Commuting

I have met them driving at dawn
Coming with furious faces

With apologies to WB Yeats

This thought came to me as I drove to an appointment in Gloucester this morning. Every drivers’ face was fixed in furrowed brow and reminded me of our Lego fanatic grandchild who loves these angry grimaces as these characters rage in an imaginary world that they have constructed.

There was no construct  needed in the faces of these commuting drivers. Almost all drove alone, often in enormous vehicles capable of carrying at least four/five  further adults. None looked like they wanted to be there and doubly so on a golden September morning as the mist rose from the Severn vale and the Cotswold escarpment eased itself onto its sedimentary age sun lounger.

While I was attending one appointment I also had to join another hour long conference call. The pandemic has re-wired the way in which we  do our business and I am not sure its all going to return to normal as quickly as the commuting traffic seems to have done to every city.

Yesterday train, tube and traffic levels had returned to pre-pandemic levels.

My London colleagues tell me that life there is now back to normal.  However, Covid infections continue to rise and there are already whispers of an October half term lockdown. I don’t think we are out of the woods yet.

I write this as the sun sets on another glorious Cotswold day. The temperature here today was 31 degrees according to my car’s dashboard! My extra shows a car grab of part of Gloucester’s architectural heritage.

*My blip was taken by our grandchild, who I asked to find the scariest one in the collection, and kindly sent to me by his mother.