There can only be one thing to write about this week.
On Thursday I was walking the dog at lunchtime, listening to Prime Ministers question time because it was the first question time for the new Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Suddenly the speaker said something along the lines of 'the UK Parliament would like to send their wishes and thoughts to the Royal Family following the news about the Queen'. I stopped in my tracks and bought up the BBC/News website. There was nothing on there, so I went to Google/News - nothing on their either.
Coming back to work I posted on Teams to find out if anybody knew anything. One of the team reported that their news feed had said that the Queen had been told to rest.
I continued working, keeping a close eye on the news - next bit of news was that the Queens family were making their way to Balmoral. I'll be honest, at this point I knew what news was about to come out.
Queen Elizabeth was 86 and you could see the physical impact on her since Prince Phillip died. I had even said to son before the Platinum Jubilee celebration earlier this year 'she's just holding on until the end of the celebration'.
However, when the news came out - I saw it about 18:20 in the evening - that she had died it somehow came as an enormous shock. I was literally stunned. She's been the queen for 70 years - so for a huge proportion of the UK population she's always been the queen. A constant.
Obviously not everybody in the country is a royalist, but it seems that everybody was rocked whatever their position.
I was really surprised about my reaction - I never met the Queen - I didn't know her as a person and normally I would struggle to find a reaction about somebody I didn't know. However, on Thursday evening I was stunned and on Friday morning I found myself crying.
The palace has an online memorial book, I've left a message on this - I suspect along with millions and millions of others.
I haven't watched everything on television - essentially it's all the main TV stations and radio stations have talked about since her death. The country is in an official 10 days of mourning. I wonder if this will be all that's talked about for the next 10 days. I also don't know what my position is about that.
However, I did watch Charles III first address to the Nation. I thought he did a good job of it. It will be interesting to see what changes he plans to make to the way the monarchy works, after all he's had many years to make plans and think about what he'll do. I think that Camilla has her feet firmly on the ground - as I say - it will be interesting to see what happens.
I also watched the coffin leave Balmoral on its way to Edinburgh, listening to the commentary on Radio because they painted a much clearer picture with words. I found myself crying my eyes out - literally getting to sobbing stage. It's very strange how your emotions can surprise you.
Many other things will happen before I post again, the funeral is next Monday. The times are very sad and it's really rocked the Nation. But it goes wider than that - some of the messages sent by other countries have been utterly astounding. She was clearly held in the highest regard by other world leaders. But not just in a professional way - the messages were so strong she was clearly held in the greatest affection.
The two that surprised me the most were Emmanuel Macron of France. Let's face it normally when he talks about the UK it's to rip us apart and belittle us (though there are so many arrogant Brits, belittling us is a challenge - which to be fair is probably why he verbally rips us apart) [ps. I've always loved the French - largely because of their approach to life]. His words - spoken in English - were stunning and beautiful. It's given me a very different view of him. The other surprise was that Putin sent a message of condolence - given all that is happening in the world, this unexpected - well by myself anyway.
I still find myself welling up with tears at unexpected moments. It's going to be a very strange period.
There are other things I want to say, but for now I'm going to leave it. Let's focus only on the end of an Era - The second Elizabethan Age.
Goodbye and Thank You.
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