So here we are, the day before 2021, despite the feeling that this year would never end. I know I’m certainly not the only one to see the back of 2020! This year was, let’s face it, sh*t. But it also had it’s good parts (like life, the good comes along with the bad), and so I’m going to do my normal quiz-like post: my 2020 in review which will hopefully share an insight into my ups, downs and experiences of this year.
WHAT DID YOU DO IN 2020 THAT YOU’D NEVER DONE BEFORE?
I moved into my first home with my boyfriend – and honestly, that was probably one of my biggest highlights of the year. Living in my own home – with my best friend and favourite person – is the best thing in the world and it gets better every day. I also dyed my hair a funky colour (I’ve always dyed my hair cool colours but never quite as bright as pink!) and managed to watch Stictly Come Dancing all the way through for the first time ever? Oh, and I managed to finally enjoy wine, haha.
DID YOU KEEP YOUR NEW YEARS’ RESOLUTIONS, AND WILL YOU MAKE MORE FOR NEXT YEAR?
I didn’t make any, but I have a few in mind for 2021: spend more time with family and friends, travel more and read more books. Of course, the first two points depend on the pandemic! I also want to continue getting a better grip on my finances next year…I’m getting there though!
DID ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU GIVE BIRTH?
No.
DID ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU DIE?
No.
WHAT PLACES DID YOU VISIT?
Not a lot, obviously. But I managed to finally visit Cambridge over NYE, and got to visit Milan on our first surprise destination with BRB Travel. Oh, and I can’t forget the fact that I finally got to visit/stay at Crazy Bear Hotel!
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IN 2021 THAT YOU LACKED IN 2020?
I mean this is a pretty obvious one. No pandemic. More time with family and friends. More time to travel..but that being said, even if it will be hard, I’m happy, once more, to not have these things if it means keeping people safe.
WHAT DATES FROM 2020 WILL REMAIN ETCHED IN YOUR MEMORY, AND WHY?
I’m only going to focus on the good things! The day my boyfriend and I picked up the keys and moved into our first home, a day spent with my close family at Willen Lake and a boozy BBQ at my boyfriend’s parents for his dad’s birthday. Not just because I got way too drunk..(ha! no surprise there!), but because it was probably the first time I finally let go of my nerves around his family to just enjoy hanging out with them.
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT THIS YEAR?
I left a job which was pretty damaging to my mental health. I also spent one week in January moving out of my family home, packing everything up, moving into my new home and starting a new job. All in the space of a few days!
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST FAILURE?
I don’t think I actually had any. I planned to be more productive in lockdown than I actually was, but I managed to tick some things off my list and not feel guilty about what I didn’t get around to doing.
DID YOU SUFFER ILLNESS OR INJURY?
Apart from one week where I had a stomach bug so bad that I spent one morning shivering in bed and proclaimed that ‘the birds are coming for me! the birds are coming for my carcass’ when all the birds from the giant tree outside our house flew onto our roof….no. That was about it!
WHAT WAS THE BEST THING YOU BOUGHT?
I don’t know about best thing, but I’m pretty happy with anything new bought for the house. I’ve actually made the bedroom look pretty stylish and I’m usually not very good with that type of thing!
WHO’S BEHAVIOUR MERITED CELEBRATION?
So many people. My nan who has been by herself most of the year but stayed in good spirits, my sister who’s had so much stress at work/about her job but managed to stay determined, my dad – and his partner – who have made every effort to come up to Milton Keynes to see us between lockdowns. I mean one Saturday morning I even woke up to find my dad in the front garden mowing the lawn! Also my boyfriend. I’m not the easiest person to live with, haha.
WHO’S BEHAVIOUR MADE YOU APPALLED AND DEPRESSED?
It’s no surprise that I’m going to say ‘the government’ overall. Not anyone in particular, as I know those we love to hate don’t always make all the decisions and there’s more to it…I’m pretty understanding about this type of thing and I do still believe that those in charge aren’t intentionally trying to make things bad. But things like going to completely wrong sources to get PPE that wasn’t reliable nor quick to get hand of, changing their mind about Christmas the week before the big day…I’m not angry that we don’t have Christmas, because it does suck but like everyone else, I understand why. I’m just angry they didn’t tell us beforehand, as so many people – elderly people especially – had to struggle over the season necessarily. But that’s my rant over..
WHERE DID MOST OF YOUR MONEY GO?
Travel and food, haha. As always.
WHAT DID YOU GET REALLY EXCITED ABOUT?
The small bit of travel I managed to do. And even nearly a year on, I’m still excited about living with my boyfriend. Oh, and my electric blanket, haha!
HAT SONG WILL ALWAYS REMIND YOU OF 2020?
Level of Concern by twenty one pilots. “Would you be, my little quarantine?”
COMPARED TO THIS TIME LAST YEAR, ARE YOU:
a) happier or sadder? About the same as last year.
b) thinner or fatter? A little thinner, thanks to eating so much better now!
c) richer or poorer? About the same as last year!
WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU’D DONE MORE OF?
Apart from the obvious, I actually wish I’d read more! I love reading and had so much time to read during lockdown but just didn’t, which is a shame.
WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU’D DONE LESS OF?
Worrying about Covid-19/thinking it was going to end soon! Obviously, it is still something to worry about – and we should stay safe – but mentally I wish I just made the most of the time I had off and stop worrying about things I couldn’t control.
HOW DID YOU SPEND CHRISTMAS?
Well. Is there any point answering this question? I actually worked all of Christmas week – including my birthday – which was very weird for me as it’s the first time I’ve ever worked my Christmas/birthday. But given the situation at hand, it wasn’t actually that bad…especially as we got triple pay on Christmas day and sent home early due to how quiet it was. But up until this year, I’ve always spent like an entire week or two weeks at Christmas back at my childhood home, being incredibly lazy and doing nothing but eating pringles and drinking snowballs. So to go from doing that for 30 years to suddenly being a grown-up, having no time off at Christmas was certainly a bit of a shock to the system!
It was my first Christmas with my boyfriend and our first Christmas in our new home though, so that was lovely.
DID YOU FALL IN LOVE IN 2020?
Yes, actually. Another corny answer but since moving in with my boyfriend and feeling our relationship being taken to another level, it’s like I’ve fallen in love again, in a much different way.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE TV PROGRAM?
The Boys or Upload. Check out both on Amazon Prime – you will not regret it! The Boys (based on a graphic novel) is basically this really alternative take on superheroes and antiheroes, whereas Upload follows the story of a guy who dies and gets ‘uploaded’ to a digital afterlife which is all paid for by his girlfriend who he no longer loves. That’s the general outline of both shows which I thought were so well done. Plus Karl Urban plays the part of Billy Butcher in The Boys so well.
DO YOU HATE ANYONE NOW THAT YOU DIDN’T HATE AT THIS TIME LAST YEAR?
Not really.
WHAT WAS THE BEST BOOK YOU READ?
I barely read in 2020.
WHAT MUSIC DID YOU GET EXCITED ABOUT?
None, (sort of) surprisingly? I did really enjoy Machine Gun Kelly’s new album, however. He seemed to surprise a lot of the pop-punk scene on how, as a rapper, he managed to drop a really cool old-school pop punk album.
WHAT DID YOU WANT AND GET?
I only really asked for some hair straighteners and got some! I like having loosely curled hair but as my hair is so thick, I find it hard to do…and I don’t get on with curlers. I thought I was just bad at doing my hair but it turns out it was the very old straighteners I was using…now that I’ve got a new and proper two-in-one hair straightener/curler, it makes all the difference!
WHAT DID YOU WANT AND NOT GET?
Nothing really. We got loads of nice bits for the house, some gin and some money to put towards anything else we want to buy ourselves. I’m keen on getting an entirely new bed set with new pillows etc when the shops reopen! I didn’t ask anyone for this, but I’m also after a Nintendo DS Lite so I can finally play Animal Crossing, so I’ll be saving for/putting some money towards one of those in the new year. In Coral, of course. Y’know. In case anyone wants to buy me one…
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM OF THE YEAR?
It has to be Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga! It’s so funny, heartwarming and epic. I quote it so often and Dan Stevens is also absolutely amazing and hilarious in it too.
WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, AND HOW OLD WERE YOU?
I turned 31 and I was actually working on my birthday. But the weekend beforehand, my boyfriend and I managed to squeeze in a cool vintage screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas and dinner with my dad before the restrictions changed. So I’m glad we got to do a little something at least.
WHAT ONE THING WOULD HAVE MADE YOUR YEAR MORE SATISFYING?
No Covid-19, obviously!
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONAL FASHION CONCEPT IN 2019?
Very lazy.
WHAT KEPT YOU SANE?
My boyfriend and family.
WHICH CELEBRITY/PUBLIC FIGURE DID YOU FANCY THE MOST?
Ummm..Machine Gun Kelly. Haha. Oh, and Karl Urban/Billy Butcher in The Boys.
WHAT POLITICAL ISSUE STIRRED YOU THE MOST?
Anything related to #BlackLivesMatter and the way Covid-19 was handled.
WHO DID YOU MISS?
My mum. My family. My friends.
WHO WAS THE BEST NEW PERSON YOU MET?
I met absolutely no one new this year. No surprise there..
TELL US A VALUABLE LIFE LESSON YOU LEARNED IN 2020?
Being able to ‘do’ things is a priority sometimes! There were so many things I wanted to do in past years, even things down the road from me like Bletchley Park – or see friends more! – but often made excuses because I thought the opportunities would always be around. How wrong I was!
QUOTE A SONG LYRIC THAT SUMS UP YOUR YEAR?
“Would you be, my little quarantine?”
Oh, and here is my yearly mood tracker with Daylio!
It’s pretty, right?! Green is rad, orange is good, pink/peach is meh, red is bad grey/dark blue is sick or just feeling really, really horrible. I actually didn’t have any ‘bad’ days as such this year, only meh days, so that’s always a good sign!
There we have it. A pretty boring year by all means but it certainly had its moments. I still have some lovely memories of this year and I think that’s generally what life is in general: remembering there’s always some good to be found beyond the bad and that you should count your blessings. And moving forward into 2021…
MY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2021
- Use my time more wisely/spend less time online
- Finish reading House of Leaves
- Start a scrapbook
- Achieve the World Explorer title on World of Warcraft
- Use my Polaroid camera more
- Officially get Bitchin Stitchin up and running
- Look after my mind + body more (by meditating, working out regularly, drinking more water, appreciating what I have etc)
- Complete Goodreads’ reading challenge (I managed 6 out of 20 books this year!)
I don’t usually set New Year’s Resolutions (other than the general be happy and be healthy) but with the way this year has went, some direction might be nice!
How was your 2020? Have you made any resolutions for next year? Let me know!
I would like to note that I am also aware that this year has been very tough for a lot of people. This post was written with no sensitivity in mind – I too struggled this year – but it is simply a fun look back over the last twelve months.
