Reflecting on 2020
2020 was a wild one. I debated whether I would write a reflective post this year but even though it’s been a challenging one with lows, there has been some great memories and a fair few highs. I’ve also done a yearly round-up every single year so I didn’t want to miss out on it. 2020 was the year where we stayed at home, locked down and got used to the new normal. Looking back at my 2020 Goals and Travel Plans, it really shows how the year took a turn.
My main goals for 2020 was to travel to five new countries, which was pretty ambitious at the best of times. My plans for the year was a 3-week road trip to the US (which fell on the day on the start of lockdown), Egypt, Dubai and another trip to the US to visit Boston and New England in Fall. Whilst I’m hoping we might be able to go in 2021, I’m not getting my hopes up. One of the main things to come out of 2020 was being able to appreciate the UK. Whilst in lockdown, we got to go on many walks in the local area. I really felt lucky to be able to go on my daily walks along the seafront. During Summer, I visited The Cotswolds for my Birthday before embarking on a mega Scottish Roadtrip in September.
Not only did 2020 make me appreciate the local area ALOT more. I really learnt to appreciate the little things. It felt good during Lockdown 1.0 to just take it easy and work on myself too. I didn’t do anything too extravagant but it was great to just slow down, take some time out and really figure out what I want to be doing. In this time I also did a lot of baking and I’ve become quite domesticated in 2020. Who’d have thought one of my highlights of the year would be buying a Shark Hoover?!
The lack of holidays, travelling about, eating out meant we were able to actually save some money. I’m not really making goals for 2021, except for getting through the year but one thing I hope me and Stefan will be able to do is to buy our first home together. So watching this space. For now, I’ll be looking back on the year that is 2020 and it wasn’t all bad. I’m so thankful to have been able to still create some great memories surrounded by the best people.
2020: a year in review
January
2020 started in Newcastle. Stefan and I usually spend New Years in the toon, I was kinda sad not being able to go this year but we actually ended up having a lovely NYE at home. January is usually a quiet month for me although I’m glad I managed to squeeze a trip to London to see my friend Elinor. We had the best time eating our way around London. We visited Highgate for an amazing Sunday Roast and I even nearly bought a Burberry trench coat. Also, we visited the Glossier store in Covent Garden which is a brand I discovered and is now a top favourite of mine in 2020.
February
February saw a few brand collaborations which meant a few day trips to Leeds. First up was to work with Victoria Leeds on the most amazing campaign. For Valentine’s Day, they had the most adorable puppies in Victoria Quarter – I wanted to take one home with me! I also reviewed the Spring menu at The Ivy in Leeds. In February, I got to spend some time with my fave little people (nieces and nephews) which I’m so thankful for as we’ve not seen them a lot this year which is so sad. Also this month, my little blog turned 10! Say what?! How insane that I’ve kept up blogging for TEN whole years.
March
March is when things started to go downhill. I still managed to fit a few things in including a visit to Rockliffe Hall. It was my first visit there and it was such a beautiful hotel & spa, I’d highly recommend visiting when possible. I also had my last (& I think first) blog event of the year with Pandora. It was great to catch up with some of my fave blogger girls. I remember the talk of the event was whether we would get on our upcoming travels. The answer was… we would not. Sadly our three week US road trip was cancelled (well we had to cancel it – especially when they closed Disneyland!). We did manage to visit the Lake District the week before lockdown as a little consolation trip but on the 23rd of March, the UK was plunged into a UK wide lockdown.
April
April was pretty much just a lockdown filled with baking, daily walks and jigsaws. My Mum celebrated her birthday in lockdown and the highlight of the month was finding pasta and 1kg of flour in the corner shop.
May
Lockdown continued through May. Even more baking and long walks. We were so blessed with amazing weather during lockdown and got to go on some lovely long coastline walks. I actually felt the fittest I had done in a long time. I also started to make facemasks on my sewing machine. I’m quite handy on the sewing machine so I thought I’d try my hand with it and make some for friends and family including some cute Disney prints.
june
June was pretty uneventful, I started back at work (WFH) and the main highlight of the month was McDonald’s re-opening. There really wasn’t much else to report aside from much more of the walks, mask making and baking.
july
July saw the UK slightly get back to normal with the re-opening of hospitality. We went out for a few meals and I properly launched my Sunday Roast Diaries which became a key feature over the next couple of months. We explored a lot more places local to home such as Flamborough, Filey and Bempton Cliffs – all places I’ve not been in YEARS.
august
August was the month to Eat Out to Help Out. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best of ideas but we certainly did our best to help out. We started the month off in Leeds for Stefans Birthday and stayed at the Dakota in our first post-lockdown hotel stay. I’m not going to lie 90% of the month was filled with food, food and more food. I was rather lucky that we were able to celebrate my Birthday properly with minimal restrictions. Stefan took me to The Cotswolds, Cheltenham, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Oxford for a couple of days. It was my first visit to The Cotswolds and it was just a gorgeous place. We also had the best tour guide; Jessica and I were so happy to have seen her twice this year despite everything.
Visiting The Cotswolds over the bank holiday was probably not the wisest decision as it was SO busy. Wherever we went through, we felt super safe and most people were pretty respectable. We also visited Bicester Village where I made a very exciting purchase in the form of some Stuart Weitzman boots.
september
I got the chance to celebrate my Birthday again with a few friends and family members. The rule of six became a thing and we went for a lovely meal and a few drinks in York. It seems like a lifetime ago since we were actually allowed to mix with people outside of your bubbles. September also followed me in my quest to try all the Sunday Roasts including a huge platter from Tomahawk.
At the end of September, we embarked on an eight-day road trip up to Scotland. This certainly was the highlight of my year. We visited Glasgow, Loch Lomand, Glencoe, Fort William, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Inverness, Cairngorms National Park and Edinburgh. I’ve done a whole blog post about the trip here but we really just had the best time. I loved the Isle of Syke especially and would love to go and explore Scotland even further and even visit more islands.
october
At the start of October, we visited Manchester to stay at Hotel Gotham. It’s a hotel which has been on my radar for ages. We got an amazing deal and I couldn’t recommend the place more. The staff were so helpful and the rooms were gorgeous. It can be quite expensive at peak times but it’s so worth it and not too far from Deansgate and the Arndale. We also got to have the most amazing Sunday Roast at Hawksmoor and a few drinks at The Flight Club.
Another momentous moment for October was that I finally my hair cut after the longest time. I daren’t even admit when I last got a hair cut but it felt so refreshing to get it so healthy. It felt so short at the time but most people didn’t even notice. We also had a few other trips along the Yorkshire Coast to Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay and Runswick Bay.
november
November we were plunged into Lockdown 2.0. It was quite a slow month which I focused on working on my Festive Gift Guides and also did a great collaboration with Godiva. We had a few Winter walks locally and just spent a lot of time at home… again.
December
Finally December. Although we came out of lockdown 2.0 many restrictions were still in place. Inevitably, I’m sure Lockdown 3.0 will be happening in the New Year. Aside from a few Festive Meals including one at The Ivy in York, we just kept to ourselves and tried to get as festive as possible. Most of the month was spent watching Christmas movies which you can see all my reviews in this blogpost. I only have a small family so was fortunate that our Christmas Day was pretty normal albeit it felt so quiet not having the usual festivities leading up to the big day.
Who knows what 2021 will bring but I really hope it’s a lot kinder than 2020 and although at the moment the future looks quite bleak, I hope better days are ahead. Overall, looking at this post, I do feel really lucky and fortunate to have been able to do some of these things.
