I love the smell of diesel in the morning.

And having a new coffee cup for every cup of coffee.

And being on the Northern Line.

And filling every single minute of every day with activity.

And all of us eating meals at different times.

And watching TV in different rooms.

And homework.

And popping to the supermarket to t...

You're new, right? When d’you get in? March 23. Still counting the weeks?

Listen, I’ve been here a while, 15 years of while.

So if you’re going to survive, you got to know the rules.

Don’t worry, I can help.

Rule No.1 - never trust anyone who says they can help.

Rule No.2 - get up in the morning. Get dressed. Make the bed.

Ru...

What are you desperate to do when you’re released back into the wild?

Sit down for a picnic in the park?

Savour a cold pint in a sunny beer garden?

Try on clothes in a changing room?

Have a coffee made by somebody else?

Get your hair colour done?

Or something a bit more essential?

See your mum?

Work out in a gym...

Togetherness was obvious from the start.

That’s why so many brands’ responses are lessons in undistinctiveness.

It was always going to be Safety too.

And ‘sometimes our fears do us more harm than the things we’re afraid of’, to paraphrase Marcus Aurelius.

I’m not sure but I think there could possibly be more empathy about. More compassion....

If you want to understand the current climate, you’re going to have to dig into people’s need for Safety.

If you want to do that, you’ll have to explore what it is they’re afraid of.

If you want to get to grips with that, you could do worse than look at a film like the Blair Witch Project.

And maybe think about some of the following:

The p...

We’re all in this together.

Come together to Clap For Our Carers.

Stand together to beat coronavirus.

It’s the tone, isn’t it? Like a tetchy head teacher.

But it’s also that word. Together.   

Brands are up to it too.

The BBC is ‘bringing us closer’ because ‘together we’ll get through’.

McCain uses the same words...

It’s like emotion squared out there at the moment.

The fear, naturally. Everyone’s stopped saying it’s a bit like the flu.

The trust we’re putting in our leaders to work out an exit strategy.

The anger at joggers who confuse metres with feet.

The joy of watching that great dane doing lunges with his owner. 

The disgust that prompted...

If you find yourself reading anything by someone who claims to know exactly how the world will have changed by the time things get ‘back to normal’, here’s my advice.

Stop.

Nobody knows.

Governments don’t know how long they’ll need to keep the restrictions in place.

Healthcare services don’t know if they’ve done enough to be ready for the...

It’s all questions at the moment, isn’t it?

Should we self-isolate?

Do I have coronavirus?

Why is it not the coronavirus?

How frequent is a continuous cough?

Have we got enough food?

How the hell are we going to keep the kids occupied?

Did you hear the town of Vo in Italy tested all 3,000 residents and only 3% tested p...

“We all want quiet…”

We do, don’t we? From time to time.

“We all want beauty…”

In all its forms. Like waves rolling in as the sun slides into the sea.

“We all need space…”

Space to work, room to breathe. I wrote that once as a proposition for Canary Wharf, in the days when no one wanted to work there.

Now it gets good.

...