Rage

Mostly I manage to suppress my rage at the incompetence with which the UK government has dealt with COVID-19, but then I watch something like Angela Merkel explaining the implications of changing the R0 factor for health care systems, and I remember what it must look like to be led by an adult. And a scientist to boot. I tweeted about it this morning, and I particularly liked the reply from a colleague that read: "Instead we get badges. And clapping. It’s like Blue Peter but with added death." Too right. Germany has had fewer than 4000 deaths, on a population that is considerably higher than that of the UK. The whole city of Berlin, which is densely populated, has had fewer than 100.


But mainly I do manage to suppress the rage, because if I let myself go completely I would get nothing done at all.


So today, I made myself serene by doing 30 minutes yoga with Projekt42 first thing this morning, and then thrashed myself on the exercise bike following a class on youtube at the other end of the day. It was a winning combination for one of those days when I don't go out.


In between, I did more serious surgery to the piece I'm working on. The colleague who kindly read it and commented on it last week probably won't recognise it now. I've not really kept up with my emails, but quite a few landed in my inbox today that reinforced to me what an unutterably difficult job under very challenging circumstances most of my colleagues are doing. And then another email lands in my inbox that is so completely tone-deaf that I cannot credit why it was ever signed off for mass distribution.



Hey ho.



At least my pot of dried roses provides a reliable blip.