A new normal

Way back in March we spent many moments listening to the experts who advised us about life during the pandemic. I felt so sorry for these people suddenly thrust into the public eye and trying to explain the science to us all. As the weeks went on my faith in them grew, especially when one in particular wouldn’t condone the actions of a certain senior advisor to the PM…..They often spoke about the “new normal” and we wondered how that would look. Well, after the words of Chris Witty – this is as good as it’s going to be for quite a while – I think we may have reached it. Yes, it’s difficult seeing friends and family in the way that we used to, but we need to make the best of this new normal. In order to catch up with friends who live in the frozen north (my words meant humorously) we all travelled to a half-way point, found by dubious map searching and the use of a ruler, where we had a lovely afternoon courtesy of the National Trust. The house was closed but the gardens were beautiful, including an ancient Lebanese cedar and a massive mulberry bush, then a picnic gave us the chance to set the world to rights. Any park or riverside would have been just as good to be honest. Whilst we still have such lovely weather let’s see where we can find chances and opportunities to meet and eat, chat, exchange long-overdue birthday gifts and the like, all socially distanced of course. Let’s embrace the new normal and those of us who are more mobile accept that “half way” might be that little bit further up the motorway and go the extra mile.