LUKE MARSDEN: so looking forward to that first post-lockdown pub pint

A scene that many are yearning for once again

Where are you heading first? What have you missed the most?

Two of the repeated questions I have been asked and have asked this week as we head closer to the great unlocking. It sounds like a level in a videogame, but the roadmap this week, culminating in most legal restrictions being lifted on June 21, has given the country a much-needed boost.

I don’t support the calls to make June 21 a bank holiday and rename it the new Independence Day, but I do think it’s what we need. No more lockdowns, no more reversals: the fantastic NHS vaccine roll-out has given us the velocity to move forward not back.

As I’ve said many times, I cannot wait to be sipping a fresh pint of draught cider from my favourite watering holes in Wigan.

Whether that be The Crown at Aspull, Real Crafty and Wigan Central in town, I’m ready for the inane chats with my mates and to feel normal again.

For many of us 2020 was the worst year on record and we simply refuse for 2021 to go the same way.

Although some I’ve seen are treating June 21 as the beginning of a plot to the Hangover movies and will probably sober up by Christmas, we all need a good drink but we still need to proceed with care. We’ll live with Covid forever but it certainly isn’t a member of the family we want to start springing back up, so let’s proceed into the sunlight with the required caution.

I’m still recovering from my Covid spell: taste and smell are still intermittent. I hope most of my tastebuds return in time for that first proper pint in June - or at least make a cameo appearance!

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