Last commute for a while

I headed into work and snapped this just as I was about to leave the car. It marks the last commute for a while as during Monday evening we received the message that we were to work from home.

Teaching has been suspended for this week. Students are being advised to head home, where possible, and then online teaching and support swings into action from next week.

We’ll still have some staff on campus supporting those students who need to stay and some researchers will still need to be on hand to look after research labs and experiments, but wherever possible the operation has now moved to remote support.

I can do all my work from home, will support staff and students through Skype, webinars and online provision of materials but it is going to feel very weird! We spent yesterday playing around with Microsoft Teams so library staff can all keep in touch easily whilst we are at home.

Nina is still with us. It looks like it will be the weekend before she can fly home and then she will have to self isolate for a fortnight. Hopefully nothing changes there and she can get home without problems.

Mum and dad are going to make the most of getting out over the next few days until they have to bunker down. I am still hoping for good weather so that the garden comes into play whilst they have to stay at home.

And all football is now off with Leo and Ian’s grassroots games all postponed, just as happened earlier with all English Football League games.

I can’t tell you how miffed Leo is that he still has to go to school whilst we are all at home tomorrow. He is the only one of us who will happily stay home - we usually have to bribe him out!  He had visions of extra PlayStation time but so far that is not to be.

Hope you are all coping okay in these worrying times.