Good riddance!

 

2020.

Where do I start with a review of this Godawful year?  

I had high hopes at its start, plans to write, finish at least one book and publish the one that's been on the back burner for the past couple of years.  Write at least one post a week on here. I had a reading list.  My weight was going in the right direction (down) and I was feeling, in the words of one who clearly isn't, fit as butcher's dog. There was a new grandson due in May to look forward to, so trips back to England beckoned.  We were planning a summer holiday back at Mrzezyno, where we went last year.  My Beloved was happy in her job and the kids happy(ish) at school, as teenagers tend to be.  Money was a bit tight, but we were managing.  Everything in my garden was lovely.

Then out of nowhere (well, Wuhan in China in point of fact) came news that thousands of people were critically ill or dead from this new virus that no-one had heard of before, and the entire city - and shortly province - was under a strict lockdown with troops there just to make sure no-one broke the curfew.  In a couple of weeks more cases were reported across the country, then from Japan and Hong Kong and Singapore and South Korea......  But all this was happening on the other side of the world and seemed remote, just a silly season story in the press and of no real concern.

Then at the end of February, that all changed, as the virus (by now dubbed Coronavirus - COVID19 for short) hit nearer home.  Italy was the worst hit in Europe, then Spain, Britain, Turkey, Germany - all across the EU and its neighbours in fact.  Further afield New Zealand had a handful of cases and closed its borders, as did neighbouring Australia. Africa and the Middle East had many casualties, particularly Iran where the situation was made worse by sanctions imposed by the US and the EU had crippled its health service.  Canada was hit and took drastic action.  The US was hit much harder, but with a grossly incompetent President focused only on winning again in this Election Year, his response was at first pitiful and confused, soon giving way to anger at China and people bringing the Wuhan Flu (his term along with The China Virus) into the country, then bogged down by conspiracy theories (a deliberate act by China to harm the US economy, bleach kills it in 15 minutes so let's inject it [honestly!], and dozens of others), until by the end of the year and his overwhelming defeat in the Election he simply ignored it. As he continues to do. 

Yep: a full blown pandemic.  TV stations fell over themsleves to broadcast a fairly recent movie, Contagion, that uncannily mirrored what was happening in the real world (even down the correct city as the epicentre of the virus) even though it was nearly 10 years old.  Countries basically shut down everything.  Airlines stopped flying. The cruise industry ran aground after a couple of ships became floating petrie dishes for the virus. Shops and pubs, cinemas and theatres and nightclubs, were closed, some never to re-open. Schools and universities closed as students got used to home schooling and all sport ground to halt. 

Wearing face masks became second nature, as did frequent hand washing and working from home and social distancing. The world changed overnight. 

------------------------------------------------------

There is much more I could write about COVID - and indeed have in other blogposts - but I will resist the temptation.  After 9 months of it, it's depressing and I have had enough, frankly.  Suffice to say I am still here, and still (reasonably) healthy despite a possible brush with it myself (read the post called COVID is not a joke. I know because I had it on here for more on that). I'm still battling something that may or may not be Long Covid after 8 up-and-down weeks, but I'm getting there.  I think.

For someone who has spent 18 out of the last 20 years (up to retirement) travelling the world for work and play - I probably averaged a little over 2 flights a week in that time, and many more trains and cabs and hotels across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa and India - suddenly being confined to a small apartment on the outskirts of Warsaw, where my global horizon had shrunk to a patch perhaps half a kilometre square for walking the dog, it's been difficult.  No: BLOODY difficult.  All my good intentions went out of the window. For a start, with no real private space to concentrate the mind, I lost focus and My Muse deserted me (she's been back a few times but it's been very difficult to get any kind of momentum on my scribbling).  Once my wife went back to work, when the restrictions were relaxed, all the stuff that she did brilliantly for years fell on my shoulders so there wasn't time to write much anyway.

Of course our travel plans went out the window.  I still haven't met my new grandson - but from the pictures and movies I've been sent he's brilliant, as are my two growing granddaughters and the other grandson. In fact, for the first year in my life I haven't set foot in England, nor have I seen my sisters and my sons and other family.  I worry about them, and feel incredibly frustrated - but thankful for modern technology like Skype and WhatsApp that allows me to see them in video calls.  But you can't really hug a mobile phone.....

The seaside trip never happened.  Indeed I've only left the immediate vicinity of my neighbourhood perhaps half a dozen times all year.  One hot sunny Saturday in the summer we drove maybe 40km out of town to a place called Warka for a day's canoeing - great fun.  A couple of times we went to another part of Warsaw to a lido for a swim and a sunbathe.  Another time I hopped the Metro to meet up with a couple of friends for a coffee. And then there was the Saturday we made a near 500km round trip to a village in northern Poland to buy Lulu, our bulldog.  Finally there were a few drives out of town to place candles on graves on certain anniversaries and, of course, All Souls Day. 

Not a lot of travellin' for Travellin' Bob then.

------------------------------------------------------------

But despite all the COVID shit, and all the rest of the doom and gloom going on (the tortuous Bexit negotiations, wars in Yemen and Syria that have caused humanitarian crises that the West manages to both fuel via arms sales and ignore, the continued and in fact worsening climate crisis, and much much more, there have been some bright spots.

For a start Donald Trump, the racist, mysoginist, bullying, lying conspiracy theorist and failed businessman who somehow managed to become the 45th President of the USA will soon, thankfully, leave office.  He leaves behind a health crisis thanks to a COVID pandemic that has killed over 300,000 Americans and infected over 2 million more, a society riven by racial tensions largely thanks to his inaction over the deaths of a number of unarmed black men and women at the hands of white police officers (his refusal to accept the existance of racism playing a major partin the unrest), and a Congress and House that has lost all sense of honour and decency, especially on the Republican side of the aisle that has sold its collective soul to a discredited Trumpism.  His Democrat successor, Joe Biden, has much to do to tackle these and many other problems and heal the country.  I wish him well.

A Brexit trade deal was finally reached on Christmas Eve, exactly a week before the transition period ends.  Clearly, Boris Johnson's "oven ready deal", as he trumpteted it this time last year, was nothing of the sort and could yet end up to be little more than a plate of soggy cold turkey when it takes effect tomorrow.  It's full of broken promises but is at least something to build upon and hence better than no deal - at least marginally so.  So a typical Johnson stunt then.  But at least it's done and the country can move on, for better of worse. I wish it nothing but success.

I've read some very good books this year, notably Anne Applebaum's superb Twilight of Democracy, Bill Bryson's funny and informative At Home: A Short History of Family Life, probably a fifteenth re-read of The Lord of the Rings, and Fortress Malta: An Island Under Seige 1941 - 1943 by James Holland.  Oh, and another re-read of the entire John Wyndham catalogue of classic 1950s sci-fi - love it.  Enjoyed them all immensely.  Current reading is A Promised Land, Barack Obama's first volume of his Presidency memoir, and a fifth or sixth re-read of Frank Herbert's Dune Trilogy.  Between them, that should keep me going through January.

Spending so much time at home with my family, cabin feverish though it has often been, has also been a pleasure after so many years away from them.  I would be totally lost without them.......

Lulu the dog has also been a highlight, even though within a couple of weeks of moving in she sent me to hospital nursing a broken toe and torn thigh muscle that led to two months of inactivity and several more weeks of re-hab (indeed, the toe is still not fully healed: I'm minus a nail on it).  I wrote about that on a post back in August, title is Trip of the Year.  She's nearly 9 months old now, and brilliant - getting more bulldoggy by the day (which is to say strong, muscled and stubborn) and great fun.  Love her to bits.

Lewis Hamilton proved himself to be probably the best F1 driver in history. Most wins, most poles and equalled Schumacher's title wins (seven).  As he's still driving he'll probably move in further ahead of them all next season.  Won his second BBC Sports Personality of the Year as well, so there was inevitable talk of a knighthood.  I'm not a big fan of the honours system, but if anyone deserved one Lewis probably did - and duly received it in the New Year's Honours announced today.  

Football has been a bit of a trial, with last season messed about decause of the pandemic, but finally Liverpool won a first Championship for 30 odd years - and deservedly so: they were a country mile ahead of everyone else.  My club, Ebbsfleet started the season badly, changed manager and half the playing squad and were just beginning to show some form and consistency when the season was ended prematurely in March.  Three months of argument and procrastination by the League ended with us being demoted (I won't call iit relegated) by 0.0002 of a point on a weird points per game calculation.  No other club in the world has ever suffered in this way, ever.  Cue a new manager and new playing squad and a so far patchy new season.  Never a dull moment supporting the Fleet!

--------------------------------------------------------

So all in all, I'm glad to see the back of this COVID year, and I hope and pray 2021 will be much much better (I can't see it being any worse....).  So we're busy planning for next year in between eating too much, drinking enough, walking the dog and watching awful tv with the odd high spot movie and Love Actually.  So far plans for the year are very similar to those we made for this one - what could possibly go wrong? 

So stay safe, and a Happy New Year to you all!