I’m a firm believer that all that happens, happens for a reason and that there are always lessons or positives to be gleaned from all situations. One thing that swine flu has brought back is the importance of personal hygiene but also that work is not more important than our lives. It’s only now when a flu that can kill us – and all those we infect – appears that we put health, family, and consideration for others back above getting into the office at all costs.

Of course, the relative efficiency of working from home these days helps ‘ease the pain’. A recent survey even found the majority or significantly more people (can’t remember which!) now rate money as not the most important thing in their lives. For me, that’s definately a good fall-out from swine flu and, to a slightly lesser extent, the credit crunch. The effect of the credit crunch was probably more about getting us to seriously consider our purchases, on their own individual merit, now that we don’t have endless streams of credit and sky-rocketting house prices to sustain our consumer habits. These lessons will stand us in good stead for the years to come … until we forget them again. No doubt other ‘crises’ or ‘turning points’ will appear to remind us again. Fish Flu perhaps?