Iona stone

Thinking this evening about places I love and wish I could get to. This is a bit of Iona marble that I bought on Iona years ago. It sits by my TV as a wee reminder of Iona and Mull, both places I love and have been going to all my life. I can't go there at the moment, so it's nice to have a little slice of such beautiful places here in my flat.

Today was distinctly odd, surprising and ever so slightly shocking. I was told this morning that I will be placed on furlough along with around two thirds of the staff in the organisation. I'm likely to be on furlough for a month and then swapped in with a colleague who will be working during May and then furloughed for June. Furlough will start as soon as HR can sort everything out. The reason is to save money because there is now a massive hole in the organisation's budget.

This was completely unexpected for all of us and came as quite a shock. Thankfully we'll continue to be paid as we're covered by the government's furlough scheme but not working for at least a month will be very strange. I had really appreciated being able to work over the last wee while as it gave me structure and something useful to be doing while staying home. I'll have to find a new structure while on furlough.

Most of the rest of the day involved talking to people both within and outwith the organisation, while trying to get my head around the situation and trying to do little bits of work that just have to be done before I stop working. All in all a very odd day.