How escaping the UK and going abroad on holiday saved our family Christmas

The weather outside was frightful. Thick fog bearhugged the A40. We were in a car somewhere outside Oxford on Christmas Eve, although we could have been ticks inside the fleece of an unshorn sheep for all I could see outside the windscreen.

I hadn’t learned to drive until my early thirties. With the ink on my pass certificate still drying, one obvious idea had come to me and my partner Helena: this year, we had the freedom to drive around to see everybody in our families. No need to risk the stress of the delay-ridden train gauntlet, or to squeeze ourselves and everyone’s gifts onto buses, like human was saved!