Hallelujah: we can again

Probably, I have never literally jumped for joy. My goodness, how I have missed this. And I have also never been so happy that the press conferences never manage to keep the info from leaking (they could learn a thing or two from #BOOS and Tim Hofman), because this news should have come earlier yesterday than today. The hospitality industry is reopening. Events are allowed again. I can just make a reservation at a restaurant of my choice for this weekend, go there, be served, pay the bill; the whole shebang. There is a very happy panda speaking here.

And it surprises me a bit, because I really thought they would go for that closing time of eight o'clock. But no, Rutte might have felt a bit rebellious: ten o'clock it is. In addition, indoor and outdoor events are allowed again: indoors with a maximum capacity of 1250 people, outdoors with a third of the maximum capacity. I know it might be a bit of a you-give-me-one-finger-and-I-grab-the-whole-hand situation, but this just means that we will be back in full swing this summer, right? Has the pre-sale for Lowlands already started?

Oh, how nice, for the first time in two years I feel like we are finally at the end of that dreadfully long corona tunnel. Will it really be like that? Is it realistic again to dream of carefree summers, without PCR and antigen tests? No more stress about areas that suddenly turn red (often we were the ones), buying tickets for concerts and festivals and purely focusing on the anticipation? I can hardly believe it. Maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but even Rutte is ‘moderately positive’.

Just looking forward to that press conference tomorrow, it can't get any crazier.