HTMW Quarterly Review: Q4 2020

‘It’s always darkest before the dawn.’ – Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof.

Q4 2020: The Second Wave

Welcome to the final quarterly review of 2020, looking back over Q4 2020! You’ll remember that in my Look Ahead at 2020 I made the decision earlier this year to cancel the Monthly Recap post series. I have cut back to four quarterly reviews instead. You can read my Q3 Review here.

During Q4 2020, the resurgence of COVID-19 meant that lockdowns once again returned and our movements and freedoms were increasingly restricted. While it felt like steps backwards after a relatively restriction-free Q3, and as ever our government dithered and delayed, the limitations we faced in Q4 felt entirely necessary to curb the spread of the virus. Indeed, as December drew to a close, we faced a rapidly surging virus and the second wave held us well and truly in its grip as we prepared to enter 2021 and wave 2020 goodbye.

Q4 wasn’t all bad!

Before the restrictions really came into force, way back at the beginning of October, we were still allowed to travel. Remember that?! P and I took a trip to the Isle of Skye, which was wonderful. As the quarter played out, and it became apparent that the second wave really was very much upon us, I still managed to do a few things around London. There were some visits to museums and galleries and I took a couple of trips to Borough Market. I was also very fortunate to make it back to Wales for Christmas, something I do not take for granted!

I’ve tried to keep good mental health during Q4 and found myself largely sanguine throughout the quarter, thankfully. Walking daily has been a massive mood boost, and I’ve listened to some epic podcasts, watched some good TV and read some brilliant books throughout the quarter.

Q4 2020: The Highlights.

Visiting the Isle of Skye.

This already feels like it happened so long ago! P and I managed to sneak in a quick trip to Skye right at the beginning of October, just as Scotland’s restrictions started tightening again. It made the trip slightly more tricky as restaurants, bars and pubs couldn’t remain open beyond 6pm. We had a wonderful trip despite that and I feel immensely lucky to have been able to make the trip at all!

You can check out my Postcards from Skye post to get an idea of how utterly beautiful Skye is! I’m aiming to write more posts about this most wonderful corner of Britain in the near future. In the meantime, all you need to know is that if you’re looking for somewhere to staycation later in 2021 when we can (hopefully) travel again, then put Skye right at the top of your list! It is, quite literally, stunning.

Seeing multiple wonderful exhibits!

P purchased a Tate membership earlier in 2020, so in Q4 we booked into to see the Bruce Nauman exhibit. I went with no expectations whatsoever, and came away having enjoyed it immensely! The exhibit is fully immersive and is something of an assault on the senses. I particularly enjoyed the fluorescent light displays and some of the video art Nauman has created over the course of his career.

In December, I also managed to visit the Natural History Museum not once but twice! Most of you will know that this is my favourite museum in London, so finally getting back was just wonderful. I saw the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit (an annual tradition for me) and spent quite a long time enjoying my favourite room in the museum – the room that houses the NHM’s extensive rock and mineral collection! You can see the highlights from an hour in the room here! It was one of the loveliest hours I’ve had in a while!

Setting up a fortnightly delivery from Oddbox.

Keen to try some new vegetables and get a bigger variety of health into my life, I decided to try out Oddbox in Q4 2020. I used a half-price discount code for my first box to see what it was like. You should dig around and try to find a discount code if you’re interested in trying out Oddbox. They’re pretty prevalent on influencer Instagram pages – for example, I got mine from Lucy Mecklenburgh’s page.

I’m really glad I started Oddbox deliveries! I opted for a medium box of veg that is delivered fortnightly, which works perfectly for me as I don’t get overwhelmed or waste any food. In November, I bought a hand-held blender and with any leftover or less well-liked veg, I make vegetable soups that can be frozen and reheated for healthy and delicious lunches later. I’ve also really enjoyed finding new recipes for veg like celeriac, which I’d never cooked with before! Try this dauphinoise recipe if you ever have a celeriac to use up!

Visiting Epping Forest before the November lockdown.

With Lockdown 2.0 pending, P and I decided to make the most of our last weekend of transport freedom and headed to Epping Forest for a long walk. It was a grey, dull kind of day, but the forest looked beautiful with lots of autumnal leaves and it felt good to take a long walk somewhere new. Both of us agreed that Epping Forest felt busier than we had anticipated, and wasn’t as rural a retreat as we’d hoped. Still, it was nice to explore and we enjoyed our walk.

After a lengthy 3+ hour walk around the forest, we found ourselves in Loughton. P suggested we stop for an outdoor drink at The Victoria Tavern. Once there, we decided to stay for a roast and got lucky, snagging the last available indoor table just as the heavens opened and rain began to pour down! It was the perfect way to end the walk! I’d really recommend stopping by The Victoria Tavern if you ever find yourself in Loughton – the staff were so lovely and friendly and the food was good value for money.

Feeling largely relaxed and sanguine throughout Q4.

Miraculously, bar the odd day or so, I enjoyed a period of calm and relaxation during Lockdown 2.0. I found the lockdown much less of a struggle than Lockdown 1.0 and approached it with a pretty sanguine attitude.

Perhaps it was the fact it lasted only a month, with a clear end point, or that Christmas would be following with the jollity the festive season tends to bring? I’m not sure, but I’m grateful for my relatively good mental health throughout Q4, despite the pandemic resurgence and the slow removal of our freedoms once more.

Enjoying a few Christmas festivities before leaving London.

I managed to squeeze in a couple of trips to Borough Market ahead of Christmas, going earlier in the day to avoid the main crowds and donning a mask for much of my time in the market itself. Thankfully, I also got to see a few of my closest friends individually before Christmas. We did some low key activities outdoors and it was wonderful to meet up with each of them again, one of whom I’d not seen since August!

During our last weekend in London, P and I also made sure to have some fun. We took ourselves out for dinner on the final Saturday we were both in the city. It was a lovely evening spent drinking, continuing when we got home and not going to bed until 3am. As ever, P has been a wonderful constant and friend throughout Q4. I’m grateful we got to spend this final weekend together, particularly as now it’s unclear when we’ll next be reunited!

I was fortunate to get back to Wales before the December lockdowns.

Initially, I was due to travel back to Wales while London was still in Tier 2. However, due to unforeseen circumstances (see below in Low Points), I eventually travelled back the Saturday before Christmas. It was fortunate that Dad suggested to E she travel back at the same time, and pure luck that we arrived back in Wales literally an hour before Johnson announced Tier 4 in London.

We were able to travel on empty trains and socially distance safely throughout our trip. The scenes after Johnson’s announcement looked chaotic and I would not have been comfortable travelling. I feel very lucky to have made it back to Wales just ahead of the announcement!

It meant I got to spend Christmas in Wales with my parents and E. Unfortunately, P did not make it due to the lockdown in Wales. We spoke with her on Christmas Day and did a quiz with her and her boyfriend on Boxing Day. It was a quiet, cosy family Christmas. I couldn’t have asked for a more lovely way to end the year.

Q4 2020: The Low Points.

Massive anxiety and stress the week before travelling to Wales.

I was due to travel back to Wales a week and a half before Christmas. I was in self-imposed quarantine ahead of travelling back and packing for the trip when the last friend I’d seen before my quarantine messaged me to say she’d been told to isolate. It was the day before I was due to travel. Cue tears from me and massive anxiety and stress. Two COVID tests later (both negative, thank goodness) I could reschedule my travel.

It was a stressful few days. I cried every single day, without fail, for about five days. I felt extremely guilty and questioned whether I should travel at all, struggling with whether I should go to Wales or stay and spend Christmas alone in London (P had already headed back to Birmingham). Taking precautions helped. I completed a COVID test (negative) and asked my friend to take a test (negative). After an extended self-imposed quarantine, I felt safer to travel. These measures helped alleviate my concerns and anxiety. Ultimately, I think I did everything possible to eliminate risk. I was as safe as possible, for myself and others.

Things that didn’t happen to me personally, but felt shit! This list is definitely NOT exhaustive!

• The poor long-haul lorry drivers getting stuck in Kent when France closed their borders with the UK for 48 hours. I felt desperately sorry for them, faced with the prospect of spending Christmas away from their loved ones!
• Some of my friends had their Christmas plans cancelled after Johnson’s announcement to put London in Tier 4. I understand the need for Tier 4, but felt sad for my friends that were impacted. Hopefully, Christmas 2021 can be more normal again!
• 11pm, December 31st 2020, the last gasp of of the year. Britain finally, irrevocably, left the EU. It sucks.
• The second wave of the pandemic really began to grip the UK, leading to tighter restrictions and widespread cancelled festivities. This second wave is worse than the first. If I think about it too much I find it quite terrifying.

Posts in Q4 2020

Ten Times Travel was… Tricky!

Ten times when I struggled while travelling. Including an awful toilet situation in Mongolia and terrifying journeys by road in Nepal!

Meeting the Elements in Milford Sound

A rainy day in Milford Sound. I was deluged with water and felt like I was truly meeting the elements in this wonderous landscape.

Postcards from Skye

A selection of my favourite images from the Isle of Skye, including waterfalls, autumnal hues and some moody clouds.

Notes from Around the World

Six short stories from around the world. Including a tale from the Great Wall of China and a note on the number of Chevrolets in Uzbekistan…

Books I read in Q4 2020

During Q4 2020, I’ve read eleven books. Overall this year, I’ve read a total of fifty five books. My top three reads from Q4 2020 are reviewed below.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. *****

Two sisters, twins, run away from their small town as teenagers. They’re Black, but so light they could, if they really wanted, pass as white if they wanted. And so the story unravels.

One twin, falling in love with a white man at the company she works at, ‘passes’ as a white woman, marries him and, without telling her twin, skips town. It is her secret and nobody, not even her husband, knows the truth. So follows the tale as the twins live their separate lives, one Black, one passing as a white woman. Bennett uses the narrative to explore the different social structures they create, to examine how differently society treats each sister as their paths separate and the space between them widens. Bennett writes captivatingly, weaving her characters and their stories together until, slowly, the secrets start to unravel and the multiple generations, so intricately intertwined, start to come together once more…

This book is breathtaking, so beautifully written and the characters are flawless. As well as the exploration into race, Bennett looks at trans-relationships and LGBTQ+ society in America which adds beautiful and important layers to the story. I cannot recommend the book highly enough.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. *****

This is actually the fourth of Adichie’s six novels, and I loved it from the first word to the last. It’s a fascinating insight into what life is like for an immigrant to a new country, namely someone arriving from Nigeria to live in America. Set against the backdrop of the love story between Ifemelu and Obinze, the novel deals with race in America through the eyes of Ifemelu, who writes a blog throughout the book on this subject.

The book is a thorough examination of race and immigration, bringing up the differences between being black in America and being black in Africa. It is seamlessly written, Adichie is a wonderful story teller and I found myself absolutely captivated as the novel progressed. Reading Americanah also afforded me the opportunity to learn more about things I’ve been privileged enough to never have considered before, like the politics of natural hair among kinky hair. Adichie is not shy to bring up controversial issues and she explores those through her writing, while keeping the story moving forwards and holding attention throughout.

Highly recommend, a fascinating and insightful read and an example of great fiction exploring difficult and controversial topics.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. *****

Although aimed at teenagers and young adults (sadly, I fall into neither category!), I was captivated by this book. So much so that as soon as I had finished devouring it, I made P watch the film (available on Amazon Prime). I was sorely disappointed by the film, but the book is another matter. It is a brilliant book to pick up if you want an impactful story with great characters. You will also learn a thing or two no doubt. It is one of those ‘un-put-downable’ kinds of books.

The story centres on Starr, an African-American teenager who witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend (also African-American) by a white police officer. The rest of the plot unfurls from this point. Thomas writes beautiful prose and I felt all the emotions as the story unfolded in front of me. The book feel important and timely following events that happened in 2020, such as the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (to name just two).

A must-read, calling on everyone who has a voice to raise it loudly and stop being silent when it comes to racism and inequality. Compelling, powerful and hard-hitting.

And the other eight books I read in Q4 2020…

• The War on Women by Sue Lloyd-Roberts. ****
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. ***
• Luster by Raven Leilani. *** (Sidenote: I really wanted to love this book as it has been receiving such rave reviews, but I just couldn’t get into it and love it as much as I’d hoped!)
• Travel Escapades by Luke William Edwards. ***
• Half A World Away by Mike Gayle. ***
• How To Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak. ****
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. ***
• In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. ****

Top Three Instagram Photos from Q4 2020

My photos in Q4 2020 are from London, the Isle of Skye, Wales and Epping Forest, with throwback shots to Uzbekistan and New Zealand.

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!

From River to Sea, Isle of Skye, Scotland.

The second last stop of the day. I leaned as far over the railing as I dared, watching the white water plunging down and smashing on the rocks below. Everything was moody blues and greys. The colours contrasted with the beams of bright sunshine that pierced through the clouds and the yellow-green grasses waving atop the cliffs. All that could be heard was the wash of water, the call of a lone seagull riding on a faint breeze. Peace.

The Cyclist, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

The air was warm, the sky cloudless, the mosque quiet. Few visitors wandered around the vast courtyard. We moved aimlessly, enjoying the atmosphere, the ancient building wrapped around us with its bright colours, brilliant patterns and haunting call to prayer. I leaned on the wall under the archway, gazing across at the opposite façade. I raised my phone to take a photo and pure chance, good luck, the cyclist sped by as the shutter clicked. The shot was captured. In the bag. Done.

The Autumn Highlands, Scotland.

The tallest mountain on the Isle of Skye. A Munro. I knew early on that I wouldn’t ‘bag’ my first Munro. I was tired, the sheer black cliffs scared me, the thought of scaling them made my heart beat faster even when we stopped for breaks. Halfway up the mountain, I left P and E and took myself off to sit by a calm mountain tarn. I viewed their progress as they climbed higher, two bright pinpricks moving like ants across the vast surroundings. Once out of sight, I descended, going slow, taking care, enjoying myself. You don’t need to summit a mountain to feel like you’ve accomplished something. Sometimes, you just need to get halfway, find a lake and relax.

My Favourite Image of Q4 2020.

We went early to Borough Market, determined to avoid the worst of the crowds. Face masks on, hands gelled, keeping our distance. Cheese, cured meats, fish, vegetables piled high. We bought mulled wine despite the early hour, stood in a huddle in a pocket of space out of the way and caught up. Afterwards, we picked at samples and purchased small treats for ourselves, some Comte, a pot of honey, some slices of speckled salami, a smoked Mozzarella ball. G suggested we take a respite from our masks a few moments and we found ourselves on the road outside, breathing fresh air, grinning. I took this photo and I knew it was the one. The one I’d remember this day with. The lovely, festive hours spent eating, drinking and laughing in good company, during a brief respite from the pandemic.

Coming Up in Q1 2021

It’s hard to know what Q1 2021 will look like, although I imagine that with the second wave of the pandemic in full surge there’ll be a lot of staying at home. I will definitely go back to London when I can – I am aiming to spend only 2-3 weeks in Wales for the festive season. Whether P will come back to London immediately is up in the air, so I could spend some of Q1 living alone, which’ll be an experience!

I have zero travel plans and zero life plans. Basically, I intend to hunker down, eat soup, watch Netflix, work, buy myself bunches of flowers, cook, walk, try paint by numbers and try to be as productive as much as possible! I’m looking at some courses I could do if there was a third lockdown, so potentially you’ll find me doing some levelling up as well.

Why not follow along and find out what I get up to in Q1 2021 on my Instagram!