enjoyed the occasional chat this week about what’s “right” with regards to the acquisition of stuff. all kinds of stuff. food. other stuff. this article in the New York Times ends with the line “Sometimes a fleece is only a fleece. And sometimes it can be a creative rescue line, and a bet on the future.” but do I want all those warehouse workers and delivery drivers being out in the world or would I rather they stayed at home? and is it alright that I’m having what a friend called ‘the boujiest pandemic’ by mostly doing Natoora orders and occasionally visiting Jones of Brockley for bread and radicchio? in my head I’m keeping supermarkets free for people who need them, and supporting smaller suppliers. in reality, maybe I just really like expensive rhubarb and Neal’s Yard cheese.
most of the ads I get on Instagram now are for fruit and veg wholesalers who have become retailers. the algorithm knows.
accompanied C on her ride to the hospital this morning then rode back home before starting work. really not sure why we’ve allowed construction workers to still be out there, cos no one’s keeping 2m apart. roads are decently quiet!
work has been less intense this week and there were points that I felt like I was designing something in a vacuum, a little blind of policy intent, user need or GOV.UK’s position in the wider ecosystem. that’s a potential problem with working at this kind of pace and with this much going on. I was happy to end the week with a thumbs up on the work and I think we’ve now got a way forward, so I’m expecting to be shipping a second thing in 4 weeks next week. I am enjoying being close to shipping products and services again: very much my comfort zone, even on a national government website in a crisis.
I took my Surly Straggler frame and wheels to Brixton Cycles a while ago and sat with Lincoln there to order all the other bits. on Saturday last week it was ready to go! so we used our government mandated walk to go there and pick it up. it is a nice bike. I am very, very happy with it.
in a mad good mood today for some reason. probably the hour’s ride first thing. maybe the work. maybe the beer delivery from waterintobeer (thanks Tim, thanks Helen!). maybe just getting used to the indoor life. just a strange feeling of contentment. weird.
another mad work week. worked through the weekend prototyping a new form which went live on GOV.UK today.
Stephen was out for a few days earlier in the week so I covered him and pretended to be the head of design for GOV.UK. nothing broke, though that’s almost all credit to the brilliance of the design team who amongst them picked up on the businesses offering support work, switched focus to some other work at the drop of a hat, and calmly updated the landing page while politics swirled around us. Ignacia, Mia, Kate, Conor, Jeremy, Joe, Tim, Stephen: can’t think of anyone I’d rather design through a crisis with than all of you!
I’ve always thought the Design System was cool, but don’t usually come into contact with it in the course of my work. using it in anger made me appreciate it even more.
Conor suggested at one point this week that we’d shipped more in the past two weeks than some people do in a year. no slight on those other people, but he’s not wrong: we have shipped a lot.
woke up exhausted on Tuesday morning and took the afternoon off. definitely went too hard at it: by Sunday night / Monday morning I’d got into the mindset that “well, there’s nothing else to do I might as well be working”. and by Monday afternoon I was definitely not on my game: switched on my product manager muscles when I should’ve let someone else do their own job. Tuesday afternoon was just enough of a reset to get me through till today. I’m not going to make that mistake again.
due to minor cough last week, we’ve been indoors for our respective 7 days. C went back to hospital work yesterday. it was meant to be her first full time week of health research. instead, she’s being redeployed back onto the wards. felt a bit sick after closing the door after her yesterday morning. I’m trying not to be bitter about it, but last night with the NHS clap I thought, yeah, remember your clapping next time you go outside for an unnecessary reason.
complaining much less about my back since we started a Yoga With Adriene 30 day challenge.
I went for my first walk of a week just now, just to the park. stayed off the paths and on the grass and well clear of everything. feels well apocalyptic out there with this kind of zombie avoidance stuff; I think I might prefer staying indoors.
started Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, but found it really hard to read it without wondering when the pandemic was going to arrive in the plot.
a family member of a friend in Italy died this week. Bergamo is the worst hit city in Italy so I guess that was likely to happen. but still some deep sadness these past couple of days. it is senseless. please just stay indoors. I’m re-orienting my mind from thinking “it’s just the corner shop to get some biscuits” to “are biscuits essential?”. and of course the answer is no, they are not.
have taken this afternoon off too: went for a walk, cleaned the floors, and dusted off my record player. picked out My Favourite Things by John Coltrane to play loudly. little things.
the past five days been a combination of finding my place, figuring out GOV.UK, remembering how to deliver, not putting my back out, learning how to work remotely. and probably something else too.
it feels like it’s been a very long week. as predicted, it has been great working with the design team. and everyone else! there’s been loads to get my head around and things have shifted multiple times. the team shipped a new version of /coronavirus today which has come together exceptionally fast.
made a prototype today for a service we’ll be likely launching early next week. deeply grateful to Tim who batted back and forth on screen layouts and flows with me. Mum, I’m an interaction designer now!
we both have sore throats, so I guess I’m not going out for 7 days, at least. probably inevitable given that C works for the NHS. hopefully it doesn’t get any worse. not sure why I’m not more worried.
most of my health complaints this week have been about my back: our flat was not built for home offices. lots of lying on the floor, planking between meetings, and 15 min yoga videos.
few of us went to ‘the pub’ on Google Hangouts last night. gonna do it every week.
this is mad weird. I’m glad to have been busy because I think I’d be going mad otherwise.
Sonia dropped a loaf of bread round. a proper drop off: brown paper bag at the bottom of the stairs. thank you Sonia! I’m having toast for my dinner.