WE made it to 2021!

 

Congratulations! You survived 2020 and the first week of 2021. 2020, the year that in some ways lasted 12 months and 12 years and in other ways, flew by just as fast as every other year once you reach an “age”. 

We moved into 2021 glad to put the “unprecedented” year that was 2020 behind us. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that so much happened around the world, even if we did spend a chunk of it locked away in our own little bubbles.   

What stood out?  Devastating fires, the initial “excitement/novelty” of lock-down and working from home, the toilet paper crisis, zoom meetings, cooking more at home, cooking less because “we have to do our bit to support local business”, signing up to learn new stuff, not learning new stuff, walking around the block again and again, rainbows and chalk drawings, leggings, PJ's and tracky daks as must have fashion items, realising that nobody even notices you've been wearing the same clothes on rotation for the last 9 months, waving at neighbours, waving at strangers, waving at neighbours/strangers dogs, random household items on nature strips, free books everywhere, a morbid fascination with COVID stats and numbers, bad news addiction, good news addiction, covid calories, crying at “kindness pandemic” stories, crying at happy ending pet adoptions/saving stories, crying over burnt sour dough (hang on a minute, I never actually made any sour dough), cancelled plans, 5km radius, 25 km radius, woo hoo we can travel around Victoria, relief at double doughnuts, optimism.

Then there were the words and phrases that will be forever in our vocabulary.  “You’re on mute” “stay home, stay safe” "social distancing" “mask-up” “unprecedented times” “it’s Ok to not be OK” “get on the beers.” Gotta love Dan! I’m missing his daily updates.

 

And all that without even going into politics and what was happening in the US. But did you know that Macaulay Culkin turned 40? Now doesn’t that make you feel old?

What will be remembered in 100 years? Will the world have learnt anything?  Maybe it’s made us more resilient, better able to adapt to future challenges that will inevitably be thrown our way.  The pandemic isn’t over, far-from it.  2021 isn’t some miraculous turning of a page, forgetting all about the previous year and going back to how things were.  But there is hope and that’s a good thing.

Personally, I have loved working from home and definitely don’t want to go back into an office on a fulltime basis.  Life has slowed down and I’m not in a rush to fill the calendar with stuff.  I like pottering.  I like taking Lola for a slow walk around the block.  I like stopping and chatting to neighbours and patting random dogs. I still haven’t been to a big shopping centre and have no real desire to do so.  I do miss travelling, but who know what international travel will look like over the next few years.  For now, long weekends away are enough.  State borders shutting down unexpectedly are frustrating, but you know what, people are just learning to change plans and be flexible.

This post was actually going to be about Christmas away in Hoddles Creek, but I got slightly side-tracked by looking back over the year and just writing random words.