2 weeks into 2021

I wanted to try and blog at least every 2 weeks as we continue to live through an historical event as I want to remind myself of what it was really like.

The first few days were weekend and bank holiday and I had a tired hungover 1st of January, but I managed to get out for a run and kicked off my attempt at Red January and wrote all my goals for 2021.

I was really nervous about having to potentially go back into my office with the Covid cases rising so high in the UK and the first day back was the 4th and my team weren't in so I stayed at home, but by the end of the day we were back in Lockdown.  Not surprising, but frustrating all the same.  I like to feel safe, but what did surprise me was closing schools and the length of the lockdown being until the end of February.  I've been angered by the shoddy food voucher scandal where it's odd that a government so in favour of universal credit would opt for food parcels than give people the power to manage their own finances around buying food for kids.  

My first two weeks at work have felt really hard as the break over Christmas didn't really feel restful despite not doing very much - it's hard to explain.  I've been feeling pretty burnt out.  I don't get through the volume of work as my brain is too slow, I struggle to catch up by working later, but then I'm even more tired the next day.  I'm in a bit of a vicious circle where my emails build up and up and my anxiety starts to build.  Generally we're doing ok, we started the year in a good place and there are still a fair amount of new roles coming through to fill, but the challenge is candidates are especially nervous about moving.  

Outside of work I'm going to think about what I've managed to achieve.

Things I've achieved so far on my 2021 goals:

• Read 2 books - "Stay Home" by Ava Pierce on audible and "How Not to Write a Novel" by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman."Stay Home" was to research in the field of the novel I'm writing, it wasn't great, but helped me work out how to plot and change some of what I'm doing and make it better which is also what "How Not to Write a Novel" has done too, I just need to apply myself and write.
• Recycling - replaced my very old office chair as my back was starting to ache with a beast of a gaming chair with a built in massage pad.  We also bought shelves for the garage and tidied it up (mostly Alan) and then have offered some pallets to one of the Neighbours.  I also took a trip to the Physio on the first Friday of January as my shoulder was really sore and I was nervous that it was freezing up again, but fortunately it was muscular and seems to have settled down this week.
• I've written one letter to my friend Tana and posted her Christmas presents as clearly won't be seeing her until at least March.
• I've done a craft session with my friends today and finished a present for a friend'd baby.
• Our first guides back on Zoom had us doing Taskmaster challenges that was fun and we had 3 new guides join us.
• I've watched one new film A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood which was nice with Tom Hanks and we've typically been watching House of Games and Man Down

We've not struggled for Food as Hello Fresh has continued to work well for us and we had loads left over from Christmas and I managed to get an Asda delivery which arrived as the big dump of snow landed on Thursday this week.  The snow was really pretty and we went for a walk in it on the Thursday and on the Friday slid down to the chemist so I could grab a prescription - it took a long time.  We also cleared up some ice at the bottom of our road and I decided to rebook an appointment for my EMG scan on my leg.

Alan needed some stuff for his office to be set up and so we had a contactless trip to Ikea to pick up an order which felt a bit nerve wracking even though it was for his work.  No one stopped us, we didn't get within metres of anyone else and other than having to wait for around 30 mins in the car it was a nice trip out.

I renewed my car insurance and have reduced my annual mileage estimation to around half and so it dropped from over £515 to just £274 after a bit of shopping around.  

Qubit managed to become a social media influencer when I shared a video of him in a Hello Fresh box that got us 35% off our next 3 boxes.

I also had a an Arvon creative writing catch up and shared a poem that I'd written inspired by the 64 Million Artists January Challenge about Green Parakeets, I might enter it into a competition.  Everyone on the course is really bright and talented and it makes me feel stupid.

I'm generally sleeping ok when I get into bed, but I'm bad at going to bed earlier than around 2am which means I'm averaging 6 - 7 hours a night, I need to get back in the habit of earlier bedtimes.

I've started making kombucha again and Alan spent the day brewing again today inspired by some of the Cyberfest beers we had in December and some new equipment.

My parents seem to be doing ok, but I'm worried they are getting really bored.  No news on a vaccine for them, but my brother had his on Thursday, but had some sombre insights into working in the NHS in London.  As it currently stands 3.8m have had their first dose, around 5 - 6% of the UK population.

In amongst all of this is the ongoing transition of power from Trump to Biden and the insane riot and insurrection of the Capitol Building.  It's really worrying and I hope that it all calms down before Biden's inaugration next week, only a few more days are left and Trump has in the past week been banned from all social media, parler is down and he's been impeached again.  

Let's hope we can start to get back to seeing people again soon as I'm definitely right in the midst of pandemic fatigue.