The Creased Pages

"All being well, it’s not going to be the quietest of years, but hopefully it’s set to be a positive one, on the whole."  - My 2020 Vision ; The Creased Pages I thought it was about time for a little update from me, given that we haven't spoken since the jigsaw rant - sorry about that. We're over a year on from then and of course I don't need to tell you what kind of year it's been for the world. If you've been living under a rock, or are perhaps a member of a future generation doing a history project, I'm sure a little search on Google (or whatever space age research tool is around in the Year 3000) will be enough to get you up to speed. The difficulty of the whole thing is that, on a personal level, it was actually a pretty good year. That sounds awful to say given the circumstances behind it, and I'm not belittling that at all. But I have to be honest, there was actually some good that came from it all for me. Not least because the near-constant...

I spent most of my week off working on a jigsaw puzzle. It was a ‘Cat Lover’s Puzzle’ with different breeds of cats depicted on it. It’s worth remembering that, it’s going to be my point of reference throughout this. It was more challenging than I had thought, particularly because of some hiccups I came across on the first day. I was trying to use a cardboard box as my Puzzle Assembly Surface (that’s its actual name) because it was the only free solid surface I had in my room and it seemed more practical than the floor. However, I soon found it was just slightly too short and too narrow which irritated me more than it probably should have done. I didn’t realise it was possible to rage-quit a jigsaw puzzle, but there we are. I started a-fresh the following day – yes, on the floor – and while I was plodding along, I found myself compiling a list in my head of the most frustrating things about doing a jigsaw puzzle. I had originally planned to tweet about it but I didn’t think it would...

So, everything’s a bit weird at the moment. Not that I need to tell you that, right? It’s been about six weeks since the UK went into lockdown. Personally, I’ve been working from home for about a month and I can’t lie, I quite like it. In the last four weeks I’ve been out no more than 5 times, just to the corner shop, which already feels like the new normal. I suppose it helps that I’m an indoorsy person anyway, but I’ve very quickly become accustomed to the convenience of not having to leave the house to go to work. Nobody who knows me will find that surprising.

I think I've mentioned before that I spend a fair amount of time on my own. Especially over the last two years, I've taken advantage of not having any ties, no one to have to work around, no one to keep happy. I can honestly say, it has been a massive relief. I'd forgotten how much easier it is to make plans without having another person to factor into them. Admittedly, at the beginning of 2018 I wasn't in the best of places, I was still holding onto some feelings that weren't good for me - guilt, anger, loneliness, regret. But as time went on, I completely embraced the full independence I'd rediscovered, and I have since referred to myself several times as a strong woman 'who don't need no man'!