The Suez has finally been unblocked. We all saw the gigantic Ever Given wedged across the canal, stopping 369 other boats from getting through. The impact was enormous – $50bn of goods delayed getting to customers. The alternative route around Africa takes 2 more weeks. We have blockages of our own. Some small, some huge.…
Sometimes we are thrust together with people through no choice of our own, or of theirs. Maybe in a queue, a lift, a waiting room, at a concert or on a plane. Those were the days. Our English default is to remain quiet and to keep our distance – physically and emotionally. To be private,…
When I was a boy, my grandad smoked a pipe. To clean it he used a pipe cleaner; around six inches of flexible wire encased in fluffy cotton. My sister and I would make intricate models out of them. Similar, larger pipe cleaners are used to clean sinks and drains. Whatever the size, pipe cleaners…
Forgive the slight variation on Charles Dickens, but this is a great thought for the start of a new decade. This is a time to look forwards to the road ahead rather than staring backwards in the rear view mirror. Our legacy from the past The past is gone – this is an indisputable truism.…
I have escaped. Having survived a whole 11 nights* of confinement at home, with the occasional release into the exercise yard of my local town, I had to break free. Yes, I know I wrote all of that positive stuff about being grounded and relaxed. But a travelling habit is not so easily kicked. As…
I always work at home on Friday, so this is in theory a “normal working day”. It is as if Monday and Friday are two anchors for a rope bridge which I had walked across for three days, and now I am back on terra firma. But that doesn’t seem right. I feel like I…
I interacted with other humans a bit more today, which wasn’t difficult after yesterday’s mainly solitary confinement. My wife was out all morning (again), but my daughter came for the day. Not specifically to spent quality time with her dad – rather because her car needed an MOT at the garage at the end of…
I am acclimatising to my confinement. I only have two meetings in my diary today, and I miss them both. The first is at 8am, but I wake at 8.30am, with a shrug. I neglected to set my alarm last night. Then, I simply forget the 1pm meeting. I take some comfort from this neglect…
DAY ONE – MONDAY I have been grounded for the month of February. Normally on a Monday I would be taking the evening flight to Copenhagen, where I work for a very well-known optician. We have offices in five northern European countries. For February, we have instituted an international travel ban, to save some cash…
It was a Friday night. I was at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen to enjoy Roger Waters – creative force behind Pink Floyd, protester, political provocateur, poet and progressive music pantheon. My seat was at the extreme front left of the balcony, parallel with, and high above, the edge of the stage – almost the…
Unwrapping The World 