Simple pleasures

I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul remembering my good friends

I did something really very exciting this week. Something I have not done for a very long time.  I arranged a lunch meeting. Not one of those with my local friends where we sit round a table in one of our gardens and try to stay under the sunshade and 2m apart at the same time. Not easy – do I risk sunstroke or Covid?

No, this is a proper going out lunch with clients. I had to answer the question, which London train station do I get into? I cannot begin to tell you how pleased. I was to have to answer that. I’ve not been on a train since the middle of March.

It’s ridiculous, I know, but this is what this year has come to. Technology has been our saviour thorough lockdown, it’s true. We’ve all had Teams meetings and zoom calls and Google Meets and online exercise classes, but there’s nothing quite like personal, face-to-face interaction, even if it does have to be without the huggy, kissy stuff we’re used to.

Big gatherings are still forbidden fruit and, to be honest, I can’t see that situation changing for the rest of the year. If we get through the Autumn without a second wave and only a few local spikes, then I think we might be OK for 2021, but I think for 2020 Zoom, Teams and teeny, tiny little meet-ups are going to be where it’s at. Hope I’m wrong, but in the meantime, we can all relate to the Zoom call bingo that my pal was telling me he and his sales team play:

To this I can add my own particular specialities – child demanding to know where some vitally important item is that they need RIGHT NOW and forgetting where the camera is on the phone and swiping away notifications of emails etc that come through in order to still see the speakers…only for everyone else to just get a huge close-up of your index finger.