Hello everyone! Happy first of March. A full fortnight from the dreaded Ides of March so I’m feeling optimistic. Though given what the world has thrown at us in the last twelve months I doubt a little old full moon could scare us right? By the way (shameless plug here – a girl’s got to make a living right?!) the new book is doing great. Readers have been very kind and it has been #1 in the charts since launch. Get your copy here – I think you’ll enjoy it. https://geni.us/LastPortofCall (geni.us/LastPortofCall) I read a great article the other day, about the roaring twenties. The journalist was theorising that we had a decade of fun and frolics ahead if, (and it nearly always is) the past is the best indication of the future. The 1920s were a scream I think we can all agree, the dresses, the dancing, the cars, the cocktails, all because the world had endured so much misery in the previous decade and it had come out the other side and was ready for something fun. Well I’m feeling the same way. We’ll have our own roaring 20s as life returns to normal. But I wonder what that normal will be? I’m optimistic by nature so I was thinking about the good things that this awful time might create. This is of course acknowledging the terrible losses families all over the world have endured. Nothing can ever take that away and I’m not trying to lessen it or say the pandemic was a good thing, of course it wasn’t but just trying to see some positives from a horrific experience. I know some people might roll their eyes at my Pollyanna ways but here’s my tuppence worth! My son and his lovely partner both work in Dublin for large international companies and both have been working from home. They can’t see a future of going full-time to the office ever again. That’s a good thing I think, this pandemic has shown employers that people are perfectly capable and trustworthy enough to do their jobs without the structure of an office so the dreaded commute might be a thing of the past. The time wasted, the pollution from all those cars lined up on the motorway, the stress of sitting in traffic, all gone! The other thing is nature. I live in the middle of the country and can see directly the impact of fewer cars on the roads, fewer planes in the sky, and I suppose spending so much time at home, being restricted to staying within 5K of your house, makes you look closely at where you live. We have so many birds flying around, the fields are full of rabbits, foxes, hares, badgers, hedgehogs, and I saw two huge cock pheasants from my dining room window the other day. Not only is there more to see in terms of flora and fauna, we have more time to notice it. So many people too are digging deep for inner resilience, meditating, reading, hobbies, exercising, actively connecting with friends and families in more creative ways, these are all good things.People write to me all the time saying how my books helped them get through he pandemic, and I love to hear that. But don’t stop reading once life speeds up again. Remember how good it was to curl up with a book in bed. I’ve friends who’ve discovered all kinds of new hobbies. Wouldn’t it be great if we kept those practices going once the vaccines gave us back our freedom? Another thing is towns will, I feel, be rejuvenated by this. Large chainstores are pulling out of the high street and moving their businesses online. The loss of those means rents fall, making shop space available and accessible to smaller businesses which can only be a good thing. It could make our towns more diverse and interesting, not just the same old chains everywhere. In my city, Cork, the main street right now looks like a boxer with a good few teeth missing as many of the large international chainstores have pulled out because of the pandemic, but in their places I’m hoping will come smaller, more modest, more interesting shops. With the work from home idea too, the vast amounts of office space that was kind of soulless in our cities, can now become residential again, people can actually live in the city centre, and all of the supports for human life, schools, playgrounds, coffee shops, and so on, will grow. How lovely for our cities to feel vibrant again, as they once did, not cold steel and glass structures that die at five pm and at the weekends? One of the most interesting things though for me about the pandemic is this. I find myself being more honest with my friends about how I feel. Maybe it’s easier to do that in a text or whatsapp message. Some days it’s hard, of course. I miss my people so much. But I tell them that and they reciprocate and the connections that were worth keeping are deeper now I feel. Some have fallen by the wayside, but that’s ok. I think the friends we’ll have after this year are the ones worth investing in. We might never have cut ties with unfulfilling relationships were it not for Covid. So there you have it. Jean Grainger’s take on how we’ll be after this. Smaller, less commercial, less consuming, more real, happier. Maybe this was the reset the world so badly needed. I hope so anyway. Take care of you and yours, Lots of love, Le grá agus buiochas, Jean xxx