2020- The year the world stayed at home

Well here we are at the end of yet another year and what a rollercoaster ride this one has been…. I could sign off the blog summing up the whole year with just those few words, I think you would all agree 2020 hasn’t been the year we all expected. (I mean I was sitting on a beach in Dubai this time last year planning for what should have been an amazing year ahead)...  

However I think we ought to end on a positive note and try to celebrate some (albeit small) achievements this year and look on to the new year ahead with hope, positivity and a lot of hindsight!! So lets try to find some things to be celebrated this year as we say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021.

The year 2020 will be etched in everyone’s minds for years to come, me especially it’s been hard at times but also life changing to say the least. Not just because it was the year that everyone was forced to stay at home due to the global pandemic, Covid 19, but because for me personally I got my dream job, went to my most favourite city in the world (cover photo is a little clue) and most importantly celebrated a milestone birthday, that’s right 30 years on this planet. All of this in the midst of a global pandemic!! 

With these celebrations in mind I am going to share with you exactly what me and my family got up to this year... I hope you will share yours with me. 

Jan-Mar

So these two months started off so amazing for me I finally managed to leave a toxic job which was really starting to affect my mental health. I managed to secure a new job 10 days into the new year for a well known advertising company in Soho doing something I have always wanted to do it was (and still is) my biggest achievement yet...my year couldn't have started off better. 

Feb soon came round quick and my lovely boyfriend whisked us away for a mini valentines/job celebration city break in our favourite European city ever ROME! It was just the most perfect end to saying goodbye to my old job and of course welcoming in the new one. We did get stuck in France for a few hours on the way home due to Storms but who doesn't love a bit of Paris airport? 

I started my job mid way through Feb and was loving life in my new office in central London with all my amazing new colleagues when suddenly disaster struck and the entire UK was forced to start working from home. 

Apr-June

HELLO COVID 19! You certainly made an entrance. 

I had gone from loving my London life  going out for fancy meals, cocktails and shopping on Oxford Street to being stuck inside on my own 5 days a week with no one to talk to and no shops to roam! (except supermarkets which you had to queue for hours to get in to) These months were certainly the hardest as I hadn't seen my family since January and was working 24/7. Stuck in a house in London paying an extenuate amount of rent and just like most of the country worrying if our next paycheck would come. 

Jul-Sep

With the above in mind and our lease on our rental due to expire in August we decided to up sticks and move further out into Kent. I think like most people my age owning a house in the midst of Covid 19 just seemed to far out of my reach this year, as savings were needed just to survive the timing just wasn't right. We moved to Rochester in Kent to be nearer to my partners business AND because owning a house in this area as opposed to London just seems more realistic for us. I am lucky I have family close by and I have managed to see my parents lots within this period of the year.  

Oh and did I also mention we brought some Sol Cutter tortoises? we have no names for them yet so open to suggestions! 

Oct-Dec 

So that brings me to the last quarter of the year- this I my favourite so far as October is my birthday. 

When I was twenty I had lots of dreams of how I would spend my 30^th birthday- I mean Thirty!! It sounds so old doesn’t it? I always dreamt I would be spending it abroad with friends and family and drowning my sorrows on some beautiful blue sea in the Caribbean on a yacht (a girl can dream)… welllll that didn’t really happen this year, BUT I was extremely lucky to have spent the weekend by the sea surrounded by my wonderful parents and my boyfriend in the UK at least-so all was not lost. We really must celebrate all of these little wins this year i feel!! Brighton you certainly saved my birthday weekend and made the entire year for me and my family. I know so many people in the same boat who wasn't as fortunate to have celebrated with their family my heart really goes out to you all! 

So there we have it a pretty packed out year at times, but at times a very lonely one too! It really has been full of up's and down's but mostly up's for me and my family which I feel enormously grateful for. 

I say it every single year but I think this is the year I truly mean it for the first time in my life- 2020 you will be the year I will never ever forget.

 

I wish you all love, happiness and hope for 2021 I just know it will be a better year for all. I think spring will bring wonderful things again, hopefully filled with lots of family/friends & travel three things I have missed so dearly in 2020 and will certainly never take for granted again.

 

What are the things you have missed this year? And what has 2020 taught you to treasure? I would love to know.