November 2020 Wrap Up

Well, November was one of the many, many write-offs we’ve gone through during 2020 wasn’t it? At the end of October it was announced that the UK would be going back into lockdown between the 5th November and the 2nd December, and the whole of the UK got even more pissed off at the news because the announcement of it delayed the start of Strictly. With that in mind, I toyed with not doing a November wrap up, purely because NOTHING HAS BLOODY HAPPENED. However, I’ve got this far by doing monthly wrap up posts, so I may as well finish it off. Unfortunately, there will be a smidge of covid chat in this post because, let’s face it, it’s been the reason why nothing’s happened this month, so I’ll just warn you up front of that. As you’ll soon realise though, the vast majority of my month has been spent watching telly, drinking heavily, and taking pictures of Tilly on my new phone. Eeh, I’ve had worse months.

What’s Been Happening

Lockdown 2.0

Let’s start with the elephant out of the room and get it all out of the way. I mentioned last month that I was terrified at the thought of another lockdown, but I was all for it if it meant we could have a normal Christmas. Since then, the rules around Christmas have been released and they’re confusing AF (which I’ll get to in a minute) and I can’t exactly see many of us having a normal one, which I’m in two minds about. But first things first, let’s start with the current lockdown which has since been lifted, although most of the country is in Tiers 2 and 3.

I feel as though this second lockdown hasn’t done much good for a number of reasons.

• People are sick of covid and being told what to do by the government – some of whom never even followed the rules during the first lockdown – that mindset of “no government will tell me what do to do” is still there and if anything, it’s much more prominent now that things have been going on for so long, and following the news of the vaccine arriving in the UK, more people are going to have the mindset of “the vaccine’s here now, let’s get back to normal.”
• They haven’t exactly treated it it like a proper lockdown. Here in the UK, all shops had to do was sell a bottle of water and a couple of snacks to be allowed to remain open. I’m well aware of the impact that the first lockdown made on businesses, but the more shops open, the more people will “pop out” just to get a change of scenery. I met Lillie for a walk after the first week of the lockdown, and by the look of town at the time, you would not believe we were in a lockdown. Kids everywhere, people browsing in the shops that were open, large groups sitting outside having coffees. Similarly, I took Tilly to the vets this weekend just gone (it’s inside our local Pets at Home) and it was rammed with families taking their kids for a free day out to look at the bunny rabbits – wtf?! Yes, people are bored, kids are bored, I get it – but come on, show some common sense.
• Similarly, the schools and colleges remained open. Again, I’m biased here because I’m not a parent and I don’t particularly like children, but I feel like a majority of the increase in cases was down to schools, colleges and universities reopening, and if they really wanted to make an impact they should have closed them, or perhaps done this lockdown during the October half term if they were worried about upsetting the kids’ routines. Before anyone @s me, I’m not saying it’s down to students and individuals causing the rise in cases, I’m saying that it was inevitable. Every year in September-October time, kids come down with common illnesses and freshers’ flu is rife – did they really think we’d be okay during a global pandemic?!

I don’t want to cause a row or piss anyone off here, I’m just getting some thoughts out that have been pent up over these last few weeks.

Pandemic Christmas

As for the Christmas thing, I’m in two minds.  The idea of Christmas bubbles in hindsight is great, however, I can’t help thinking they’ve fucked over the people with divorced/separated parents, and the people who have adult kids and siblings. Between us, my husband and I have a lot of people to see on Christmas day (think that episode of The Vicar of Dibley where she has three Christmas lunches) so I hate the idea that we’re going to have to choose this year. While our regular plan is hectic AF, it keeps everyone happy and it’s like having three mini-Christmases in one day. 

Of course we’re not the only people in this predicament and I know many people will be in even worse situations so I’m not fishing for sympathy, but it’s just shit all round. We certainly weren’t expecting to be put into tier 2 following the end of this lockdown on the 2nd December either, so our backup plan was to see people in bits and pieces during the run up to Christmas, but of course, Boris shat all over that. I feel even more for the people in tier 3 too, this whole thing is incredibly shit.

Before anyone gets arsey with me, I know that sacrificing one Christmas for the sake of getting things back to normal much quicker is nothing compared to the big picture, but after a shitty year, it would be nice to be able to enjoy things without words like ‘bubbles’ and ‘social distancing’ being mentioned. I appreciate that they’ve given us something (which many are saying will actually make things worse), but I feel like a lot of people are going to have to choose between their parents, their siblings, and in some cases, their kids. It’s cruel. In the words of Jeremy from Peep Show:

I’m seeing two polar opposites when it comes to other people’s opinions – it’s either “I’ve had a shitty year/I’ve worked all through this pandemic etc, I want to spend Christmas with my family and I don’t care about breaking the rules” or “I’m not even forming a Christmas bubble because I don’t want to give covid to my elderly relatives.” I’m in two minds – I can honestly see both sides but I have no idea what the best thing to do would be. I guess it’s a case of watching this space and finding out what everyone else in our family is doing. In the meantime, I’m stressing the fuck out. I don’t want to break the rules, but I also don’t want to upset anyone.

Return of the Jungle (or Rather, Castle)

The return of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here is certainly a bit of a commitment, but given the fact we’re back in this pissing lockdown, I was all for spending my nights in front of the telly. I was also buzzing to see what the situation would be with it being in a castle in North Wales rather than the Australian jungle, and the fact that Radio 1 presenter Jordan North was taking part. Not only do I love him on Radio 1, but I love his podcast with William Hanson, Help I Sexted My Boss too, I’m 100% rooting for him to win! Shout out to Ant and Dec as well, who are on top form with their VTs as always.

Update – Of course the final aired on the 4th December, and while Jordan didn’t win, he did however come in second place. It was lovely seeing Giovanna Fletcher take the title of Queen of the Castle too – I love her books and you can tell she’s just such a nice, genuine person. As a #GandDiva (podcast fans will know), I think that even though he didn’t win, Jordan certainly gets the title of King of the Castle.

Bill Bailey on Strictly

On the other side of the reality TV spectrum, I’ve been LOVING Bill Bailey on Strictly this year. Many will be fans of him for his stand up/musical shoes, which I love, but for me, it’s because of his role as Manny in Black Books. Seriously, if you haven’t seen Black Books, you need to check it out – I believe it’s currently on Netflix. Anyway, I’ve been loving Bill and Oti’s dances, especially their couples’ choice to Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang – I just end up smiling the whole way through his dances!

Old School Grey’s Anatomy

I’m not sure whether I just love the comfort of a telly show I’ve seen before or whether I just love emotional pain, but this November, I decided to re-binge my Grey’s Anatomy box sets, some of which are still in the cellophane. While I’m still bingeing Normal People during my weekly Thirsty Thursday sessions, Liam has been doing a few bonus gaming nights during lockdown meaning I’ve had more time in front of the telly. I’m not exactly sure why I went for old school Grey’s but I have zero regrets. Even if I spent a recent weekend pissed AF crying my eyes out at the “pick me, choose me, love me” scene.

Gratitude List

Cuddles and watching Grey’s Anatomy with Tilly.

Meeting Lillie for a socially distanced walk.

Liam looking after me when I suffered an insanely bad IBS flare up.

I went into my old work for a contact lens check and a sight test which meant I also got to see and catch up with my friends who I haven’t seen in forever.

Subsequently, I also got some new specs which I’m BUZZING about.

The emotional AF ending of Bake Off. Bloody hell we’ve needed it this year but I didn’t expect to be crying at the montage at the end.

Speaking to my grandparents on the phone. 

The return of game nights via Zoom – we slag off Zoom parties now, but the two we had last weekend were a good laugh and it felt nice to see friends we hadn’t seen in ages.

The fact they didn’t scrap support bubbles during this lockdown – it meant I could still go and see my Mum every weekend and have Daisy cuddles.

The new series of Naked Attraction. Say what you want, it’s trash TV at it’s finest and I bloody love it.

Month in Pictures

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Coming Up Next Month

December is set to be an interesting month – as I mentioned earlier, inevitably there will be some stress over what happens at Christmas, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Again, the current restrictions have pretty much meant that any socialising plans have been shot to crap, but I guess that means plenty of time to get some online Christmas shopping done and to try and source a Christmas tree given that we threw our ratty old one out when we moved. I’m also due to pick up my glasses on the 13th too, and I can’t wait – they’re both completely different to what I normally go for and I’m so excited to see them!

How was your November? Let me know in the comments!

Featured image by Nicolas Tissot on Unsplash.