Social distancing. Test and trace. Face-masks (what was wrong with just ‘masks’? Nobody could ever tell me). Clapping. Substantial meals. Scotch eggs. I think I speak for the majority when I say that those terms evoke both profound relief that it’s all behind us and a sense of unreality.
I confess I’m flirting with the ultimate commuter cliché and browsing daily for deals on a Brompton
Did the pandemic really happen? From one point of view, we see the effects all around us in the form of NHS waiting lists, ‘ghost’ children absent from school and the parlous state of the economy. On a personal level, however, it feels like we’ve awoken from a long, bad dream to a world that is basically unchanged, only grimmer than it was before.
Which brings me to cycling. The one thing I miss about those days of untrammelled state authoritarianism is the opportunity it afforded to spend serious time in the saddle.
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