November 11

And so it has finally happened – We have a vaccine. And, unless the government changes its mind, my husband and I will be high up in the third tranche of people eligible for it.

The news I had been waiting for for so long hit me oddly when it came on Monday 9th. My first response was elation, then came a flood of anxieties in its wake:

Has it been sufficiently tested?

Would the Astrozenica one be better?

Is 90% efficacy enough?

Will I not feel safe until everyone has had it?

Will the Anti-Vaxxers ruin things for the rest of us?

After the anxieties came a slight pang of what I can only call sorrow. We have enjoyed our Lockdown. As I’ve reiterated so many times in this blog, we are constantly aware that we are the lucky ones. We have enough living space – both inside and out, a comfortable lifestyle, few job/money worries and no children to be anxious about or grandchildren near enough to hug. Above all, we have enjoyed each other’s company. We have both been able to continue working without inconvenience, I have loved slopping about in tracksuit bottoms without make up, not worrying about whether my stomach will stick out in what I’ve chosen to wear for the social events we used to attend at least twice – and sometimes up to four times – a week. (Nigella Lawson has been reported as saying she will be going on the 5:2 diet after Covid – not a food diet but a socialising one – 5 days alone and only 2 in company. I don’t for a moment suppose she meant it but I find it a most attractive idea – except that maybe 2 is too many.)

We have been pretty severe in our Lockdown. For two months, the only exercise we took was walking up and down our terrace or the hallway of our apartment. Shopping was entirely on line, apart from a kind neighbour who’d help out in an emergency. and the wonderful manager of our block. For months we saw no friends and still have only done so at a rigid social distance, and only two people have been in the apartment since March. Neither of us has had a haircut, been in a vehicle or travelled anywhere for eight months. The parks have been a Godsend. We love them and inhabit them almost daily. . We have watched far too much TV and read far too few books but have enjoyed even that. We have exercised to a reasonable extent and even cooked together on occasion.

How will re-entry be? What am I looking forward to? Foremost is laughing and arguing with friends in the flesh, rather than in their Zoom cages, eating out with them in rowdy groups in restaurants all over London.

Then there’s travelling. Pre-covid, I had convinced myself I’d had enough of travelling. Security measures had made the airports too uncomfortable to bother negotiating., I insisted. (Mind you, we did make 11 foreign trips last year.) Weirdly, however, the first fantasy to enter my head when our impending freedom was announced, was of eating bacon rolls in Heathrow Airport at breakfast time, waiting to board a ‘plane. Any ‘plane to anywhere. The second was of a week in a luxurious hotel, not having to make a bed, cook, clean or bag an Ocado delivery. The rest is only friends, friends, friends.

Now we have to bide our time, patiently stick to the rules of masking, hand-washing and social distancing we have so painstakingly learned, remember what life was like before and decide which parts of it we want back and which to discard. It could be the chance to press a re-set button for those of us fortunate enough not to have lost our jobs, or a loved one, or seen our businesses go bust.

For myself, I think it will be quite a time before I feel confident enough to ditch the masks, or embrace a distant acquaintance. And it will be even longer before I will be prepared to wear a non-elasticated waistband.

Our Soho surroundings are already altered. Everywhere, communal workspaces have sprung up. They look inviting and efficiently equipped but will they become instantly redundant if everyone continues to work from home? Restaurants, cafes and shops we used to frequent have gone, construction work has continued unhindered and the landscape boasts vast new buildings filling what were empty spaces pre-Covid.

The vaccine and possible end to the dangers of Covid is a subject which will occupy all our thoughts over the coming months, I imagine, and to which I will return in this blog. In the meantime, I’d love to know how other people felt when the news was announced. Do tell me .