2020: the year that never was

Here we are in the first week of January. The memories of another Christmas have been packed away and the dust has settled on another year. And what a year it's been!  It has changed us, challenged us, frustrated us and really made us question the status quo. In some ways, it has forced us to seek new friendships, find different ways of doing things and connect with our inner selves. 

In my first post of the year I would usually share the highlights of the previous year with you but there's nothing worth mentioning about 2020. It was a year of cancelled trips, thwarted plans, isolation and introspection. But it was not all bad. So many people had it so much worse. We kept our jobs and our sanity, our son was able to follow lessons from school and the quiet time meant that I was able to break my personal reading record.

2020: the positives

So let's take a look at some of the good things that 2020 gave us:

• we went from working from the office to working from home literally overnight
• our employers realised that work still got done even if we were not physically present in the office
• using MS Teams became a daily occurrence and we were able to see some our overseas colleagues 'face to face' for the first time
• a large number of local business finally bit the bullet and went online
• we focussed on the things that mattered

And personally:

• with nowhere to go, I spent most of my vacation days at the beach and managed to get a nice tan for the first time in years
• I kept the promise I made to myself at the start of the year to decrease my time on Facebook. It was hard, at first, as I was quite addicted to it, but, by March I decreased the time I spent on it to 5 minutes twice daily. I am glad to say that I have stuck to that regimen.

My most read blogposts of 2020

These are the posts that my readers found most interesting during 2020:

10.  Gifts with heart

In which I shared the work of (mostly) local artists and artisans in an effort to support small businesses in the run-up to Christmas 2020.

9.    Life lately: sunsets, open spaces and the flu

In which I talked about a lot of things but especially about being out in the open (pre-COVID 19),        reducing plastic and a strange version of the flu (high fever accompanied by a dry cough that wouldn't budge for days) that my son got at the end of January.

8.    Malta off the beaten trail: from the Congreve memorial to the arch at tal-Hamrija

In which I talked  about a coastal hike that we took from the memorial dedicated to Sir Walter                Congreve to a precariously-balanced arch at tal-Hamrija.

7.    Armchair travel: Part 3

In which I reminisced about several places we have visited in the past. Parts 1 and 2 are here and        here respectively.

6.    Books I read in 2020: Part 3

In which I shared the books I read between July and September.

5.    After the rain

In which I talked about an unexpected, but very welcome, downpour.

4.    A few of my favourite things: summer 2020

In which I talked about barbecues, recipe books and nail polish.

3.     Kitchen tales: Mediterranean-style roasted recipes

In which I shared a delicious and easy recipe for roasted chicken cooked in a Mediterranean style.

2.    Malta in a minute: Santo Spirito hospital

In which I wrote about the first hospital that was ever built on Malta. If you're new here and want to learn a bit more about Malta, the posts in my Malta in a Minute series are a good place to start and take just one minute to read. This post had also featured in last year's top ten list.

1.    Blogs by women over 40 t hat I love to read

In which I talked about blogs written by mature women that I love to read.

Goals for 2021

As you all know by now, I hardly ever make new year's resolutions but I do try to set some goals for myself. Here are a few that I hope to tackle this year:

• Improve my photography: after years of talking about it and trying to understand the intricacies of modern digital cameras by myself, my husband has enrolled me in in an online course taught by professional travel and street photographer Mark Hemmings. The course is called Digital Camera Mastery and it's perfect for beginners like me. Thankfully, you learn at your own pace so I won't have to face deadlines I can't keep.
• Get out of my comfort zone and do something new on the blog: now that I have upgraded my blog and am excited about blogging again, I would like to bring my readers something new and was thinking of occasionally interviewing fellow bloggers or interesting people I know in 'real life'. Watch this space.
• Continue making baby steps towards greener living: this is something very close to my heart and, although I made a few switches last year to reduce the amount of plastic that we use in our home, there is still a lot more that I can do.
• Worry less and live in the moment more: if 2020 has taught me one thing it's that life is unpredictable, that we cannot take what we have for granted and that we can usually get by with a little help from our family and friends. I'll try to keep that in mind in the coming months.

I hope you have all had a good start to 2021. If there is anything in particular that you are interested in and would like me to write about, let me know in the comments section and I will try to make it happen.

Location: Gnejna Bay, December 30, 2020