We have Covid

 After returning from Svalbard, via Oslo and all of Radisson's hotels there I came home and spent the first night shivering. I thought it might be the effects of an arduous return trip. A few days later, however, the missus came down with a chill, loss of hearing and, ominously, smell. We didn't register that it might be Covid. 

I had a meeting on Thursday and as most of those attending are in their twilight years I thought it best to do a home test. My result was positive and so was the wife's. Where did I pick up the bug? There were plenty of places. In crowded airports, in the long, congested queues to book in, the security checks, the cafes and duty frees.

It got me thinking about why do we put up with the hell that is air travel. Are our everyday lives so miserable that we endure that horror so we can have two weeks as far away from the UK as we can afford?

The airlines have cottoned onto this. They happily provide cattle trucks to cart millions of deluded Brits to sunshine destinations that resemble Blackpool or Southend without the class, or carry the entitled to far off destinations where a glimpse of a chimp or the fluke of a whale rates as a life time experience. 

We are not consumers we are the consumed. 

I will always remember our flight to Bueno Aires in the 2018. 7000 miles non stop, in a cramped seat. To get to the loo I had to go through Business Class. In pleb class we slept nearly upright but in Business Class you slept in a box on the floor. Pigs in pens. Even paying over the odds you're treated like meat.

Look here am I white, relatively rich, European moaning about the personal inconvenience and discomfort of air travel. For others it is a life line. Nations/peoples depend on tourism. For God's sake the UK is a bloody tourist destination! Simply because I have a problem with crowded airports and cramped seats am I advocating the death of the tourist?

Not at all. I'm against cheapness - so called value for money - which to me is the tourist and air travel experience. Less is more. Instead of thinking it's a divine right to go on holiday overseas at least once a year - save up for a trip once every four or five years. Travel by ship, air balloon or first class train to places which are away from the raucous sound of profit and second, even third best. Club together and hire a yacht, a ship and island and enjoy pleasure that gratification delayed offers. Think an orgasm held back, and back and back. That's what a holiday should offer.