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I had a very good day and a half in Moldova doing a handover to a new colleague who will be in Odessa for the next 6 months. I had been worried that I would start setting up a response and then we wouldn’t have anyone to take it forward.

Moldova itself is beautiful and Chisinău seems like a great little city with many lovely markets, parks, cafes and bars. The airport is one of the most relaxing I have ever been to. As I stood with a handful of others waiting for our check in to open, a member of staff arrived, opened a cupboard in the small departure/arrivals hall, hung up her coat, popped her handbag on a shelf and then went over to start checking people in. This was just a regular cupboard, that anyone could access, not even a lock on the door.

I arrived in London by 2pm, picked up from the airport bus by Josh around 3.30pm and was having a lovely cuddle with Juno very soon after. She was very very happy to see me, and the feeling was mutual.

Now I have a long overdue break which, combined with the various bank holidays, gives me two weeks off work. It will take me a few days to slow down though. I have been doing everything at triple speed since early March, relaxing is going to take some concerted effort. It was worth it though, against the clock and in less than ideal circumstances, we have a good plan for a strong programme that is flexible enough - we hope -to cope with even our worst case scenario. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.