Well, the world does feel like a rather strange place at the minute, doesn't it? Two weeks ago I spent the weekend in London. We'd heard the news, of course, but at the time, Covid-19 didn't seem like something we'd need to be taking precautions against, on an individual level at least. I travelled by train, shared accommodation and food, and there were plenty of hugs. I was still on strike that week, and I met up with friends, hosted a (small) dinner party, and generally carried on daily life as normal, always with one eye on the news. Things started getting stranger throughout the week, and several universities moved all their teaching online. Mine didn't, and I spent an anxious weekend refreshing the university website, trying to work out whether I should do my teaching on the Monday online or in person. I decided to go to class myself, but tell my students they didn't have to, and provide an online option. An hour later the university announced we had a week to move everything online. Monday was my first class back after three weeks of being on strike. Only a handful of students turned up, and I'll admit we felt rather daft as we stayed 6 feet away from each other, dotted around the classroom. I didn't go to my normal office, so I didn't see any of my colleagues or my usual students. On Monday night, we were told to move everything online and work from home immediately. I work from home a lot anyway, so there was no great transition needed for me, although it's been a week of experimentally recording lectures, shifting student supervisions online, an eight hour teleconference (!). Things are settling now, and work-wise, next week onwards should be much calmer, although obviously tings are changing daily now so who knows. Outside of work though... We went to our local cafe Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and they were increasingly worried about what would happen to them. We didn't go yesterday, and last night the government announced all cafes (and restaurants, cinemas etc) would close. We bumped into one of the women from the cafe at the supermarket and it felt a bit sad to be saying goodbye. Of course I'm anxious about how things are going to pan out, globally, nationally, for the health service, for people on precarious work contracts (one of the main things we were striking about), self-employed people whose businesses may not weather the storm, people already living in poverty, people without anyone to support them. I'm waking up too early, going to sleep too late, scrolling through Twitter (like that's going to help). I think I need to stop. Not stop reading the news, but stop refreshing it regularly, stop reading endless commentary, stop worrying about things I have control over, and instead focus on things I can control. Donating to the food bank. Supporting colleagues and students who are anxious. Keeping in touch with family and friends. Staying fit and healthy. As a society we'll come out of the other side of this, and I hope when we do we all have a better understanding of what it means for people to have no safety net, for health and social care services to be overstretched, for cleaners and support workers to be underpaid and underappreciated. Because those things are bad for all of us, not just for the people experiencing them directly.
This wasn't what I came here to write today. I came to write about how I've found my working hours stretching at both sides of the day now I don't have a two hour commute, how I'm spending too much time sitting down, drinking too much tea, not getting enough exercise, and all of those things are still true. But mostly I'm feeling gratitude. I'm thankful that I'm healthy, that I have a safe place to live, a stable job I can do from home, plenty of projects to keep me occupied while everything is shut, and space to be outside away from other people. Many people don't have those things, and I don't take them for granted.
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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