Life during the time of Coronavirus - In the beginning...

It's been  a very long time since I wrote anything here. Hard to give a reason why - perhaps a lot going on & I never got around to writing? Perhaps I procrastinated 😏?
Whatever the reason, I feel it's time to write something, especially having lived through a time in history that pretty much brought some countries to a standstill, and in which nearly everyone's lifestyle has been affected by an invisible & sometimes deadly foe.

I will write about how this time has affected different parts of my life - my normal lifestyle - my teaching - but also how I see things going, not that I'm an expert - you can go elsewhere for that - but there are sure to be consequences...

But, I need to go back to the beginning...

Once upon a time, there was a life before the virus. I had a routine, a certain way of living, of doing things. My wife & I were very happily married - and we still are! 😃 I was very happy in my job - easily the BEST job I've ever had. I loved the interaction with the students - the stories, dialogue, banter & humour, and inspiration. We had already planned our summer holidays for a road trip, involving hiking, around the Scottish Highlands (where we would see some old friends). ISLI 2020 (the best event I've ever been involved in!) was about to happen withing a couple of weeks. In many ways, things could not have been better - really...

Then there were rumours about this Coronavirus - Covid 19 - virus/type/thing. Coming all the way from China. At one time, it seemed so far away...and yet very soon, it was gaining a deadly momentum in Europe - at that time, in Italy, a country with schools involved in ISLI.

If I'm honest, when all this first kicked off, I put together a meme based on characters & quotes from the Marvel-Avengers series...

I think it pretty much summed up what I was picking up from the media about this dreaded infection. All sorts of panic, opinions, & speculation.

And then the Italian schools pulled out of ISLI. Then some U.S. schools in Italy, and other bases around Europe. On Sunday 23rd February, Italy pulled out - by Wednesday 26th February, the leaders of ISLI had to make the momentous decision to cancel ISLI, for the first time in its history. We had no choice but to cancel a project which had involved a huge amount of preparation beforehand, and resulted in disappointing over 200 people.

That was a bad enough feeling - it was a tough week - not the worst one I've ever had, but not one I would like to go through again.
But that was just the beginning...