We had our first family fortnight since 2019 booked in Cornwall for the beginning of July. We were all going, us, the boys and our eldest’s fabulous girlfriend. We splashed out and booked 2 weeks in a luxury lodge in a small hamlet with a rather nice village store, and we had 2 weeks of sun, beach, books and food all planned.

We arrived on Friday evening after a detour through Plymouth, and our eldest and his GF arrived a bit later. Our eldest was tired, but he had been working all week, had had a strong man competition the week before, so we put it down to that. On the Saturday he was still exhausted – more than I would have expected, but we still put it down to fatigue. Then he coughed. For some unknown reason I had packed LTFs, so I got him to take a test. It was positive. We had avoided Covid for almost 30 months despite working in schools, being in school full time and going into offices, and yet on the first full day of our dream holiday, we had a positive test. Luckily the rest of us were negative, and our eldest didn’t feel too bad.

We looked up what we were expected to do, and basically we could carry on as normal! We didn’t though, he stayed in the house or went to empty beaches, and we went and bought packs of disposable masks so that if we did have to go out (to buy food!) we could mask up and throw away the masks when we got back.

On the Tuesday night our youngest felt rubbish so we did a LFT at midnight and it was negative. The following afternoon he was exhausted so we did another test – positive. Two down, three to go……maybe.

We changed our plans again, doing late evening walks along the beach, avoiding anywhere with people but still trying to enjoy the holiday. We were swapping lodges on the Friday so we had to be out for the day, so we were all out that day, but tried our best to avoid people, and our youngest masked up all the time, even in the heat and humidity.

On the Saturday it was my turn. I felt a strange fatigue, I was too tired to read, even, so I did a LFT and I was positive. By this time the boys were feeling better, and were venturing a little further, but still masked and avoiding crowds – although listening to beach conversations before I tested positive, I think there were lots of people down there who were positive but weren’t doing anything to stop the spread. On the Wednesday my husband tested positive, and on the Thursday we came home.

Although I am grateful that we all had it very mildly (thank you NHS and vaccines), I was an absolute sh*tter to have it on holiday, and to have our plans change again and again. Our youngest found it difficult – and he has been low since we got back, and I’ve struggled to accept that our dream holiday was staggered isolating in a lovely lodge rather than visiting different places and doing different things. It was enforced change that none of us could do anything about. It was tough, and frustrating and, well, sad. I know that Covid has been far, far worse for so many people, and I am so grateful and relieved that we all had it mildly, and to be sad about something that could have been much worse makes me cross with myself – but it happened, we’re all ok, and we still have the rest of the summer to do things.