No time to die

For the first time since early 2020, we ventured out to more than one pub in an afternoon and evening, as well as a burger restaurant to finish the evening off. We’d have done this many times before in recent times but Covid got in the way.  So, with a mere quarter of a million positive tests in the last week, as well as 800 deaths and 5095 new hospital admissions, dressed in autumnal rain coats, we concluded it was time to resume normal life. How normal was it?

In Bristol, we have a wonderful bus service called the Metrobus. It’s basically a bus service with a fancy name but there are loads of buses and you never have to wait for one to come along. And sure enough, within a couple of minutes a bus rolled up. First observation was that we were the only people wearing masks so given the main purpose of wearing a mask is to protect others, we concluded that it wasn’t worth bothering to protect others if they couldn’t be bothered to protect us.

My partner is double-jabbed and I am triple-jabbed so it is unlikely, though not impossible, we will die from Covid-19, so in theory the worst that will happen is a period of feeling rubbish. We’ve done the staying-in bit, like everyone else, and certainly for me it’s had a corrosive effect on my mental health. In the end, we’ve come to a judgement that life as we knew it has to go on, hence our recent foreign holiday and yesterday’s wander around Bristol’s ancient streets.

First stop for me was HMV. Of course it was. Again, I went in with my mask on, apart from staff members the only person wearing one.  Again, what was the point of that? Off it went, never to go on again for the rest of the day. The store was relatively well-populated but not rammed. Next stop, a pub.

We settled on The Famous Naval Volunteer after rejecting an earlier pub on the grounds it was rammed. Given the stellar selection of ales, lagers and ciders, the Volley, as Bristolians call it, was a good shout. More airy than some pubs, we found an area near the big TV where I could watch the football scores. But I couldn’t because, I suspect, to reflect the demographic of the clientele, they were showing a rugby union game. The beer was of course great, the atmosphere good. Bright start.

Then to Yesterdays, as the Beer Emporium used to be called, and this was very busy with what appeared to be a large and very loud student population, as well as fancy dress groups, hockey teams, chefs, a stag wearing a pink boa who I met…er…in the gents toilet where we enjoyed a brief chat, one we resumed in the pub itself later on. If anyone had Covid in the Beer Emporium, the odds are everyone who was there last night will have it today. Its low ceiling amplifies the loud chat and social distancing was completely impossible. I have to say that Covid was in the back of my mind throughout. I wonder if it will be forever?

Our final port of call was Three Brothers burger bar. Again, social distancing impossible at the bar but airy everywhere else. Fantastic food – I went for the vegetarian option (did I fuck) – and cider. It’s probably just me but Covid again wasn’t far from my thoughts.

A busy, unmasked bus journey concluded the evening and to my mind the afternoon/evening was a success. And one of the main reasons for said success was I felt safer than I would have done had I not been jabbed. By and large, the cases packing ICUs around the country are the unvaccinated and whilst we took a considered risk in going out, I’d feel it was more of a reckless gamble had I not been Pfizer’d up. Lest we forget that for many people, especially old codgers like me, Covid can be a shitty, life-threatening business. It’s not a disease you would choose to get.

I’ll take another lateral flow test later on just to see if I am infectious. For some reason, many people in my family as well as friends have had the virus but I haven’t. Maybe I’m immune, as that great sage Donald Trump might have put it and maybe that daily shot of bleach I have been taking has kept Covid at bay.

We’re out again tomorrow (the Pub Landlord) and soon we have actual gigs coming down the tracks. The virus is far from over but everyone is acting like it is. I have no idea how this will end, or when, or if ever, but it’s time to live again, unless of course we die in making the effort.