It was good to get back to a level of normality. The car I should have been testing for just one week was returned after the full six weeks of lockdown, my colleague Geraldine Herbert produced a superb motoring supplement in last Sunday's paper and there's a buzz of optimism in the air.
As I walked in Phoenix Park with the dogs last Tuesday, people were listening more intently to their radios and then greeting you in a warmer fashion, always referencing the first vaccines being delivered in the North and Britain.
Hope is a great salve for the spirit and the body. It should also pay off economically. That will be noticeable in the whole motoring world. There will be a lot of activity in both the new and second-hand market and, as Geraldine reported, there are new cars arriving in 2021 with a heavy bias towards electric, plug-in hybrids and hybrid models.