Last Day

31.12.20
Last day of the year.
And what a year.
One minute it's February and we're all cruising along taking everything for granted, the next it's ten months later and it's a whole new world.

Coronavirus, COVID, pandemic, Self isolation, social distancing, face masks, Lockdown, stockpiling, panic buying, toilet roll, you are in a queue, this item is currently unavailable, daily briefing, key workers, Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS, work from home, flatten the curve, PPE, sanitiser, new and continuous cough, loss of taste and smell, R-number, Zoom, furlough, home-schooling, asymptomatic, covidiots, next slide please, track and trace, quarantine, Hands, Face, Space, vaccine, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Oxford, tiers, variants, new strains.......

All in all it's been pretty rubbish. 
I lost my job; the Little Misses have missed so much - school, seeing friends, rock climbing, going to the cinema, trampolining, bowling, the arcade, seeing Nana, Papa, Uncle D, Nanny, Grandad, Grandad by the Sea; all the family and friends we haven't seen.
No more Saturday mornings at Harris + Hoole.
I miss so many little things. Hugging hello and goodbye,  taking something from someone without feeling like it's riddled with the plague, spontaneity, taking Miss E to the football, not having to step into the street to avoid people. 
We didn't go to France for D-Day, our cruise to Norway was cancelled, we've missed our New Year trip to Northumberland.
And yet we've got off so lightly really - no-one close to us has had the virus; Mr K's work hasn't been affected and it's been lovely having him at home; the Little Misses seem to be coping brilliantly with it all and are growing up to be lovely Misses. Not so little anymore!
There have been some good times. I need to remember them rather than writing off the whole year. Miss L passed the 11+ after such a disrupted year and doing hardly any work whatsoever. Clever sausage!! We spent months out in the garden in the sun, and then made the most of the Summer when restrictions were lifted: Camping in Kelling, the Broads, Southwold, Severn Valley Railway; meeting Mrs L and Mr T at Stowe every week; fab days out with Mrs C, Mr M and the boys; walks with Mrs C; tree climbing; days out in Stratford upon Avon, Baddesley Clinton, the Cotswolds, Buscot, Harry Potter Land
We sold Penny, sold my house, finalised the IVA after a year of hideous limbo.
It hasn't been all bad.
But hopefully in 2021 we can get back to all the things we took for granted.
And not take them for granted.