Staycationing

Being able to travel overseas is something many of us take for granted. Not everyone can afford to, or chooses to, but we know we can if we want to. I’ve been very fortunate over the years; as a kid I went on a family holiday almost every year, as an adult I’ve gone on holidays whenever we could afford it. I’ve road tripped down the East Coast of USA as a teenager, and I’ve done the same on the West Coast with my own husband and son. I’ve been to Paris, Barcelona, New York, Washington DC, Nashville, Atlanta, San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Krabi, Phuket and Bangkok to name but a few. 

Truthfully, despite all these adventures, I’ve never been very good at travelling! I’ve joked for many years that I’m not built for it. Since I was a child I’d always experienced severe motion sickness..... anything faster than a skateboard could be enough to start me throwing up. I would NEVER sit in the back of a moving vehicle even to this day. A lifetime of roadside vomiting has left me somewhat scarred. I even carry an ‘emergency sickbag’ in my handbag, courtesy of EasyJet.

Strangely brain surgery seems to have rectified the issue. I can get dizzy from moving too quickly, but can read a map in the passenger’s seat of a moving car and can even go on a boat! 

I never thought I’d see the day I got excited at the prospect of road trips around the UK and Ireland. Thankfully that day has come. I say thankfully because it seems my wings have been clipped through no choice of my own......

Last Christmas friends offered us the use of their holiday home in Spain and refused any payment. We were very grateful and were looking forward to a break in the sun. We booked flights for the beginning of October but then decided to change them to April next year due to the pandemic. What neither of us considered was the impact of the UK’s EU exit....... no more E1-11 card for health care. So I priced up travel insurance..........

Have you had any medical condition for which you needed treatment over the past 3 years? Yes, brain tumour. Has it been fully removed? No. Was it benign? No. Response? A polite ‘no’ or simply no more questions and a freezing of your application. Finally I found a company that would insure me for a single trip..........at a cost that was more than we’d paid for our return flights!! 

What to do?...... Pay it?  Risk it? Rethink? We went with option 3. No viva Espana for us. Fortuitously, EasyJet are allowing free transfers on all flights due to C-19 so we were happy to change to a long weekend in Edinburgh. We will probably do a bit of an Irish road trip at some point too. Last year we went to Galway and Athlone and had a brilliant time. The year before we took the car on the ferry and had various stop offs in England en route to see my sister in Manchester, and further stop offs in Scotland on the way home. Again, great fun.

I love the idea of swimming in a warm ocean, but I’m fortunate enough to live close to one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. The sea is always cold, but it reminds me I’m alive! 

So am I sad the option of travelling has been taken from me? A bit, but not hugely. Road trips ahoy!! Always a silver lining....... living with xx