Christmas Is Early
Well, it is in our house anyway! Once we’d made plans to be travelling again over the Christmas period, we decided to give ourselves our own Christmas Day, and Boxing Day come to that, on just about the only date left in our diary – December 9th.
So here we are, 16 days ahead of everyone else, enjoying traditional Christmas dinner and drinks – although we haven’t gone as far as Christmas tree and decorations, which seemed to us to be too much of a waste of effort. Our diary has been full of visits to friends and family since our Vilnius trip, leaving us with a rather full diary – or at least it was meant to, but as it happens we’ve suffered something of an unexpected interruption, more of that in a later post.
Of course, everything travel wise is still unclear and even now, just five days before we fly out to Costa Rica, we still sit with fingers crossed and hopes pinned as travel rules and restrictions continue to change almost daily. Have we considered changing our plans? Yes of course we have, but we’ve reached the conclusion that we’re going to risk it, we’re going to board that plane to Costa Rica unless and only unless we are physically stopped from doing so.
Of course it’s debatable whether we’re doing the right thing, but we retired at the end of 2019 with the sole ambition of travelling the world, so we’re not going to take the option to sit at home while other options exist.
Five days to go; we’ll see what happens. But for now, it’s Merry (early) Christmas from us!
15 Comments
wetanddustyroads
That’s exactly what we’ve done (well, not to travel overseas – because South Africans are nowhere allowed 😔). But we took the chance of travelling over provincial borders, knowing that these can be closed at any time by our government with stricter lockdowns. But we’ll face that when (and if) it happens.
In the meantime … happy travelling guys! And Merry (early) Christmas 🎄.
leightontravels
Ah, I love the early Christmas idea , I’m sure you enjoyed it. What troublesome, tiring times we live in where you don’t really know if you can even make your trip. We are in a similar boat and it really is physically and mentally exhausting. In order for us to get to England in January there are numerous potential stumbling blocks. 1: Will Sladja get her visa? No idea. You would not believe the paperwork/information we have had to provide for this. It took us over a week to sort out and now, as we wait for an answer, they come back to us with additional questions while they ‘consider the application’. These questions… I honestly have no idea why they need to know this stuff. It takes me and her feel like fugitives. Hopefully, it’ll come through, after which we’ll have to see what the state of play is with UK restrictions. As it stands, we can come with PCR tests galore, before and after arrival, along with another mountain of paperwork and additional costs. Finally, we are supposed to be staying in a friend’s house for 6 months. But her kids have just been pulled out of school due to cases running rampant. If they don’t go to India at the end of December as planned, we don’t have a cost effective base from which to work from for 6 months. Ugh. REALLY hope you guys get to go to Costa Rica and that the trip lives up to everything you hoped it would be.
Phil & Michaela
Wow, complications all round, sounds like you still have a whole load of hurdles to overcome before the UK trip becomes reality. Good luck with it all! As far as we’re concerned, it feels a bit surreal being this close to departure and yet not knowing if things will change.
Andrew Petcher
Great Christmas dinner but way too many brussel sprouts for me. The Bounty is always my favourite in the Celebration box.
Phil & Michaela
Ah but the brussels sprouts count is to allow for Boxing Day bubble & squeak…
Andrew Petcher
It is still a no thank you from me!
giacomoasinello
It’s impossible to have too many Brussels sprouts! Try them with balsamic vinegar and little cubes of spicy salami! But I agree with you about the Bounty bars.
Andrew Petcher
Bounty bars don’t work with turkey however!
giacomoasinello
Very true!
Toonsarah
Looks like a fantastic spread, and unlike Andrew above I say bring on the Brussels sprouts, as many as possible! But he’s welcome to my share of the Bounty bars as I don’t much like coconut other than in a curry 😉
I do hope you get away. We have to make the outstanding payment on our Sri Lanka trip on 21st December, after which we can only cancel without losing money if borders close. My biggest concern is that it’s red-listed while we’re away and we have to pay a fortune for a stay in a quarantine hotel. But there were hints the other day that the policy could change to home isolation in the near future which would be less of a worry and worth the risk!
Phil & Michaela
It’s all so uncertain. For us, once we are on the plane on Tuesday, our main worry will be the danger of Costa Rica shutting down while we are there and there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go! Here’s hoping Sri Lanka comes good for you (I reckon that by February there’s a very good chance that things will have calmed down again…)
WanderingCanadians
Safe travels. Fingers crossed it all works out. We managed to get away back in November when the United States opened their land borders to us Canadians. We took a road trip and came back right before tighter travel restrictions came into place in Canada.
grandmisadventures
Merry Early Christmas! I’ll cross my fingers for you that nothing happens to hinder your Costa Rica trip!
bitaboutbritain
Well, a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for all that is wonderful (if possible!) in 2022 to you, Phil and Michaela! Good to see you had a square meal before you left. 🙂
giacomoasinello
Merry Christmas to you too!