Showing Faraway Friends Around My Home City

I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog over the past year how I haven’t gone out much since the COVID-19 pandemic. Whenever each lockdown was lifted, I kept on living as if they were still in place. I didn’t go out much before Coronavirus, so the isolation hasn’t hit me quite as hard. In the game of life, I feel like I have a +1 stat boost against cabin fever. But even I miss things. Trying out new restaurants. Playing footy. Getting shitfaced on cocktails. Hitting up the Watershed Cinema for foreign films or The Tobacco Factory Theatre for gritty plays. My friends.

A few weeks ago, I got my second shot of Pfizer, and while I’m hesitant to go anywhere too crowded, I’m making small steps lately to rejoin society. There’s also the fact that I’m moving to London in a few short weeks. Throughout the summer I’ve been talking with my friends Elizabeth and George about meeting up before I go. Initially we had planned a weekend in London together, but various factors that couldn’t be bridged forced us to scale back this idea. For one thing, public transport is an utter scam in this country. London is only an hour and a half away by train and yet a weekend in Portugal would cost less. My friends couldn’t spare more than a day due to work and other commitments, and so we figured that it made more sense for us to meet up in London once I was settled there. That was when they…