Hard Yards

The reality of the dire situation in the UK has really been brought home to me in the last couple of days.

The lockdown was inevitable and overdue in my non-science-based opinion. I’m glad it’s been done, because the sooner we are in it, the sooner we come back out of it once more.

Where I’ve really seen the biggest impact is upon my lovely colleagues. One of which who had a daughter in hospital over the festive period with suspected meningitis and had a hell of a time in ensuring that she was properly cared for as a result of the poor NHS staff being utterly swamped. At one point the poor girl had gone just over 24 hours without being offered even a small glass of water. This is not a dig at the staff in any sense, more to highlight the exact reason for locking down once more. This is just one story of a person in hospital for a non-covid related reason, but having to suffer because of the knock-on effects of this tiresome and mutating virus.

On the other side, I was comforting a colleague who was in tears this morning. Having already got through the first lockdown having to home school her two primary school aged children AND hold down a demanding job, she was overwhelmed by the prospect of having to do it all again. By her own admission there are people far worse off than her, but jeez, it’s still a tough ask and a great strain not only on the parents, but of course the children too. Video conferencing is amazing technology, but is still a poor substitute for the ability to reach out and put an arm around someone. 

This time out, I will be taking a more active involvement in the home-schooling process too, so will need to juggle the work/life balance a bit better. I am fortunate to work for a company that understands and provides this flexibility.

Sadly, because of the shockingly incompetent and inept handling of the whole sorry saga by the UK government, this was always going to get worse before it got better. Now at least, with the lockdown in place, the vaccine should be able to stretch out a good lead before we are phased back into the wild.

Seems counter intuitive to say, but the positive to take from Lockdown3: Parabellum is that it just got worse, which by definition means that the first step on the road to better times has been taken.

“We’re in the endgame now”.

Stay healthy.

P.S. Related to nothing aside from a little escapism, I thoroughly recommend giving Travelogue Volume 1 by Michael Giachinno a listen.