Wine

Today is Junior’s birthday. 

For many years, it was centre of attention and Hogmanay was not celebrated. Especially when he was younger, by the time we had finished with his birthday fun and he was back in bed, we had barely enough energy for a quick drink before heading for bed too. 

I have a vivid - if that is the right adjective - memory of falling asleep during Lord of the Rings when that was the birthday outing he wanted. 

Then he went through the phase where he just wanted to have fun with his friends, and parents could pay for it, but otherwise were just an irritation. This was one of reasons for me going away on holiday at this time of year. More recently he has been busy working at this time. 

Well, 2020 has been different again. 

I made lunch for him, so I spent most of the morning in the kitchen. Afterwards, we removed to the living room where we could sit and talk about 4 metres apart with a window open. Certainly the virus has made us talk more. 

Some of it was revealing. His mum tells him stuff about his childhood which I never knew about. 

I can tell that he is struggling - 10 months ago he never had a minute to himself, between university studies, his job, and ice hockey. Now he is on furlough from work, the university classes are online and ice hockey is gone. 

After his brief, well ventilated and socially distanced visit, it took me a while to work up the courage to open a bottle. I am trying hard to find a positive attitude to start 2021. Wish me luck. 

Thanks to you all in the Blip community for sharing a little piece of your lives on here. It has given me a window into the wider world when mine has shrunk, and an insight into how you are dealing with the current problems has helped me to find ways of dealing with them.