2020

 

Years ago, during a different life-time when I was a different, busier, younger version of myself, I wrote Christmas letters.  I miss that. It was a great time to reflect on the year.  I simply didn’t want to bore people, or be so narcissistic as to think anyone was interested in just what I did all year, rather than my family – nuclear and extended.  However, no one really reads my blogs anymore, so I shall reflect here on my version of 2020.

It began in Puerto Vallarta. 

During the cooler months of 2019 the year before, I had found my place in Ajijic, well, cold.  Sure the temperature rose when the sun came out during the day, but once evening fell, so did the temperatures and Mexicans don’t seem to comprehend central heating, or even a decent fireplace.  So, I had run for the beach. 

I rented a place in a building about twelve blocks from the beach in Old Town.  Joanne and Lea were in the same building and had told me about it the year before, so New Years Eve I was up on the rooftop, drinking.. something, probably wine, and watching the fireworks with this mother-daughter duo from Canada.  It was nice.  The whole month was nice.  Wendy visited for a week and slept on the horrible couch.  I got to visit with Julie, the gal that published “Oman, Oz and Menopause’ for me later in the year.  I visited the River and listened to a few bands.  I sat on the beach and watched sunsets.  And I searched jobs in Australia. 

I do that.  Job searches were my hobby while I was still young enough to do that- certified enough, crazy enough.

At the end of the month, well a few days before, I flew back to Ajijic, packed a few things, and left for Australia for a ten week contract.  Ten weeks seemed perfect – one term.  It was just long enough to pay for the trip, shake out my restlessness, and soak up the heat of the NT. 

Kim and Michael Daysh were still there and still willing to have me stay in the back bedroom of their apartment looking over the harbour.  They have been so good to me for years now.  It is wonderful to have friends in Darwin where I can go on long weekends, time off, flights in and out of the country.  We have fun.  They are good people. 

I took the Greyhound back to Mataranka where I have spent a fair amount of time over the years.  Telka met me at the bus station and took me to my assigned home – the Donga that Ms. Marilyn had lived in for years.  She was on leave and no one knew for how long so, here I was with a ten week contract, and a cat. 

 

The house was furnished, but had little else.  I met the new principal of my school, Malcolm, and the new principal at Jilkminggan, Lyndie.  We took trips to Katherine in the school bus to load up on things we all needed.  A week or so later, I met the new New Zealander primary teacher, Deserie, who brought with her the gift of laughter, and we hung around together and had a great time while I was there.

Covid19 was in the air at this time.  But it wasn’t hadn't been a ‘thing’ quite yet.  People talked about it, but it was in China, and so initially far, far away from the NT.  I got to introduce the new teachers to most everyone I knew in Darwin.  We went for a boat ride around the harbor.  We went shopping.  It was great fun.  We had no idea that Covid was going to hit the world until it did. By April, things began to change, and rather quickly.

Air travel was now a big deal.  People were encouraged to go home, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be if I was 'stuck' somewhere, possibly for years.  I agreed to stay on another term while I thought about it and the whole ordeal blew over.  But it didn’t blow over.  It blew up.

I had no television at first, and spent far too much time listening to the ABC radio station, which seemed totally focused on the chaos of this new virus- People running home, airlines cancelling flights.  The numbers of cases of people testing positive and people dying.  I was over sixty and at school had to fill out more forms on how anxious I was, and it made me anxious.  And, the more I worried I got, the older I began to feel. The more at risk.

I no longer felt resilient.  I was losing my ability to just roll with what life handed me. 

The department of education wanted us to be ready for whatever happened – schools open or closed.  We were told to make packages for home schooling.  We had to learn new programs to use for on-line education.  I loved my computer and all the things it could do, but was no longer an ‘early-adapter’.. technology was leaving me behind and now, we were expected to just get on-board and do it.  I felt ‘less than’ and it frightened me. 

So, five weeks into the second term, I fled the country.  My flight had been cancelled and I had to buy a new one-way ticket home with a different airlines.  I still haven’t been compensated for that, but didn’t really believe I ever would be anyway.  The flight home was very different.  I managed to get to Sydney okay, but once there had to prove I had good reason to leave.  I was almost in tears when they asked what the heck I was doing flying in the middle of a pandemic.  But I was finally given a letter of permission, put on my mask, and was allowed to wait in the almost empty airport for a flight to Houston and then Vancouver.  There, I stayed in a hotel over night and went on to Kelowna, where Karen had left her car for me.

Karen and I had been room mates when we were 18, and now in our sixties, decided that it could maybe work again.  She had rented an apartment in the city and we were going to share.  The first two weeks of June, I was in quarantine in the apartment in Kelowna.  Karen brought most of the supplies, Rea dropped by.  It was weird.  I sat in that apartment , watching Netflix on my computer, for two straight weeks before venturing out, only to find that not a lot had changed.  There were a lot of line ups, and a few people were wearing masks, but that was about it. 

The chaos in my head, the panic, the anxiety, seemed to stop once I got away from the radio.  After my quarantine, I ventured out- bought a van and traveled about visiting friends and family.  Even went for a train ride with the girls.

 

Then, I went looking for a house in Canada.   

The craziness of the pandemic made me feel that I needed a home in my home country.  Canada is cold, expensive and much too large a country, but, it is where I wanted to run to during a pandemic and I figured that had to mean something. 

I wanted to be near water, but I also to spend my inheritance and not much else.  But then, I was shown a place in Blind Bay with a spectacular view.  I felt I was home the moment I saw the place, and did little to actually make sure it was a good idea.  It was largely wood and some crazy shape.. it called to me and I accepted.

It was well out of my price range so I had to get a mortgage.  I also had to make it comfortable for me, so I bought furniture and stuff -and it is here that I have put up a fake Christmas tree, as there are plenty of real ones outside,  and am waiting out this pandemic.  It isn’t easy.  I want to visit my kids more, hug my friends  more and eat out more.  I want to go to Bulgaria and visit Nathan- head north and see the grand kids again and again. I want to go shopping in Ikea in Vancouver.  But travel and hugs are going to have to wait as a 'second wave' of the pandemic has descended upon us and I have a Television and a radio in the car and am once again inundated with news of the pandemic.  

Monte dropped by.  His business is basically tourism – trips to Japan and Europe, as well as a lot of the local outings, have been cancelled.  He still does a bit locally and was fortunate to have his engineering degree to fall back on.. able to work for his dad for a while.  Bridges are still being erected. 

Gabe works off and on with heavy equipment.  Jobs are scarce in the interior so he left his lovely little trailer outside of Nelson and is in an apartment in the lower mainland with his lovely girl friend Val.  Val got her trucking license this year and loves fishing and being outside.

Travis still works crazy hours with the railway based in Smithers.  He and the girls managed a week in the West Edmonton Mall.. it is as close to a winter holiday that you can get these days.  The girls are growing like crazy. 

People who live alone are allowed a couple of friends, thank goodness.  Rea and I hang out a lot, and of course, Karen has been a major player this year.  She is still in the apartment in Kelowna, but comes to visit.  Other friends and family visits are mostly on-line.. Messenger, Face-Book.. it is just what we do now. 

We had a huge dump of snow near the end of November.  I got one snow blower serviced and bought a small one for the decks.. I really don’t like Canadian winters, but Rea brought over a set of cross country skies and the golf course nearby is supposed to make a trail.. I don’t know about that yet as the snow melted and I have been working a bit in the garden and raking leaves again. 

I spend time each day in my hot-tub and am thankful just to be here. 

I thought 2020 was going to be a good year and, maybe it has been.  It has certainly brought on a lot of change.  Now in the same country, I am managing to stay in better contact with friends and family.  But it has been in-your-face, totally unexpected, living in the moment sort of year - for the whole world.  People are sick and dying and the rush has been on all year for a vaccine for this thing.  Going outside, life looks normal, except for the masks, but it isn’t.  And Canada feels a little odd to me.. I am not quite Canadian again yet.. things changed while I was away these last fifteen years or so. The shops are too busy, the weather too harsh.  The paperwork too plentiful and the lights too bright.  But if this year has taught me anything, it is that I should do what I need to do and be grateful for every day. I think the whole world has been given the gift of living far more in the moment.