My car has had a temporary front-end fix, to get me through to early January, when the damage will be properly repaired, with Volvo spare parts.
My poor car looked like this after that encounter with a vicious bollard in the Burgess Hill car park:
An ugly, depressing sight. But three days ago the bodywork shop pushed things back into place, paying especial attention to the misaligned headlamp. Only a temporary fix, of course, but what a difference! Fiona now looks like this:
So far as I can see, the headlamp light pattern, never drastically affected, is now back to normal, and I feel that I can drive around after dark with confidence. 'After dark' at this time of year means 'late afternoon onwards', even in southerly Sussex. Sunset comes at 3.55pm at this time of December, and it would have been seriously limiting if I had to scurry home before then.
Not that I will be doing any socialising at Christmas. I am still three days away from my Covid booster jab - delayed because of my long Scottish holiday earlier this year - and if I'm honest I won't feel happy meeting up with other people until after Christmas Day, even though I do have much-appreciated invitations for that very day. But the Omicron variant of Covid is becoming seriously prevalent in the south-east, and any close/prolonged contact with others - however casual or accidental - is simply courting an uncomfortable (or nasty) illness at home, if nothing worse. I've escaped infection so far, and don't want to succumb now. Indeed, for all I know, I might be one of the unfortunate minority who would be hospitalised, and I don't want to risk finding out. Not when hospitals are under pressure, and getting timely emergency treatment is a matter of luck on the day. Even if getting ill doesn't mean hospital, I don't fancy a prolonged dose of 'long Covid'.
So I rather think I will be deliberately self-isolating from the moment I'm boosted, right through to the day after New Years Day. I will of course nip out for food shopping at quiet times. And I will feel free to set forth in Fiona for long and solitary heathland, clifftop and harbour walks. But no lunches in crowded pubs, although the temptation might be hard to resist.
This cautious behaviour won't be a hardship. I love long drives to lonely places - camera in hand naturally, with the prospect of bringing back a harvest of pictures. It's exactly what I do almost every day on my caravanning holidays. I never tire of it. I'm always fascinated by what I capture. And if the weather is foul, I have a big programme of scanning to do at home, all ready to go.
With Fiona fully driveable, I can now plan a long day trip to somewhere distant, taking food and a flask. Stonehenge in Wiltshire? The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire? Or the Kent or Essex coast? Maybe on Christmas Day or Boxing Day morning? Why not, if the weather looks good?
