Good Times Never Felt So Good
There was a video doing the rounds at the weekend of a group of what the papers always call 'revellers' (the rest of us might prefer something a little less festive and a lot more damning) singing 'Sweet Caroline' in a pub in Temple Bar. 'Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you'. What’s that? Good times never felt so good. So good. So good.
Is this what war is like at the start? Consuming as much content as you can til your mind can't take any more but your brain keeps pushing you to go back for more. All the while, you're sharing jokes, and rumours and stories that sound as real as anything else you've heard. Because nothing sounds real anymore. Of course, there was none of this technology in 1939 but if there was, would people have been posting hilarious memes about Hitler, Poland and bomb shelters? Maybe they would. And then comes the true horror.
Do you even remember when you first heard of Coronavirus or Covid 19 or whatever you care to call it? That's another thing - we haven’t decided what to call it. It was all Coronavirus all the time for a while but Covid 19 is quickly coming up the rails.. Did everyone quickly settle on #WorldWarII in 1939 or was there a heap of competing hashtags like #WW2 #ANewWarToEndWar #CrisisinEurope #notableedingain? Again, maybe so. Anyway, I don't know when I first heard the word. I do vaguely remember seeing an image of a hospital in China that had been built in a week (or something like that 0 I wasn’t really paying attention) to deal with the crisis in Wuhan. I think that was in January. But that was China. That's miles away. Go back to sleep, John, nothing to see here.
Now it's everywhere. First, it was in Italy. Then elsewhere in Europe, then it was in Northern Ireland (stopping off in Dublin Airport on the way from Rome, like some sort of 21st century Madame George, clicking, clacking of the high heeled shoe) and then it was down the road in Glasnevin. That was 16 days ago. By the end of the first week there were 13 cases in the Republic - prompting me to post my all-time highest-liked tweet (so don't tell me no good has come from the Covid 19) - and as of now, St Patrick's evening, there's 293. And that number's just gonna keep going.
So. Where are we now. Working from home - for now. Last Thursday, Leo Varadkar instructed the schools to close, and gatherings were to be limited to less than 100 people indoors and 500 outdoors. I was in work doing a large all-day sign-off with a client, and I've never experienced anything like it. Maybe the closest was 9/11 when everything stopped for a while before people tried to work while desperately searching online for an update that made sense.
How was I feeling? First of all, thanks for asking. I'd been at the 3Arena the night before so I was feeling a bit exposed anyway but the announcement of no more gatherings over 100 people, essentially cancelling all concerts for the foreseeable sent me spinning. It was Steve Martin and Martin Short's concert, by the way - hilarious but what does that matter now? I knew I shouldn't have gone but my pal Jason, a doctor in a Dublin hospital, seemed ok about going so I convinced myself it would be ok. The first thing he said when he got there was that we shouldn't be there. I knew that, Of course, I knew that, you think I didn't know that? But there I was anyway. I loved it, but I couldn't get out of there fast enough at the end and swore I wouldn't go to anything like that again. The next morning the Taoiseach took that decision out of my hands.
In work, we tried to get back to normal and had a quick meeting where we were encouraged to work from home if we wanted. I decided to wait out the week and see how I felt. On Saturday I took my computer home and set up in our small new office. By 10.30 yesterday morning (Monday) we were told we should all work from home if we could. So that's where we are. Today was a bank holiday. The oddest St Patricks Day in living memory. We've been told to isolate as much as possible. Leave 6 feet between everyone and stay out of the pubs and restaurants. Most of them are closed now anyway. We won't dwell on all those people in Temple Bar and elsewhere over the weekend who ignored that advice and hit the town. No bother lads, you're just potentially infecting thousands, have your pint.
I'm getting distracted. In the UK, it's business kind-of as usual. Organisations are cancelling events (concerts, football and all that) but the schools are still open, and the bars are still bouncing. It's a case of 'let's see what happens and if 100,000 people die, then what can you do?' Madness. It's almost the same in the US. Let's not talk about that - or him. You know who. It's pretty shocking though when sports teams and rock bands who have cancelled all games and concerts are acting with more responsibility than Governments.
Over here the hospitality industry, the airlines, the coffee shops, the other shops, everything is in jeopardy. Creativity thrives in any environment, we keep saying in work to reassure clients and ourselves that we're still there for them. Are they still there for us? We'll see. In some European countries, governments have pledged to bail out its citizens — mortgage and rent freezes. No bills for a while and salaries heavily subsidised. Will we do that here? I'd like to think so but who knows right now. In the UK, the government announced a £300 billion package to save businesses. But how does that help people who won't get paid this month or next?
So much uncertainty. Tomorrow we'll go back to work in our little office. Me working on several things, including social media content for a Hospital that's on the frontline of all this while my wife tries to keep a bunch of big ego accountants out of trouble. For all the thanks she gets. Will we still be working from home this day week? Will we be allowed out without a written form of intent any time soon? Will we be indoors for the next 18 months as a British newspaper claimed today? Nobody knows.
The future is unwritten. That's true because try all you like, you really couldn't make this up.
Yeah, good times never felt so good.
