Pic of the week 3/1/21
So farewell (and some may say good riddance) to 2020, and welcome 2021.
2020 was an “unprecedented*” year, in early January we begun to hear of a strange new virus in the Wuhan province of China, by February it was on Europe’s shores and beginning to enter the collective conscious, by March we were in full lockdown. Unprecedented times.
(*I think unprecedented must be the word of 2020, utter so often to describe the new world we found ourselves living in. Covid 19, coronavirus and furlough also all deserve a mention.)
Sophie came home, holidays and exams were cancelled, and my best buy of the year was a pair of fleece lined walking trousers. It began with our evening Boris walks, but has developed into a new normal (another pair of words worthy of mention) with Becky & I regularly striding out into the hills, to take the fresh air and gaze at the beauty of the countryside in which we live.
I started learning Spanish, and begun a weekly “chat” with Daniel – my Spanish tutor in Mexico – and I also ran over a one thousand kilometres. Looking back at the blog, I begun the year with a calf strain, and I finished the year with a really bad back injury – in the last week of the Christmas term I could barely walk, and it has taken me the holidays to recover. I did run today – and feel so much better for it – managing 7Km in 35 min 23 secs, a v. poor showing, but not surprising after a month of inactivity and Christmas weight gain; hauling my lard-ass frame around my 7K route was not easy this morning, but I am delighted that I was able to do it with no serious after effects. In fact, many parts of me feel a whole lot better, many niggles and aches and pains have disappeared.
So what does 2021 hold?
Who knows, but a rocky few months to begin with, I’m sure.
Although term starts this week, (Wednesday), we are beginning the week teaching remotely with Y11 and U6th starting back face to face on Monday 11th Jan, with all students in on the 18th. That’s the current plan, but I don’t see the plan lasting. Cases continue to surge and many people (myself included) think schools should not be going back yet. I expect (another) government u-turn before the end of the week.
On a more positive note, we do now have a vaccine, but we are hearing worryingly little about the gov.’s plan to get us all vaccinated. This could and should be a game changer, get it (the logistics right) and come Easter the back of Covid could be broken, ready for the return of the better weather.
So what are my goals for the year?
Other than the immediate, obvious and tangible: get my weight back under 13 stone, and get back to comfortably running 10K in sub 49 mins, I’m not sure I have any. I think the year is too unpredictable to make any resolutions. I’m enjoying work – hope that continues -, have been enjoying walking and I must make sure that continues, I hope to get some overseas sun (and culture) at some point.