Back home, we're heading for our first winter in our (much) smaller Leigh-on-Sea house....
...but how sensible we were to move here.
How will the latest Covid variant affect our travel plans which are, to be honest, pretty vague again... and what about our planned time back in our Spanish home?
In England* face masks are now compulsory for shops and public transport as from yesterday but there seems to be a patchy response in London; there were around 30% masked on the DLR trains we used yesterday which, of course, isn't really going to help contain the Omicron variant. On the other hand, the rule doesn't apply to pubs which must be because No 10 has discovered alcohol does the job instead. Ant-vaxxers, ant-maskers - England has lost the plot. How difficult is it to put on a mask which scientific studies show has a pretty dramatic effect on transmission in enclosed places? People are fed up and confused: we have a PM who doesn't follow his own guidance and 'experts' who aren't experts pontificating on the guidance. A GP who should know better went unchallenged on BBC Newsnight after stating that masks make little difference. Leadership's sadly missing. That's you, Boris Johnson.
* Of course, Wales and Scotland have this sorted
