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Happy new year (let's hope it's a better one)

Well, that's the end of 2020 and aren't we all glad to see the back of it! The last 2 weeks have been a great chance to have some downtime, although I will freely admit that with everything going on (life more so than the move), I'm heading back into work feeling less rested than I might have hoped for. If I'm honest I think I, like a number of others I've spoken to, just feel a bit emotional about what's going on right now. The pandemic continues to have a grip on everything we do and all spontaneity has escaped us. At the same time the vaccines started to give us hope for an end to all the madness, the new variant of Covid increased transmission rates by 70% and so we are all heading back into lockdown again (or something which looks and feels like a lockdown even if its called 'tier 4'). The kids start back at school tomorrow and have 2 weeks of remote learning to look forward to before they have any hope of being back in the classroom, and even that doesn't fill them with joy as the restrictions mean they are constantly being told off for not wearing a mask / standing too close to a friend / walking on the wrong side of the corridor / sharing some stationery... madness. 

In better news we have been back to the barn twice now and every time we go it just gets better. We seem to be spending money like water and we are nowhere near exchanging contracts - lets hope our trust is not misplaced. The opportunity to input into the final finish is wonderful, even if we hare having to take a punt on a few things and buy from website photos because we cant shop for anything in person!!  Despite the much smaller space, I think we will be OK and Im enjoying the process of simplifying already.

This week I sorted out all of my glass and put the kilns up on a FB forum where they took less than 10 minutes each to sell. The lady who came for the smaller kiln rather surprised herself and her husband by mot only buying the kiln but also all of my left over glass, tools, fire paper - everything! She walked away £2000 poorer but very excited with her (bargain) horde. Her husband looked less pleased, muttering to himself "I don't know where this is all going"! Sorting it all out did make me a bit sad. I came to realise (bit of an epiphany moment) that I'd bought a lot of the glass as an antidote to how work was making me feel at the time. - much of it bought on the train home after another frustrating day. It's no surprise that I haven't felt the need to do anywhere near as much since leaving EY. I have loved the creative process but I'm not sad to leave it behind for the moment. I think I will come back to it in time, but not now - I don't need it just now which is a sign of how much happier I am professionally. 

Glenn has also sold a few tools which he hasn't used for ages and is planning on downsizing a bit more, if he can bring himself to do so. We just want to get going now - it's the waiting that's a killer.

So back to work and a very busy month, which will at least pass the lockdown time more quickly. I can't wait to get to the end of January, it's always such a slow month, so that we start to feel the benefit of the days getting longer and more hope of an end to the pandemic. In the meantime, deep breath and dive in - will all feel better in the morning when I'm in the midst of it rather than on the sidelines just thinking about wall to wall Teams meetings again...

If only always so well behaved!




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