There’s a shortage of air traffic controllers. This is why nearly all the planes I’ve met for weeks that have something to do with Gatwick are delayed. I can see why controllers are needed. You can’t land a plane without knowing for sure that nobody is taking off. Who knows where they’ve all gone. Found better jobs in Covid? Don’t want to work in a tiny room looking at planes? Whatever the reason, it’s happening. The shortage caused a two hour delay to our flight. That was plenty considering Greece is two hours ahead of the UK. By the time I had my checked baggage we were walking wounded at past 3am Greek time. We still had to get Bergman back and sleepdrive him to Brighton.”Drive on the left, watch out for cops”. I think my tax might have run out. That’s a tomorrow thing. I know I’m insured so it’s all good. Not gonna make that mistake again. Thankfully it’s a short journey and the roads were clear.
It’s cold. Comparatively. I can still walk about in shorts and sandals. But where’s my pounding sun? Still, there’ll be another month even here when I rarely have to wash my socks cos I’ve been in sandals. I’m looking forward to August and what it might bring. There’s nothing in the diary. I’ll always find something to do, which today involved driving back to London.
Just yesterday at the time of writing I was eating my last plate of Spaghetti Napoli next to a bay full of turtles. I can’t recommend Kefalonia enough at this time of year. So long as you’re resourceful you can avoid the crowds unless you want to go towards them. Tourism is so vital to the economy there that pretty much everybody is happy to see you and speaks English so well that it’s hard to learn the basics of Greek. In just over a week I stayed in six different parts of the island and tried to plug into the vibe there. There’s a lot of real estate for sale, speculating on the return of tourism, but there’s still the spectre of everything being shut down again hanging over the industry – as with ours. I really don’t think it will be shut down again – not for Covid. But basically we have all been collectively traumatised and it’s gonna take a while to regain trust.
I’ve been in an airplane and airports and boats and occasionally crowded tourist caves. I haven’t been licking everybody but I might just give it a couple of days before I pop round for tea. But I’m here, in town. I’ll miss the sea.
AlBarclay 