COME DIE WITH ME - OF MASKS BUBBLES AND BOXES

I feel for the utter cuddle bunny teddy bear loveable professor that is travel guru/editor/expert (whatever the byline typist decides he is that day) Simon Calder.  He has been the Doctor Hilary Jones of the travel industry during this pandemic, with his oversized glasses, like a classier version of snooker player Dennis Taylor 

He got roasted on ITV This Morning, a programme that is of note more by the presenters rather than the subjects they cover, (today chef James Martin couldn't get a link in, so Eammon and Ruth had to have his cake and eat it, although the government of course says we shouldn't do that - politicians are not the only ones giving mixed messages......). 

People/wannabee holiday makers/tourists/travellers are annoyed at the 14 day quarantine that took less than 24 hours to put into effect making a Spanish holiday into a potential hell  (why can't government instigate the good stuff as quickly hey?). Tourists there are left with the option of one week becoming three, although the likelihood is many of them will be made redundant in October anyway when the furloughing runs out. But that's not the point, people were ringing in to This Morning with questions about holidays and what to do, if to go, if not to go, and if to come back and how to come back.

Simon identified a loop hole (anyone could have done it but he voiced it) suggesting travelling to France where there wasn't the fourteen day quarantine rule on route back home.  Up roar ensued (allegedly) when 100s/10s/1000s  angry viewers called in and said they were 'disgusted' at the advice.  'Disgusted'? Really?   Disgusted at Epstein, Weinstein, but Calder? 

Simon as all travel journalists and editors and broadcasters and bloggers and vloggers should be doing is telling it as it is.  Don't go on holiday. Don't fly. You are not wanted. They want your money but don't want you in human form. It has always been that way, as Richard Gere said in Pretty Woman, 'people are nice to money, not to people'.   

This is what this surreal world has revealed. Life has got real for the first time in a very long time.  It has burst bubbles, ripped off masks and brought to the surface everyone's priorities, prejudices, bigotry and inequalities.  All have been well hidden.  They have always been there, just the likes of Trump and the Virus (that could make a good name for an indie rock band), have brought it centre stage. 

By bringing it all to the surface we've taken off the pretensions and social constructs that make up the day to day - making even the necessity of a weekend redundant. So why do we need the social construct of a  holiday huh?

My advice is do not fly.  It is not safe.  It will literally, could be literally the last journey you ever take, literally leaving you breathless.   If you absolutely must, take the train or the car. Know that they don't want you wherever you go, but they do want your money.   Spend and then disappear into your rented cottage or hotel room or caravan or where ever or however you have decided to stay. But identify why you want to holiday in the first place.  You will be exchanging a box for another box, as we are all put into boxes.   Change of view, of energy, of direction.  Change of people, more space, more sun?   People go on holiday for a number of reasons - to have a break - but we have all or most of us have had a break.  So what do you want a break from - the break?  Think about why you are choosing to holiday.   Your life depends on it.