I was so happy I could have run through a corn field | Blaise Tapp

Like many others, I have spent my life not conforming to anything which even remotely borders on normal given the fact that I have never really fitted in anywhere.

And I wouldn’t change it for anything.

While it took me until I reached my mid-thirties until I truly appreciated the sentiment that not caring what other people think and going your own way makes life much easier to bear.

Things are made all the more interesting when circumstances change and new challenges are presented to us – some call it rolling with the punches

And there are millions more out there who adopt the same approach, calling into question the term normality.

This is partly the reason why the vast majority of people were left scratching their heads when Boris Johnson, the king of the throwaway line, dangled the tantalizing carrot that life might return to normal by Christmas, making him sound rather like an over-optimistic builder.

While it is understandable that leaders want to reassure the masses that they have a strategy to both stabilise the economy, not to mention get a grip on the ongoing health crisis, they also have a responsibility not to promise the undeliverable.

Especially when very clever people explain that such promises have very little basis in fact.

In the four months since the pandemic forced the vast majority of us to stay indoors, we have all found a different way of doing things, a transition which has become known as the new normal – a phrase that has been banned in our house.

We are now starting to go out more than we were doing, with most of us taking the necessary steps to ensure that we are not plunged into a period of a personal lockdown or, even worse, illness.

On Saturday night Mrs Tapp and I ventured out for a meal together for the first time since January and it was glorious in every way imaginable – the only thing missing was a cornfield for us to run through after we had finished.

Getting out of the house and having conversations about something other than the vagaries of TikTok or why our four-year-old really shouldn’t eat Wotsits while trampolining was my most liberating experience of 2020.

While it was a very nice meal indeed, we would both have been happy with a Bargain Bucket and a giant milkshake on a park bench if that had meant grown up time.

I should imagine that the diners on other tables probably shared our sentiments while they grinned their way through the evening.

A normal evening? Not quite.

The hand sanitiser positioned discreetly on a wall was a reminder to us all that things have changed and there were no handshakes at the end of the evening or hugs and kisses between people who hadn’t seen one another since the start of spring.

But, right now, life is largely reminding little people about not getting too close to aunts and uncles or making sure there are enough face masks left for the month.

It is about honouring the booking you made six months ago while reading the insurance terms and conditions more carefully than ever before. Turns out we are not covered for a Covid-related cancellation.

We inhabit a world where awkward elbow taps have replaced meaningful embraces, as well as one where you have to pick up the phone if you want your daily fix of office gossip.

We now have our family bubbles and have begun socialising with our friends again – albeit at a safe distance – and everybody that I know is into their new groove and are not missing ‘normal’ as much as they thought they might.