Skip to main content

Nearly at the end of 2020

What a year it's been!  A year like no other!  Let's hope we don't have to go through anything like this year in our lifetimes again.  With life minimized with less freedom to do what we want I have managed to get right on top of my Christmas presents and cards.  

Looking back on this year we've still socialized but in a very measured, socially distanced way.  We've had friends over and made afternoon tea and gone to theirs for the same.  One poor friend of ours had her chair quite close to a dip in the ground and she screamed as the chair started to go back but luckily she managed to save herself and her dignity.  Very bad health and safety there, sorry about that S.  We've walked with individual friends and couples too.

It was pleasant in the summer when everything eased up a bit, we brought our eldest grandson fishing, we should have done this earlier and have gotten a few more fishing days in but perhaps it didn't work out with lock down rules, I can't remember.  We got to spend time with the grandchildren then in our daughters house and garden and we looked after them at times.  I still miss them though, so glad we've got Facebook to see the photos and videos that our daughter posts.

At times I have been a bit against modern technology, lets say I'm very aware of the ills of it and this is why I did my final project on nature deficit disorder and wrote and illustrated my book 'Blue to Green' at university as a mature student.  But I have to say technology has been our saving grace this year, it really has hasn't it?!  What with Zoom calls for our drama groups quizzes, quizzes on Facebook, attending care calls for my step father Paul through Microsoft Teams.  Not forgetting that there has been a whole lot of creativity on Messenger when our writing group gets together.   I have to add here that the SWWJ have also hosted some great online events too!  I very much enjoyed the interview with Charles Spencer.  It's been great, but I won't lie I have sometimes got fatigued by it.  Seeing and socializing face to face (breathing the same air) with those I have a laugh with but am not necessarily that close to has been sorely missed. 


https://www.lisajhorner.com/

    

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vin Harrop - Arts Animateur - All Round Mover and Shaker S1 E7 (podcast)

Vin Harrop calls himself an Arts Animateur because his work encompassed theatre, dance, architecture, all-media, music, local history and the things that mostly interest  him. Listen to our podcast here, which incidentally is Season 1 Episode 7.  https://www.lisajhorner.com/

Yardley London Celebrates its 250th Anniversary as we Remember Yardley's in Basildon

YARDLEY London, that legendary purveyor of perfumes, soaps and toiletries will celebrate its 250 th anniversary this year.    The company which was once called Yardley of London is one of the oldest brands in the history of perfume, toiletries and cosmetics.   It has been awarded ‘Royal Warrant of Appointment’ six times, starting with Edward, Prince of Wales in 1921 then including the Queen and the late Queen Mother and most recently, in 1995, Charles, Prince of Wales. At the end of January 2020 it will be 21 years since Yardley of London closed its doors at its site in Basildon.   The last man to leave was security guard Roy Davis.   He locked everything up and put the key through the door in January 1999.   Unfortunately the company had got into financial problems in the mid-1990s and it went into receivership in 1998 after a year of marketing attempts to try and turn around its then old-fashioned image even though it had swapped Hele...

Metal Culture's Zoom Event - Quite a Few Faces from the Past!

I have known about Metal Culture, the one that is based in Southend, and their events for some time.  I have often thought of joining one of their events but didn't get around to it.  Last night I plucked up the courage to join their Zoom meeting called 'BASILDON, what next for the Creative Industries in South Essex?'  It was really good actually, I imagined that I would sit observing, feeling too awkward to join in, but in fact I did get involved and added something to the various debates that were going on. To start with we watched six speakers; Aden Hynes from Sculpture Studios who showed a film.  Moira Brock from La Danse Fantastique who showed a film.  Joseph Brennan, an architect.  Clare Mortimer from The Craft Shed.  TIME - Therapy in Musical Expression, who showed a film and then Laura Mauro a writer.  It was really interesting, although I already knew about Sculpture Studios and TIME. There were about forty participants and what struck...