# Holiday Joy



## BrumJim (3 Sep 2021)

Sorry for this. I have to share it with someone.

Holiday was a bit of a disaster this year. We were supposed to be heading away to Forest of Dean for a couple of weeks during the school summer break. However in an attempt to get my wife into a condition where she could actually enjoy the holiday and do something, we enrolled our child in a summer sports program for 3 weeks. Only at the end of the second week one of his bubble was tested positive for COVID, so we tested him on the Sunday, and found he was positive too. Which meant that we had to self-isolate for 10 days, and therefore cancel the first week of the holiday.

But we eventually made it. Mostly due to Ibuprofen as I managed to pick up a 'flu bug just before we went away, resulting in muscle aches and much tiredness, but fortunately we had chosen a location only 70-odd miles from home, because I didn't think it would be too busy. So now I am mostly in sole charge of a very active 8-year-old who showed no symptoms at all, as my wife only just managed to make it through the previous two weeks with a very active child in her care.

Plans for the holiday included a big long bike ride, and climbing Pen-y-fan as my two key aims. Both of which had to be shoe-horned into the last two days, giving me as much time as possible to get over this 'flu bug.

Pen-y-fan was 8 miles of walking (we did most of the horsehoe route), and a big day of climbing up the southern UK's highest and second highest peaks.

The next day was a glorious sunny day, and we successfully completed the 50-mile bike adventure that he so wanted to tick off his bucket list. We travelled over to Lydney, up the Lyd valley to Upper / Lower Lydbrook, across the Wye at Kerne Bridge, and then following pretty much the route of the Wye down to Chepstow, finishing under the Severn Bridge (old suspension bridge) at Chepstow. Ice creams consumed at Symonds Yat, cakes at Tintern Old Station. The plan then was train to Lydney, pick up some fish and chips, and then get a taxi back as the starting point was 240m above the chip shop over a distance of 6 miles, so mostly very uphill, with a little bit of gently uphill at the end. Only being a city boy, I thought it would just be a case of phoning up a taxi when we needed one. But of course most taxis don't operate after 18:00, and it was just after 18:00. So we had to ride back, which involved a lot of screaming, yelling and crying when every corner he turned presented yet more hill to climb.

Therefore total distance was 57 miles, with a bit too much climbing at the end, but plenty of great views and good fuelling.

The last day, packing and heading off home showed that I was still very much under the weather. So we lost half the holiday, and half of the remainder was spent with me trying to recover whilst still doing something, and the final quarter was spent doing three of the things on our must-do list.

Today he has come home from school, and in his "about me" sheet that he has completed, his favourite holiday of all time was...

2021!

Don't know whether the Go Ape adventure had something to do with it, or the caves, but I strongly suspect that not only completing his 50-mile ride, but adding another 7 on top, was the main reason as to why this was such a great holiday.

Nice to fail but still come out on top.


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## Cathryn (3 Sep 2021)

Your 8 year old rode 57 miles????????


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## BrumJim (3 Sep 2021)

Photos here:





Mint choc chip, of course. His favourite ice cream choice.




Taking the hand-pulled ferry across the River Wye.




Boringly, only a Mark 2F, dressed up to look like a genuine GWR carriage.




Under the Severn Crossing, and 2 miles to go to reach the magic 50.


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## BrumJim (3 Sep 2021)

Strava traces:
Here
and
here
Screen grabs below if the links don't work:


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## Venod (3 Sep 2021)

BrumJim said:


> Don't know whether the Go Ape adventure had something to do with it, or the caves, but I strongly suspect that not only completing his 50-mile ride, but adding another 7 on top, was the main reason as to why this was such a great holiday.



Brilliant he will remember this forever and hopefully set him up as a life long cyclist.


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## 13 rider (3 Sep 2021)

Well done junior @BrumJim a great ride and adventure . Well done @BrumJim for being a good a dad


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## dodgy (3 Sep 2021)

BrumJim said:


> I managed to pick up a 'flu bug just before we went away



Am I reading this wrong? Your child caught Covid, then you 'picked up a flu bug' then went on holiday anyway, including visiting ice cream parlours?

I mean, brill on the lad for some proper riding, but I just can't get my head around this.


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## BrumJim (3 Sep 2021)

dodgy said:


> Am I reading this wrong? Your child caught Covid, then you 'picked up a flu bug' then went on holiday anyway, including visiting ice cream parlours?
> 
> I mean, brill on the lad for some proper riding, but I just can't get my head around this.


We missed half the holiday due to him having COVID. Left to go on holiday after the 10 day isolation period and a negative lateral flow test, so he was over that. Yes, I did go away with a 'flu. My wife had already had it, and my son was either immune or had fought it without symptoms.

I thought I had recovered by the bike ride. No more 'flu germs, just some after effects. Ice cream was from a cafe and consumed outside.


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## dodgy (3 Sep 2021)

BrumJim said:


> We missed half the holiday due to him having COVID. Left after the 10 day isolation period and a negative lateral flow test, so he was over that. Yes, I did go away with a 'flu. My wife had already had it, and my son was either immune or had fought it without symptoms.


Oh right, not sure if I would have gone away with flu during a pandemic, lateral flow tests are notoriously unreliable anyway according to my 2 NHS nurse friends, false negatives apparently.
How do you know you had flu and not actual Covid? If it *was *flu, you wouldn't be going on holiday, trust me.


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## BrumJim (3 Sep 2021)

dodgy said:


> Oh right, not sure if I would have gone away with flu during a pandemic, lateral flow tests are notoriously unreliable anyway according to my 2 NHS nurse friends, false negatives apparently.
> How do you know you had flu and not actual Covid? If it *was *flu, you wouldn't be going on holiday, trust me.


Minor 'flu. He had a positive lateral flow test first off, so test worked on him and presumably would have worked on us. And he had reached the end of isolation period.


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## dodgy (3 Sep 2021)

BrumJim said:


> Minor 'flu. He had a positive lateral flow test first off, so test worked on him and presumably would have worked on us. And he had reached the end of isolation period.


But you were still ill, yes? Imagine you're in a cafe/restaurant/pub/ice cream parlour, sniffling, coughing, sneezing - how's that supposed to make people nearby feel good? You haven't so far stipulated that you yourself got a test, you seem to have self-diagnosed with 'a minor flu' (whatever the F that is). I'm expecting you now to say "oh yeah, I forgot, I was tested".

Sorry mate, think you're having a laugh. With attitudes to public safety like this, it's no wonder cases are massively on the rise *again*.


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## Drago (7 Sep 2021)

If its a recent exposure to someone with covid an LFD test won't show positive. Need to test daily for several days to be sure, as theyre only 75-85% accurate.

Of course, if you have "flu" you are symptomatic and should be taking a PCR test instead.

Respiratory illness is no joke, and if you have one theres a moral imperative not to go off on a jolly.


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## BrumJim (8 Sep 2021)

Drago said:


> If its a recent exposure to someone with covid an LFD test won't show positive. Need to test daily for several days to be sure, as theyre only 75-85% accurate.
> 
> Of course, if you have "flu" you are symptomatic and should be taking a PCR test instead.
> 
> Respiratory illness is no joke, and if you have one theres a moral imperative not to go off on a jolly.


Took a PCR test, and several LFD tests (every other day). It was a bug that my wife had, and she tested every day too, and also had the PCR test, and all came back negative.

There seems to be some sort of story building up around what I did. It was a cottage holiday, with accomodation in a small, quiet village. All activities were done outside with plenty of social distancing, including ice cream eating, and masks were worn fastidiously every time I was inside. I wasn't sneezing or coughing regularly - the critical symptom was just ache in most muscles.

The main problem was that rest is recommended for 'flu-like symptoms. I didn't have the option (other than cancelling the whole holiday, which would have probably made things a whole lot worse), and suffered as a result of doing too much exercise too soon.


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