A Nice Day Out - London #1 {Travelling: Post Brexit, Covid Style}
I’ve cracked it! I have discovered the method by which one may travel mask-less, without reprisal. All you have to do is eat your way through the flight. Simple really, as the person in the seat adjacent to mine so skillfully demonstrated, with not a little flair and application. Before the plane had even started taxiing, out came the Kit-Kat. Expertly unwrapped and consumed with delicacy - little finger cocked, not a crumb in sight. After a brief interlude of some twenty seconds or so, a large bag was produced, containing a seemingly endless variety of comestibles: a Twix bar, a packet of cheese and onion crisps, bags of those sticky sweets with noisy wrappers that people in cinemas always insist on eating. All washed down with, ironically, a bottle of Coke Zero. Had I been wearing a hat, I would have removed it. Fair play to this person for bucking the system. My N95 mask was not wasted. Nor indeed was my complimentary bar of Coco Pops. BA really pushed the boat out.
Despite said person chomping their way through the annual food intake of a small third world country, travelling to the UK, Covid style, post Brexit, turned out to be a bit of a breeze. I knew there had to be something good about British Airways, and it turns out that it’s their app. Despite being of British nationality and therefore eminently trustworthy, one has to complete something called a ‘Passenger Locator Form’ (PLF). This informs the authorities of your whereabouts: hotel, apartment, pub etc., so that they may check from time to time that you are being a good boy, and not running riot, spreading germs and generally being an embarrassment to Queen and Country. This goes on the app, together with your Covid vaccination status, which makes moving through the various parts of the airport a simple matter of scanning a QR code on your phone. Thank you BA, despite sitting me next to the human waste disposal unit, and giving me a seat fit for a ten year old.
So here we are in London, after a gap of some two years. The thing I notice first is roughly 2/3 of people are still wearing masks on the Underground. Though someone should probably tell them that removing them to yawn and cough is not the smartest idea. Onwards then, to spend what remains of the day with a wander around various parts of Kensington and Chelsea, accompanied by rain, hail, and sunshine. Apparently London’s got it all. Parson’s Green gets a look-in too. Toodle pip!
