Happy New Year and Decade, 2020

Here we are, yet again. Time for a review of the year, plans for the year ahead, and my now traditional photo of the London fireworks.
I was disappointed with their football theme, but they made a good show, even if every third shot seemed to be looking through the London Eye.

Pods of the London Eye.backed by and reflecting the light from the fireworks.

There were so many going off at once, that sometimes the sky was just blaze of light, missing the individual beauty of some of the fireworks. I think I would like a finale where, after a crescendo of rockets going off, there is one final, large, beautiful rocket, the sparks dying away as we all admire the falling stars, rather than yet another big blast which whites-out the sky and then abruptly, nothing. Then perhaps less could be spent on them, given the extreme need for funds in all directions, even though the entrance fee for those standing on the embankment to watch the show repays some of those costs.

Too many fireworks at once, and this was quite early on!

I've delayed this post a little, because I've had an attack of the glums in the six weeks since the solstice. I was just re-reading a friend's Christmas letter on Christmas day and thinking loving thoughts towards her and her family, when her husband sent me a message to say that she'd been in hospital for over a week with a respiratory problem which had been plaguing her, and they had decided there was nothing more to do but put her on palliative care. She died on 29th December. On the same day, my closest friend lost her brother, who had been fighting pancreatic cancer for a while.

In early December, we had a general election which returned the Conservative Government (although Wales still has a Labour majority, and the Scottish National Party holds Scotland, but England has the majority of seats in Parliament, because of the higher population, so whatever England wants, England gets), sealing the UK's fate to leave the EU. With all the talk, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we were leaving Europe (and it feels like it), the Channel widening as we move into the Atlantic. The UK (and Gibraltar, who I bet voted to Remain) formally withdrew from the EU on 31 January, entering an 11 month transition period, and effectively putting full withdrawal on 31 December 2020 with 'no deal' back on the table.

The jubilation of those who were enthusiastic to leave the EU is getting to me. I've seen lots of comments along the lines of 'now we need to all pull together to make Brexit work' and 'putting the great back into Britain' (sorry, Northern Ireland, you obviously don't count!). I don't know what this means in practical terms. I really want to know what, precisely, those who were keen to leave and are urging us to make it work are going to do, what action they are going to take to implement this, personally and together. So far, no one is coming up with anything concrete except that both sides have to stop arguing and we have to 'wait and see what happens', and a lot of crowing about finally being free and not having the EU telling us what to do.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, US President, wants us to import chlorinated chicken from the USA and there's been a lot of talk about deals involving our precious National Health Service (NHS).

Enough of our woes, the news is full of worldwide gloom too.

After months of drought, then record high temperatures, bush fires are now burning across Australia. People have died, many have lost their property, the cost of fighting the fires is huge, but the environmental cost is enormous, with many animals, including endangered species, killed or left without shelter, food and water. Then, like some cruel cosmic joke, there have been downpours in some areas, extinguishing the fires, but causing flooding, with golf ball-sized hailstones which have damaged houses and cars (and further battered the poor wildlife).

The climate emergency is still high on the agenda in Europe and many other countries, pursuing a goal of net zero emissions by 2050, but this excludes the biggest CO2 emitters, China, the USA and India. Trump started a process to withdraw the USA from the Paris Climate Accord, because (apart from other things, like possibly not believing there is a climate emergency) he supports using coal.

His idiosyncratic style of brash denials, blame, insults and threats continues unabated, with added drone strikes, so that what started last year as a US-led military effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz nearly escalated into full-on war with Iran in early January.

The Civil Wars in Libya, Yemen and Syria rumble on, with no apparent end in sight.

Also in early January came the first news of a virus outbreak in Wuhan, China, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised was a new type of Coronavirus. It later emerged that cases have been known since November, but Doctor Li Wenliang, who in December alerted some of his colleagues and tried to warn the authorities, found himself being investigated for spreading rumours and lies. (Update 7 Feb: sadly he was infected with the virus, and has just died). However, they didn't lock down Wuhan straight away, because they thought it was caught from animals at a market and was spread by animal-human contact (which it obviously was). It soon became clear that it could and did also spread from person to person, with an estimated incubation (where a person can be infectious but not aware of symptoms, just like a cold or 'flu) of a fortnight, at a time when people were travelling internationally for Chinese New Year, so the virus has a head-start. By the end of January, it became clear that previous estimates of the numbers infected were completely blown out of the water and it had spread outside China, the WHO decided to declare the novel Coronavirus a global health emergency. Let's hope it's brought under control quickly and doesn't affect the Olympic Games, to be held in Tokyo in July-August. However, it is already spreading to other countries and has the potential to become a pandemic and impact the global economy.

Mid January brought Storm Brendan, with damaging 80 miles per hour winds and heavy rain on already saturated soil.. The shed is now so wonky, the door keeps falling off. There's a warning already looming for next weekend (update: now named Storm Ciara), with similarly high winds and rainfall.

So much gloom and doom! What else has 2020 in store?

• (Chinese Zodiac) Year of the white metal Rat. Although I don't take much notice of horoscopes, it seems this year could be a better one for me than last year.
• Year of the Nurse and Midwife (NHS/World Health Organisation)
• International Year of Plant Health (United Nations): 'an opportunity to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic development'.
• Year of Coasts and Waters (Scotland)
• Global Year of the Bible: 'to highlight the importance of the Bible as the enduring foundation for fostering unity, freedom, development and quality of life'.
• MMXX has a nice symmetry to it, as does the date 02/02/2020.

Last year started with buying a new car. Even though it isn't as easy to get in and out, and was right at the top end of my budget, I love my Skoda Fabia, and the freedom it represents. Although the insurance is slightly more expensive (it goes up every year anyway, despite no claims), the garage is good at their customer service, it seems to be more economic on fuel and the road tax is way cheaper. And it's a faster, smarter car, and there are lovely little details, such as a drop down box above the windscreen for my driving glasses, and a little clip on one side of the windscreen for parking tickets. So far, very good.

I also passed the JWAAD 'Understanding Music used in Belly Dance course. It seems so long ago now, but it was a great course, and I ended up listening to so much wonderful music.

Although I didn't get to teach much belly dance, I treated myself to a weekend in Swansea for some workshops with Khaled Mahmoud, which gave me so much to practise and think about, they completely blew my mind.

My right knee played up so much last year, it got in the way of a lot of gardening, walking, dancing and generally having a good time. It's still a major issue now, something I want to change!

I've started the year with several WI bookings, both for belly dance talks/tasters and a couple of wire-wrapped sea glass workshops.
I've replaced my Create 365 project with Create 366, so the crafting, creativity, destashing, making do and mending continues.

My aims are the same as ever: trying to earn an income, losing weight (I'm very pleased with the 7.5 kg lost last year), getting the garden, the house and my life in general feeling less chaotic and more under control.

Whatever this year and this decade brings, I hope and wish for us all health, wealth, luck, happiness and creativity!