It has been an interesting year to say the very least.
I spent a large majority of February and early March 2020 mostly taking the piss out of the idiots who were buying gas masks and generally being overly paranoid over the whole covid19 stupidity - also getting very irate with constantly hearing about the covid19 shit.
Who'd have though just 10 days afer joking with colleagues in the office about it all, that the country would be in a full on lockdown because thousands of cases of covid19 were being reported alongside hundreds of deaths?

Now I am the kind of person that loudly announces my dismay at the fuckwits in public indoor spaces that fail to wear face coverings/fail to wear face coverings properly and completely ignore the concept of 2 metre distancing.  I am the kind of person that not only checks to make sure I have my mobile phone and wallet in my pocket before leaving home on the very few occassions that I dare to battle the ever ignorant public, but now also ensure I have a face covering and small bottle of hand sanitiser with me (often searching for the latter two items ahead of the phone and face covering).

There are a small number of things that the pandemic has brought about that I very much hope remain part of everyday life once we are through this pandemic; many more businesses offerering delivery and "click and collect" services that previously didn't, the whole concept of ordering or booking a service ahead and being given an arrival slot so as to avoid queues of morons.
There are, of course, also a great many things I truly hope will fuck off forever; face coverings, the rule of six, travel restrictions, playgrounds being closed off (the kids are going insane because they can't use the swings and slides without having to smother themselves in hand sanitiser) and a multitude of other things I can't be arsed to list here.

I hope that vaccines will spawn the end of the pandemic and a return to what I consider to be normal (fuck "new normal" I refuse to embrace it as a concept) - I want life to be restored to how it was in the summer of 2019 and not the summer of 2020.

Despite it all, I am actually looking forward to Christmas this year - we (my family and I) will make it as brilliant as we can under the circumstances and I hope (as I am sure the world hopes) that this time next year, the shit-storm that is covid19 will be a fast fading memory.

Merry Christmas to you all.