Mel

My husband's unit was told nothing today. The commissary card reader stopped working this afternoon. Somebody said it is the bank thing. I do not know what the bank thing is but I know my card did not work.

People keep saying "the Germans closed the runways" like it is a headline.

The man who closed the runway coaches my son's football team on Wednesdays. He came round on Sunday with a cake. He looked absolutely wretched about it.

None of this is happening between countries. It is happening between neighbours who all have to be at the same school gate tomorrow.

Small practical thing nobody is covering: the German kids in my daughter's class made her a card.

She is seven. She does not know what an asset freeze is. She knows the card said "wir vermissen dich schon" — we miss you already — and she has not put it down since.

That is what the drawdown actually is, at ground level. Seven year olds saying goodbye in two languages.

Employment notices started arriving today for base contract staff. My neighbour has worked at that gate for twenty-six years.

Everyone keeps calling this a geopolitical crisis. In this town it is a redundancy letter.