End of the Year meme 2020
I never did fill this in at the end of 2020, did I? Let's see if I can remember what I did last year!
What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?
Survived a global pandemic.
Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, I had grand plans to actually make the grand plan of buying a house happen... and then that got scuppered by the whole pandemic thing. So that's probably a no on the New Year's resolutions for 2020.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
Two couples from housegroup!
Did anyone close to you die?
Amazingly no, given the whole global pandemic thing.
Which countries did you visit?
Haha. Hahahahaha. 'Twas not really a year for visiting anywhere.
What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?
Being able to actually visit friends and places again would be nice.
What dates from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Way back in March, where the whole coronavirus lockdowns escalated very quickly. During the week before the first lockdown $work very quickly moved to "VPNs for everyone!", just in time as it turned out.
Easter day, watching the sunrise from my balcony.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not getting coronavirused.
What was your biggest failure?
Well, coronavirus scuppered the whole house-buying plan but I claim that doesn't really count as a failure because global pandemic. Missing the opportunity to meet friends over summer when cases were low is probably the biggest failure, though my sister and I did manage to meet B, J, J and The Destructotwins literally the day before the rule-of-six came in.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really, no.
What was the best thing you bought?
I finally did several long-overdue tech upgrades: I replaced the aging Netgear ReadyNAS with a Synology Diskstation (pleaseremove's been on at me for years to get one, and mostly swapped out the Netgear DGND3700 router for a shiny new Asus RX-82U that's totally not a Cylon Raider. The result of it all is I can hit gigabit speeds transferring data to/from the NAS and the bottleneck is the network cable of all things!
Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Sage, for actually applying SCIENCE!
Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
It's a toss-up between Dominic Cummings for the whole Barnad Castle debacle, and Boris Johnson for propping up Dominic Cummings. Which made it all the more hilarious when Dominic Cummings was very publicly booted out of Number 10.
Where did most of your money go?
The usual combination of rent, bills, HMRC. Not as much on car as in past years (a side-effect of lockdowns is much less car travel), though my car did make up for that by first failing the MOT due to a cracked spring and worn brake pads, and then having to go back in a couple of weeks later for a new brake caliper.
What were you really, really, really excited about?
Strictly Come Dancing! I never used to be all that into it, but ended up watching this year almost from the start and was very impressed.
What song will always remind you of 2020?
Enter Sandman - because it brought metal to Strictly.
Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder?
About the same.
b) Bigger or smaller?
About the same.
c) Richer or poorer?
The housing deposit is steadily growing...
What do you wish you'd done more of?
Visiting friends when I had the chance to do so.
What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastination, as always.
How did you spend Christmas?
With my sister - we'd planned to meet as just the two of us at hers on Christmas Day before the whole Christmas Bubbles being burst so that didn't affect us. And because neither of us could be bothered with actually cooking a roast dinner I got chinese meals from Sainsburys and we enjoyed those instead. After lunch we went on a wander of Portsmouth and discovered that Portsmouth has a park with goats of all things!
What was your favourite month of 2020?
December, because despite the whole mess that was Tiers and Christmas Bubbles I still got to enjoy my advent calendar from my sister and to meet up with her on Christmas Day.
What was your favourite TV programme?
Strictly Come Dancing!
How did you see in the New Year?
Online, with my sister and the church board games group. We played through several rounds of games on Board Game Arena.
Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't this time last year?
Several politicians who moved from the "stupid" to "dangerously stupid" category.
What was the best book you read?
Brandon Sanderson's Starsight, which I think I got in 2020 (or maybe 2021?).
What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don't think I got any new albums this year. I did do a lot of listening to di.fm while out walking, mainly variations of their Chillout and Trance stations.
What did you want and get?
A new Garth Nix book, Angel Mage, that I didn't even know was out.
What did you want and not get?
Being able to meet my parents for Christmas - one day we'll have a family christmas again...
What was your favourite film of this year?
What is this going to the cinema of which you speak of?
What did you do on your birthday?
Not all that much I think, thanks to it being right in the middle of lockdown.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not being in the middle of a global pandemic.
What kept you sane?
Family, friends, housegroup, zoom pasta night, and a well-stocked MP3 player.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy/respect the most?
Keir Starmer.
What political issue stirred you the most?
A toss-up between the handling of the pandemic and the handling of Brexit.
Who did you miss?
Meeting up with my parents in-person. We met a couple of times, but nowhere near as often as usual.
Who was the best new person you met?
What is this meeting new people of which you speak of?
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020.
Arrange meet-ups when you can because the window to do so may disappear very quickly.
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
...nope, I'm drawing a blank here. Maybe for the 2021 meme I'll come up with something!
What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?
Survived a global pandemic.
Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, I had grand plans to actually make the grand plan of buying a house happen... and then that got scuppered by the whole pandemic thing. So that's probably a no on the New Year's resolutions for 2020.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
Two couples from housegroup!
Did anyone close to you die?
Amazingly no, given the whole global pandemic thing.
Which countries did you visit?
Haha. Hahahahaha. 'Twas not really a year for visiting anywhere.
What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?
Being able to actually visit friends and places again would be nice.
What dates from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Way back in March, where the whole coronavirus lockdowns escalated very quickly. During the week before the first lockdown $work very quickly moved to "VPNs for everyone!", just in time as it turned out.
Easter day, watching the sunrise from my balcony.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not getting coronavirused.
What was your biggest failure?
Well, coronavirus scuppered the whole house-buying plan but I claim that doesn't really count as a failure because global pandemic. Missing the opportunity to meet friends over summer when cases were low is probably the biggest failure, though my sister and I did manage to meet B, J, J and The Destructotwins literally the day before the rule-of-six came in.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really, no.
What was the best thing you bought?
I finally did several long-overdue tech upgrades: I replaced the aging Netgear ReadyNAS with a Synology Diskstation (pleaseremove's been on at me for years to get one, and mostly swapped out the Netgear DGND3700 router for a shiny new Asus RX-82U that's totally not a Cylon Raider. The result of it all is I can hit gigabit speeds transferring data to/from the NAS and the bottleneck is the network cable of all things!
Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Sage, for actually applying SCIENCE!
Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
It's a toss-up between Dominic Cummings for the whole Barnad Castle debacle, and Boris Johnson for propping up Dominic Cummings. Which made it all the more hilarious when Dominic Cummings was very publicly booted out of Number 10.
Where did most of your money go?
The usual combination of rent, bills, HMRC. Not as much on car as in past years (a side-effect of lockdowns is much less car travel), though my car did make up for that by first failing the MOT due to a cracked spring and worn brake pads, and then having to go back in a couple of weeks later for a new brake caliper.
What were you really, really, really excited about?
Strictly Come Dancing! I never used to be all that into it, but ended up watching this year almost from the start and was very impressed.
What song will always remind you of 2020?
Enter Sandman - because it brought metal to Strictly.
Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder?
About the same.
b) Bigger or smaller?
About the same.
c) Richer or poorer?
The housing deposit is steadily growing...
What do you wish you'd done more of?
Visiting friends when I had the chance to do so.
What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastination, as always.
How did you spend Christmas?
With my sister - we'd planned to meet as just the two of us at hers on Christmas Day before the whole Christmas Bubbles being burst so that didn't affect us. And because neither of us could be bothered with actually cooking a roast dinner I got chinese meals from Sainsburys and we enjoyed those instead. After lunch we went on a wander of Portsmouth and discovered that Portsmouth has a park with goats of all things!
What was your favourite month of 2020?
December, because despite the whole mess that was Tiers and Christmas Bubbles I still got to enjoy my advent calendar from my sister and to meet up with her on Christmas Day.
What was your favourite TV programme?
Strictly Come Dancing!
How did you see in the New Year?
Online, with my sister and the church board games group. We played through several rounds of games on Board Game Arena.
Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't this time last year?
Several politicians who moved from the "stupid" to "dangerously stupid" category.
What was the best book you read?
Brandon Sanderson's Starsight, which I think I got in 2020 (or maybe 2021?).
What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don't think I got any new albums this year. I did do a lot of listening to di.fm while out walking, mainly variations of their Chillout and Trance stations.
What did you want and get?
A new Garth Nix book, Angel Mage, that I didn't even know was out.
What did you want and not get?
Being able to meet my parents for Christmas - one day we'll have a family christmas again...
What was your favourite film of this year?
What is this going to the cinema of which you speak of?
What did you do on your birthday?
Not all that much I think, thanks to it being right in the middle of lockdown.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not being in the middle of a global pandemic.
What kept you sane?
Family, friends, housegroup, zoom pasta night, and a well-stocked MP3 player.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy/respect the most?
Keir Starmer.
What political issue stirred you the most?
A toss-up between the handling of the pandemic and the handling of Brexit.
Who did you miss?
Meeting up with my parents in-person. We met a couple of times, but nowhere near as often as usual.
Who was the best new person you met?
What is this meeting new people of which you speak of?
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020.
Arrange meet-ups when you can because the window to do so may disappear very quickly.
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
...nope, I'm drawing a blank here. Maybe for the 2021 meme I'll come up with something!