From East to West

First Qatar closed its borders, then our beloved Sri Lanka. When rumours proliferated about Dubai closing theirs too, The Boyfriend and I knew it was time to head back to Old Blighty.

We left 30° India and arrived into cold Heathrow, inappropriately dressed in our flip flops and tans. When The Boyfriend went to shake a friend's hand at the airport and the guy recoiled, it was clear things had changed.

My first trip to the supermarket was a bit of shock.

I guess I'd been somewhat shielded from the whole Coronavirus panic whilst abroad, aside from increasingly antsy email updates from my folks.

Given we'd arrived back from a long international journey, understandably, no one wanted us to visit or stay with them. Our flat was still being rented out so we were effectively homeless.

Thus, we did the honourable thing to avoid potentially infecting any of our families/friends.

We borrowed the in-laws' car - the poor oldies aren't supposed to be going out anyway, right? - and pootled off to Wales to find temporary accommodation, leaving the London virus hotspot.

And not a moment too soon because London got locked down the following day.

We stayed a week in a secluded holiday home on a farm in south Wales where we only had the sheepies for company.

And a BBQ. What a heavenly feast after 12 straight weeks of curry.

It was a bit difficult to find a place to stay next but we eventually managed to procure a 6 week let on a beach villa in Pembrokeshire (lucky us).

Mostly deserted beach which we visit once a day to play badminton.

The Boyfriend used his well-honed bartering skills and managed to negotiate us a great rate - quite a surprise in the western world. Shame his skills didn't work in the supermarket...

Next post (Isolation, Week 1)

Previous post (The hunter & the thrush)