End of the summer vacation

The neighbors have gone already. We leave tomorrow. It's clearly the end of summer and the vacations.

We've been here the entire summer, since July 3rd. Haven't been to another place, as was originally the plan. But corona came in-between. The original plan was a trip to Italy early in July and then another one to England early August. Then we changed to a trip to France between July and August - but once more corona hindered our plans. Just before we were due to leave, the number of contagions rose alarmingly and we cancelled once more.

Christine has to be at the office tomorrow, although only half-time. The other half she works from home. Because of the corona rules there can't be more than 2 people in the room. So now she works Monday afternoon, Tuesday,Wednesday  and Friday morning at the office. The schools are going to reopen on September 1st for all students, but as the situation is, that won't probably last very long. I gather that after a week or two they'll need to close the schools like they did in March.

I just hope that next year will be different and that we can go back to ordinary life. It's so disheartening not to be able to travel as you like. Normally we are off to some place whenever there is a shorter or longer vacation. Now we could only travel to South Africa and make a trip to England. So sad!

It will be a long autumn, winter and spring. With all the restrictions it's no fun to go outside, wearing a mask (I can't breathe properly wearing one), so you stay indoors and only go out when it's needed. Hopefully the government is going to change the rules next month. It would be so much better if you only had to wear a mask where it's busy. Most places where we go aren't. That would make a big, positive change.

I often wonder if this whole corona pandemic isn't worse than a war. Agreed, a war is bad, but at least they had occasions to laugh and make fun at times. But for us this situation looks endless. There's no real hope because there still isn't a vaccin. And the number of contagions rise in almost every country for the second time.

One positive thing: I begun writing again and hope to finish this novel in the coming months. I'll have enough time on my hands to do so!