January to July
What the hell was that?
Well, honestly, what can we say about this last year that hasn't already been said. The humbling, dangerous and in a way eccentric year has tried nigh on everyone's patience and will to try and carry on. The thought of last years events maybe would have been farfetched in the preceding years, feeling like a a Hollywood plot for another Horror or an apocalyptic movie. Living it genuinely has felt like being put in a virtual reality where the farfetched nature of the storyline has been all but true.
So what can I write about this year that won't be a bleak article about the statistics? There has been positives from the year that will certainly go down in world history. Making the most of a bad situation has been something that has kept me personally going throughout the living nightmare. Within the rules and guidelines I have actually managed to enjoy parts of the year. For me 'appreciation' is the word of the year. ALL critical workers have kept this country running in its darkest hour. The appreciation for the collaborative work has been shown with claps for the NHS and key workers, many retail ranges raising money for charity too. Britain in that sense has something to be proud of as, ironically, the virus has bought us all together for a common goal of keeping transmission down. Making sure those on the frontline can continue to do their jobs, the majority of others have had to sacrifice their lives of their own work and therefore sometimes luxuries through being furloughed or working from home. Those who already had little have been supported by community hubs, schools and local charities to try to keep their heads above water.
So, what can I reflect on in my own year? See below for a month to month breakdown:
January:
To be honest, I had a relatively normal start to the year! A pretty standard new years, but this time in Kent. Gratefully, I was with my partner and her family celebrating. We by this point had heard of Coronavirus as a distant thing circulating in China but not really something too many in Britain were worried about. I took the month to see a few on my family, visiting my auntie for a evening meal and chat with my other half. I also visited my Nan as I had already done every week before. I was fortunate to do this considering the following months. This may have been down to a loss I had suffered a few months before, but this January generally felt warm and loving. On the work front, we were back at school and settling everyone in to the winter term. Always a little frantic, this was mostly the leftover excitement of Christmas and sure enough we managed to quickly reengage.
There wasn't much else to say on January weirdly, the month seemed to go without a hitch and although like said before, we knew of the virus, everyone was blissfully unaware of the travelling it would do. My appreciation for my family and friends this month was the most prominent.
February:
With my partner and I fully at work, we hadn't seen much of each other so decided to make sure we were surprising each other and sorting dates out. To surprise her, we went to the local Wetherspoons to get a meal and to treat her to a drink of her choice. She didn't know about this, but we enjoyed a meal with just us two catching up on how everything was going, putting the worlds to rights.
In early Feb, we had a trip to London's Wembley Arena to see the fantastically energetic Jonas Brothers. We met up with a couple of friends from my partners home county Kent and had a meal before singing our absolute hearts out to all the songs we knew! (I knew most!) In hindsight, with the virus starting to spread throughout parts of Asia and dotting throughout the planet, being sat in an Arena full of 10,000 people seems pretty mad! The concert was brilliant though with a colourful flair throughout and excellent live singing.
A definite highlight of February also has to be the Local Drag Show called 'Knees Up' that we went to with my wonderful work colleagues and friends. The array of talent was superb! There were games, dancing, lip syncing and two hilarious hosts in Thorn Hill and The Fabulous Josh. An old friend performed in it also, with her and a few from her dance group performing some fantastically choreographed skits and routines. Packed to the rafters in one of the local clubs, this was enjoyed by everyone so much so, the drink was flowing and the crowd got up to dance the night away.
Naturally in the month of February comes Valentines day! As a joint venture, myself and my partner decided to split the bill and pay for each other to go to Marwell, but stay in the adjacent hotel. This was a lovely trip to again spend a lot of time as just us two. As much as spending time with family is great, when you still live with parents, the time away felt just as precious. With both of us keen animal lovers, we had a wonderful time seeing the massive variety of wildlife. Opening our Valentines Cards was a lovely quirky moment too, with both of us purchasing 'Doris' from Gavin and Stacey cards. If that really doesn't reflect that you're with the right person, I don't know what else does?! A few days after, we visited Bella Italia for a Italian High Tea that my significant other's parents had purchased for us that Christmas.
Towards the end of the month, we visited friends in Kent, having a meal with them at the local Frankie and Benny's. This night was a brilliant laugh with everyone and their partners in attendance. This month certainly seemed to be one to spend as much time with my partner as possible. This month I was grateful for the time we had spent together as through our busy and differing work schedules, it was well and truly needed.
By this point, the virus had spread into Europe with Italy hit. Murmurs were that we were going to get it soon if we didn't already have it. This started to get real although the way the country was dealing with it by this point, although it was close, it seemed a million miles away still.
March:
This sadly would be the last month of live football for myself. As a staunch Pompey (Portsmouth) fan with a season ticket, it a place to get all my energy out at for the week and enjoy myself, by myself. The last match I remember at the time of writing was a 2-0 loss to Arsenal who incidentally had played a Greek team not long before. Shortly after playing us, their players were testing positive. I think people assumed to think that considering the bubble sometimes footballers are in, this might be another isolated case of what had now reached our shores.
My new car was available to pick up on the 7th. With money saved up and my old Corsa costing too much to keep running. I decided on purchasing a new 2nd hand car. Thus, my little blue car was born! This allowed me to drive to work still and see my family. One of the first journeys I made was to the crematorium to see my family member who passed away on her birthday. The car was a much needed boost too with our kitchen being ripped out! The work had started to fill then replace the flooring in our kitchen which unfortunately had sitting water underneath it due to to the flashing letting water through. This meant no double oven, no dishwasher and no hob! Absolute hell, or so I thought!
Then came the news we had come to dread. The virus had taken a massive hold on the UK. The amount of cases had very quickly sky rocketed in a number of weeks. Naturally with this came deaths. Because we didn't know how to treat it yet, a lot of them too. To protect the country and the NHS, BoJo put the country into a full lockdown. This meant that even the school I work at had to be 'shut'. During this time, Key Worker School was formed but took a few weeks to begin fully. This was a shock at work still as naturally with any group of the public, we have a few members that would have to shield and that we wouldn't see for the foreseeable future. The work to support students both tutor and otherwise went on. This was based predominately at home, with a weekly call making sure they could access work that the school had superbly and very sharply set up. My mind went into overdrive to be honest with all the news that went on, but work kept my mind focused as I needed to make sure those I support were okay.
Due to my family having various health issues and with a aging demographic, I decided as I was attending work still and going out to do so, I would be the one to do the weekly food shop for the 4 of us that live together. This, plus my nan. This would be a activity I would partake in weekly, on my own. I didn't understand the panic buying as these supermarkets were still open so continued to do the shopping to the best of my ability and as safely as I could. It was definitely a odd experience having the 1 way system around supermarkets with lines in all isles 2 metres apart. All whilst starting to wear masks in public. This was thought to be helpful to stop droplets transmitting the virus through breathing/talking etc.
As the isolation began to set in, the madness started. Zoom very quickly emerged as the front runner to video call those that needed to have company. We decided on using the platform for starting a quiz with our friends from Kent as a way of having fun amongst the loneliness. With us doing the first one, I sent a medal to the winner engraved with the name and something to do with Lockdown 2020 on it. My partner and I also started to play Animal Crossing which became as popular as the console (Nintendo Switch) which we played it on. I think this was down to the escapism to a perfect world where VERY little went wrong. In truth, we became a little obsessed with it, but hey, understandably so right?! Further in the month too, a Netflix Documentary of a man who ran a roadside zoo in the US came out. That's right, Tiger King! Again, another series to be engrossed in, this captured the attention of people throughout the world. Netflix and streaming were becoming massively popular by this point as there was a lot more time at home!
Finally, myself and a friend/colleague at work decided to try and cheer a few people up, so after work one day, we (in a social distanced way) did a lip sync to 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin. This was meant to be the school show merely weeks after lockdown was announced. To pay homage to this, we very cheesily donned the costumes and safe to say, it went down well. I think for sure, this month more than ever, with so many asked not to work, I was massively thankful for my job in the public sector as it offered me financial security in dire times!
April:
This is the month it really started to hit that life really would not be the same for while to come yet. The naivety set in and I genuinely thought by December that we would be pretty much out of the woods. How wrong I was. Any who, to stave off the depression which was worming its way in after everything stopping, my partner and I decided to go running/walking. We needed to exercise. We needed fresh air. Everything at this time felt stale and it was about trying to work within the parameters and forcing yourself to go and make yourself happier. This was the case for myself anyway. With football stopping and majority of travel not allowed, I tried to be creative and come up with ways to entertain myself!
With the weather slowly getting to a point that outside was becoming more of an option, I decided to put on a BBQ for my family. Well, the other three that lived with me! I did the full works. Differing bits of meat, a variety of sides and beverages. This was one thing that we could do. With a bit of music, barring differing company, this is what we might have done anyway. Outside of days like this in this month, to be truthful, I felt a bit lost throughout. Our obsession with Animal Crossing was continuing too, which although was enjoyable, sucked me into a bit of false pretence.
I managed to fit in 2 BBQs that month and lots of pasta due to the oven still not being available. I think this stemmed a lot of my food creativity. Key worker school started this month and my school personally jumped into action, helping various care homes, dentists etc with PPE. This was a lifeline for lots of people as online resources had diminished very quickly. This was made with a laser cutter and a lot of man hours from our fabulous Design Team. They truly are all heroes. To try and play my part, and because I drive, I tried my hardest anytime I was in (and some days I wasn't) to go and help deliver to the people who needed it most. This was a honour to be involved with and everyone was SO thankful. This month, I realised how brilliant the community I am in, can be.
May:
Key worker School continued into May, with the number of students swelling ever so slightly throughout the term. This meant more days in, whilst still on my days off, working from home to support as much as I could. The first memory I HAVE to talk about is the fantastic idea my awesome colleague had to produce another skit for everyone to enjoy. This time, it was in the form of creating our favourite film, Jurassic Park. Using toy dinosaurs, costumes and clever camera angles, we managed to safely produce a funny 3 minute video. This would go on to be used for the remote learning as example for creating film. We also had a absolutely brilliant time making it.
A few days later was the celebration of VE Day 75. This naturally made me a little nervous as celebration draws people together, of which was the opposite of what we needed to do. Generally speaking, numbers would spike if the public had not taken the precautions they needed to. With paying my respects at home, we decided to have a calm day just by ourselves. This can make you stir crazy staying in the same bubble, but sometimes you have to do things for the greater good. This was a prominent thought in my mind throughout the year.
In the middle of May, my girlfriend and I celebrated 5 long years of her putting up with me! And once again, we both got very similar cards. This time, both Tiger King!
I decided to surprise her again, but this time with Balloons filling our bedroom floor like some crazy ball pit, a fry up and some flowers! With 5 years being significant, we decided we certainly had to mark it. We decided on a nature walk, more specifically the New Forest. This would also be the day that I would come across the only poisonous snake in the UK. I had ever so nearly stepped on a Black Adder. Managing to snap it on my camera, we swiftly moved on, just enjoying the beautiful landscape that spread out in front of us. To finish in style, we had a obligatory Chinese and wine! It truly was a wonderful day. A day I kind of forgot what was happening around us.
The 19th of May was possibly one of my favourite days of the year. Just over two months on and we FINALLY had our double oven back in. With lots of people taking on baking as a lockdown hobby, I couldn't help but be massively jealous. BUT NOW I COULD JOIN! It made me so happy. A few days later though I had to venture in the hospital to do a sleep apnoea test. With sleep at a premium anyway, I had wires strapped to me to try and sleep in and guess my breathing. It was very odd entering the hospital during a pandemic. However, because of the lack of guests visiting, and the corridors being wide, the quick trip to drop of the equipment went without a hitch. For the rest of the month I truly went overboard with the oven making roasts, baking all sorts too.
This was until right at the end of the month when I ended up back in hospital, but for a even more serious issue. TMI, but I had been bleeding a lot every 20/30 minutes or so. This was scary as with this I felt weak and in immense pain around my abdomen/intestines. I was in hospital on my own too with cases of the virus relatively still high. With a blood test clear and other tests taken, it was put down to something that I merely had to take painkillers for. For about 3/4 days after I was in pain, but with the care of my girlfriend I felt much better. The whole experience of being ill but not having the virus felt a little surreal. This month definitely showed me how caring those around me are towards myself. For that I'm forever thankful.
June:
At work, Key Worker School came into full swing with the numbers raising of children that needed provision. With small groups, the support staff paired off and started to look after the students in attendance. A few days into the month, the same colleague and friend of mine who I had done the skits with showed up at my house and well and truly surprised me with the BEST dinosaur dungarees that she had procured. This random act of kindness definitely had me beaming for days!
The colleague whom I shared the group with also had a business run by his other half of CHOCOLATE! With a lot of sugar needed to produce energy I ordered this personalised chocolate with whatever I wanted on it. This really went down well. In fact, so well, I ended up ordering a second bar that month! With the group settling in too, we started to think up activities we could do safely that would break up the day. As we were in the same room all day every day, cabin fever was a slight fear. But we well and truly managed to nail the balance within the room I think!
At home we managed to fit in yet ANOTHER BBQ. This time with our support bubble being my Auntie, we spent the whole time in the garden celebrating her birthday. We also celebrated Pride at home too. This was a YouTube extravaganza! With a phenomenally talented local drag scene, there was a brilliant mix which made 3 hours of it fly by! Towards the end of the month I took inspiration from another colleague to make my own rhubarb and orange flavoured gin! With a very easy process and a week of mixing, it came out beautifully and had a fantastic taste! I also managed to put together a 7 minute video for my parents 30th anniversary. As an event that as many had to be cancelled, I decided to still bring everyone together in video to wish them all the best. They really, really loved the sentiment as they, like myself, missed everyone.
This month definitely made me feel blessed for my work environment and those I work with.
July:
Okay, so I ordered a THIRD chocolate slab. This time a XL one. But can you blame a man for treating himself. I was working throughout the pandemic so far so needed comfort. Even though it may not have been healthy comfort, it was SO good.
With the George Floyd killing in May happening and the resultant protests that followed, I realised I genuinely didn't understand as a white British man the oppression faced throughout history. I knew of racism and slavery, sure, but not how that has fed hatred and bias within our society. To tackle this I looked up literature of various viewpoints. Two brilliant books I read that month were 'Why I'm no Longer Talking to White People About Race' and 'Native'. It really opened my eyes to how systematic things were. This month I started to reflect on the boiling pot that was society and how it took a pandemic to lift the lid and let the water flow over.
At the beginning of July the hairdressers also opened! With not having my haircut since early March, my hair had gone flicky and slightly unruly. Something as small as a haircut this year really meant the world in the long run as I could feel proud of my appearance as well as my work. With my fresh new haircut, I felt so good. This self care spread to the fact I started to take multivitamins. To boost my immune system generally and to make up for the lack of sunlight, I thought what better time to try them!
We were nearing the end of term at work now too and winding down for the Summer ahead. To celebrate the continued hard work of everyone in our Key Worker School, we produced certificates for all. This would be something they could take away and be proud of for various achievements. With one of my friends from work leaving soon, it became bittersweet but something that was eventually inevitable. We had a very safe and socially distanced last day, celebrating all the very, very different circumstances that we had succeeded in. We most importantly had kept each other safe and made sure we looked after each others mental state.
With a rule of 6 outdoors being acceptable, we also celebrated (getting through the term) as a bunch of friends instead of colleagues. In the form of a picnic in the sun, we had a great laugh sharing anecdotes and such. A few days later, this was replicated at the beach. By this point in the year, social distancing felt the norm. Due to the lowering cases and subsequent deaths, I was grateful for the time outdoors with those close to me. With open air and distance I felt safe but also loved. It really did blow away that stale feeling I had earlier in the year whilst frankly being stuck with the same people day in, day out. It really was the small things making the biggest difference this month.
Stay tuned in the next few days for Part 2! August to December.
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