A busy week, starting early start of Monday morning, with a positive covid test for a Contact, so we had to work out the rules, which was 7 days of lateral flow test (“LFT”), but luckily no requirement to self-isolate, (unless we got a positive test) and Monday morning was a negative test for both of us.
Then we headed up to London for a few days, staying at the Premier Inn in Clapham. (yes near Clapham Junction). Monday we went to see ‘The Feeling, with special guest Sophie Ellis-Bexter’ (yes, she is married to the bass player of The Feeling) for their Christmas charity concert at The Clapham Grand, a small intimate gig. Nic said she didn’t know any of The Feeling’s songs, but managed to sing along to all of them, including the festive covers.
It was good to see most people were wearing masks, for most of the time.
Tuesday (LFT negative) we had a plan to see a friend, third time lucky – it couldn’t happen on the boat in Uxbridge or in the Motorhome in Henley, and sadly, given the ‘working from home’ requirements brought in this week, it could not happen in London either, so better luck next time, hopefully next year sometime!
As we didn’t have any other plans for the rest of the day, so Rog found the ‘TodayTix” app for last minute West End tickets, and managed to score cheap tickets for ‘& Juliet” (a Musical based on what would happen if Shakespeare’s wife Ann Hathaway re-wrote the end of his Romeo & Juliet play, making Juliet a more independent women, using pop music). We’d paid £25 for £85 tickets in a relatively small theatre – so had a fabulous view of a stunning performance.
Wednesday (LFT Negative) – tickets to the Imperial War Museum. Interesting, if harrowing exhibition on the holocaust. Then walked across London to the Victoria Apollo Theatre to see the matinee of “Wicked” (the back story of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz). The Victoria Apollo Theatre is a large theatre, and we were in the cheap seats, so we have to say that our experience of ‘Wicked” was overshadowed by “& Juliet”.
If that was not enough for Wednesday, we then walked down the Kings Road, to our friends for dinner. A lovely curry and a few drinks (Thanks – you know who you are!).
Thursday (LFT Negative) – Brunch in Clapham Common, then the Tube to Kings Cross for the train back to York. Another great app is “SeatFrog” got a cheap 1st class upgrade for £14 each, which included refreshments (sandwich and coffee). Got back to Pocklington and checked into an AirBnB, our home for the next month.
Friday (LFT Negative) – we both got ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid app saying we had been in contact with someone on Thursday who tested positive and “highly recommended’ that we got PCR tests, so arranged for test kits to be delivered. We collected some of our stuff from a loft, a garage and motorhome, moved it to our AirBnb to sort out – also managed to put up a Christmas tree…..getting festive.
Saturday (LFT Negative) – completed the PCR test, and negotiated the finding of a priority postbox to send them off! Then picked up family from York Railway station. Had a good night in front of the telly watching Rose triumph in Strictly, although John would also have been a worthy winner.
Sunday (LFT Negative – final test day!) – had the family around for coffee, it is lovely to have somewhere in Pocklington, that we can host at.
Travurple 