In these times of Covid , I woke or rather decided I couldn’t get to sleep so better get up. It was still dark. I looked out at the pavement. It was covered in gold leaves, reflected in the glow of the street lamp.
And then as the wind stirred and the leaves danced- I realised that this was it-my day of being let back into the outside.
For two weeks I had been without moving from my home, sticking to the quarantine imposed by government after returning to London from Spain. Five weeks earlier my wife decided that after eight months of restricted activity in the English capital, it was time to try and get to a change of scene away from the UK. We left Heathrow for Barcelona having taken a travel insurance cover which seemed designed for war correspondents just in case something really serious happened to either of us and we needed to be flown back in an emergency.
The terminal in London, with several of its retail outlets closed and far fewer travellers, was more of a genuine waiting area than a frenzied market place. There was a moment when I closed my eyes and the relative silence and gentler pace transported me back to my first UK-Spain flight as a child in the 1950’s just before mass tourism kicked off.
Certainly, embarkation and departure went far more smoothly that pre-Covid days and I didn’t get the sense of flying into an overcrowded sky, and perhaps I imagined it but the atmosphere seemed definitely clearer, and the flight itself quite relaxing without being bombarded by sales pitches. British Airways gave us a bag of crisps, some shortbread biscuits and two antiseptic wipes, one for our hands one for whatever else we wanted to use it for, then left us alone. I just had to believe what I’d read,that the air circulating in the confined space was not going to spread the virus. Keeping my mask on, except when eating the crisps, throughout the flight as mandated , seemed a sensible measure nonetheless.
The plane seemed cleaner than I could ever recall a plane being, and spacious, about half full -I still felt claustrophobic, somewhat in the lap of the Gods trusting the cabin crew’s reassurance that in the time of Covid health and safety was BA’s prime concern. (Was it not always thus?)
Arriving at Barcelona airport was like arriving in the middle of a field hospital. We were greeted by several lines of masked men and women in white coats who checked our advance heath details on a computer and took our temperature (I saw nothing of that at Heathrow).
Then it was on by car to our beloved Sitges, and three weeks of mainly domestic Mediterranean cooking, and occasional al fresco eating while enjoying swimming and snorkelling in a sea cleaner and filled with more fish than any time in decades. Except for the beach that was uncrowded, we, like everybody else in the community, did not go anywhere without our masks , as per the local rules. Except for some young people, Spaniards have on the whole taken the mask regime in all public spaces more strictly than in the UK and yet, except for the Canaries, Covid numbers have been going up again since the summer, as they have been in the UK and the Spanish government today once again invoked emergency powers to deal with the resurgence of coronavirus cases
We flew back to Heathrow having dutifully provided the British with the same detailed information we had provided going out to the Spanish. Apart from our passport we were not checked at any stage, nor may I add did anyone knock on our door or ring us up during quarantine -but I guess that is what is called policing by consent.
So how was the quarantine? While looking forward to the liberation and the resumption of walks in Battersea Park and other encounters, I’ve actually found the experience worthwhile and enlightening keeping me focused internally as well as virtually on the work, family, friends, and spiritual front, not least helping me reflect on those who have suffered and are suffering in far worse ways from the pandemic but also the need to keep seeking light in darkness. I felt humbled by the thought of those grieving a loved one, those in hospital and care homes, those who have lost their jobs, those packed into small high-rise flats., those in prison restricted to their cells, thinking of how I should not squander the opportunity of making something meaningful out if what I had.
Each morning I’d wake to think how lucky I was to have someone I loved sleeping by my side and find myself enjoying the taste of my breakfast. Then I’d walk round and round a table in our small patio, meditating for about half an hour, touching our herb garden along the way to make sure I had not lost my sense of smell, while taking in the sound of the birds, and looking up at the sky to watch the intricate moving shapes of the clouds and celebrate the sun whenever it broke through. I also found myself feeling thankful that there were planes flying past, but not as many as before.
Then to the computer to write and communicate via emails, zoom, and social media, breaking away now and again to phone friends and family for whom technology is no substitute for human contact.
Yesterday, with my quarantine over, I felt the world alive as I went for a long walk in the park with my wife and daughters. You could smell nature drawing in, bedding down, regenerating. We marvelled at the brilliant shades of green, copper, and gold of the turning autumn leaves, and, as we did when we were all younger, chased each falling leaf as it shared its final dance. The leaves floated down, teasingly evasive. When we managed to catch one in our hands, we made a wish, in solidarity, and hope. I found myself hugging the tallest plane tree in the park, a favourite of mine, and reminded the girls that there was this gentle giant, drawing life back into itself, still living and looking forward to spring, having survived a century of two world wars and earlier pandemics.
From the embankment we looked out across the Thames . A barge tied to a buoy had its deck covered with cormorants and seagulls resting, resilient, enduring, veteran survivors of turbulence and great storms, as if upon the Ark.
