HTMW Quarterly Review: Q1 2020

‘Only in the darkness can you see the stars.’ – Martin Luther King Jr.

For all our NHS workers, our carers, delivery drivers, shop assistants, teachers, police, fire fighters and other first responders, the people that are keeping our country running at this difficult time. You are our stars.

Q1 2020: the first ever quarterly review!

Welcome to How The Mind Wanders’… first ever quarterly review, looking back over Q1 2020! You’ll remember in my Look Ahead at 2020 that I made the decision earlier this year to cancel the Monthly Recap post series. I have cut back to four quarterly reviews instead.

It’s a strange time to be writing my first quarterly review. When I decided to move to quarterly reviews, I never imagined that my first would be written during a global pandemic. Now, pretty much the entire world is on lock down and thousands of people are dying each day from COVID-19. It’s a surreal, awful, crazy thing to be living through. So much as changed in so little time.

But other things have happened this quarter, before the world went to shit. I travelled to Cornwall, Dublin and Germany. I was getting fitter, cutting back on alcohol and generally trying to get a bit healthier. Plans were made for the rest of the year. A lot of time was spent with friends. I saw three movies, all Oscar nominations and all good in their own way. How long ago all that now seems…

Writing this Q1 2020 review will be like nothing I’ve ever written before. Life is completely different to how I ever imagined or thought it could be. It is difficult to remember that mere weeks ago, we all lived entirely different lives. The life before coronavirus. This review will help remind me of the wonderful things I have done in the past three months. So without further ado, let’s dive in.

The Q1 2020 Highlights

A wonderful 31st birthday in Cornwall.

We spent four nights tucked up in a gorgeous cottage in Penzance and spent our time hiking, exploring the town and eating and drinking. Cornwall delivered on the sunny weather and there were plenty of fun activities. We strolled along the sea front to Marazion and indulged in too many Cornish pasties. Afterwards, we crossed over to St Michael’s Mount at low tide. The next day, we hiked a rugged twelve miles of the Cornish coastline to Porthcurno. I spent a happy few hours learning about Porthcurno’s fascinating history at the Telegraph Museum and we visited windswept Land’s End to see the signpost and stroll along the cliffs. All in all, it was the best way to spend my 31st birthday and I enjoyed myself thoroughly!

Some amazing movies!

I’m not usually one of those people who goes to see all the Oscar nominated films. However, this year it turned out that I saw four of the five ‘Best Picture’ nominations. I saw Once Upon A Time In Hollywood last year, but throughout January and February this year, I saw three more. All were excellent in their own right, for different reasons. Little Women was a fabulous adaptation on the book and I loved Greta Gerwig’s take, with some excellent acting from a stellar cast. 1917 is an unflinching single camera shot through one slice of World War I, and the two lead actors were well cast.

My favourite film of the three, and the deserved winner of the Oscar’s ‘Best Picture’, was Parasite. The first foreign language film ever to win ‘Best Picture’, it’s a darkly humorous look at the wealth disparity between South Korea’s richest and poorest citizens. The humour translated despite the language barrier and it was an all-round brilliant film. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

A visit from C and her friends.

C and a group of her friends flew over from Germany mid-January. We spent a lovely weekend with them eating, drinking and exploring. I always appreciate that C still makes time to come to visit us in London and we can get touristy with her still. We wandered Hyde Park, went for burgers, visited Dinerama and generally had a nice time with her great group of friends. I can’t wait to see her and them again, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Getting fitter and feeling healthier.

I didn’t drink for most of January and I joined fitness classes run in our WeWork two-three times a week. Additionally, E and I took ourselves off for numerous walks around London, Surrey and Kent during this period. I felt myself losing a (tiny) bit of weight and getting fitter and stronger. It felt good to be exercising more. Even now during lock down I’m trying to get some slightly longer walks in where possible.

An amazing afternoon volunteering with South London Cares.

I have volunteered with South London Cares for nearly a year. I usually join the tech workshops, teaching our elderly neighbours how to use their laptops and phones. However, this was the first time I’ve ever spent an afternoon with other volunteers and neighbours in quite so informal a setting. I managed to snag the last volunteer spot on a tour around the Beefeater Gin Distillery and it was fantastic! About fifteen neighbours joined us, and we spent a happy afternoon exploring the history of Beefeater Gin and tasting gin. The afternoon ended with a little party in the private bar there, with fabulous gin cocktails! It was a lovely way to spend time with our neighbours, and the most relaxing volunteer afternoon I’ve had!

Belated birthday drinks with my fabulous friends!

Since most people are dieting, detoxing, saving money or sober during January (including myself!). As such, I try to have my birthday drinks on the first weekend in February now. This year was a lovely collection of my wonderful friends, who came to spend a few hour with me drinking and catching up. It’s these occasions that remind me of what a fab bunch of friends I have, and what a great support network! It was a great evening, although the hangover the next day wasn’t quite so fun…

A lovely weekend with E in Dublin.

Although I’ve spent time in Ireland before, I had never visited the capital before. When E and I were taken there for work, we jumped at the chance to spend a bit longer in the city and explore more thoroughly. I’m so glad we did! Dublin is a cool little city, with loads going on and it’s a lot of fun. We loved the tour of the Guinness Storehouse and enjoyed our stroll around Trinity College Library. There was also so much delicious food, a bit of drinking and plenty of walking (right through a torrential downpour at one point as well!). I will be posting a first-timers guide to Dublin soon!

Dinners, drinks and generally lovely times with various friends throughout the three months.

Before lock down had us all staying home, I enjoyed some lovely evenings, days and times with my continuously incredible network of friends and family members. Little things, like Honest Burger with O or having Wagamama’s one evening with E and C. Drinks with G, after work drinks with my friends, low key time spent with E. The Saturday P and I walked 17 miles of the Thames Path… Apparently unremarkable times, and yet so much more special now that I don’t get to see these people in person for the time being! I cannot wait for the good times to roll again!

A long weekend in Germany with Mum.

Towards the end of Q1 2020, just as the world was plunging into chaos and uncertainty and coronavirus was moving into the forefront of everyone’s minds, Mum and I took the train to Germany to visit my aunt. While there, I low-key visited my 31st country (The Netherlands!!) and we enjoyed catching up with our relatives. We then travelled south to Munich to see C and for me to show Mum my favourite German city.

Our original plan was then to take the overnight train back to Brussels and the Eurostar from there back to the UK. However, as countries closed their borders and went into lock down, we decided it was safer to book last minute flights. As such, we flew out after only one night in Munich. Still, it was lovely to see our family and friends and enjoy what turned out to be our final weekend of ‘normality’ before life turned upside down.

The Q1 2020 Lowlights

Coronavirus – obviously!

As Q1 2020 drew to a close, coronavirus took over every aspect of our lives and dominated conversation, social media, the news and, well, basically everything. It now overshadows all and every other low point that I may otherwise have mentioned here.

It crept up on us and then pounced. By the middle of March, the situation was incredibly fluid and changing on an almost hourly basis. We were becoming increasingly restricted, as slowly but surely COVID-19 clawed its way into every single aspect of our lives and then shut everything down.

It’s a funny thing, to be living through a period of significant history. There will now forever be a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. Right now, we’re in the ‘during’. The uncertainty of how long the ‘during’ phase will last is daunting, so I take each day as it comes and try not to think too far ahead. Sometimes, the vast scale of what is happening does threaten to overwhelm. We’ve undergone huge changes that have happened overnight and we’ve had to adapt extremely quickly to an unprecedented situation.

Life in Lock Down

The majority of us now live under lock down, allowed out once a day for our government-sanctioned exercise. We queue to go into shops to buy our food. People walk the streets keeping two metres apart, faces hidden behind masks. You couldn’t make it up. It’s a strange ‘half-life’. It is like we are living in a movie, or through a nightmare. Except the movie doesn’t end and we don’t wake up from our bad dream.

On the front line, our key workers – the incredible NHS staff, the carers, the delivery drivers, the supermarket staff and so many others – keep the country going. Our doctors and nurses go into battle daily to save lives. Some of our lowest paid workers are now the most important and special people in the world. And who knew that we’d gather around our televisions every evening at 5pm with such anticipation for a daily government briefing, much like we’re used to gathering around our TVs for a juicy episode of Love Island or (less juice) episode of Coronation Street?

As we navigate these new and uncharted waters, I’ve evolved a key coping mechanism that helps me personally stay afloat mentally and emotionally. I’d never really done it before, but I’ve been trying to consciously practise gratitude.

Practising gratitude in the time of coronavirus…

I focus on the small things. Like, I’ve started noticing the seagulls that float breezily past our living room window. White wings against periwinkle blue sky. I never noticed them before. And yesterday, the moon rose pink and whole above our world, and I stood by the window just staring at it, almost childlike in my wonder, for a full ten minutes. P thought I’d gone a bit mad.

Outside, the sun shines endlessly, mocking us. When I’m out on my daily walk, I try to soak up as much of it as possible in the short amount of time I have outdoors. The trees are all in blossom, froths of pink and white buds, petals everywhere. They look incredibly beautiful. It’s so uplifting to see them. And there are flowers coming out everywhere too. Bluebells, daffodils, roses coming into bud.

My phone keeps me connected to friends and family. Never before has technology been so important to so many. We video call, message and chat endlessly and instantaneously. I am also so glad to be in this together with P. There’s not many people I could spend so many endless hours with and not get pissed off or bored with them!

A snippet of some of the small, and larger, things I am grateful to have right now. Life isn’t easy at the moment, but practising gratitude as much as possible has me seeing the positives where I can and helps me stop dwelling on the bad stuff. I’d highly recommend giving it a go!

Posts in Q1 2020

HTMW Recaps: December 2019

My last ever Monthly Recap post, sharing all the news from December 2019, including all the fun Christmas activities and a great gin tour!

2019: All Wrapped Up

My annual review post, taking a look back over the highs, the lows and everything else from 2019.

A Look Ahead at 2020

I look ahead at the year to come and make my plans for travel, How The Mind Wanders… and taking care of my mental health.

A Travel Budget for Uzbekistan

A practical guide to budgeting for a trip to Uzbekistan, including a break down of all our expenses during our two week holiday there.

Planning for the Poon Hill Trek

Offering practical tips and ideas for planning the perfect Poon Hill Trek in Nepal, including what you should pack, route planning and where to get your trekking permits from.

A Visit to Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island

A look back at the time when P and I travelled to Olkhon Island in Russia to experience three nights immersing ourselves in life around Lake Baikal.

Books I read in Q1 2020

My reading has gone through the roof in Q1 2020 and I read fifteen books (five a month). As such, I will be paring back on the reviews and have decided to review only my three favourite reads of the quarter in full. For all the other books, I will leave a star rating out of five.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. *****

My favourite book from Q1 2020. A stunningly beautiful novel from Evaristo. It encompasses the stories of twelve individuals, mostly women, quite a lot of them women of colour, and it does it with such depth, clarity and detail that it left me speechless. The entire book, from start to finish, had me riveted.

I devoured each story, each life so intrinsically and yet often so tenuously linked to all the others in the book. It can be hard enough to give one individual a voice in a novel. Here, Evaristo doesn’t just manage to give voice to twelve individuals, she breathes life into each and every character, giving unique expression to them all.

The book sweeps across individuals of different race, creed, colour, religion and background, looking into issues such as racism, sexism and homo- and trans-phobia. It explores loneliness, domestic abuse, the process of aging and all manner of different types of relationship, among other things.

This book is a masterpiece. The sort of book I read and spend my time wishing I was half a good a writer as Evaristo. It’s a book to savour not just once, but twice, even three times and then pass it on. Share it far and wide so that everyone can enjoy it. It is a triumph.

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton. *****

From the moment I started reading, this novel gripped me. I read it in twenty-four hours and stayed up until 2am to finish it one night. It was that good! It got my heart pounding and the tears flowing. There was more than one occasion when I clenched my teeth or sat up straight in bed as a chapter unfurled.

The story revolves around a school that is held under siege by gunmen during a period of three hours. It’s a story everyone sadly knows all too well, from tragic real life events such as the Columbine High School massacre. The fascinating thing isn’t necessarily the siege itself, although there were enough twists and turns to have kept me gripped and unable to guess the conclusion until it actually happened. No, it is Lupton’s masterful portrayal of each character and the emotions that they go through that makes this a special book.

There are a wealth of strong characters in this novel, all with their own unique voice, holding the narrative arc as it sweeps towards the final showdown and the end of the siege. Like Evaristo, Lupton manages to give each character their voice and run with it easily throughout the entire book. There is the sixteen year old Syrian refugee trying to save his little brother, the police psychologist trying to identify the gunmen and several points of view from various teachers and school staff as they shelter and try to protect the children in their care.

Lupton is excellent at creating tension and displaying the raw emotions as her characters experience the most intense three hours of their lives. Finally, she shows how courage, love and redemption can all triumph over evil and terror as the book reaches its dramatic conclusion. This is a must-read.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. *****

When a book is recommended to me by multiple people, somewhat contrarily, I often recoil and avoid reading it. I felt like not reading Where The Crawdads Sing after it was recommended to me by three different people. However, I put aside my usual process and purchased it and within a few pages, I was caught, hook, line and sinker.

The story is set in North Carolina, among the marshlands where land and sea meet. Here, where the difference between water, sky and earth becomes somewhat hazy, we meet the main character. Kya Clark, known as the ‘Marsh Girl’, is thought by many to be wild and untamed. She is abandoned at a young age. A shy and quiet girl, she grows into a beautiful, hugely intelligent and very sensitive woman. You can see the underlying loneliness, the longing for companionship. It runs like a seam through the entire book and Kya clings to relationships that come her way, like a limpet to a rock.

Owens explores the themes of abandonment, loneliness and trust delicately, probing these issues gently as the story unravels. She also looks at the issues around prejudice, with Kya being subject to a great deal of pre-judgement from the townsfolk of Barkley Cove throughout the story. It reaches a climax when a popular and good-looking young man, Chase Andrews, is found dead in the marsh. The finger is almost immediately pointed at Kya and she is tried for murder.

What I loved most about this book is that the marsh is almost its own character within the book. Owens has a knack for describing the landscape so beautifully and accurately that you can close your eyes and picture it perfectly. A soft watercolour painting, over which Kya’s life plays out during the course of several decades. I couldn’t put it down and felt a deep satisfaction at the conclusion. Unmissable!

And the other twelve books I read in Q1 2020…

• The Fear Bubble by Ant Middleton. ***
• The Body: A Guide to its Occupants by Bill Bryson. ****
• The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry. **
• The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman. *****
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. *
• Between River and Sea: Encounters in Israel and Palestine by Dervla Murphy. **
• T’was The Night Shift Before Christmas by Adam Kay. ****
• The Pants of Perspective by Anna McNuff. ***
• Tangerine by Christine Mangan. **
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton. **
• The Railway to Heaven by Matthew Woodward. ****
• In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum. ***

Top Three Instagram Photos from Q1 2020

My photos in Q1 2020 are from Cornwall, London, Dublin, The Netherlands and Germany, with throwback images from Nepal, Russia, Austria, New Zealand and Uzbekistan as well!

I choose these three images based on which got the most likes on Instagram and then tell the story behind the picture. Disclaimer: They are not necessarily my favourite photos!

Our Daily Government Sanctioned Walk – Hampstead Heath, London.

We were out on our daily walk at just the right time to get this gorgeous shot across one of the ponds on the Heath. The sky was so pretty and it was a pleasant evening – not too cold, on the move towards spring. We strolled across the open fields and park land on the Heath, before making our way home through a maze of back streets above Tufnell Park.

Happy Birthday To Me – Land’s End, Cornwall.

There were barely any people around. With a stiff breeze and an overcast grey sky, Land’s End definitely wasn’t attracting its usual numbers of visitors! We wandered between the almost deserted buildings, locked up and left empty over the winter season. Everywhere, signs read ‘Closed for the Season’. A quick obligatory photo of the famous signpost, a stroll along the clifftops and then on to the next destination.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Waterloo, London.

Our office is on the 14th floor, with sweeping views across south London. It’s quite easy to be distracted by what is going on outside. Sometimes you can watch the rain sweeping in across the city. Other times, sun beams shine down, either slipping between clouds or beaming from a clear blue sky. And then, sometimes, true magic happens and you get a rainbow like this one, arcing right across the sky, strong and colourful. The city looks touched with gold. It’s fair to say everyone in the office was distracted by this!

My Favourite Image: Q1 2020.

The world felt at peace as we wended our way home along the beach. It was low tide, an expanse of wet sand stretched out down to the waters edge. Small waves curled to meet the shore. There was the steady soft roar of water. Above us, as the light faded and the sky turned peach and then indigo, a half moon rose and shone brightly down. When I glanced back, St Michael’s Mount was silhouetted against the sky, the soft hues of last light ripe overhead. I felt so utterly happy and content in this moment.

Coming Up in Q2 2020

Before COVID-19, my second quarter in 2020 looked a bit like this: Wales, Wales and a bit more Wales.

I was going to spend Easter weekend in Wales. Then I was going to head back again at the beginning of May to take care of my parent’s house while they went on holiday. I was heading back at the beginning of June to ride the Gerald train from Cardiff to Holyhead. I also had a few days booked off to stay in London and visit some exhibitions. E and I would also definitely have spent more time hiking in the home counties. And we were planning to complete the Three Peak challenge for charity at the end of May. This has now been postponed to 2021. These plans excited me and I’m sad I can’t do them now.

As of the end of Q1 2020, COVID-19 seems set to stick around a while and my plans are… Well, there aren’t any, really. Like everyone, I will continue to observe the lock down and stay home to save lives. I will drink gin, take my daily exercise (hopefully the government doesn’t ban that!) and I will eat. I’ll chat to my friends and family on video calls and work at home during the week. I will gaze longingly out of the window as spring slides towards summer and the days get longer, brighter and warmer.

I’ve made my peace with this now and I have stopped making concrete plans for the foreseeable future. In my head, April, May and possibly even June are written off. As I said before, I’m trying just to focus on the day to day and not think too far ahead. Let’s see what the next three months hold. We will come out the other side of this. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later, with as little life lost as possible.