A couple of years back I started my year of blogging with a story from my summer holiday time about risk appetite. As the modern plague (I can’t call it the C word thanks to spam filters) took a new twist over my summer, I of course observed the various appetites for risk portrayed across the spectrum that is our diverse society.

No one person or group of people can claim theirs is the right stance to take. Everyone has different circumstances and different perspectives. Take my twenty-year-something kids. Two of three, Doug and Ben, just got on with life as normal. Caught it. Got over it pretty quickly. On they go.

My third child, Emily, was due to shoot a short film for her final project of her university degree. It was set for Monday through Wednesday of last week. She hunkered down and avoided all the hotspots and while all her friends caught it, she managed to avoid it.

Then there was the dozen or so cast and crew she needed to worry about, as she was the director. Watching her manage the uncertainty was impressive. She had understudies and backup crew all sorted. Test kits arranged. All was set for the venues, which were people’s homes. This is where things started to come unstuck. The weather meant shifting one venue to a different day and another one was pulled just a few days before. Apparently, the owners did not really want a dozen magnets of the modern plague to roam their house for a day.

It was at this point that I found out our house was the substitute, and that my wife and I needed to vacate it and take the dog with us! Suffice to say we somehow found a lovely cabin on a lake and had a great couple of days away.

The shoot went ahead without any major hitches, and we are all looking forward to seeing the final product.

It was the week before that Emily said something that epitomised the current state of play for so many. “It’s making it fifteen times harder!”. Her planning (some may even call it risk management ) helped her push through and seize the day. Something we are all going to have to do a lot more of in the coming months ahead.

So with that said… good luck with your planning, seize the day and please stay safe!