To all those united by distancing
Due to certain complications with flights between London Heathrow and… everywhere, we were sadly unable to travel to Italy for our planned two weeks of perpetual sun, pasta sauce and pizza, on Saturday morning. Being… well… us, we didn’t let that stop us having our Italian holiday. My father has taken two weeks off work [much to the relief of his colleagues]; last night we had spaghetti Vongole and tomorrow we plan to have a film night watching Roman holiday, the Merchant from Venice and the Italian Job.
The weather has also played its part in making us feel like we are on holiday. On Monday we spent a wonderful afternoon sitting in the glorious Italian sunshine before the traditional Wheatley holiday clouds rolled across the sky. Just like on every holiday I have ever been on the rain fell just as we were settling in for some proper sunbathing. And just like every holiday I can remember since I was a child, we stayed outside as if the sun was still shining, watching as neighbours dashed indoors and slammed their windows while throwing astonished looks at the crazy English who refuse to be driven in by anything less than hail.
Another traditional part of any Wheatley holiday is the championship, a series of matches between my mother and me that starts on the flight out and ends when the plane touches down on the return journey. Normally the championship consists of Cribbage and Gin-Rummy, games that fit neatly into hand luggage. This time, however, we have taken our whole games cupboard with us. So far we have played backgammon, scrabble and Nine Men’s Morris, I have a chess board set up and ready to go and games that haven’t been played in over 20 years such as the Ant game, Shut The Box and tummy ache are lining up for our attention. I am currently falling a little way behind on the score board but I am confident that I can pull it back when we get on to noughts and crosses.
I hope you are able to enjoy the weather, such as it is, and find your own ways of traveling from your very own departure lounge.
I hope to see you all soon
With love and best wishes
Richard
Richard Wheatley BSc BPBH
“Si deve solo far saltare le porte sanguinose!”
Or at least that’s how siri translates it.☺