Christopher Ballantyne

Distracted by COVID, Brits lose their European privileges.

As a keen skateboarder in my teenage years, actively seeking out ledges to grind and sets of stairs to jump down, I was accustomed to pretty much constant bodily injury. After one particularly epic fail- which resulted in my left arm looking like it had been exfoliated with coarse grade sandpaper- I recall a friend’s grandmother giving me some advice. “Put a stone in your shoe…by the time you’ve walked home you’ll have forgotten all about your arm”. Sure enough this unconventional technique caused enough superficial pain to distract me from my shredded arm whilst I hobbled home.