This is supposed to be the first of four to six posts about my trip to Iceland in March but if you’re reading this, it means I didn’t go. At time of writing, it’s Sunday 15th March, the end of the week in which things got serious and I’m leaning towards “better all round not to go”. I think in my heart I know I’m not going but I’m yet to make the firm decision in my head.
It’s Monday evening. As of today, we’ve gone into semi-lockdown. Girlguiding is suspended. I’m expecting to be told tomorrow that we’re working from home, instead of “having the meeting” on Wednesday and then trying it out one by one over the next week in preparation for the next few weeks. I’m not going to Iceland.
Many things happen during a pandemic. That the travel industry has been hit so hard is really only a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. I mean, one airline has already been taken down by the virus, more will have followed by the time this is published and travel bloggers are looking at getting offline jobs because blog views and revenues are down so much. I’m an outlier. March – as of today, the 15th 16th – is my best month ever. Forecast views and visitor numbers are far outstripping even last summer’s spike. I always get lots more traffic between June and August. This March spike is unprecedented.
But other than my ego, it doesn’t matter how my traffic is (and for all my delight in my numbers, most blogs get more traffic in a day than I do in a year, to out my March numbers in perspective) because I make no money from this. I did have ads on it but after they’d annoyed me for a year while being constantly in the way and earning me eight measly pence – yes, pennies! Just under ten American cents in case you’re not sure how little that is – I decided it wasn’t worth it. I have an offline job. Two of them. One is remote anyway, since the company is based in London and I am not. The other, I could work from home. Maybe take the MHRA folders home. By now, maybe I am working from home. (edit: I am.)
What does a travel blog do when its owner can’t travel? Well, right now we’re not locked down and living in the countryside gives some potential for going out and doing bloggable stuff that doesn’t involve going within half a mile of another person. Whether or not I’ve ended up going to Iceland, I’m not going to work the second half of this week and I hope I can find something safe but interesting to do for four or five days.
I’ve got plenty of stuff to write about that predates this blog. I can always squeeze more out of my year living and studying in Switzerland. The best part of two decades of family Keycamp holidays. More on Trondheim and the Baltics. Outdoors skills – I do want to whittle a new stalk for the ceremonial toadstool we use at Brownies (ever since I’ve been there, it’s been a white-painted Fanta bottle). I meant to do a series on camping skills – that’s not impossible.
And when the pandemic ends – for all things must pass eventually – I’ll do a long winter trip to Iceland and all the things I should have written this year will appear another year. Here’s hoping it’s only next year.
In the meantime, I still have a month’s worth of posts pre-written and scheduled so normal blogging resumes for a while next blog day, which is Monday.