All Change Friday / 20th March 2020

They say that a week is a long time in politics - but when I re-read my blog from last Friday it really is remarkable how much has changed in the last seven days.

1. I've now been told that I'm going to be working off-site.  Initially that was to be until the end of April, then (because I'm "vulnerable" - I'm not taking well to that description) it's for the next 12 weeks (until mid-June).

2. The May walking trip in Germany hasn't yet actually been cancelled - but I'm expecting both that and the July trip to Italy to be canned at some point.

3. The coffee bar where I typed last weeks post has put the shutters up.

4. I didn't get to go to the airport this week - I've currently no idea when I'll get back up to Shetland

5. I assume the concert (I didn't go to) got cancelled.

6. I'm now actively avoiding people (see the vulnerable bit in item 1).

I grumbled last week about the lack of certainty - I'm not sure I'm much happier about the short term clarity.

At one level I'm OK about Working From Home (although I need to get better at being clear when I'm working and when I'm not), I'm mostly OK about Social Distancing (truth be told it's probably my default setting anyway).  What I'm not OK about is the lack of mobility.

I'm not good at being told that I can't go places - whether it's local, to the other end of the country or to the other end of world - I want the option of going.  UK government advice is pretty clear about only making essential journeys (although I'm not aware that that is being enforced yet) but crossing international borders looks as if it's pretty much a non-starter at the moment.

So, what have I done to combat the 'cabin fever'?

Over the last few days, I've made contact with quite a few friends around the country - really just to check that they're doing OK - but somehow maintaining these links at least by social media seems more important than ever.

I'm also trying to keep up my regular walking.  At the start of year (back in the days BC - Before Corona) I set a target of doing 2000 miles this year - about 5.5 miles a day (or about 450 lengths of the back garden).

So far I've not needed to resort to pacing the garden, and I've tried to get a walk each day this week before I open the work inbox.  I suspect that I'm going to be posting a lot of pictures from the C S Lewis Nature Reserve over the next few months.

The walk this morning took in the C S Lewis Reserve plus Shotover Country Park.