My three-week break – on my parents’ drive
THE trip back home to Wales was only meant to be a quick pit stop.
But now, 27-year-old Grant Tucker is living in the caravan that’s parked up in his mum’s garden in Newport.
Three weeks ago, Grant, who usually lives in London, was due to jet off to Australia with his partner Jamie for a holiday, before the coronavirus pandemic broke out.
The trip back to Newport was only meant to be a short one for the Sunday Times journalist, but the worsening pandemic scuppered those plans.
He said: “We’re in a caravan, on my parents driveway in the middle of Lliswerry.
“The social distancing had just started to come in - no hugs, no handshakes. The pubs and restaurants were still open.
“We’d had our holiday cancelled we were going to Australia and New Zealand - so I said let’s just pop back home to Wales for a few days and get away from it all.
“We jumped in the car and drove down here and little did we know as we pulled up that the caravan on the driveway would become our home for the foreseeable future, because four days later, the lockdown was brought in.”
“So we had no means of escape,” he adds with a laugh.
It’s not an awful situation though, Grant compared the 22ft-long caravan to a flat in London.
But there are a few downsides, as the couple soon found out.
He said: “We’ve got water and electricity - except f o r when my dad decided to wash his car when I was in the shower.
“I was in the shower, putting on my Treseme, and suddenly the water cuts off, I look out the window and he’s out there washing his 4x4!
“They say the lockdown will go on until at least May 7, and we think it’d be unnecessary travel to go back to London.
“We’ve been here for three weeks, we suspect we will be for at least another three.”
“My partner, Jamie, is 6ft 2 - that poses some problems.
“He can stand fine, but we tried to do one of these Joe Wicks work outs and he tried to do a star jump and immediately smashed his head on the ceiling, so we abandoned that plan.
And, luckily, Grant’s job as a journalist on The Sunday Times, means he can pretty much work from anywhere - even a caravan in south Wales.
“I’m still working, we can use my mum’s WiFi or hotspot off my phone,” he said.
He’ll be interviewing some of the stars taking part in the One World concert from his caravan.
The charity gig has already signed up the likes of Elton John, Billie Eilish and David Beckham to perform.
Grant added: “Some people are in a lot worse situations than we are. “We’ve grown to like it.
“We didn’t expect to be in this situation, I suspect we’ll never be in this situation again, so we’re just making the most of it.
“We’re just trying to pretend we’re down Porthcawl, when in fact, we’re in a caravan in Lliswerry,” he laughed.