Looking back on 2020

[amethyst]

That's all we need now is a heavy snowfall to top it all

[darren]

another thing was the huge bushfires in australia the fundraising that was generated to help them out.

An aussie snooker player helped out. Etc

[amethyst]

Well said George.2020 was my worst nightmare the virus I knew last January when we first heard about this infectious deadly virus this is not looking good at all.It caught the world out big time who would have thought how the hell could this happen but it did.I wish and only hope that by spring 2021 there will be some better news on the horizon.

[George 1978]

It has been such an eccentric year for all the obvious reasons - annual events that we take for granted in modern life have been postponed or cancelled for the first time since the Second World War because of the virus. Even my birthday was cancelled from the perspective of what I would have been doing normally. Yes, we will read about 2020 in the record books in decades to come.

In a nutshell, the three things that I associate 2020 with, are the following:

1) Coronavirus (obviously)
2) Brexit
3) Black Lives Matter

The three people who I will associate 2020 with are the following:

1) Captain Sir Tom Moore
2) Marcus Rashford
3) Professor Chris Whitty

The coronavirus has been so devastating this year with so many people losing their lives, and that also meant that Cannon and Ball, Little and Large, and The Goodies all had a member who lost their lives to COVID. I have stayed at home for months because of the fear and anxiety of the virus (probably because of the anxiety of distancing and wearing a face mask), and my sabbatical from this forum for a few months this year was one of those reasons - I needed a clear head to make sense of the "new normal" of what was upon us, and one could not focus on the regular things one would do as a result of all that. I applauded the NHS staff for many weeks at 8.00 pm on Thursday evenings during the spring; I watch almost every Downing Street press briefing. Ironically, the fact that I live on my own makes it easier to self-isolate and thus, have a better chance of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel sooner rather than later.

I also applauded Captain Sir Tom Moore reaching three figures, and recognised Marcus Rashford for being known for reasons other than being a footballer, and I applaud all the doctors and nurses on the NHS keeping life going and doing their best. It does feel as if humanity has been like a punctured car tyre with the air escaping very quickly. Now I have had a few months to get used to all this, things haven't been as bad as it was seven or eight months ago, and one tends to feel that as we are a few miles down the road that we may be a bit closer to our destination than we probably realise.

I will remember 2020 for the Downing Street press briefings and being informed of the latest news - the phrase "Stay Alert, Control the Virus, (or Protect the NHS) and Save Lives" will probably be one of the main phrases of the year. It does seem that everything else that has made the news this year has been pushed aside or forgotten about because of COVID.

How will you remember 2020 when the year ends? - how different has it been for yourselves compared to previous years?