A hotel break! Is this the real life or just fantasy? - Fiona Duff

My poor old mother who is so bored she’d read the back of a Cornflakes packet for amusement needs to get out of her house.

Her favourite hotel is the Green Park in Pitlochry so that’s where I am heading any minute now. Sitting on the bank of the river it looks as though it is the perfect situation, although looking at the weather forecast I am not sure we’ll be sitting on one of the benches trying to spot some fish. However, someone else will be cooking my breakfast and supper and I can laze about reading books.

So the tide definitely seems to be turning. Earlier this week I actually went to a restaurant in the evening for the first time since I don’t know when. Sitting in Howies Waterloo with a glass of wine in my hand it could almost be 2019, apart from the Perspex panels between the tables. That and having to wear a glass for a trip to the loo of course.

Next up is a trip to Northumberland at the beginning of June. My goodness, it will be like a foreign trip as I can’t remember when I last left Scotland. Well, actually there was a trip to Italy last September.

It’s great to see people out and about again and be able to meet more than one friend over a cup of tea in the park. Although in some ways I quite enjoyed my walks with a flask in my bag, timing it all so that I didn’t have to have a pee before I got home. My evening bridge sessions are going to take a bit of a hit with all this socialising and I’ll miss those friends that I hardly see in the flesh as they live all around the UK.

Still, that’s a small price to pay to be able to give a friend a hug and have a proper gossip.