May You Live in Interesting Times.

Any fan of Chinese wisdom, or Terry Pratchett, will be familiar with the curse "May you live in interesting times". And fuck have times just got interesting. Everyone is currently still trying to gather their thoughts and adjust to our new normal and its rough. This last week has seen so many people show their true colours. And thankfully on the whole no matter what peoples politics usually are most people are pulling together to try to get through this.

As one of the people who is at "extreme risk" I am still trying to adjust to the thought I will be unable to leave my house for at least 3 months and work out what life will look like during that time. The biggest immediate problem is getting food. I managed to get a "big shop" delivery at the start of the week just before everything went totally insane but the next delivery I can get is in 3 weeks!! I have cleared out my food cupboard and looked at what I can do to make the food I have in stretch further. I have a friend who is fetching me bits I need when they do their family shopping. Some local businesses have started delivering, so they don't have to completely close down while they can not be open to the public, and I have ordered some lovely food from them. I have ordered my usual meal boxes from Gusto (a  monthly treat that has now become a necessity). But we really need a bigger solution to this problem. I am able to be resourceful and was already very used to shopping online. I hate to think what is happening to those who don't have those resources available to them.

I am still working but we are in limbo. We were fairly well set up to work remotely but the suddenness of this has pushed our systems beyond their limits and highlighted problems that we already knew about that went unresolved. We are still trying to carry on the best we can. Some of us are trying to clear the decks and finish work off to free up our time. Others are working on plans to make sure we continue to deliver our essential functions and how we can use our skills to support other organisations. Others are stuck waiting to hear where they are needed.

Out of work I've been trying to help where I can. Using my skills online to help direct people to the right information and organizations who can help them. Setting up groups to help people share information. Both about frivolous things, like online events we can all use to keep us entertained, and more serious things, like businesses that are behaving in immoral ways.

We are on the upward curve of people who are infected developing symptoms. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But things will get better. Hopefully when this is over some of the lessons we are all learning about what's important will stick with us. The NHS and welfare state were born out of people in World War 2 experiencing what we are experiencing now. What can we create?