Happy New Lockdown... And welcome to 2021!

 So... It's been a while old friend. I guess it's been longer even than before.

These past few days I kept on thinking about this little part of me that lives in here and I realised it's been a long time since I wrote anything creative or of mine. I mean I haven't written anything in here since May 2019, 2 years as it were, and how much has changed since then and in reality how little too.

I'll try to do a recap, since that's what these post are more and more, a way for me to summarize the weird, wonderful and wounds of the time that passed in between writing anything. I think also because I've been on a month long holiday from work, the first I'm a year I have made a commitment to read at least 2-3 books and finish craft projects. I am happy to report I did all of that and more and my mind is a calmer place for it 🥳

Now since May 2019 I've only been home to Romania once, which sounds strange but it will make sense soon. After May I started a new role, working in Tech Centre management and Community management which has been wonderful, organized some kickass South Coast tech meetup colliders at work with over 200 attendees, spoke at 2 tech conferences and a few other events and managed to add another continent to my travel list, America! I was excited to go to GitHub Universe in November 2020, the follow up from the event from my post in May and I'm sure I have a blog somewhere about it. I also visited Glasgow a few times, spent Valentine's day there in a quirky chic flat and having tiramisu in a brilliant traditional cafe down the road from there saw a dear old friend from high school and sized up Scotland to see if it fits. I also traveled to various cities in Germany for a wonderful program called Digital Shapers 2020 and met some awesome people and traveled a bit in the beginning of 2020, up until March.

The last trip in March was a fiasco, there was a storm, huge storm, my flight was rescheduled a few times, cancelled and then I had to leave Karlsruhe in the middle of the night trying to make an early morning flight before the storm struck only to be denied boarding at the gate before take off and being told it's cancelled. This was in Frankfurt and quick thinker that I am, i managed to plan and secure the last tickets on the Eurostar and some German trains out of Germany and back to London. I mean I did enjoy some brief shopping and sushi in the Eurostar terminal in Brussels, it has been a while since I was there but all in all I made it back in time for work on Monday although completely exhausted. 

Little did I know that this specific fiasco was nothing compared to what was to come. 2020 was not going to be anybody's year, except for maybe Covid-19's. 🦠 If you have been living in outer space or maybe not come out for air, it is a global pandemic raging out there and even though we have a few vaccines coming out, we are now in our lockdown numero tres, in the UK.

But wait, you might think 🤔 so what happened since then, surely nothing much. Here my friend you would be wrong, a lot happened and I'm hoping lots more will happen this year, but in the positive array of happenings. For starters, I found applied and got a new role in Public Cloud in our office in Glasgow, Scotland. I have been working remotely since March so onboarding, chats, celebrations, all has happened online on Zoom, our new dearly beloved. In July after the first lockdown ended I magically arranged everything and found a beautiful flat in a small town on the coast of Scotland and moved there with only a suitcase packed half with my monitor and laptop and never looked back, I mean I haven't even managed to get the rest of my stuff here so literally haven't looked back. I also had the luck and brilliant idea to take the bus up to Glasgow, a 15 hours trip... Which i won't repeat any time soon but I made it safe not sorry and even managed to book a hotel room for a night in the most difficult of times when no one wanted to sell me one, and avoided sleeping in central station until the Monday when I could pick up my keys. 😉 Little wins!

I also finished my taught and dissertation parts of my MSc so, hopefully, by July 2021 I will be graduating with a distinction in Computers Science. I knitted a unicorn, learnt how to cross-stitch,  embroider and do calligraphy, I have talked to a lot of friends and reconnected, I have volunteered and made little acts of kindness for neighbours, strangers, loved ones, friends and family, near and far, I have laughed and cried, I have played with my nephew through a screen and watched him grow, I spent Christmas and New Year alone only in body not in spirit, because video calling saved the day and I had the most amazing visitors I could ask for on Christmas Eve 🎄❤️ I missed my dad as I do every day but hoped he's closer now in this peaceful solitude enforced upon us and appreciate more the things that truly make me happy and at peace. 

I'm sure I've missed a lot of things but really since March 2020 to now it's not been all that interesting, most of us have just coped and made it through, doing our best to not unravel and that's enough. To me at least. I look forward to this new year with renewed hope that I will be a good partner, sister, daughter, auntie, friend, mentor, colleague, unicorn and all the other roles I play everyday of my life because that's what will matter to me. I have lots of plans and lots of ideas but we'll just need to see how it all works out, for now we're in lockdown again and that's okay too. Until we won't be I'll keep moving forward and dream of the days when we can hug again and I can see my family and friends again 😊. 

Love and light always xx