I think there are a few people who are finding working from home really difficult now. This is the 163rd day in a row of it, and it would not surprise me at all if we go on like this for a good few months yet. It's been quite the endurance race.
Except, it's been the worst kind of endurance race - the never-ending cross country run: there's no way to pace yourself, it feels like you've been running forever, you're cold, wet and wheezing, and the PE teachers don't seem to have any intention of telling you how many laps you've got left.
It's no wonder then that some of the kids have started to tire. There's a definite sense of fatigue out there.
"It's as though people have thought, 'There's a vaccine! We're safe!'" said a colleague on a chat. He'd been walking his dog in Newbury and had noticed very little difference since before Lockdown 2.0. "The town was rammed!" said he.
Stamina is required then. And not just in Newbury. I've only got 17 more work days until Christmas, and although the New Year will probably feel bleak, I'm pretty sure we'll have rounded a corner in the woods and there'll be at least the distant sound of the final whistle, if we haven't heard it already.
One thing cross-country did teach me though was that the kids who gave up and walked it near the end, were almost always those who got the wettest, the coldest, and the most miserable back in the changing rooms. I don't know whether it was a conscious bit of learning, but it occurred to me then that it's way better to persevere and finish last, than it would ever be to give up and walk.
And in this case, it could actually be a matter of life and death - this thing is still out there after all, infectious and potentially deadly. No time to give up.
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