Isolation
Isolation | Nicholas Thompson
Tuesday 7 April 2020
Isolation poses more than the word initially suggests when “what If” grows in importance and uncertainty. We heard month ago whilst in India that our bookings in Kerala were being cancelled, initially for temples and palaces then hotels and finally borders, this was rapidly followed by our return flights on Swiss Air: our initial sense of Isolation was with us, what now?
Calls to my unusual form of part time Travel Agent went unanswered, but he was a doctor as well, so maybe busy, but What If?....Do Not Panic!
More frantic calls (he had been in Asia of all places) suggested that Clare and I got ourselves to Mumbai somehow and he would get a deal with the Oberoi where we could Isolate and wait and see if BA would take over their flights.....What If?
A packed internal flight, with basic masks...not much isolation around, and news that the virus was spreading fast.
We sat in our hotel room, again in isolation on the top floor of an empty Oberoi, vultures below us, and a sunset...not bad, but what if no flights?
Success, a limo to an empty airport, then tested...What If? ...OK to fly, with 2 heavily discounted seats in First Class, so relative isolation can be splendid.
But it was the last flight for weeks
Home to an empty larder (self-isolation taken to a new limit) but our garden in full sun...isolation can be bliss after all when safely home,
and hardly a plane above Kew!
Nicholas Thompson words and photo
The Architecture Club member