Sue Searle
Surviving Lockdown

One of the positive outcomes of this pandemic has been appreciating what matters in life. The greatest boon has been the luxury of having a garden. With many sunny days I’ve been able to work outside under the sun umbrella and enjoy the spring blossom and bulbs.

I’ve worked for myself from home for many years so nothing changes with everything online. But that’s isolating and I miss the social interaction of face to face networking and events, particularly at King’s. Zoom has kept my intellectual interests going with webinars from The Policy Institute, The Global Institute for Women's Leadership, King's Business School and Professor Tim Spector on Covid-19, as well as from the Royal Society of Medicine and my own family, meetings and mentoring.

Food deliveries became the highlight of the week! Baking increased to provide treats and breaks in the absence of going out.

I am a Body Combat and Body Pump enthusiast so my lounge became a gym with benches, mats and weights. Time saved not travelling to the gym but the social contact missed. As we began to leave the house for exercise, I enjoyed the freedom of walking in the open countryside and cycling in the nearby forest. In the evenings we could watch all those long awaited, missed series on TV and read many fiction books.


Social media became more useful to keep in touch and interact. The highlight being asked by the BBC to record my Twitter comments for one of their food programmes on Radio4!