It’s our anniversary today, seven years since our wedding followed by a blissful honeymoon in Mauritius.
We marked our first anniversary with a wonderful trip to New York. We’ve since been to Rome, Copenhagen and Dublin on some of the other June 8ths.
No travel this time, not even a meal out, just a quiet Monday night at home with a French-style salad on the menu. We’ll endeavor to make it a bit special somehow and the Tesco Finest Provence rosé already cooling in the fridge will help.
As if to underline how this anniversary contrasts with previous years, today is when the UK’s ridiculous 14-day quarantine scheme comes into farce!
From midnight everyone arriving in the UK by air, sea, road or rail, whether they are a visiting foreign national or a Briton returning home, has to quarantine for 14 days.
We must fill in an online “locator form” giving details of where will stay over that two week period. If the quarantine is breached, we will be liable to pay a £1,000 fixed penalty notice.
Rumours abound that the restrictions will be relaxed in the next few weeks or that so-called travel corridors will be set up with selected countries but nothing has been confirmed.
More than 500 travel and hospitality businesses have joined forces to launch a legal bid to overturn the policy believing it to be “wholly unjustified”, “disproportionate” and “unfair”.
While I support the legal bid, part of me fears the action might make the Government more determined to stick with the measure.
Over the last few months I’ve seen some of the benefits of being at home and will use part of today to reflect on my seven years of marriage.
We’ve packed so much into our time together and I believe something good is coming out of this four months’ travel pause.
It’s made me realise how good we can be together – just the two of us – how we talk, play and love together. We’re doing more to build a beautiful home and garden, cooking each other great meals and learning to let the inevitable disagreements pass to make the most of our lives.
It’s not always easy – as I know she would testify – but the truth is there is no one I’d rather be locked down with and I think these last few months have added another dimension to our relationship.
On this unique lockdown anniversary I know, for sure, that my wife is the person I want to be with for the rest of my days and that thought makes me feel very happy.