May:

In May, we marked the VE Day May Bank Holiday, 75 years since VE Day, by making ourselves our own Afternoon Tea with cake and sandwiches, which we sat out on our patio to eat, with the glorious weather we were having.

Despite still being in lockdown, I was kept preoccupied with the impending doom that was my dissertation and final year university deadlines. 

I had been due to present in front of a panel for one of my modules, but this was instead changed to pre-recording our advertising pitches to upload instead. This, thankfully, was a welcome relief for me (I’m not a huge fan of presenting live) as I fashioned a tripod in my room by stacking various boxes and dragged in a projector and screen to replicate a ‘real-life’ pitch the best I could.

By the end of May, I had finished my degree and mourned what would have been the end of my uni experience- most likely far too many cocktails on Colmore Row...

June:

By June, I was well into my graduate job search. To my delight, I had been offered a number of interviews and had progressed to the second stage of a couple of roles I had applied for. One in particular, that I had applied for earlier in the year, but hadn’t heard back from, had re-opened the role I had applied for and wanted to proceed to the later interview stages. This was such a relief and the job was ideal, it perfectly matched the experiences I had gained during my placement year, and was also local to home.

July:

July saw a month of even more great weather, and the permission to meet one other household indoors, which was a welcome relief from the strict Covid guidelines we’d been subject to since March.

With the great weather, I was able to do something I’d wanted to do for a while, which was to go fruit picking. In July, I was able to meet some friends at Woore Fruit Farm to pick strawberries, whilst trying to avoid being sunburnt.

As we were able to meet in groups of 6 outdoors in July, it was the perfect opportunity for outdoor BBQs, and special birthday occasions could be celebrated with more than just your household. My friend Georgia’s birthday was marked in the garden of her new house with a beautiful outdoor buffet - thank you George! - as well as my sister Rachel’s 21st birthday, which was celebrated with a BBQ in our garden.

July was also the month where it was confirmed that I would be graduating with a first in my Marketing, Advertising and PR Degree, and starting my new job as a Digital Marketing Executive, but unfortunately would not be having a graduation ceremony.

August:

August was ‘famously’ marked by the Governments ‘Eat Out to Help Out Scheme’. Although not great for the waistline, this proved the perfect opportunity to meet with friends and grab a bargain at our local restaurants. Like most weekends since March, I continued to go on my long weekend walks, including a sunset walk with a view.

September: 

September was the month that the UK Government finally published in their guidance that couples didn’t need to socially distance anymore. This was a welcome break from the 2m distancing that my boyfriend and I had been following since March. With this change in guidance, we took the opportunity to take a staycation to Bath, a trip we’d originally planned for June, before restrictions soon tightened again.

October: 

At the start of October, we were still able to meet with 1 other household indoors, so my mum, auntie and I had taken the opportunity to take a well overdue Spa Day to celebrate my mum’s birthday at Moddershall Oaks Country Spa Retreat in Stone. Although a little strange having to wear masks in a spa, it was great to feel a sense of semi-normality.

Unfortunately, this same weekend would end in Tiers…

In my area, we’d been lucky to be a Tier 2 area, but this meant that we were no longer allowed to mix indoors with other households, and we were now restricted to outdoor meetings of 6 people.

November:

On 31 October 2020, it was announced that England would go into a second ‘lockdown’ from 5 November 2020 and non-essential shops were closed once again.

Although there wasn’t much we were able to do in November, we took the opportunity to celebrate Bonfire night as a 4, by lighting our own bonfire, took part in a virtual cocktail night for two of my friends birthdays, enjoyed a Chinese takeaway for my dad's birthday and I won £25 on my premium bonds! - we must celebrate the little victories!

December:

After November’s lockdown, we returned to Tier 2 until Boxing Day. This meant that I was, fortunately, able to go out with my family for a birthday meal, meet outdoors for very cold Christmas Eve drinks with friends before spending a very small Christmas day as just the four of us - a stark contrast to the big Christmas we would normally have, before we were plunged into Tier 4.

Christmas week also saw the arrival of snow, so we took the opportunity during the limbo between Christmas and New Year to go sledging.

So that was my 2020 in a nutshell! Not quite the year we’d have hoped for, but certainly, one to remember!