Old friends

Like everyone else’s our lives changed dramatically and unexpectedly a little more than two years ago when the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic required us to re-evaluate how we lived – what might yet be possible and what no longer was.

How we saw the outside world changed almost overnight and our relationship with it became suddenly completely different. Where once we would have thought little of hopping our way around the globe with the insouciance of seasoned travellers the outside world had abruptly become a dangerous place from which – once one had sallied forth – one might not return unscathed.

Entirely logical fears about exposure to infection meant that the bounds of our existence became dramatically narrowed – like the walls closing in on one. For a while we found it hard to countenance the thought of venturing outside our own neighbourhood – let alone of leaving the island. It was more than a year before we plucked up the courage to cross the Georgia Strait to the mainland for the first time. We mostly found ourselves only too happy to remain safely in our own little cocoon.

Further the thought of sitting for hours cooped up with other people in a metal tube over the Atlantic filled us with horror – not helped by the lurid reports of increased incidences of ‘air-rage’ over such trivialities as mask-wearing etiquette. We were clearly nowhere near ready to venture forth again into the great unknown…

…and yet – this year something has shifted.

In part this change came about because we had visitors from abroad – not once, but twice! In the first instance (as trailed in this post) dear friends from England called us with the news that they were coming to Victoria in February for a job interview. We were excited at the prospect of seeing them again but also of the possibility that they might eventually once again become neighbours. As it turned out that didn’t happen – the job opportunity proving not to be all that it was cracked up to be – but we did spend a very happy few days entertaining our friends and being briefed by them as to the essential aspects of international travel in a post-COVID world.

We then had another most pleasant communication from an old theatre friend of mine. I had not seen this particular thespist since he moved to the US way back in the last century, though we do still trade yearly Christmas newsletters between Victoria and New York. He and his partner (and his partner’s mother) were planning a trip to visit friends in Seattle and – having ventured so close – would have considered it a shame not to come that little bit further to visit us. We were – naturally – completely delighted and once again enjoyed a wonderful few days of sightseeing, dining, making (or re-making) acquaintance and – of course – of much reminiscing.

These two visitations did wonders at bringing us out of our shells a little bit and enabling us to contemplate actually heading back out into the wide blue yonder. An invitation to an event on the other side of the pond simply added to a growing conviction that it is – perhaps – once again time to think about travelling.

As they say – watch this space…