All those profit-making, privatised PCR tests in the sky... Still, an extra tax on air travel probably isn't a disaster.

Being back at work is a revelation. I hadn't realised quite how much I'd stopped multi-tasking on one leg over the last two-and-a-half years. I'm rebuilding the skills satisfyingly quickly so I probably haven't killed too much of my brain off in the meantime. But I am finding it a real struggle to keep on top of four email addresses, two of which are each used by at least three people, one of which is used by six people and all of which write to themselves and to each other. It sometimes feels like they are there to simulate the confusion of dementia.

But it's brilliant to feel useful and to be in a team that works very, very much better than the one I left. I wasn't completely honest about the real reason for leaving back then but she moved on a year after I did and I've wondered since then how things might have been if I'd had the stamina to stick it out for another laisser faire/micromanaged twelve months. I didn't have the stamina, but there would have been the reward I'm now experiencing - my style of management: cooperation, encouragement, support, trust and when things go wrong, as they sometimes will, the manager takes the flak. I've always done that and I've very rarely received it. It's here and it's immensely productive and satisfying.