OK, let’s turn this into a proper diary. Petty details from personal life.

No wild boars or penguins on the street (yet). The city looks familiar in the sun – we’re lucky: even on normal days, not much of the downtown excitement reaches us. I guess we haven’t noticed how much quieter it has been these last few days… until a security alarm began to blare in the neighborhood, and someone also turned on a very loud drill nearby.

We opened the window and yelled ‘Shut up, we can’t home-office here’. Nothing happened, naturally.

Earlier in the morning, still in night gear (I mean, pajamas), Andi and I were trying to figure out why Google Hangouts refuses to co-operate. She could begin a conf call with her colleagues an hour or so late, on another platform.

At the same time, I had to help my son install Teams on his phone, that’s what his school uses for remote classes. (Friend of mine is involved with a way cooler e-learning startup, #school – although they have been under the weather these days, like everyone else.)

In the afternoon, helped daughter with some French exercises. I don’t speak French.

All minor but very unfamiliar annoyances, and I find myself more sensitive to them than I thought. First off, I thought I was accustomed to working from home – yes, while everyone else is at work or school, and I’m alone at home. Managing the same while everyone else is around – and, having less experience, struggling to handle the new circumstances –, that proved quite a challenge.

I guess it’s OK to struggle, and it will take time to get used to this new normal. In the meantime, I’m trying to hang on to the good stuff that also happens. (Not to mention that we’re very well off: we have a home to work from, and we have work to do from there. Oh, and we’re not sick.)

One of the good things is that my company has wonderful people: they started an internal forum (and daily conf call) under the name ‘Care & Support in the time of corona’, which I’m delighted to be part of.  Actually, there are now two forums with this purpose of looking after each other.

May we find new heroes and new forms of kindness every day.

Listen: https://youtu.be/abGe6uM9Ias