Tiers for fears

Got the “big deal” through today, which felt pretty good, despite the fact that it was a clear sign of how tough the market is out there.

I needed to pick up a couple of bits from town at lunchtime, so took my usual wander in and snapped this on the return. I never get tired of the river and it always reminds me how lucky I am to live where I do.

The walk was quite timely as there were a couple of issues that had come up with said deal, but just by getting away from the desk for an hour, a solution soon presented itself and we were back on again and moving forward.

I am hopeful that from a work point of view the remainder of the year may be a little less stressful. I can but hope.

Here in the UK, frustration remains over the tiering system post lockdown, but on the plus side the country feels united once more in its shared incredulity at how poorly our elected officials have dealt with this whole sorry saga.

Could be accused of being a bit Grinchy here, but I think far too much emphasis has been put on having a nice Christmas. I would rather have had an extended proper lockdown to knock the ‘vid on the head, roll out the vaccine to those most in need throughout December and then have us released back into the wild at the start of 2021.

However, I do understand and appreciate that there has to be a balancing of the scales in terms of economic impact and from my cosy bubble of steady employment, I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult life must have been this year for the self-employed and those with their own businesses.

2019 was a personally tough year for me, but with benefit of hindsight, it enabled me to reflect on it and say “well, if I can get through THAT, I can get through anything!”

2020 may well have asked the universe to hold its beer, but my hope is that those of us fortunate enough to come out the other side gingerly rubbing our psychological wounds, will find that we are stronger than ever and better prepared to deal with whatever awaits us around the corner.