My 2020 in review

2020, I think we can all agree this was a year. It feels like a decade, yet quickest and shortest year ever but that’s due to the way our memories work. We need experiences and they denote the passing of time. When less things happen for large periods of time we feel like time is dragging in the moment but when we look back it feels like time has gone quickly. And there’s the fact that a huge chunk of people have wanted it to be over for ages.

For me personally, 2020 has been one of the best years of my life although it is not been without its disappointments, namely we was supposed to go to Japan for the first time. Japan for me has been one of my life goals since I was a teenager. I’ve always been into the culture and I loved reading manga and watching anime growing up and still on occasion watch anime (currently re-watching Naruto). But due to the covid, our trip was inevitably cancelled. As mentioned in a previous post we are expecting a baby, we bought a house you can read more into process here, it has been postponed indefinitely.

For me having a kid and getting a house represent massive milestones in my life, along with getting married towards the end of last year. It feels a lot of life has happened very quickly so this year forever have a positive spot in my heart where I know a lot of people will look back on 2020 as a bad time because their lives but I have stood still and backwards. I’m in the fortunate position that my life catapulted forward this year.

Working from home – One of the nicer outcomes of lockdown and restrictions, beyond a spike in interest for home-made banana bread, is the forced home working because I genuinely think it’s a better way to work, I’m a strong supporter of distributed workforces.

I believe in breaking the mould, not having a mould at all really, just because that’s how things have always worked doesn’t mean it’s how they should work and there’s not a better or more suitable way.

I maintain working from home contributes to a better work life balance especially if you have a dedicated work space which at the beginning of lockdown I did not before purchasing a house and now I do. I like that I’m not bombarded, with people walking over to me, distracting me, people playing crappy office music and talking about the same rubbish every day. These days I can just get on with work and when someone wants to speak to me there’s the extra barrier because they need to either type an email, slack, set up a video or phone call and due to the built-in hassle with these methods they have to think about whether they need to actually speak to me or not, which I think improves the quality of our interactions. Hey, don’t get me wrong I love my co-workers as much as you yours, and I miss meeting up with them, but I do not miss seeing them every day in an office format.

Personally, I would take it further and have 4 day weeks because I believe that work expands to fill the time given so when you give something 5 days it 5 five days and 4 days it will take 4 days, with exceptions of course, but that’s a different conversation for another time.

January

I’ve been into amateur photography for a few years but I started to notice that I wasn’t using my camera as much as I should and most of my photos were being taken on my phone so I made the decision to sell my camera. I listed it on eBay and sold it for admittedly less than desired but shrug.

I used the funds generated from the sale to purchase a singular Tesla ($TSLA) share for $547.20 pre-stock split, which is $109.44 post-stock split. Now with $TSLA stock price sitting at just shy of $695 at the time of writing, that’s a 635% return. Show me a savings account that can do that. I think this was a worthwhile investment.

Another way to look at it is, I sold my camera at a loss then converted that loss into an overwhelming profit.

February

February offered a few new experiences for me. I participated in the Big Art Project recording for the Curzon Street station (HS2) clock, so my voice, among others, will be appearing at the station when the clock chimes a certain hour. Which I think is cool. I also had to travel across the country for a work meeting which was a new experience for me as I’m not in a client-facing my role. Finally, I trained to be a first aider for work which was another brand new experience but something I’ve always wanted to do – hence the volunteering once the opportunity presented itself.

March

In March I decided to cleanup and revamp my GameBoy colour. As a kid I somehow misplaced the battery cover and there was a little bit of you know dirt from 20 years of ownership and use so I’ve purchased a new replacement battery cover and a tri-head screwdriver (awkward Nintendo) and some isopropyl alcohol so I can clean up restore it which I did.

I went to the cinema on my own to watch My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising which is cool as I rarely go to the cinema on my own these days (not at all these days), that was nice though.

In the middle of the month we went over to Bulgaria to stay with my wife’s family and to celebrate her mother’s, sister’s and her own birthdays because they all happen around the same time. While in Bulgaria, I managed to wake up early on my own, go down to the beach and witnessed the sunrise which was a transcendent experience. I really connected with the world for a minute, it really brings out a level of clarity and a sense of awe. I would highly recommend catching a sunrise if you can. Bonus points if it’s in a foreign country, by the beach.

Shortly after arriving back in the UK lockdown begins.

April

So at this point we have to start learning to work from home and my wife has been furloughed. We need to work out how money gets sorted when she’s on 80% of her usual salary. Also she’s not working but I am and we literally only have two rooms in the flat, that was not a fun time. And thus began Zoom quizzes.

May

We found out we were expecting a new addition to the family and started looking for a new home after deciding we can’t have a baby in the tiny one-bedroom flat.

I don’t want to repeat myself so for more on this story check out my Five Year Plan post if you haven’t already.

June

The search for a new home is in full swing at this point and we found a development that we would like to pursue. We go through all the legal motions and mortgage appointments and what not. Also, The Last of Us Part II which is a brilliant video game by the way was released and I couldn’t be more thrilled, I waited 7 years for it. I was extremely satisfied I don’t care what naysayers say just because the story didn’t go as they wished.

July

I completed another trip around the sun and turned 28 which was pretty uneventful, as most birthdays are except that I went to the osteopath to sort out my old-man back and was rewarded with a covid-scare. A couple of days after my visit I receive a text message that one of the patients seen before me had tested positive for COVID-19 and it’s recommended that I get tested too. Firstly, they shouldn’t have seen someone who was awaiting a result that person is reckless for going out and about while they know they may be positive, which of course they were. Secondly, I start to feel fearful because I’ve obviously just spent the weekend with my pregnant wife, if I have it so does she. We went online and booked a test asap and when we arrived it was like a zombie movie with white tents and hazmat suits, truly bizarre. Anyway, I chose to self-administer the test, jabbing the cotton swab to the back of my throat before shoving it up my nose as per the instructions – ew and ouch. 24 hours later, 48 hours sooner than expected, pretty good, we got our results. Negative. Phew.

Later in the month we call for a socially distanced gathering in my grandparents back garden with my family, under the guise that we haven’t seen each in months but the true agenda was to announce that we’re expecting as the 12-weeks-wait-to-tell-people was up.

All our documents for the house are finalised and we paid the deposit. Sounds smooth but it wasn’t because we both opened Lifetime ISA’s (LISA) last year but as our timeline had been accelerated due to baby when we wanted to use the money the accounts hadn’t matured yet so to withdraw we had to forfeit the government top-ups. This we didn’t know until it came to it. We ended up having less money than expected and had to make up the difference elsewhere.

August

I have decide to start a blog, this blog to be exact, because I really wanted to get my voice out there. I feel like I have a lot of thoughts and views to offer but I’m a very closed person who doesn’t share too much but my wife is encouraging me to get out there because she thinks my views have value. You tell me.

RIP Chadwick Boseman ✊🏽🙅🏽‍♂️

September

We spent most of September in hot anticipation of moving into our new home. We knew the build was due to be completed any time but it kept getting delayed because of Covid. The contract on the apartment was due to end and the house to be ready at around the same time, and luckily for us it was. So on the 28th we moved into the house and officially became homeowners.

Also this month I created my first digital product, an icon pack for iOS 14 and actually got some sales. This came as a genuine surprise, as the most popular icon pack had multiple huge creators discover and share it, which perpetuated its grown and reduced my potential market. Alas, a few people saw my work and chose me – for that I’m grateful and it’s exciting to make money online.

October

Due to getting into the house in a bit of a rush, we didn’t have time to have it fully kitted out or the capital to do so right away. So we spent most of October without flooring, with just concrete which let me tell you it’s amazing how fucking dusty it is and it’s so annoying. But that got sorted out eventually after a few mishaps and incorrect deliveries.

November

Lockdown 2.0 begins. We finally got a dining table, bench, changed energy supplier, basically lots of adulting happened in November. I also decided not to try and buy a PS5. I saved up for one but I knew I wouldn’t have time to play as much as I would like, with a kid on the way and responsibilities. Also jumping in so early in the life cycle of a new generation this is not that many games to play so the value proposition is really low and I decided to put that money to better use. We began antenatal classes to learn how to do baby things. We had a 4D scan for the baby and we saw his widdle face.

December

The final stretch, lockdown ends and a new tier system is put in place and it became abundantly clear, if it wasn’t before, that the government has no idea what they’re doing. There’s a lot of stress and hype in the world about Christmas is more important than peoples lives. Tesla was finally introduced into S&P 500 which was an event to say the least.

So here we are on December 31st mere hours left of 2020 and we’ve just entered Tier 4, no surprise, which means stay home.

I must admit 2020 has been quite the year and while I recognise that it’s been terrible for some, disappointing for most but for some, including myself, it’s been a net good.

Stay safe and have a (at home) happy New Year