Year ends on high thanks to news of latest vaccine
RIGHT, let’s not mess about, this current year has been nothing short of horrendous and we will be well rid of it. I have refrained from using stronger language than that but fully understand why some seriously choice expletives might better be used to describe 2020.
Yet for all its horrors – domestically, nationally, internationally – the year’s end finds me euphoric at the news that yet another mass vaccine has been given the green light and should be rolled out within days across the nation. Yippee! Take that 2020!
Across these past virus-infused months I know I am not alone in having, outwardly, put on a brave face, made out everything is alright, told myself we’ll get by, to stay calm and carry on, and that there will eventually be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover and all that gung-ho stuff needed to keep going. The British stiff upper lip. Inside, though, I confess to daily life becoming a tad tedious mixed with an occasional hint of anxiety as the virus has ebbed and flowed seemingly at will.
So, buoyed by the latest developments and while waiting for this wretched 12 months to shuffle out of sight on the stroke of midnight tonight, I have pondered how my own behaviour has changed during the enforced lockdowns and social isolation.
There have been some rather modest personal achievements: I have painted most of the rooms in the house, fitted a new bathroom fan, some light switches and installed some new lights and that’s it.
A rather paltry sum total across nine months, maybe, but the effort needed to psych myself up for doing these tasks was incredible because it’s just so easy for distraction and apathy to set in which then results in you spending an afternoon with Father Brown, Inspector George Gently or Poirot instead.
Another significant lifestyle change is staying in bed late, hideously late. Sometimes. This is wildly at odds with my wife who is always up early, chivvying and being cheerful and frantically busy-bee like from first light.
I am not proud of my tardiness. However, as these months have rolled inexorably onwards towards mid-winter I have succumbed to the view that getting up when the morning’s half over considerably shortens a dull day with no socially distanced options on offer.
I also notice (and so have my family both from a distance and at close quarters) that I have developed an odd affectation.
I often now sit with my left hand across my chest and resting on the top of my right shoulder. It looks like I am either in need of a sling or pledging allegiance to the American flag (although they do right arm, left shoulder).
I do not know from whence this curious habit has come and, hopefully, my silly pose will vanish when we embrace the new freedoms vaccination will offer. Currently, though, I am available as a (seated) film extra playing either a patriotic American, Napoleon or Horatio Nelson.
But back to the future as 2021 calls and I cannot wait to be on the receiving end of those virusbeating jabs which promise to put an end to all the anxiousness which currently envelops us.
I have a stash of fireworks, unused from the damp squib that was Bonfire Night past, and in any normal times these would have been set off to flash and bang high in the sky when midnight chimes usher in the New Year.
Not tonight, though. They are being saved for the momentous day when both my wife and my own vaccinations are completed.
When that time does arrive I might not even wait for nightfall before lighting the blue touch paper.