Coronavirus entry 48: Happy Birthday to me!

It's my 41st birthday today! My second one throughout this pandemic, however despite certain restrictions in place, I spent yesterday with my family in a covid-safe garden having a bbq and a few vodka's and it was absolutely lovely to be with them. 

I can't believe a whole year has passed since I was celebrating the big 4-0; I really don't know where the time has gone, but here I am 365 days later, seeing life with very different eyes! 

A lot has happened to me over the last 12 months: I was furloughed, I got made redundant, I was offered a part time job which has now been made full time, and I am back in the office at work. There's no doubt about it, the Coronavirus has made me think a LOT about life and where I am with mine and there's no doubt about it, I am in a much happier place today than I was at the start of this pandemic, but I do still carry around a lot of worry. 

Not wanting to get too morbid on my birthday or all days, I have definitely been thinking about death a lot more recently and it's been hard to get out of that thought process when death toll figures are being thrown in our faces every day. It's not something I want to be thinking about but it has made me realise I want to do more with my life. 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my life, but I don't feel like I'm living my best. I tend to talk a lot about things I want to do but never actually do anything about it. I've realised now, this has to stop because I'm only restricting myself from opportunities and experiences that are out there waiting for me. Even if I do them on my own, it's time to stop being scared and just live my life so I can share my story. 

I also heard today that zero new covid deaths have been reports in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland today. This is BIG news! For the first time 14 months, this is the news we have all been wanting to hear. I know we are not out of the water yet, but we are definitely in a better place to start living our lives again. 

As I type this moment of reflection, I feel good. I'm looking forward to being able to put plans into action again and making decisions and trying new things. I realise now is the time to start taking more risks and being brave about the decisions I make. Let's hope the rest of 2021 brings more positivity and fingers crossed for some fun times ahead! 

Coronavirus entry 47: Back to the office

Today was a big day for me as it was my first day back at the office since March last year when the Government officially put us into lockdown.

To say I have been feeling anxious is an understatement. I slept terribly all weekend and my stomach was in knots for days so much so I arranged to meet a colleague in the car park just so we could walk in together because she was feeling just as apprehensive. I won't lie, it was a relief to know I wasn't the only person feeling this way! 

However, as soon as we walked in, we were greeted with the sweetest of welcomes. Yes, we had to go through the rigmarole of getting our temperature checked and sanitising our hands but on a big screen TV in our reception area was a 'welcome back' message with our names flashing up too! 

We then got to our desks (which had been moved around to make sure they were covid safe) and sitting there was a blue bag of goodies with a handwritten card from our Directors, a water bottle, a travel coffee cup, anti bac hand gel and wipes and a ridiculous amount of sweets and goodies to snack on! How thoughtful; I was really touched by such a lovely gesture. 

The day itself actually went quite well and it was nice to see people again so hopefully the rest of the week will be OK, and most importantly, I'm hoping to get a better night's sleep this evening!!