Outlook

I went across to the office again, this morning. It's a generous space for nine of us but that's rather nice. With only three of us there, though, I feel a bit more like we're rattling around. And, of course, I wonder when that will change.

In the early days of the lockdown, it felt like action was being taken and it was interesting to speculate about next steps and what might happen after lockdown. There was an energy to the situation. Over the three months, though, as it's become clear the degree to which Johnson and his weak cabinet are simply being led by events and not doing much more than crossing their fingers. Consequently, it's all begun to feel a bit aimless.

The lockdown is rapidly fraying away, partly, I think because of the time simply drifting past with no clear strategy from the government, and also because of events such as Cummings breaking the rules without sanction and the failure of Johnson's "world beating" app. I don't think anyone feels we're being taken care of by our government.

As Dan and I were walking, this afternoon, I realised that we don't talk about these things so much, anymore. He might speculate about whether he'll be back at school in September (he does miss it) or talk about how he's looking forward to getting back to RNCM (which does look set to re-open in September) but that's about it.

Generally, though, there's no real sense of anything changing soon in a structured and meaningful way. Even the suggestion of the pubs and restaurants opening early next month has been driven by economic judgements rather than any clear sense that the risk has declined significantly and sufficiently. 

This all sounds a bit gloomy - and in keeping with the outlook from Ruskin's View, today - but it wasn't like that. More of an acceptance of how things are and, I guess, simply hoping that everything will turn out OK.  Because what else can we do?

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-12.9 kgs
Reading: 'Underland' by Robert Macfarlane