Great Start to the Day

I woke at 4:15 am and despite trying to get back off to sleep I gave in at about 5:00 am and got up.  My mind starts to become active and nothing I do will reverse that once it has started.  I was thinking about the things I needed to do for the visits I was going to make today to various properties as part of the "Home for Ukraine' project.

The first visit was quite surreal as the property was a grade 2 listed building, palatial would not have done it a disservice in description.  Add to that that the Ukrainian family were already in residence.  Ideally, we should be inspecting the properties before the guests arrived, but I quickly came to the conclusion that this property was not going to be an issue. Only one of the six people staying there could speak English so we had to take our time.  There were four generations in the family occupying the property but there was plenty of room for them to live comfortably.

I carried out another couple of visits during the day, with wildly varying standards of housing.  In the final property were another two guests, a mother and son.  The home owner told me as we walked around that the mother was absolutely terrified of my visit, worrying about what I would find. Unfortunately the property and the number and size of bedrooms did leave me with concerns.  No conclusions have been drawn as yet, but there is a possibility that it will be decided that the property is unsuitable because of the way bedrooms have to be shared.  That will be a decision for others but I know it will be dealt with sensitively.

I finished the day with a deep respect for the kindness of the people who have opened their homes to these people, as well as the amazing fortitude of these guests who have been displaced to a different country where everyone speaks in a foreign language. It brings home the horror of war.  

I was driving into work when the sun rose and just managed to get this shot before starting work.