(Almost) Carefree Touristing

 

Last weekend I was in Salzburg with my Mum for our by now traditional visit to a performance of the Salzburg Festival. We were there for just one night from Friday to Saturday and had both been looking forward to our little weekend trip. Late on Wednesday evening a colleague contacted me on our work chat to tell me that she'd just tested positive for Covid (again) and had to name me as one of her close contacts to HR since we were both at the office on Tuesday, had lunch together and I actually also used one of our tiny one-person meeting rooms immediately after her, windows closed for better AC performance. I did a PCR test first thing on Thursday morning as I obviously did not want to infect my mother who is still a "Coronavirus Virgin", but all was well and by Friday night I had almost forgotten about it. My immune system is obviously still well-equipped for the current mutations and we've come a long way from the hysteria (and restrictions) everyone was in in earlier versions of this Corona game. 

Having had my personal encounter with the virus and subsequent isolation and all the rest of it has made me so much more "chill" and able to enjoy life again without a layer of doom and gloom over it and suspecting the worst if I feel a scratch in my throat or need to sneeze. 

It feels so good to be able to enjoy a carefree summer again (like last year when everyone I knew was so happy to have received the first two vaccinations) and as for being concerned for autumn and winter (once more), well, I guess this is just part of our new normal now.