Sarah heard an item on the radio interviewing an expert in crisis planning and management. Apparently he calmly went through all the things you’re meant to do when there’s a major crisis like a pandemic, and explained all the things that Boris Johnson has got wrong. You should tell the truth. Don’t be optimistic about timescales or outcomes. Be fair and have the same rules for everyone… If you don’t do these things, as Johnson hasn’t, then people stop trusting you and feel destabilised. It helped, actually, to know that how I’m feeling is a known human reaction to the situation I am in.
I have been buying plants. Patch plants are good – lovely plants, lovely pots, safely distanced delivery to the doorstep (in SE1).
We have a balcony and decided to put some fake grass on it. (Are you judging? Fine.) In fact, we decided to put some fake grass and some decking on it, using Ikea’s clip together tiling system. The grass has been out of stock for ages, so when it became available again we ordered it, but the decking was out of stock. Then we realised the decking may be out of stock until next year. So we drove 1 hour (which became 1.5 hours) to an Ikea that claimed to have it in stock. It lied. We reserved a table for the restaurant and experienced Ikea table service. We bought a sub-standard plant. We drove home for 1.5 hours. And we have now thrown ourselves upon the mercy of a friend who’s visiting Bristol to get us some Ikea decking for Ikea Bristol. It will probably be back in stock for online delivery tomorrow. I did not ever imagine adulthood, or navigating international crises would have any of these elements in them.
We went on a first aid course last week. It was excellent. The trainer used to be purser with BA before she was made redundant. She is now telling a lot of compelling stories about mid-air medical emergencies to get the attention of her trainees. She also had the most incredible soft skills I have ever seen and got the whole room of very varied people fully engaged. As you’d expect, I guess.