You can go into a bar this weekend and order your IPA without a steak on the side. Yep, a drink, without a substantial meal. It seems crazy, right? As France goes into its fourth lockdown, we’re able to attack an Easter egg hunt with the family without a face-shield in sight. The Nightingale hospital is coming down, the largely-not-at-risk under 50 age groups are getting vaccinated from today and it’s time to move on.
With borders to the UK opening in April, we’ll see islanders making a break for it to visit UK relatives and inhale London again, and hopefully have some Euro-holiday-sceptic tourists choosing Jersey as their getaway destination, giving much needed extra business to our island’s tourism economy. This will be in addition to the staycayers, who are already hoovering up bed nights quicker than you can say ‘do it for Jersey’.
This month we went and checked out some of the staycay options and reconnected with how great it is to be a local tourist. I’m keen to run to the sun as much as the next (camper) van but when you consider testing and lockdowns elsewhere, a relaxing break at one of our amazing hotels is definitely an appealing option. The new Visit Jersey campaign encourages us to embrace our island from the standpoint of those who travel each year to enjoy what we sometimes take for granted. I’ve booked. You should too.
Two months having passed since our last edition, we’ve had chance to get out and bring you a gallery of some great islanders. With uncertainty around how this year would pan out, we kept the issue themes broad but ‘new’ brings us over 30 new faces to feature; from the hero Reg (of garden fame) in this edition’s round of Cool Beans (pg. 18) to a selection of creative faces in our Culture Club feature (pg. 42) designed by guest designer, @crystaldinosaur. Add to that the next generation of business leaders and developers who bring us brand new homes (pg. 84).
We don’t want to discuss a ‘new’ normal; we just want the old one back. So here’s to a normal Easter and springtime. If you have to talk about Corona, we hope it’s just ordering one at the Splash to watch the sunset, without having to sit a metre from the person next to you.
BD
