Potentially unwise kale smoothie on the way in.

Does anyone know the status code for ‘not deployable: shitting myself blind’?

Genuinely disappointed not to have been sent to the ‘man with a megaphone shouting about COVID’ job that’s just come out.

Whether he’s pro or anti COVID is presently obscure.

It is a cliche of police work that everything can change in an instant.

At 7.45 p.m. I bought a sandwich and a coffee at our usual BP.

At 7.55 p.m. I watched a man die amid the screams of his wife and children.

It is another cliche of police work to say 'if you love someone, tell them so, because nothing is certain'.

Please do, though.

Horror is only ever a moment away, and life hangs by the slenderest of threads.

We turn our faces from these facts; otherwise we could not live our lives.

They remain facts.

The paramedics, sweating in COVID HAZMAT suits, knelt in the gore and fought with every ounce of the skill and determination that makes it such a privilege to work alongside them.

The moment of defeated silence when they finally stopped is something I will never forget.

The car that killed him made off, so it was our turn.

It made me proud to be a cop.

Everyone went to work: response (my shift and the next), traffic, firearms, PCSOs, detectives, control room staff, injured officers on computers at the nick.

Nobody was trying to get rid of this job. Nobody was arguing about remits.

And when that doesn't happen, we can do almost anything.

From a standing start and no information we had the suspect in custody within two hours.

I don't know how it will all turn out.

I know that whatever happens a much loved man died a sudden, brutal death in front of his family.

I also know that dozens of people came together and did their absolute best to save his life and find his killer.