Hogmanay

Cheerio 2020. You’ve been a year we won’t forget though not miss. So much has been curtailed and cancelled. Our lives have had to change in ways we, or at least I, couldn’t imagine. We have learned new words and phrases:

R Number
Pangolin
Got a mask?
Where’s my mask?
Has that mask been washed?
How far is 2 metres?
Zoom
Teams
Ramp up/at scale/arms around/working day and night/uptick/ - ghastly use of language but I’m an old fogey.

Politically – well here in Britain, at 11 pm, we’re taking a step/stumble into unnecessary territory. In the US there will be a new president who can’t fail to be better than the last but by how much remains to be seen. In Scotland – who knows what’s ahead? How equitably the new vaccines will be distributed throughout the world is yet to be revealed.

Personally – 2020 has been kind in its own way. We haven’t been ill and lockdown was OK for most of the year. Our children and grandchildren have managed the restrictions though there’s no doubt it's not what anyone would have wanted for them. We missed visiting a clutch of islands for holidays which was a regret but not a disaster. In the wider family and for friends things haven’t been so easy which is a reminder to count blessings.

Blip has been great! A goal for each day, new and continuing blip friendships and a few photographs from 2020 I’m really pleased with. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to visit, comment on and encourage my journal.

I don’t really enjoy New Year which often takes on an unhelpfully maudlin aspect or inauthentic bonhomie. But it does mark the passage of time. So tonight the extended household of Cameraman and me plus our daughter will be here for fish pie and apple cake. These have yet to be made but the weather isn't good so spending time in the kitchen rather than outside is fine.

My blip is what you do at Hogmanay. Clean and tidy the house to welcome the new year. I can't see the house being cleaned from top to toe but at least my desk drawers got a good sorting out. This is the before, by the way.

Happy New Year when it comes everyone. I hope that 2021 brings you health and happiness.