Coronavirus streets in Manchester - V

Working from home sensibly

The day began in earnest after a night that was not entirely blessed with sleep as the waking hour was not overwhelmed with tiredness. After a shower, I dressed up in the manner that would leave no room for embarrassment as I have seen of viral videos of indiscreet manners of presentation misjudged from the concept of working from home.

Working from home is a construct for which you can avail yourself of home comforts and untrammelled freedoms. However, it includes interaction with colleagues, customers, and clients beyond emails and phone calls to conferences with audio-visual input and exchange. At which point, working from home takes on the atmosphere of working in the office, with that in mind, you probably want to do the barest minimum of what you will do going to the office in your home office.

Obviously, I have not worn a suit and tie, but a well-pressed shirt is not out of place, a good pair of trousers is putting in some effort and if you do not want to become the topic of conversation during and after the conference, just appear neat and professional along with sensible footwear. If you want to clown around, the consequence and repercussions are yours to bear. Whether you can handle a mishap going viral globally is another matter of your capacity for embarrassment.

Walking from home for exercise

A meeting planned for today got postponed to tomorrow, though at lunchtime given that we now have unlimited time for exercise, I went for a long walk that allowed just a little of 2,500 steps. Though it was sunny, there was a chill that left the temperature at 9 Celsius. I took the opportunity to walk past the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst that I talked of a few days ago when I forgot my phone at home.

Emmeline Pankhurst Statue – St. Peter’s Square, Manchester [Wikipedia]

Then, we have heard a lot about the need for Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in hospitals to protect the frontline staff from contracting the Coronavirus. I chanced upon PPE for the construction industry and whilst certain requirements because of environments might differ, I would expect hospital-based PPE to be of a higher specification. Frontline staff having to resort to bin liner bags for protection is a disgrace. [HSE]

Construction industry PPE

The greater spot of bother for me is my weight gain and developing belly, I do need to get more active before I begin to hate myself for becoming too flabby for my liking.

Nothing brightens up the day more than an exchange of messages in the morning with Brian, in the form of a WhatsApp text, audio, or video message, the better option is a video call networks permitting. Then communication all through the day until the night when we have catchup and goodnight calls before going to bed.

We look to the next day with hope for amazing, beautiful, surprising, wonderful, and miraculous things.