Is this our world today? Everything that we thought was stable and would never change has changed. Nothing is for certain anymore. Words and phrases that were unknown or unfamiliar to us just six months ago dominate our daily conversations.

Who else has left the house and then suddenly reaslised that they have forgotten their mask? – not their keys, purse or phone although we do still forget them too but not with such consequences. I did this only yesterday. However, as most of you will now have, I had a spare mask in my bag…in fact two of them. I am building up quite a collection  to suit my mood:

• the cat print one for planned trips
• the one with ‘goodbye’ in Kazakh for walking along the street
• the one I have hand crocheted (close knit with a pocket for additional filter) for meeting friends
• the blue one to match a different colour palette
• the pack of surgical ones that are in every bag and pocket
• the one with large covid type virus cartoons and the message ‘if you can read this you are too close’ for days when I just cannot be bothered

I also have a face shield – thought would be good for communicating with people. It is only when you cannot see someone’s facial expressions that you realise how much you actually read faces. Having said that, you can still read an amazing amount from eyes. However the shield is really only an additional protection along with a mask. I have seen some masks on Amazon with a clear plastic part at the mouth – for working with children, this would be essential.

Of course the other challenge is for those who wear glasses or if the sun is actually out and sunglasses are needed – they mist up from your breath, your hot steamy breath seeping out from your mask. I remember from my scuba diving days that you could stop your mask from steaming up by spitting in it…wonder if the same would work with glasses?

I do wonder in amazement at how quickly we have adapted to this new normal life. Sure, we are all still living on a roller coaster of covid emotions but somehow we are carrying on. The stilts of our lives might have seemed precarious when we realised that our world was having to redefine ‘normal’ but they are actually strong and flexible.