Emma - Business Owner & Local Councillor

For me the prospect of having time was so unusual, I had a busy life, I ran my own business, I was local councillor, I had a grown up family and very little time for a social life.

The prospect of suddenly being at home for months was at first a real novelty; I had a pile of books I have never had time to read. I had recipes I wanted to try out. I had friends I had not had time to pick up the phone to in months.

Three months into lockdown and do, you know how many of those books I have read. Absolutely none!

My social media has been full of people doing all the things I thought I would have time to do, reading books, baking, and home improvements and making memories with family. I have felt that I have not been doing lockdown well enough; I have not baked any bread or up scaled any of the furniture!

It turns out I actually am still too busy for most of those things. One of the things that I felt was important to me to get through this situation was to keep a routine. The rest of my household might not have agreed with this plan and alarms being set but it worked for me!

I am the Depute leader of our local council and the chair of the IJB therefore incredibly busy with meetings via Microsoft teams most weekdays.

I have also returned to working in social care as a relief social care worker just to help temporarily. It would appear I actually like being busy!

When people speak about missing hairdressers, cinema and restaurants I really just want to be able to see family and friends and get back to having meetings in person. I do not miss the things I miss the people!

It’s not just family and friends I miss either it’s those people you see every day but they are not the people you could phone for a catch up, the people who you pass the time of day between meetings. Meetings via Microsoft teams just is not the same as seeing people face to face.

For now, I will try to finish at least one of those books I have been trying to read and look forward to the day when I can be back in the office!