Working from Home

I recently saw a programme about working from home. Since the covid pandemic, when people were more or less told to stay at home and not mix with others outside their family bubble, working from home took off. With most people having computers or smart mobile phones, it made working from home a reality that could be implemented. It would probably not even have been possible back in the 1990s.

Suddenly everyone was jumping on the bandwagon and, even when covid restrictions were lifted, many continued to work from home, including those who work in large organisations and government offices. This meant procedures that usually took only a few weeks then took months. I knew this to my own pain, when I tried to apply for Power Of Attorney and the whole procedure was frustrating (see here) and took nearly a year to process.

For the employees, this is ideal - they can stay at home in their pyjamas and work in their lounge, bedroom or kitchen. They don't have to pay travel costs to get to work (which in London can be horrendous) or add hours onto their day by the commute. They can be with their children or closer to schools to pick them up and manage their day to their own timetable. The programme I watched even showed one office employee working at a computer in his local golf club and playing a round of golf when he needed a break!

The downside of this is that many workers are cut off from their colleagues and the usual banter and mentoring that goes on falls out of the window. It has led to a huge increase in mental health issues, as staff grapple to work in isolation. Meetings via a computer screen are not the same as being able to socialise and swap ideas and information in person round a table.

Of course not all professions lend themselves to working from home. Hospital doctors, firefighters, train/bus drivers, beauty salons, dry-cleaners and restaurants/cafes immediately spring to mind.  Many of these have apparently seen a decline in their businesses, because of home-working. 

Some unions are taking up the baton to make it an employee's right to work from home. I am not sure I agree with that and would love things to return to how they were pre-Covid, as it only seems to complicate matters and reduce efficiency of the service the organisation provides. Not to mention having a huge impact on mental health. What do you think?

One Life

I mentioned in my last post that we had recently watched the DVD of One Life. My hearing is not so great to watch films in a cinema so I always prefer to watch them at home on DVD, when they come out, as I can use subtitles. Darcy had bought me this DVD for my birthday as he knew I would be very interested in this film, given my family history.

The film portrays the life and work of Nicholas Winton who bravely masterminded the evacuation of 669 children from Prague to England at at time when the Nazis were about to invade Czechoslovakia in 1938. It  alternates between following Anthony Hopkins playing a 79-year old Winton reminiscing on his past, and Johnny Flynn as a 29-year old Winton who successfully helps 669 predominantly Jewish children to escape the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and the threat of living in ghettos or facing concentration camps, just before the beginning of World War II.

It was a very emotional film on various levels and I won't go into any more detail to spoil it, in case you do want to see it. Although my father escaped Nazi Germany in early 1939 (not through the help of Nicholas Winton but with the help of English Quakers via the Kindertransport), there were many similarities, such as the children arriving at Liverpool Street station in London with labels round their necks to match them up with the English people who would look after them. My father had also arrived at Liverpool Street Station at the age of 15, not able to speak more than ten vital words of English. Seeing it as a film, it drove home to me what it must have been like for my father, rather than just the sketchy hand-me-down stories in our family history. 

Anthony Hopkins looked remarkably like the real man. I recall as a young woman watching the That's Life programme on television which featured at the end of the One Life film. It brought shivers down my spine to see it again. 

He was awarded an OBE and later a Knighthood for his humanitarian work and many more accolades, including a statue of him in Prague railway station. He died in 2015 at the age of 106. What a man. What a hero. 

Anthony Hopkins in the film as Nicholas Winton

The real Nicholas Winton

Back to normal

This week has seen me getting back to normal after the month of December had virtually seen all my usual activities cancelled because of flu and lack of energy.

On Sunday, I did a shift at out local park information centre. It is run by Friends of the Park. We sell calendars of the park, notelets of the same, pens, notebooks, tree guides, bird guides, duck guides, and food for the ducks and squirrels. We also try to answer any questions the public may raise about trees or ducks. Unfortunately it was pelting down with rain and was very cold. Suffice to say we had no visitors at all and took no money at all.

On Monday I went back to a gym class for the first time in a month. I normally have no problems doing this class but on that day I find it hard. Even the class instructor singled me out in front of 25 others and asked if I was OK.  It was quite embarrassing.

On Tuesday I visited an old work colleague of mine, whom I haven't seen since last March. She has a beautiful show home - puts mine to shame - beautifully decorated and tastefully furnished. We had a lovely morning catching up on all our news including of course Kay's wedding. 

On Wednesday, I attempted another gym class which thankfully went much better. I rushed home to shower as that evening I went out with four of my choir friends for a pub meal. Snow and very low temperatures were forecast, and, as the pub was some 4 miles away, I was a little hesitant whether I would get there and back safely. It was snowing as I drove there and it was settling on the roofs of cars. We had a lovely convivial meal exchanging stories of our individual Christmases. Fortunately, the snow had turned to rain and by the time we left (or rather were thrown out as the last people to leave) at 10.30pm, the rain had washed all the snow away and I got home in one piece.

On Thursday, I went to a U3A (University of the Third Age) meeting about Charles Dickens. It was very interesting as it was seen through the eyes of the man himself..... what he himself had written about his own childhood and adult life and how that compared with what had appeared in his novels. In the evening I again risked an icy drive to go to a choir party. After our Christmas concert, there was little time before Christmas itself to get everybody together for a social evening rather than a singing evening, so it was arranged for this day. It was lovely to have longer chats with people I know by sight but not always by name.  I was determined not to stay within the comfort zone of my usual friends and mingled with people I had never spoken to before. We had been asked to provide either food or drink for the party and I made a double batch of crispy cheese cookies - a recipe I had recently acquired from a fellow gym user. They went down very well and at least 5 people asked me for the recipe.

On Friday, I did a foodbank shift. The church that runs it also offers a sit-down cooked meal held in the church hall. This leaves little room for bags of food to be handed out inside, so we do this outside. Knowing the temperatures were barely going to be over freezing and I would be standing on the spot for over two hours handing out food, I donned five layers on my top half and tights under my jeans on the bottom half. Not to mention hat and mittens. All in all I survived without turning into a block of ice. I then scurried home to cook a lovely meal for Kay and Darcy who were coming to visit for the evening. I cooked chicken cobbler,  pigs in blankets, red cabbage, mixed vegetables, roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, followed by Christmas pudding and custard. After that we tried to stay awake to watch a DVD Darcy had given me for my birthday (more about that next week).

I am now home alone for this weekend and catching up with admin and a general potter around the house. As I said, back to normal.

New Year resolutions

I try not to make new year resolutions, as half the time I forget what I vowed to do and invariably most people break them by February anyway. However, I have been somewhat lacking in posting regularly and, while I don't have enough time or content to post every day like some, I do intend from now on to post once a week and probably on a Sunday when I have more free time. It remains to be seen, whether I can stick to that and produce 52 posts by this time next year!

At New Year, I always feel a bit strange. I posted about this back in 2013 and will repeat here what I said then....

I always see the new year as a looming cliff before me. Starting in January at the foot of the cliff, I climb upwards and ever higher, grabbing rocks and stumbling along,  making my way through all the annual anniversaries, birthdays and events during spring, summer and autumn to my own birthday in November.

This is then swiftly followed by Christmas, where I stand at the top of the cliff exulting in my success after the long slow climb, enjoying the lovely food and warmth that Christmas brings. Suddenly before you know it and before you can say "Last of the Christmas Leftovers", it is New Year's Eve again. Now I find myself on the very pinnacle of the cliff  (standing on tiptoe on a big rock admiring the amazing view, feeling exultant that the year has by and large been a success). The clock strikes midnight, the fireworks shoot into the sky and there is much hugging and celebrating. However I find myself projected within seconds into the 1st January at the bottom of the cliff once more, having to start the long slow climb yet again. Far from wanting to make resolutions and looking forward to the year ahead, I  am slightly annoyed that I have got to start all over again. Does New Year do this to you?