by Steph Curtis-Raleigh
We are now in official lock-down in the UK, although we have been social-distancing and even self-isolating for a while (all this new terminology for staying home). We kept our privileges for a little longer than other countries in Europe and time will tell whether this proved to be a wise move on the part of our Government.
I feel like the gradual realisation of how this would impact us all has come on in degrees. Back in January, it seemed like a problem that was only affecting Asia. In February, I even managed to take a week’s holiday at Keemala in Thailand with my family, packing masks just in case but not feeling in any way threatened by events. By the time we returned, it was not those of us who had been to Asia who were the concern – it was people who had been skiing in Italy. The virus was closer than ever.
We had already flagged up that this situation would likely affect our event in June 2020 but delegates were still signing up and our lovely sponsors were and are still supporting us. What’s more, the hotel in Slovenia refused to accept that June might not be viable. So, facing a little less urgency than those events taking place in March and April, we decided to sit it out and wait for things to unfold.
Sitting and waiting is not my usual modus operandi. In fact, I run 4 small businesses – PR, Publishing, this event and my mother’s factory units which we rent out to small businesses. My mother has dementia and my sister and I have been running her 24/7 care at home from our homes at the other end of the UK. We both have young children. So, I don’t stop.
We don’t stop – do we – these days?
Well, we do now.
Suddenly here is something that is vastly more important than our own businesses. It really is a life and death situation and it certainly made my priorities shift. The only important thing now is to keep everyone safe and hunker down. Everything else is background noise. My sister and I did a mad dash against the clock to bring our mother closer to us, as we could no longer organise carers to stay with her when she lived so far away. My child came home from school and my husband started to work from home.
Spring is going on outside my window. I loved the stories in the press about dolphins and swans being spotted in Venice’s canals. China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell by an estimated 200m tonnes in the four weeks to March 1- about the same amount that the Netherlands or the Ukraine emit in a year. Living near Heathrow, I no longer see and hear planes making their constant path above our garden. I feel that as we are all ‘grounded’ the Earth is getting some respite, nature is healing and that is a comfort.
It’s early days in lock-down, unlike those in Italy, Spain and China (now emerging again). I have no doubt I will feel the limitations keenly in a few weeks’ time. It’s scary to see the reports of the deaths and the suffering and impossible to imagine what people are going through – those who are ill, who have lost family and those who are feeling overwhelmed while trying to save lives.
What I know already is that I don’t want to go back to the frenetic way of life before this was imposed on us all. It’s only been a couple of weeks of self-isolation and it is the longest uninterrupted time I have spent in my own home with my family all around me. I don’t want to plan a different trip away for every school holiday any more. Suddenly time to do nothing and to go nowhere is a bigger priority than it seemed before. While we will all want to rush out at the end of this and get away – I hope we don’t forget what we have learned during these weeks. Being able to travel is a privilege and we need to use it wisely and make it count for more.
