Christmas message 2020

After assessing my lifestyle early this year, it was a lovely surprise to conclude that I no longer needed to work, and so I finished my working life at the end of July. My job in software application support had become less interesting to me over the past 12 months, and even though I could have continued to work from home like I did during the first lockdown, I felt that the time was right to call it a day.

Being naturally lazy, I have had no trouble adapting to this change in my lifestyle, but I am lucky to have similarly active retired friends that I can hang out with.

I have been fortunate in that the various lockdowns and restrictions have not significantly held me back this year, as I still like to get out and about for my daily exercise, either on my own or with one other person. So I have been able to get out on my mountain and road bikes, paddle my kayak, and until recently play tennis and beach volleyball (hand sanitiser is provided of course), but the only swimming I have managed has either been in the sea or on holiday.

I really thought this would be the first year since 1986 that I wouldn't play at least one game of cricket, as the summer leagues were all halted during the first lockdown. However when the restrictions were relaxed in the summer, the Dorset Cricket League arranged a short competition during August, and my team were one player short for the final match of the season, so I played after all! Pity that I was bowled for a duck by one of the finest deliveries I have ever faced. Anyway I shan't be throwing my kit out just yet.

This year of course I haven't been able to meet up with all my bridge friends in person, so we have had to organise our evenings using a combination of Skype meetings and the bridge web sites. Not everybody likes the technology, indeed two of our best players can't bring themselves to use it, but over the months we have refined our operation and now it works pretty well, retaining the social aspect too.

I'm pleased to say that the various medicines that I take for my various conditions are doing a decent job in allowing me to enjoy myself as much as I can expect nowadays. I did make the mistake of going for a rare run in April, about which my right knee has complained bitterly since, but a good physio friend of mine has made a diagnosis and I am now on the road to recovery via the miracle of shoe inserts to support my flat feet.

Three of us had a good week's skiing in Northern Italy in February. The resort closed two weeks later as Italy went into their first Covid lockdown, so we were lucky. None of us came back with anything more infectious than a minor cold, thankfully.

The tourism industry has been particularly badly hit by the pandemic, but I feel that it's my civic duty to try and keep it going. So in September four of us willingly tolerated face masks on the flight to and from the Greek island of Lemnos for a week's activity holiday, and two of us are hoping to fly to Tenerife at the end of January 2021, but there is now some doubt about that trip.

Still nothing to report I'm afraid. I'm not really looking, though. I get the impression that the dating industry has also been hit by the pandemic, as intimacy with strangers is officially illegal during lockdown...

I am still volunteering for St John Ambulance as a first aider, but as soon as Covid struck, all the events that we would normally cover just stopped happening, so the only time I have worn my uniform since March was when I attended the funeral of one of our stalwarts, as part of our guard of honour.

St John volunteers have been helping the NHS to relieve the pressure, and we have all been trained in basic hospital patient care to allow us to work within NHS teams on wards. You may have seen in the news recently that we are also being asked to help with administering both the flu and Covid vaccines, as many more people will receive these jabs this winter; however I shan't be involved in this work as it's only open to volunteers who are at a low risk from Covid, and being asthmatic I am at moderate risk, and so I am ineligible.

Now that I am retired, I do intend to expand my volunteering, e.g. for Poole Cultural Volunteers, but similarly they haven't had much to do recently either.