Wow, well done Parker.
I think I would like a new adventure now the children have left home and once DH retires. We are lucky in that us inheriting my parent's retirement flat has happened at the same time as the pandemic when DH is able to work from home, with the added wrinkle that house prices have gone up so we need to hold onto it until we are beyond the reach of the IHT people. However the flat, albeit nice and right on the beach, was my parents retirement decision, not mine.
DH is not a Londoner, so has not got the same attachment, and is enjoying the south coast. We shall see.
Now its officially shit.
DD was lateral flow testing every day after returning from Bristol with negative results. Finally yesterday, after yet another of her friends announced they had Omicron, blagged her way into a PCR test despite having no symptoms, and yes she is positive. Isolate until 27 December.
I had got up early to be a volunteer marshal at a vaccination centre, and was marshalling the queue, when I got a scary email. Self isolate immediately, do not pass Go, do not collect £200. My fellow volunteers acted as if I was a leper, even though plenty of the people passing through were more likely than me to be infectious. I walked home mentally preparing a menu for the next 10 days based on the contents of a Christmas hamper, supplemented by Quality Street, and some rather nice boxes of Dorset chocolate I had bought for extended family we were due to see over Christmas. (We had already eaten the Christmas tree chocolate decorations once we decided we did not need a tree for the three of us.)
DH got a completely different email, which does not require him to stay in, so gloated about it, and went shopping. So more menu options, though equally bizarre. (DH is not a natural food shopper.)
In the meantime hypochondria has kicked in and we have all decided we feel ill. Its getting colder. It will be bleak.
The good news is that DD has an elective organised. In normal times she would be able to go away for two months starting September; Australia is popular, and experience health care in a different setting. Now there is no going abroad, so a scramble for worthwhile things to do in the UK. She has applied to a London teaching hospital and asked if they had opportunities in her preferred specialisation. They have yet to get back to her, but a kind consultant in the same specialisation in Bristol has said he will take her if she needs a place. I had not realised how much training is needed after graduating. Plenty more years of exams and of applying for training places.
Despite being the Christmas Grinch, I hope everyone else's holidays go according to plan.