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We're most of the way through January 2021 now, and it just occurred to me today that I completely forgot to fill out the New Years survey I do on here every year. This particular tradition of mine has been going on a while now, so I would hate to accidentally break it. So...here goes!
1. What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before? Hmmm...not much. I mean, normally every year I write about something new I tried for the first time, an accomplishment or learning a new skill. But I can't think of anything like that for 2020. I guess, for the first time ever, I spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning at home with Taina and Sabrina and didn't stay over at Dad's house. Every other Christmas I always stayed over with the parents the night before, so I could get gifts in my old Christmas stocking from Santa just like I did as a kid, and keep all the old childhood traditions going, but this time I decided I'm ready to finally move on to new traditions of Christmas as a parent, rather than Christmas as a daughter.
2. Did you keep your New Years' Resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Some of them. I lost a bit of weight and got a bit fitter in the latter part of the year after starting to go to the gym again. Still would like some further improvements on that front, but it's a start.
3 . Did anyone close to you give birth? My sisters-in-law did. Carol had a baby in February, her daughter Ruby who is Sabrina's cousin, and Taina's younger sister Rema had her baby Mila in April, so that's two new cousins for Sabrina.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Noone I know. A lot of people around the world died this year, but everyone I know was okay.
5. What countries did you visit? Haha, I went absolutely nowhere. Hardly anyone travelled anywhere overseas this year. There was a global pandemic that caused many countries, including New Zealand to shut their borders so we all stayed put. But to be fair, I hadn't planned to go anywhere anyway. I have a young toddler, and very little money, so no point planning anything.
6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020? A bit less stress, especially with looking after Sabrina. But also less stress over keeping up with chores and errands, less stress about money. Better fitness, energy, health etc.
7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I guess one that stands out a lot is the 6th June. That was Sabrina's first birthday, and it was quite a lot of fun having a little party at our place.
8.What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting through it in one piece, and getting my husband and daughter through it in one piece. In the end, I guess that's all that matters.
9. What was your biggest failure? I suppose not making more improvements and upgrades in my life. Like, my life is pretty great. But...it would be nice if Taina had a better job that he enjoyed and got paid well for. It would be nice to live in a better house, with a gate and fence so Sabrina can play in the backyard safely, and a shed or garage for storing some of our stuff in. Also I spent a bit too much money this year on coffee and fast food, so that was a slight failure.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? So many friggin viruses. Numerous colds. Flus. Two bad stomach bugs. A sinus infection related to one of the colds. It was inevitable given I have a small toddler who started being around other children regularly for the first time.
11. What was the best thing you bought? I treated myself to a couple of nice bras a few months ago...but now they're falling apart already. I bought Sabrina a lot of little things, clothes, toys. But I didn't splurge on anything crazy.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? Taina has been amazing as always, juggling his job, plus doing a lot of the work of looking after Sabrina and still doing some chores around the house from time to time. Jess has been helpful offering company when she can, and always picking up great stuff for Sabrina. Emma from Family Start continued to help us out, and got us set up with a subsidy to get the cost of Sabrina's Playcentre hours covered so that's really helpful too.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Noone really. From time to time I complain about Dad and Jill being too disorganised or not telling us things in advance. Oh, well, mind you, like many people around the world I was pretty appalled and depressed by Donald Trump and his supporters, they definitely made the global mess we were all in even worse.
14. Where did most of your money go? Just the basics: rent, power, food, etc. Gym membership. Nothing exciting.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I was excited about Sabrina's birthday party I suppose. On my birthday in November, we went out to lunch with family to the new Cobb & Co that opened here in Porirua, so I was excited about that.
16. What song will always remind you of 2020? I suppose Devils in the Canyon by The Strike, plus numerous Vampire Weekend and Two Door Cinema Club songs because I listened to their stuff a lot.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. Happier or Sadder? I think I might be happier. Parenting is still challenging, but I think having a toddler is actually a little easier than having a baby. They don't need to eat or nap quite as frequently so that helps. Plus I've had a personal revelations that have helped make sense of the direction I need to go: eg I found out my migraines are primarily caused by dehydration, so that's easily fixable. I also found out the weird incidents I've had these last few years with smelling weird smells and getting light-headed and having short term memory loss are actually just a weird type of migraine called olfactory migraines. So, I'm less worried than I used to be I guess. ii. Thinner or Fatter than last year? A little bit thinner, but only a little. I gained weight earlier in the year during the COVID pandemic lockdown, and then lost it again later. iii. Richer or Poorer? Poorer. Some extra expenses to juggle like Playcentre costs and gym membership, and some bad habits like McD's breakfasts have eaten in my budget.
18: What do you wish you'd done more of? Reading books, exercising, spending time on my own to clear my head more.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Sitting around thinking I should be doing something useful but putting off actually doing it.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Spent the morning at home, opening presents and helping Sabrina open hers. Had waffles for breakfast. Then we went to Dad's for lunch and the rest of the day. It was a reasonable Christmas but nothing much stood out about it.
22. Did you fall in love in 2020? Nothing new, just the same current loves.
23. How many one-night stands? Night time is for sleeping. Sleep is good.
24. What was your favourite TV programme? We watched the infamous Tiger King show on Netflix that everyone was going on about. It was definitely a bit crazy. We had a year's free subscription to Amazon Prime as part of our internet deal with 2 Degrees, so we watched some shows on there, like The Office (US) and Parks and Recreation. We watched the new season of The Crown when that came out late in the year.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Nooo.
26. What was the best book you read? I didn't manage to read anything, it's hard to do with a loud toddler who is currently going through her shrieking phase.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Strike. One of their songs, Devils in the Canyon, came up in a playlist on Spotify and I liked it, and then it kept popping up. Eventually I looked up other music of theirs and got into it. It's indie-pop-rock stuff, but very 80s-inspired, like high energy, a bit of synth, a few saxophone solos, and a lead singer with a very Michael Jackson-esque sound.
28. What did you want and get? Well, I asked Taina to get me some hard candy for my birthday and he did. So yeah. It's an exciting life I live.
29. What did you want and not get? Well, I saw a new(ish) Tamora Pierce book in the bookshop and dropped some very obvious hints about it, hoping to get it for Christmas, but no luck. But then, I don't have much time to read it, so no real complaints here.
30. What was your favorite film of the year? We literally went to the movies once in the whole year. Like many things, movie cinemas had to shut down during the COVID lockdown, and we also just haven't had many opportunities to go since then. But we saw this New Zealand movie, I completely forget what it was called, but it was like a murder mystery and it had Robyn Malcolm in it.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 35, and we went to Cobb and Co for lunch, me, Taina, Sabrina, Dad, Jill, Brierlee and Steve. It was good, I got the traffic light cocktail, one of my favourite things to get back when we went to Cobb and Co when I was a kid.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more enjoyable? A bit more money. Taina having a job with better hours/better pay/better location. Not having to worry so much about insane global events.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020? I looked like a walking advertisement for the women's plus size clothing section of The Warehouse.
34. What kept you sane? Taina, Jess, Netflix and my favourite phone app game Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I wouldn't say I fancy her, but I do love Lady Gaga. She was great yesterday singing at President Biden's inauguration.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? Oh boy where do I start?? The pandemic and the varied different countries responses to it?? The shootings and black lives matter protests in the US? The general rise of insane Trump supporters? People still denying climate change despite raging fires in Australia all last Summer and other crazy climate events around the world? The NZ election? The US election? What I will say is I used to never bother watching the news, unless someone else wanted to watch it. But in 2020, I started following the TV news every single night, because I wanted to know what insane thing was going to happen next.
37. Who did you miss? I always miss my Mum, I wish I could tell her about everything going on in the world and in my life.
38. Who was the best new person you met? Didn't meet many new people. This lady Sasha at Plunket Playgroup, she was nice and gave us a stroller toy thing for Sabrina that her kids didn't play with anymore, that was cool.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020? That sometimes a "boring" life can be a great life.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: "ooh, baby, baby, it's a wild world..."
weezieishness · Fri Jan 22, 2021 @ 03:11am · 0 Comments |
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