walked from London to where the wedding took place in Strasbourg had it not been for the canal.
When air traffic comes back on track, things will get a lot worse. The Border Force is already panicking. “The work that must be done for every passenger at the border, whether British or not, has increased significantly. I don’t think we will make it, ”said one officer.
They say the British can stand in line. But I am not. So my bucket list is losing Peru, San Francisco, the Maldives, Japan, Australia, and gorillas in sub-Saharan Africa. I will never fulfill my longing to dig my own opal from the mines in Coober Pedy north of Adelaide or enjoy the cherry blossom in Okinawa.
And my trip through Kolkata, Calcutta, as my parents knew, is over. I will have to keep reminding myself of the beautiful country in which we British live.
I’ve made up my mind: I’ll never fly again.
- A study by the University of Bristol found that online gambling among young people rose sharply during the lockdown.
I am not suprised. I am not a gamer. I made the rule many years ago that I would only bet on the Grand National. That year my local betting shop was closed so I had to do it online with William Hill. I have won.
I now receive regular emails from William Hill with discount bets. I delete them and am never tempted.
I doubt such discipline applies to a younger person who is at risk of developing a dangerous habit.
Kate has the right to oppose a book about her life
Jenni argues, no matter how famous you are, surely we all have a right to a private life just to be revealed if we so choose. Pictured: Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet’s appearance in Sky Atlantic’s drama Mare of Easttown is amazing.
Very few women can go from chubby, plain and boring to gorgeous and breathtakingly beautiful on the same show.
I’ve always found her open and open and I think she has a perfect right to say no to veteran writer Garry O’Connor who wants to write her biography.
No matter how famous you are, we surely all have the right to a private life just to be revealed if we so desire.
Now Harry has thrown the Queen’s English overboard too
Jenni said Prince Harry (pictured) had too many “yeses” and “likes” for such a well mannered boy in his interview with actor and podcast host Dax Shepard earlier this month
Oh, what a shame the young Prince Harry didn’t learn to speak the Queen’s English. Far too many “yes” and “likes” for such a well behaved boy in his interview with actor and podcast host Dax Shepard earlier this month.
On his “wild” party days: “Why am I actually doing this?” As King, “I was a case of, I just don’t want this job.” Regarding the privilege: “Yes, that was the training I had.”
Come on son, spark. Try to make your grandma proud.
Over 60 year olds feel abandoned by our family doctors
Health Secretary Matthew Hancock has finally made it clear that we must all be able to see our GPs in person. It is, he said, our right. Now all you have to do is stop by the general practitioner receptionists.
Take my friend Anne, for example. She had knee replacement surgery a few months ago and was ordered to have her sutures removed in ten days and to start exercising two weeks later.
She called the general practitioner receptionist.
No, they didn’t have district nurses. Why not hire a private nurse? Costs? 150 pounds. She couldn’t afford it. She would have to come to the practice. In pain and on crutches, she waited 20 minutes outside in the rain – she is 76 -. Removing the metal stitches was excruciating.
Inquiries about physio were rejected. Anne felt abandoned. She called the hospital and physical therapy with Zoom started six weeks after the operation.
One in four people over 60 has experienced a loss of health in the past year, according to Age UK.
General practitioners need to remember their due diligence. At once.
- After nearly seven months of forced separation, husband and older son live on the south coast this weekend.
With new strains of the wretched virus, I didn’t want to risk picking it up or passing it on to my family. It will be nice to have a hug and a cuddle and someone to share the cooking with. He’s better at it than me!
We’re both totally exhausted and there’s an invitation to an outdoor Eurovision party. Eventually our old life seems to be returning.