Filling forms and taking tests - the new normal

The sun is out in the square, the red-brick church across the way stands sentinel over the eastern Croatian town of Osijek.

 I’m waiting for the start of the European Shooting Championships, two weeks of action, following a week in Lonato, Italy, for the  ISSF Shotgun Work Cup.

 After the drought comes the deluge - meaning 4 weeks away from home.  It’s a strange feeling after a year hardly venturing away from home.  Odd, and a little stressful if truth be told.

Although looking at the scene here it’s as if Covid never happened, it of course casts a shadow over everything, making life considerably more difficult.

Travelling has been the most challenging.  Getting out of the UK meant a lot of researching just exactly what was needed to go away for work.  Declarations, letters of invitation for work and an expensive PCR test that could be uploaded (eventually) to British Airways; there were times that I felt like just staying at home in my cosy Covid secure bubble.

There were upsides; at Heathrow I was looking forward to using my new loyalty card status to check in via the business class zone.  It was shut, but my disappointment was short lived as I was ushered through the first class check in, security and lounge.

The Italian organisers had arranged an Italian driver to get me to my hotel, about 2 hours  from the airport in Milan.  Davide might have been past retirement age, but he drove like a Ferrari driver, weaving across lanes to negotiate bends on the motorway.  I clocked his speed at 184kph. 

Covid and quarantine has meant that I can’t go home between events.  Instead, I have come to Croatia early.  At least the journey here was a bit more serene, perhaps a bit too serene - a 9 hour car journey through Northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

I’m here now, but I can’t wait to get home - not only to see the family again, but because whilst writing this, I have had a text asking me to book my second jab.  Frustratingly, there’s no appointments in June yet.  Better take yet another test….