Covid stories part 18 (Joe’s 8th birthday, Marco Bielsa, farewell FSA, welcome SCP, Stamford Bridge)
So I moved on to the next story as that last one would have become an epilogue and I ‘think’ blogs are supposed to be wee snapshots. It was already an 8 minute read.
So a couple of days after returning from Staithes, it was Joe’s 8th birthday. It is hard to describe how excited, how thrilled and really just how lovely he is. It’s strange as you DO appreciate those moments but it would be lovely if you could capture those, and just recall the excitement. I do think he’s a lucky lad as well, having such a fantastic Mum and Dad (everyone should have one), but also Jess and Tom but also Eamon and the lads. Jennifer sadly couldn’t come due to the risk of Covid — even though this summer has been so hard for everyone, it is hard to imagine how much harder it must have been for her without getting out and about.
When we arrived at Rowntree Park, Joe was playing football with Laurie and Alvie. Presents were opened, food and sparkling prosecco was consumed, and then there was more football. An 8 a minute each half game in which whilst Dan, Joe and I lost 4–2 to the O’Briens, the first two minutes we passed the ball like we were Barca of 2009. I then chipped everyone from long distance to level us at 1 each and in the second half, I crossed the ball and Joe came steaming in, nipping in at the front post to make it 2 each.
On the Saturday, I met Eamon, Laurie and Alvie and we had a very pleasant (the weather was gorgeous) bike ride from Thorp Arch to Spofforth via Wetherby for lunch (next to the bridge). On our way back, cycling out of Wetherby, I spotted this slightly overweight guy in a pair of trackies walking down the road in deep conversation. And then realised it was Marco Bielsa trying to #freeBenWhite (when people read this in years to come, will they understand what #freeBenWhite was…!). I asked Laurie in his City top if he wanted a photo with him (no!!!) by which time Eamon and Alvie had circled back to check it was him. Further up, I had a lengthy convo with a lady outside her sheltered housing who told me, yes, it is the Leeds manager and he walks (never rides) past twice every day, and more often than not, he is deep in conversation. It’s a fair trek to the LUFC training ground — probably a 6 mile round trip! anyway, it made for a more exciting bike ride!
On Tuesday evening, I had drinks with my FSA colleagues to celebrate me leaving. I did enjoy my time there for the most part — the people in the team were really lovely. There are some buts — I had a number of disagreements with Michelle (we do SR not PR!) and I don’t think they really do social research as it should be done (Michelle was always happy to do ‘quick and dirty’!) but I am pretty proud of what I achieved there, not only setting up a huge push2web survey but also overseeing two really important Covid-19 publications, which were published the following day. You can find them here, covered in the Guardian here. It is sometimes difficult to gauge how much difference your work achieves in the civil service. In the voluntary sector, you get that Wenceslas syndrome where you actually see the difference you make to individual people whilst in the civil service you hope it could have a more profound difference to more people. But I think deep down, you kid yourself if you say that. It’s part of the way I reassure myself that taking the dirty lucre is acceptable. To think when you consider pensions etc, I probably get paid twice what I did compared to the job immediately before (the role with GIPSIL).
So on to my next role, overseeing analysis for the Serious Case Panel. Again seemingly what could be more important? We shall see. So far it feels lonely, no one in my team, a brand new team, getting to understand the task in hand, being told 25 times there is ‘no pressure’ …. etc etc
That evening, we went over to J & E and had a really nice BBQ to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
And so to the end of the week, I watched Bayern turn over a wretched Barca 8–2 (oh, what a far cry it is from that Barca team of 2009). It feels quite unjust to see Lionel Messi being surrounded by an ageing team of square pegs in round holes who gave up the ghost. And then last night, quite bizarrely, Man City lost 3–1 to Lyon. Pep yet again over-thought the whole process, playing a 3 at the back, with only kdb and Sterling being the creative players (leaving the Silvas, Mahrez and Foden on the bench). To think Pellegrini took City to the semis of the CL with a far worse team. I actually am sticking my neck out on this one and think Pep is a busted flush. Of course they will finish high and they will continue to have most games where they absolutely destroy the opposition but at the same time, their defence isn’t up to it, and they lack that mental solidity thats required. I don’t think they will win the Premier League, let alone the CL, next year.
Yesterday we continued with our active theme and cycled out to Stamford Bridge and back, seeing some lovely llamas (or were they alpacas on the way!).
Stamford Bridge is interesting — even though very close to York, it is most definitely East Yorkshire, and bears some similarities with Snaith. And not in a good way sadly. Oh well…
my last couple of blogs have barely mentioned the nationwide picture — there is an absolutely nationwide debacle going on with A level results (and probably next week the same with GCSEs). The government is still opening things up despite clear evidence that at best things are flatlining before schools go back … and quarantining from Spain and France which seems a dead cat story to divert from the way they have handled the crisis. I’d prefer we didn’t open our borders up full stop but if they are open, it is hard to see the difference in risk of someone returning from France or Spain as there is when we cycled through York city centre last night, with reams of party-goers having no sense of responsibility for older people or those who need to keep their distance. There is talk of disbanding PHE — a clear move to assign blame for their incompetence. It remains to be seen what will happen next — the Tories sit at 42% in the polls (Labour 39%) — at first sight, that seems extraordinary after the last five months but perhaps with LDs almost obsolete (on 5%), that is not a bad come back since Starmer has picked up on the leadership. I think he knows he needs to play the long game, attracting a reputation for serious competence, rather than picking up meaningless headlines. We shall see.
