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We are pretty much a year in from the first lockdowns etc when the world changed in a way none of us expected.

How has your last year been, how did Covid change the way you live your life?

We retired at the end of 2019 to travel the world. So far we have cancelled the following holidays:

2020
- California / Vegas : Two weeks and plenty of stops in between.
- Cruise from Southampton to Singapore via many European countries, Egypt, Jordan, Dubai, Oman, Sri Lanka, Malaysia etc
- North York Moors : Two weeks touring around

2021
- Florida / Caribbean cruise : Two weeks going to some of the islands we've not been to and others we've been to only once. Looked forward to seeing more
- Botswana : Three week holiday staying at many different lodges in Okavango Delta, plus an add-on trip to Victoria Falls. Would have been stunning.

Plus others we would have booked and haven't.

I entered a relationship in autumn 2020, been happily with them for 6 months now, and see them every week for 3-4 days (they are the only person I see, in my support bubble).

At the start of 2020 my already precarious mental health took a sharp decline, and resulted in my family and a close friend contacting mental health services on my behalf. Unfortunately, mental health services in the UK are pretty crap, but that is down to funding rather than anything else. However, I have made significant improvements since September, and actually have some optimism about my future now.

I still have a long way to go regarding my mental health, but it's getting there.

I have also managed to lose several stone (about 18-20 kilograms) over the last year.

My fella started working from home a week before the initial lockdown, which meant any time alone was rare. Quite odd but a good primer for his retirement.

I ordered groceries exclusively online, which I rarely did pre-pandemic. Now I wonder why I didn't do it with more regularity, as it was easy most times.

I reinvented several recipes, due to sheer boredom. Most were improvements.

The LEGO company kept me busy, with builds that boggled the mind from time to time. Many zen moments achieved through those plastic pieces.

Lots of movies and television shows either rediscovered or found new. Some awful, and most enjoyable.

Look forward to driving with the roof down at some point sooner than later.

Beginning of 2020 I got a raise and a promotion. My company also bought out two companies in 2019 and it was looking like it would have been another great year. Then Covid happened. At first it looked like it was not going to be a big thing. I stayed employed for those first two months of quarantine but with people flying less and less, the planes weren't breaking or needing inspections.

So I was put on furlough. And then it never got any better. I got laid off back in September. As of January the company was sold to a UK company called Gama Aviation. Mostly due to too much debt racked up.

But by then I am now back in school to get my A&P license. Trade school for aircraft mechanics. It was something I have been meaning to do for a long time. Covid pushed me to do it.

So there is that...

I had to move to the overnight shift due to customers physically threatening me. It's turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though. I don't really deal with assholes much anymore. I don't go out much except for essentials, or taking walks down to the mailbox at the bottom of the hill.