We’ve had to retrain our brains but new reality isn’t all bad

You’ll find a new normal. It’s a platitude once associated with cheap self-help books, to be trotted out when you can’t think of anything else to say to a friend in need. Now, it’s a global mantra, spilling from the lips of everyone from corporate bosses to world leaders.

With the coronavirus pandemic, our “new normal” contains the kind of scenes that we used to watch in disaster movies.

It’s now normal to see people wearing facemasks in the street.

It’s normal to decontaminate your shopping basket with a spray gun before browsing the supermarket aisles, moving from one mapped-out square to the next, like an absurd game of hopscotch.

It’s normal to cut your own hair and work from home with a child on your lap.

Every morning I have to recalibrate my brain to this new reality - there’s no choice but to adapt.

For some, like this week’s cover star Andrea Mclean, the lockdown has also come as a blessing.

The Loose Women presenter reveals (on pages 6&7) she has enjoyed the time to decompress, saying:“i don’t want the world to go back to how it was. It was too busy, too loud...”

It’s true some things have changed for the better. Our brave new world also includes more time with our children, online cocktail hour with old pals and a new appreciation of nature.

In the first weeks of lockdown, P.S. moved inside the main paper, but I’m excited that this week we are back in magazine format. It feels familiar. And familiar feels good right now.

So, until we meet again next week, I hope you enjoy our colourful, fun-packed issue.