Day 49?

The trouble with having an illness like Covid is I don't know if minor symptoms - for example a recurring tickly cough in my upper throat and my still very dry but thankfully rash-free skin - are really lingering side effects or something I might have got anyway without noticing if I hadn't a pandemic to blame them on. I also seem to feel the cold more - but it's possible that's psychological, because I no longer think of myself as someone who doesn't get ill. 

There's nothing serious enough to be called long Covid, unlike 2 million other Brits according to the Zoe app, but neither was it done with as quickly as I thought. I hadn't realised, until the first day I tested negative and went for a short walk, that I was suffering from fatigue - but a quick wander round the block and then the stairs up to my flat soon showed me. I felt like I'd walked 14 miles, not 1. 

That was the day I was meant to go on holiday, and I already called my B&B to explain and tell them I'd hopefully be with them in a couple of days when I felt better and my tests were clear. 

When I did go - two consecutive days of negative tests and feeling a bit stronger but still itching like mad - I decided to treat the holiday as a mini-convalescence, building myself up to long walks, going to bed early, avoiding alcohol the first four days and then only having one glass. 

Being on the Jurassic coast there was also the opportunity to get some exercise clambering over rocks and walk along the beach. I was based in Paignton, which is a bit run down, but there's a promenade and a pier and a restaurant with sea view and 70s vibes and some really nice food (blue cheese cauliflower), and a small harbour and plenty of transport links - train and bus and boat and steam train - to get all round the coast. 

I visited Greenway, which used to belong to Agatha Christie, and was amazed by how lovely it is, especially on the walk up through the wood, with all the bluebells. One of the hosts at my B&B recommended visiting a place called Cockington - which had thatched roofs and cream teas and another beautiful garden. 

Dartmouth was stunning. I got the round robin ticket for steam train, ferry and boat tour, and that left plenty of time to pop in the shops and walk up to the castle.  Exmouth was another lovely coastal walk. Exeter had a great museum. 

And Paignton itself grew on me more and more. There were a lot of charity shops, which meant that when I found I hadn't packed enough tops or underwear (it's possible I was a bit brain-foggy still) I could buy the former second hand very cheaply, and I scored three second hand Colin Watson books (I didn't even know he'd been republished) and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. There was a nice, and I think independent, coffee place, and a good public library near the station with a café in it too. There were gardens I could walk through to the high street once I got the topography right, and coastal walks in both directions with marvellous views. 

I usually go to cities on holiday, sometimes more than one - Naples, Barcelona, Athens, Paris, Florence etc - and I wouldn't want to spend a whole week in a place as small as Paignton, but as a launching off point, or if you had small children who just wanted to play on the beach, you could certainly do worse.