2020 - a year of loss

Nothing could have prepared us for 2020. A year that offered so much as the start of a new decade, but turned out to be the worst year I have ever lived through.

It has truly been a year of loss. Loss of lives, loss of jobs, loss of cherished businesses, loss of freedom, loss of choice, loss of anticipated holidays, loss of planned celebrations, even a loss of hopes and dreams. So many of the fun and enjoyable things we can do as humans were taken away from us in 2020. Travel, eating and drinking out in pubs and restaurants, cafes and bars, musical concerts, sports events, simple gatherings and meals with friends, church services, celebrations that we used to take for granted, all affected by the virus.

I feel that this year has been the lost year. So much time suspended while we sat at home and waited for the virus to go away, only it didn't. Two lockdowns and we're now facing a third. I fear this will go on into 2021, and only the widespread take-up of the vaccine will let us return to normality. But I do fear that the lives we lived before coronavirus will never be the same again. The shadow will always be there - the fear that has hung over all of us this year will perhaps never go away in our lifetime. Who could ever have imagined how terribly affected we would be, not only as a country but as a planet? We will never be able to put a price on the losses we have suffered this year. 

And then there are the words that have become commonplace, some of which we had never used before, or which had different meanings:

Covid and coronavirus

Unprecedented

Pandemic

Outbreak

Infections

Super-spreader

Furlough ( I didn't even know how to spell this word back in March)

Lockdown

Bubble (for me, formerly had something to do with soap)

Self-quarantine

Tiers

Social distancing

The "R" number

Face masks (previously used for swimming or cosmetics for me!) or face covering

Self-isolating

And our Government's slogans:

Stay Home - Protect the NHS - Save Lives

Stay Alert - Control the Virus - Save Lives

Hands - Face - Space

Track and Trace

And then, against the background of all this, there were my own personal problems with Mum and Dad, which made a bad situation even worse. How could I ever have known, as I drove to my parents' house on the 13 February, the outcome of my Dad's fall which resulted in months of problems, the eventual sale of the house (which I still can't believe has happened), and the loss of their cherished independence.? Trying to sort that all out, and put the house on the market and complete the sale were perhaps the hardest and saddest things I have ever had to do in my life so far.

I was off work for five months out of the year, and some people I know at work have not returned since March. I doubt they will return before March 2021, so they will have been gone a whole year.

But we have to try and look on the bright side. The circumstances have allowed some of us to discover new ways of working, new ways of getting in touch with family and friends. It's brought communities together and paved the way for some people to really shine, enabling them to do fantastic deeds and raise money that would never have been possible before.

And it hasn't been all bad! The weather in our first lockdown was fabulous. I loved going for walks with Sophie and Keith, sitting in the conservatory with my daughter while she worked, spending so much time together as a family, and getting things done in the house that we'd been meaning to do for ages.

So, what were the best days of 2020?  There were some! There was no travel this year - our trip to France in April was postponed until September, and then put off again to April 2021. Sophie's holiday in Italy was also put back to May 2021, and countless other trips for people this year were either cancelled or postponed. The pandemic caused worldwide travel chaos with lightning decisions to quarantine people coming in from affected areas.

Anyway...enough of the gloom and doom. Here are the best days of 2020:

Wednesday January 15 - My Birthday and a trip to Beaconsfield and The Royal Standard of England pub. A lovely lunch in beautiful and ancient surroundings.

Sunday January 26 - Mike's birthday and a trip down to London for lunch in Greenwich. Our last outing as a family for quite a while!

Saturday February 1 - A lovely day of treats, lunch out and even cake and a cup of tea in the afternoon!

Sunday April 5 - Sophie's birthday and not quite the day we were expecting! However, a lovely walk, Champagne and a Spanish-themed meal made up for it... a bit!

Friday May 8 -  VE Day and a lovely afternoon spent with neighbours outside our houses, sipping drinks and having a great time!

Wednesday May 20 - a trip to the coast - Winterton-on-Sea and Cromer. Beautiful weather and so nice to escape for the day!

Monday July 7 -  a trip to Oxford, great sight-seeing and street food for lunch!

Sunday July 26 - A lovely lunch at The Cowper's Oak in Weston Underwood and an afternoon enjoying Castle Ashby Gardens.

Saturday August 8 - Keith and I go on a mooch into Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Beautiful weather and two meals out - what more could we want!

Saturday October 24 - a trip over to Olney in Buckinghamshire, our new Market Harborough! Charity shop finds and a fantastic little tea-room!

Saturday December 5 - A repeat trip to Olney, a beautiful day, lunch at Teapots and more charity shop finds!

Thursday December 24 - Christmas Eve, always one of my favourite days, but this year blessed with good weather and a lovely walk!

As we look forward to 2021, I pray that it will be a much better year. I don't think things will return to normal for a good part of the year, but let's all hope that we get over the pandemic, lives are saved and that things improve for us all!

Sneaking about...

Keith went to Tesco and Aldi this morning and also tried, without luck, to get his hair cut. It's long overdue!

Sophie and I mooched about the house and did very little. Outside it was cold and sunny with the slight threat of snow later in the day. Keith returned from shopping having given up on his haircut, and we helped him unload the bulging bags of shopping.

Sophie and I still needed some ingredients for tomorrow's meal, so we all went to Smith's Farm Shop as they stock a wide range of herbs and spices and Indian flatbreads. However, the place was packed and the queue to get in stretched a long way! We drove back out and headed to Waitrose, but the supermarket was also very busy with queues of people waiting to get in... unbelievable! Who on earth would have thought shopping would still be like this in December?

We gave up, I put some petrol in my Dad's car, and we dropped Keith off at home. We had decided to sneak into Leicestershire and visit Farndon Fields for the ingredients we needed. We just hoped there wouldn't be police patrols on the border!

We took the scenic route to the main Harborough road and then turned off at Great Oxendon to take another narrow single track road. The roads were muddy and wet, but not flooded, thank goodness! Just before Market Harborough, we crossed over into Leicestershire, which like Northamptonshire, is in Tier 3.

I was expecting more queues but there were only a handful of people in front of us, and after a short wait, we were in. We bought some cardamon pods and looked at getting a bag of nuts, but the price was exorbitant. Giving up on the ingredients we needed, we indulged in some treats for lunch - turkey, sage and onion sausage rolls, and breadsticks with a houmous dip. Of course, Sophie also bought a selection of macarons - no visit to Farndon Fields is complete without them!

We headed home with our booty and arrived at the same time as Keith and Mike who had been at work. I had already put the heating on in the conservatory so it was lovely to sit there, eat a late lunch and read the newspaper. 

At 3pm we watched the news and discovered, as we had expected, that Northamptonshire will be in Tier 4 from midnight tonight. This means that I will be off work again as all leisure centres and gyms will close. The number of deaths yesterday was alarming - 981 - the same as at the peak in April. This number could have had something to do with a delay in reporting over Christmas, but it's obvious that something needs to be done. On a good note, another vaccine has been approved but it will take a few months for people to be given the dose.

Sophie and I went for a walk down to the village and as the time neared 4pm we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

The photos don't really capture the amazing range of colours in the sky - pinks, peaches, blues, greys and oranges. In the distance, it looked misty and I could have leaned on the field gate and just watched for ages!

All photos courtesy of Sophie

As the sun sank below the horizon, it became a lot colder, so we hurried home and enjoyed a hot chocolate with spiced rum. Delicious! The news was full of information about the new Tiers so I watched a lovely programme called Reindeer Family and Me. It was pure and wonderful escapism from our current troubles!

Car and phone niggles!

Before I went to work today, Keith called the garage about my car. Although they were still closed, Rob answered and said that with older cars (!) they didn't normally replace the plastic panel, but if we could manage to secure it, it would be fine. Keith did manage to put it back yesterday by crawling underneath the car and securing it with cable ties, so we'll take it out tomorrow for a test run to see how it is.

I took my Dad's car to work again and had a fairly pleasant shift with Sara. We were very busy when the phone lines opened, but this time I could see how many calls were coming in! It did quieten down but most of the calls were about booking swimming sessions. I will be so glad when we don't have to do that any more! Tomorrow we are due another announcement about the Tier system, but infections are increasing rapidly every day with the new variant of the virus, so it looks likely that more areas will be in Tier 4. If we go into this Tier, then our leisure centres will close.

My phone was playing up again today, and it had died completely when I left work at 4pm. I really do need to do something about it next year, that's if we're allowed to go shopping in Milton Keynes, that is! I sped home in the gloom (it's been grey and overcast all day) and relaxed with Sophie by catching up with the last few episodes of Modern Family that we'd somehow managed to miss. We were in agreement that the series had come to an end as neither of us found it funny any more!

After dinner, Keith and I watched the last episode of Black Narcissus, which was excellent. The Nepalese scenery was breathtaking. We kept Monty in tonight as it was freezing outside, with snow forecast for the next couple of days. Will we get any, I wonder?!

Back to work...

I really didn't know what to expect at work today, and was hoping that it wouldn't be too bad! Keith went out early in my car to go shopping, but as I was heading out in my Dad's car he was coming back. He said the car was making a very strange noise, so he didn't want to drive it. Hopefully, we can contact the garage tomorrow and get it fixed.

The weather today has been horrible, with thick fog this morning, and temperatures hovering around freezing. I was working with Louiza today and arrived with plenty of time to get the office set up. Unfortunately, our wallboard refused to work, so we didn't have a clue as to how many calls were coming in, how many were waiting or had been abandoned!

After an initial hectic rush, when I feared it would be like this all day, things calmed down. We didn't have any moans or groans about the fitness classes being cancelled, but there were a few emails about freezing memberships. I did as many as I could to help Sara tomorrow.

At 4pm I sped home and relaxed by watching the second of two programmes about Siberian Tigers. The snow looked wonderful, and even though we'd had weather warnings out for our own snow today, it had remained dry all day. I would like to see just a bit!

Every day feels like Sunday...

Friday (Christmas Day) felt like Sunday, yesterday, when it was Saturday, it felt like Sunday, and today when it actually is Sunday definitely feels like Sunday!

Sophie wanted to go to the gym today, so I suggested giving her a lift and then going to get some shopping that we needed. I was out of coffee, and we needed some ingredients for dinner. Last night's storm hadn't been as bad as expected, but Holcot was flooded again, so we had to take care when driving through the area of the road by the duck pond.

As well as some shopping, I also needed fat snax so after dropping her off I drove to the nearby Wilco's which was just about to open. Unfortunately, they were out of stock so I gave up and went to the Co-op at Moulton, which, apart from some mushrooms, didn't have anything I needed!

I drove back, and read the Sunday papers while waiting for Sophie and she wasn't long at all. Back home I asked her to help me put a colour on my hair (much-needed) and we had a bit of a pamper!

As the weather was so beautiful today, I suggested a walk around Brixworth Country Park and then a hot chocolate afterwards from the Willow Tree Cafe. I was hoping they would still be doing take-aways. Keith came as well but when we arrived at the car park, I have never seen so many cars wedged into the spaces! There wasn't a space free at all. Also, the queue for the cafe was about twenty deep, so we drove straight back out again, and went to the Brampton Halt steam train station instead. 

Parking was easier here and we had a choice of going towards Market Harborough or back towards Northampton. The path north was very wet so we turned right and headed for The Windhover pub. Even here, there were loads of people out so we had to keep dodging families with pushchairs, and men talking very loudly!

It was truly a beautiful day with lovely fluffy clouds and blue skies, but it was cold! The Brampton Valley Way, an old disused railway line, is low-lying and the fields around us were flooded.

Before actually getting to the end of the road, we turned back and re-traced our steps. It was still very busy - everybody must have had the same idea today, or were just fed up with being cooped up at home!

Back home it was time to relax for a while and Keith prepared a delicious chicken casserole using a bottle of white wine I'd bought. We added dumplings for extra flavour, and made good use of the turkey!

This evening we settled down to watch Black Narcissus, which looked very good and was set in Nepal. Just my kind of programme!

Lockdown lite...

Traditionally, today is the day when we do very little, eat chocolate and leftovers, and loll about. Today is also the day when the whole of Northamptonshire went into Tier 3, so all pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes closed. It's not a full lockdown for us as most shops are still open, as well as gyms, hairdressers and beauty salons, but it does restrict us going out for a meal or a cup of tea and cake. At work, we won't be able to run our fitness classes, so my shift might be a bit challenging on Monday!

We spent the morning doing very little, and we certainly weren't tempted by the Boxing Day Sales! The weather has been grey and overcast but Sophie and I did venture out for a walk in the early afternoon and went down to Walgrave. The stream underneath the bridge was in full flow, due to the huge amount of rainfall we've had over the last few days. Today we have weather warnings out for heavy rain and wind from Storm Bella, due to hit the British Isles later in the day.

I had an appointment to see my parents this afternoon at 4pm, so Sophie and I set off, and when we arrived they were already in the lounge. I don't think they'd had as good a Christmas as I'd hoped, because both of them seemed a bit unhappy, which was a real shame. We sat and chatted for half an hour but they were delighted with the presents we'd bought them, and my Dad was wearing his new shirt while my Mum had her new clothes on that I'd bought her for lounging about in.

Sophie and I popped to the Co-op nearby for more chipolatas to add to the bubble and squeak for dinner this evening, before returning home and relaxing. I suggested watching The Florida Project, a film I'd wanted to see since it was released in 2017. It was a bit sad, to be honest, and showed a side to Florida that we have never really seen.

Dinner this evening was leftovers made into bubble and squeak, cold turkey and chipolatas. As ever, the meal was delicious and we have enough turkey left over to make a casserole tomorrow!

An indulgent Christmas Day!

We awoke to sunshine and blue skies again, but it was cold. By 9am Sophie and Mike were awake, so we cracked open a bottle of Champagne and gathered in the living room to open our presents. I think we all did very well, but there was a lot of booze involved!

My parents called, and they were both delighted with the gifts we had given them. I was hoping that today would be special for them, to try and make up for the difficulties they had suffered over the last few months.

After the present-opening, I tidied up and we had breakfast. We didn't see Father Christmas walking around this year - normally someone dresses up, and walks around our estate ringing a bell, but not this year, which was a shame. We haven't a clue who it is, but it was nice to see him all the same!

At about 11am, we drove over the care home and waved to my parents through the lounge window. I was unable to book a visit today but I can see them tomorrow, on Boxing Day. It was lovely to see them, but very sad at the same time...

Back home, Keith took charge in the kitchen and popped our beautiful turkey into the oven. The smells all afternoon were lovely and made us hungry although we didn't want to eat a lot as we didn't want to lose our appetite! Sophie has developed a head cold and felt horrible in the afternoon, but Keith made her a hot toddy and that cheered her up. I had a couple of G&Ts with a new Gin that Keith had bought me - it was a lovely, herby Gin that tasted of a summer garden!

Keith stayed in the kitchen all afternoon, and Sophie and I lolled on the sofa watching television, which was very indulgent! We saw Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a film I always enjoy, followed by Remarkable Places to eat with Fred Sirieux and Michel Roux. Watching that just made us hungrier!

By 5pm, the meal was ready, and Keith had really put a huge amount of effort into the cooking. We enjoyed a truly delicious turkey, stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips cooked with honey, Brussels sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, broccoli and cauliflower and mashed swede. It did bring it home to Keith, though, that we do need a double oven when the kitchen is replaced. Not just for a large Christmas dinner, but if we have people around to eat, or even if we need to cook four pizzas at once!

We had crackers left over from last year so we pulled those, drank a bottle of Chablis, and had a great time. After we'd eaten, Keith was shattered so he went and sat in the living room while Sophie, Mike and I cleared away and washed up.

We had a very relaxing evening, and at about 8.30pm, Sophie and I enjoyed a restaurant-standard Tiramisu which had benefited from being made the day before. Keith and Mike were asleep so we had control over the remote... perfect! Dessert was accompanied by an Australian Semillon and we watched the Christmas episode of Escape to the Chateau.

It was a lovely, very relaxed day and I spoke to my parents several times on the phone. I am hoping that next year we can spend the day with them!