It has been a full calendar year since my office sent me home for the last time. A few weeks later, lockdown was announced. For years, the biggest lie from customer service call centres was "Your call is important to us!" Then, a few years ago, it became "Due to unusually high call volumes, it may take longer than usual to answer your call." Now, it is "Due to the unprecedented situation, please bear with us while we try to answer your call." Well, no. It has been a year. I totally get…
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I expect everyone will be writing these pieces soon. So here's my cliché-ridden effort. I've found this year to be... liberating. I can stay up all night, knowing I can roll out of bed and be instantly at work. I can be as social as I like - and I can decline invitations if I'm just not in the mood. I can read a good book over lunch, rather than hunching over my desk eating Pret. Or I can take a lunchtime nap. No going to a crappy pub, I can order in the exact beer and cider I like. No going …
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My life is an endless stream of courier deliveries right now. Welcome to lockdown life. Recently, I received an email saying that a driver had delivered a parcel. They'd dumped it on my porch without ringing the bell, then ran back to their vehicle. That's fair enough. These people are given hellishly ambitious targets and they don't want to hang around chatting. But this was on the email I received. That's... weird. Right? I mean, no one enjoys delivering parcels. It's a thankless…
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This was an excellent writing prompt from Janet: Janet Hughes@JanetHughesWhat do you miss the least from pre-lockdown life? I absolutely do not miss wandering around the office looking for a meeting room for a confidential call or if I hadn't managed to book a room in advance. Let's never return to that joyless frustration, hey?❤️ 169💬 48♻️ 010:27 - Wed 03 February 2021 Toilets! That's what I won't miss. It isn't the queueing for the single free bog, nor the (lack of) industrial-strength loo r…
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I started dating Liz - my now wife - one cold January back at university. We were young and disgustingly in love. This was it - 💕true love💕! And then, right in our honeymoon phase, she left to Australia for the summer holidays. We both wailed and made overly dramatic speeches about how we'd stay true to each other. And we'd write every day! And nothing would tear us apart! Those eleven weeks sssuuuuuccccckkkkkeeeeddddd! Skype hadn't been invented, and long distance calls were prohibitively exp…
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