ISOLATION DIARIES PART 65: IT'LL ALL END IN TIERS

Lockdown 2.21 and the government have just announced the tiering system that happens in this next period. Most of the country, including us, are going into Tier 2 'Very High Alert' from Wednesday, which essentially means most things are back open but we can't go to each other's houses, and thanks to the Rule of Six, the S-Club 7 reunion is still out of the question.

Someone on the radio just said this is likely to be the system now, until the vaccination rollout - though of course areas of the country could go up or down a tier, depending on reviews.

And then there's Hobson's Choicest Christmas Bubble! Basically, over the Christmas holidays, despite the tiering system, up to three households can mix, forming a Christmas Bubble. Hobson can ponder by the stable door, but Christmas is definitely not going to be the usual family fun for those of us with six different households. At least we know the situation - I'm thankful for some sort of a plan, and who knows: maybe there's a hidden wonder in a quieter Christmas. I'm dreading saying that to my Mum by the way.

What the government are trying to do is navigate a very tricky path. A third lockdown would be an all-round disaster - literally nobody wants it, but Christmas matters to people, and the economy. This complex bubbling and tiering idea is convoluted because there are so many differing outcomes and tensions, and the only hope out there is that next year the vaccine buffers us from the virus altogether. They're trying to get us there in one piece, despite that journey of theirs being a little self-inflicted. It does seem to make sense to the most of us.

I don't want to wreck it, but it feels like the beginning of the end game. I've spent a long time this year, pondering whether this has been an opportunity for change, or whether I'd like things to go back to how they were. I think I'm settling on both, though articulating that to people will be difficult. I'll revisit that sometime.

Meanwhile, today seems to be a day of getting our heads around what we will or won't be allowed to do from next week. And then all of us have difficult decisions to make about who gets to see whom at good old Christmas 2020 so that next year we really can belt out the likes of 'here we are as in olden days' and very much mean it.