Dear How to Crack a a Nut readers and friends,
I hope you and your loved ones are keeping well and slowly starting to see a path towards a ‘new normal’.
Whether you are in practice, policy-making or academia, I am sure this period is throwing unimaginable challenges at you on a daily basis. It certainly feels like that on this side of the screen. I am sure there will be plenty learning to be had once the dust settles, both on what went wrong and what actually worked out during the pandemic and immediately after—for procurement is certainly lined up to be a key area of economic intervention in the near future.
In academia, the current uncertainty and the challenge of developing a new high-quality online or blended and flexible teaching model will probably absorb most of our energies for quite a while. This will bring opportunities, but also risks burning quite a few of us out if we are not careful. In particular if/while working from home under less than ideal circumstances, including increased caring responsibilities eg due to childcare or home schooling. If you find yourselves in that position, please be kind to yourselves, whatever the institutional pressures and expectations. We can only do our best, but not more than that…
All of this would be enough for me to need to take a break from non-essential work at the best of times. In fact, given very increased teaching and administration demands on my time, I have already had to scale down to bare minimum all my research and, thankfully, been given pretty long extensions on my current two book contracts (massive thanks to Oxford University Press and Bristol University Press).
But, in addition to everything else, we are expecting a second baby in a few weeks—which is both exciting and terrifying in the current context—and will certainly make the months ahead particularly amazing and challenging. Once again, I need to dedicate additional time to my personal life to enjoy this exciting period, and to try to make the transition into having a sibling as smooth as possible for my oldest one (I know… please send any tips).
I will be on paternity leave for a few weeks this summer, and then for the first half of 2021. I do not think I will have the headspace to blog until after going back to work next summer (whether that will be in an office or still in my living room remains to be seen) and, to be honest, pausing the blog has previously given me some peace of mind, as I do not constantly feel like I should be publishing something to keep ‘my audience’ engaged—which is pretty presumptuous of me, anyway, because you all have better things to do than be wondering when the next HTCaN entry will come live and what will it be about…
So, this is my long way of saying that it is again time for me to pause the blog to concentrate on wrapping up a few things before facing the greatest privilege of starting the parenting adventure all over again. Bottles, nappies, sleepless nights, bring ‘em on!
Luckily, this is not a bad time to be pausing the blog at all as, on top of the consolidated and reliable commentary from Dr Pedro Telles and Professor Chris Yukins (who’s been doing a truly remarkable job with his COVID-19 webinars), there are now two recent additions to the public procurement blog/podcast-sphere. If you have not checked them out yet, do not miss Dr Marta Andhov & Dr Willem Janssen four-hand English version of Willem’s Bestek procurement podcast, and keep an eye on Michael Bowsher QC’s hot off the oven blog. I look forward to continue learning from them during my period of self-imposed suspension and, hopefully, to return to an even more crowded procurement blogging and podcasting scene.
I hope to find you here in 2021. In the meantime, I hope you and yours will stay well, and be happy.
All the best,
Albert
20 May 2020