As spring turns into summer the lockdown starts to gradually ease. It still feels somewhat premature given how high our infection rate is at the moment, a lot higher than anywhere else in Europe. We've long given up with trusting anything this government says, so whilst they are seemingly encouraging a fairly rapid return to normality we'll be taking things a bit more cautiously.
We have however taken advantage of the glorious warm weather to spend some more time outdoors with a few nice picnics out. We also made our first visit for a distanced visit to some family – for the first time since February.
We're still working from home, however work have started doing some surveys around returning to the office and the nature of the distancing measures that may be in place. It seems like the current plan is to start a phased return to the office in September although in what form that will take remains to be seen. Prior to the lockdown, I would work from home just once a week and otherwise be in the office. Like a lot of people, I'm not wondering what I'd like to be doing going forwards. I definitely miss being in the office and the opportunities for collaboration and socialising that come with that however I also feel I'd like to spend more time working at home so I'm hoping our new ways of working will encourage greater flexibility here.
Before the lockdown started we had a couple of holidays booked. One was cancelled very early on in the lockdown, and in May our second trip was also cancelled. This had been planned as our main holiday of the year so it's a big disappointment to see it cancelled, although hardly surprising given the circumstances. Hopefully we'll be able to get a new trip booked again in the near future – not having travel plans is definitely one of the aspects of lockdown that I'm not enjoying!
Getting tested for COVID-19
Since Coronavirus cases started to rise in the UK I've been using the COVID Symptom Study app most days to self-report my symptoms and help support the scientific efforts to understand the spread and typical symptoms of the disease. It
At the start of June, I received an invite from to have a COVID-19 test to help inform their research. I opted to the home test kit option and within a couple of days we received our testing kits. The whole process was relatively straightforward and within a few days we received our negative results. 🎉
