The Covid Diaries

Recognising the dangers of a depleted system

I’m scared.  What I’ve seen play out before me over the last few weeks scares me as much, if not more than the events of the few short crazy weeks leading up to the first national lockdown in March 2020. Back then there was a sense of solidarity, of battle...

Recognising the psychological impact of lockdown

It was week two of facing one of my greatest obstacles, a task so seamless to others, as simple as blinking or breathing. Not that I found either simple in this moment; I notice my blinking is rapid and my breathing is tense, fast, shallow. This familiar and yet...

Returning to work: managing that sinking feeling.

It isn't called a sinking feeling for nothing. It feels like you're in a lift, plummeting down the outside of a skyscraper, out of control, hurtling towards the inevitable. Your stomach is like a washing machine on fast spin, and the dread, deep in your soul, is...

Recalibrating: How am I?

People keep asking me how I am coping with lockdown. Given that it is also January, the coldest and often most miserable month of the year, and given that I am a little up and down emotionally at the best of times, and struggled with lockdown when it first happened in...
Recognising the impact for all

Recognising the impact for all

What can we do? The moral dilemma of Covid 19. An old university friend used to say, “for every action, there is a reaction.” Physicists know this. Philosophers know this. The laws of the natural world and the laws of logic would appear to have more in common than we...

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The Covid Diaries 12:

The Covid Diaries 12:

Lockdown may be, to all intents and purposes, more or less lifted, even if the pandemic is not yet over. Whatever we think of this, it does offer us a moment to pause, take stock and reflect on the last three months, and to plan for the eventuality that we are placed...

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The Covid Diaries 11

The Covid Diaries 11

Saturday 13th June 2020 : Reality Check This week I’d quite like to get off the rollercoaster we’ve all been travelling over the last 16 weeks. I’ve had enough. I feel like my positivity has run out, the flame of hope extinguished, my ability to keep going faded away....

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The Covid Diaries 10

The Covid Diaries 10

Saturday 6th June 2020 Why is there so much debate and discontent about the ways in which we are dealing with the current pandemic? Every newspaper, social media site, every conversation, dinner table or virtual, leads back to the same thing. Whether motivated by...

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The Covid Diaries 8

The Covid Diaries 8

Saturday 23rd May 2020 I’ve lost count of the number of days and weeks Covid-19 has been forefront in my mind. There have been certain periods, to be honest, when virtually every waking moment, and more beside, has been occupied by thoughts and activities surrounding...

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The Covid Diaries 7

The Covid Diaries 7

Saturday 16th May 2020 The NHS has become the UK’s new religion. Regular weekly excursions are made beyond the front door to give thanks and offer a prayer of protection on a Thursday evening.  Symbols are placed in windows, young children taught about...

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