Normal Friday / 3rd April 2020

I’ve heard it said a few times recently, that the longer we spend in lockdown, the more likely it is that that we’ll collectively emerge into a 'new normal' rather than switching back to what was ‘normal’ just a few weeks ago.

Old normal stopped, for me at least, three weeks ago - on 16th March I headed into the office (as normal) looked at my diary and realised that none of the meetings for that week needed us all to gather in the same physical space and headed for the office door muttering something that might or might not have been interpreted as “I’m going now, I may be some time”.  And sure enough management directive followed soon after, starting with “if you can work at home do” before being escalated to “you really should work at home” then to “work at home”.

So this is currently the normal - at times I can’t picture reverting - an early morning walk (it’s lower stress if there’s no one else around), online meetings, phone calls and email, then a proper lunch away from the keyboard, more online meetings, more phone calls and more email, finally turning off the work computer (and work phone) and sorting through the pictures taken on the morning walk.

In the good old days Fridays might have involved doing some writing or trip planning in a local coffee shop (rather than email and meetings) - there’s limited (OK, no) scope for the trips at the moment, and it's hard visualising when, and how, that might change.

Or it might have involved a longer walk (limited scope for that either) - today the walk was 6 km through and around the Lye Valley.

But there are still lockdown options - if I want a change of scenery, there’s always the garage office - but I might need a better chair.

And the 'new normal'? Not sure that'll be any clearer by next Friday.