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We’ve learnt to live at home and make it our social hub
We’ve learnt to cope without cars, buses, and tubes
We’ve found our feet and walked, cycled, and scooted
We’ve noticed the blossom, the birdsong, and the silence
We’ve learnt new etiquettes of waiting in line, of standing back to let others pass, and that there is a right and wrong side to crossing a bridge
We didn’t know we shared our world with so many dogs
We’ve noticed the air is clearer, the sky not cluttered with planes
We wear athleisure kit for business meetings, we wear slippers under the table, and who cares what the back of our hair looks like
We’ve adopted new ways of arranging our work around childcare, home-schooling, the breakfast things being at the end of our desk
Home deliveries find us at home, parcels are a real excitement even if it is only the delivery of a new mop head or a tube of grout
We make our own coffee, the reusable cup gathers dust at the back of the shelf, if we want to drink water, we turn on the tap
We pay for everything, even a bar of chocolate, with a credit card
We join virtual classes for all sorts of instruction from boxing to knitting and from meditation to car mechanics
We discovered we can cook, all those cookery programmes were not wasted, but we long for someone else to prepare us a meal
A glass of wine is no longer a treat, it is the line in the sand that marks the end of the working day and the start of downtime, we guard against it becoming medication
We make our peace, we say our prayers in places other than churches, mosques, and temples
We know the lonely and the mentally fragile are finding it tough
We’ve learnt that to even hover near a park bench will deliver the cavalry and park bobbies are hiding in every bush
We’ve come to terms with not getting on a plane to somewhere lovely, our own outdoor space has become sandy beaches in our imagination
We’re not saving for exotic trips, just longing to meet our friends and family again
We’re richer, no amount of online shopping compares with the temptation on the high street, the pub, or the restaurant
We miss our sport, we try and create our own, it doesn’t compare to the Olympics, the Euros or Wimbledon
We struggle to comprehend we may not go to a concert, see a play, watch a film in the cinema this year, or maybe not even next
We daydream about a future we had always taken for granted; we vow never to underestimate how much we will value that freedom when it returns
If we have a job, we are grateful because so many haven’t
If we have financial security, we consider ourselves unusually blessed