The word is a very exciting place

 April saw some of the final covid restrictions on businesses, hairdressers, pubs, gyms & other non essential businesses could now open again. 33 million people had had a vaccine, of which 12 million had received both doses. Deaths and cases were both decreasing as well, and there was hope in the air that the vaccine was going to be what helps to end covid in the UK. 

 March saw the start of warmer weather, and left slowly returning to normal again. Schools had reopened, and the end of march saw further restrictions being lifted, and people were now able to have two households mixing. There was two pieces of troubling news that came though, the first being a rather insulting 1% pay rise for NHS workers, despite having managed to get the country through a pandemic. This was such a surprise to me, because of course you should be grateful for anything extra that you get, but 1% was just utter nonsense. I've never heard something so ridiculous. And it made the government's promotion of the clap for carers seem so hollow. We value you enough to clap for you once a week, but we don't value you enough to reward you for your service. Disgraceful.

 Still February remained cold, but otherwise dry which was nice. There was a different feeling in the air too, there was a sense that this third lockdown was going to be our last, what with the vaccine being rolled out, as well as plans being made for schools to reopen. February brought me some holiday, which I spent some time at home resting. A backache had started up, painful enough for me to notice, but not painful enough to stop me from doing things. I assumed it was due to the fact I'd worked so many hours and so hard recently, and it was a sprain or something like that. My body was telling me to slow down, and I needed to listen to it. So much of my week off was spent relaxing and not doing much. So much so that Husky wanted to know why he didn't have all the bed to himself all day like he normally does. You can see him almost questioning me as to why I was home all the time!

 February brought colder weather, but a more optimistic outlook. According to the news 20 million vaccines had now been given out across the UK, and although things were still not great, cases, deaths and people in hospital with Covid was slowly declining. For me, it helped to ease my anxiety about what was going on, and gave me a bit of confidence to go back out for walks again with James. It felt good to be outside again, and not just walking to and from work. It felt good to be able to just wander along the local shore line, and for a while forget everything that was going on in the world.

 Well first of all, happy new year! Here's to hoping 2021 will be a better year than 2020. I dare not even joke and ask if it could get any worse? Covid wise, things were becoming worse and worse. While the vaccine deployment was gaining speed, the cases, admissions to hospitals and deaths continued to rise faster. The nation entered a third lockdown on the 5th of January, and it seemed like it was too late. They should have done it earlier, and it seemed the mixing that a lot of people did over Christmas was coming back to haunt us as a whole.  

Hi everyone! Just another note from me! I know two in consecutive posts, aren't you lucky! Just wanted to say another massive thank you, because yesterday the blog reached 15,000 views! I can't believe it, it's fantastic! Thank you all so much for reading and sharing my story, it means to much to me. And also thank you for your pertinence while the blog slowly catches up to the modern day, we will get there eventually!   December came, and we came out of a full lockdown, and into a tiered system which actually was quite confusing. The advice given didn't always make sense. But we continued to do our part and avoid people at all costs (Which I actually loved)

Before I continue with the post, I just wanted to say that this is my 500th post! Can you imagine, 500 times I have clicked the post button and shared something with you all. It's a fantastic landmark, and I'm so pleased to be able to write about it! I just want to say thankyou to everyone for your continued support in reading my posts. It's taken 13 years to get to 500 posts, maybe it will take more, maybe less to reach a thousand. But I can't wait to see the next milestone! Thank you all for reading! :)  Hello and welcome back, this post is all about the results, and the rest of the show after the performances. I will also be sharing my votes with you as well, and we will see what that changes on the leaderboard! So without further ado, lets jump back in and Move the World!

Greetings from Warsaw, as we head to Poland for the 2020 Junior Eurovision Song Contest! This is our first Eurovision event since the main contest was cancelled due to the Corona Virus pandemic. It's a small contest, with just twelve contestants, with many withdrawals due to Covid, so here's to hoping more return next year. But we welcome Germany, who are making their debut this year. We are not travelling far either, as it was Gliwice that hosted the 2019 contest in Poland, making this one of the shortest distances between host cities we've seen for a few years. Will Poland be able to do the Eurovision holy trinity and complete a hat trick of Eurovision wins? Well we are just about to begin. So without further ado, let the show begin!

Life under lockdown felt oddly familiar, yet different. Working in retail, there wasn't much change. We got a bit busier at work, but didn't see the shortages or empty shelves that we had in the first lockdown. And people's attitudes were different, people seemed tired, and a bit lost. I guess that's what it does to you. Customers of course were not happy, and it was hard work trying to keep them moving round the store and not creating blockages in the aisles when they wanted to stand and complain about everything.