Sunshine and Fine Meat

Tuesday July 28, 2020

The past few months have been about
trying to find little rays of sunshine amid the doom and chaos. Captain (now
Sir) Tom Moore raising £32m by walking his garden. More time with the family.
My brother Zeno and his astonishing artisan bread making skills. The fact that
I am of Italian heritage.

Yes, I have been known to bore people silly about the wonders of Italian descent. Producers of the world’s finest food. Inventors of the Ferrari. Effortlessly stylish. Unless you ask my wife. To this list I can now add saving our clients more heartache during lockdown.

Italy was the first European epicentre
of Covid-19 and while the news reports were dreadful, they did not convey the
full horror of what was happening in northern Italy. Conversations with family
and friends did. I realised very early on that this nightmare was heading our
way and took action accordingly.

Fully prepared, our team quickly adapted to working from home, calling both leaseholder and freeholders with advice and reassurance while developing new systems for working safely and continue to provide site services.

Hopefully now we are looking to the
end of this nightmare, so what does the future hold? Again, some sunshine amid
the gloom. As a small, reactive agency we have fared far better than the big
corporate outfits, many of whom simply furloughed all their staff and took the
phone off the hook. Some simply updated they e-mails to advise a 10 working day
response target, leaving clients anxious and in the dark.

Some of the innovations forced upon
us by lockdown are set to become permanent features of our offering. For
example, automation of job management has meant we were able to monitor
contractors during lockdown and ensure services were not suffering.

My final ray of sunshine comes back
to my Italian heritage. Fine food and beer. We have new neighbours who have
been quietly working away on their new shop. The Block and Bottle is a
free-range butcher, charcuterie and craft beer shop that has made a
big impact since launching in 2017. One year in and they won runner-up in the
Observer Food Monthly awards against stiff competition from firms with decades
of experience.  

Block and Bottle represent everything
that makes Heaton such a great place to live and work. Passion, commitment and
service to our community. Between them and my brother’s artisan bread I intend
to emerge from this dreadful time a contented fat man. Because to quote the
writer Walt Whitman, “I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.”.