Well, instead of focusing just on one topic, I thought I’d talk about a few different things for this month’s blog.

I’ve finally managed to get my tax return sorted for last year. I usually start it in May, but this year I don’t think I started it until June. I knew my accountant was busy sorting out all the grants this year, so I thought I’d be lazy and procrastinate.

And last week, I spent a small fortune organising social events for next year. I think I’ve gone a bit overboard as I’ve not been able to do much for nearly two years, so I’m making up for it.

I had a funny moment with my postman the other week, too. I had missed a parcel, so I’d scheduled a re-delivery. Then I had to change the date of a two hour booking with a lovely man, so my parcel was now arriving that same day. I could only hope my postie would come early, but needless to say he didn’t and he ended up banging on the front door in the middle of the booking. Talk about bad timing!

I also can’t decide on my hair colour and style at the moment. I’ve been a few different colours over the years, but I’ve been my current colour the longest. I think it suits me more than my natural colour to be honest.

Well, fingers crossed we have an okay winter with the virus and the weather. Much love to all my regulars and new people who have come to see me this year.

I’ve known this man for around five years, or should I say I know of him. I’ve always thought he was nice but as he wore a wedding ring, I thought nothing more if it.

Until the start of the year when I heard he’d split from his wife. I knew I had nothing to lose if I asked him out on a casual basis (I think it was on a casual basis, that’s how I wanted it to come across!) And he said yes, quite enthusiastically.

Nothing came of his answer though, so I thought nothing more of it. And then I bumped into him again a month later and he said he was still going to come round. You’d be forgiven if you thought I had brought it up again, but I did no such thing. By now, I thought he’d given a pretty clear indication of what his intentions were, so I didn’t think there was much point of going over old ground again.

I did however text him the following week to try and arrange a date, so he said he could come round one night after work or on the weekend if I was free. Again, keeping it casual I said that’s fine just let me know.

And as predicted I never heard from him again.

So never being one to chase I’ve managed to avoid him for the best part of four months. Which has been quite difficult considering he lives near me. But mercifully he doesn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings half the time and on several occasions I’ve walked past him and he’s been oblivious. So much so I’ve thought he’s been trying to avoid me as well.

Until last week he walked past me in town and said hello. We had a ten minute chat and then he sent me a random text to say it was nice to see me. And then whilst out watching the football with friends I saw him again and we kissed. Quite a bit.

He says to his friends he doesn’t want a relationship and that’s fine by me! I just have to find a way of telling him that.

I’ve never been a fan of them. And living in a touristy town we get swamped by people all the time, even when it’s bad weather.

But this bank holiday has to have been the busiest yet after the last year. You can hardly blame people wanting to make the most of the weather. After all, many doubt 21st June is going to happen as planned as the Government have always moved the goal posts. And judging by the swarms of people in the town on Monday, people have definitely had enough of this so called lockdown.

I think people would be more inclined to listen to the rules if we hadn’t had such success with the vaccines. I’ve had my first jab with my second one in mid July and I can’t wait even if I do suffer the side effects. Everyone who is vulnerable will have had the jabs by now, so even if infections do go up, the death rate may only increase slightly. And I do still think death rates from other causes will be higher.

So, I did what I usually do on bank holiday weekends and caught up with stuff I’ve been putting off, namely my tax return. I was thinking about cocktails, but the bar I was going to go to is closed at the moment, so I will have to wait until I can go somewhere else on the weekend.

I hope you all had a nice bank holiday and hopefully this weekend I’ll be drinking Pornstar Martinis somewhere.

Since this pandemic, I’ve been thinking of doing something different to go alongside this business. And after months of research on my chosen subject, I can proudly say I’ve managed to set up another career.

I’m not going to say what it is exactly, but I can run the two businesses alongside each other despite them being entirely different. I really am so pleased because the past year has enabled me to concentrate on doing something completely different, something in a field which I never thought I would do.

It’s also been interesting to learn my new job and while I don’t think I will ever give this up entirely it’s nice to have something else to do.

It’s Pancake Day tomorrow and for some reason I am quite excited about it!

I never usually celebrate it or Valentines Day for that matter, but this year there is something different. It’s probably due to lockdown and the fact I can’t do much else! I always seem to forget about this particular day.

I’m not going to make my own. Oh no, that’s far too much messing about and cleaning up afterwards. Instead, I am going to treat myself and order some in. They’ll be much nicer anyway and I will be doing my bit helping out other businesses.

I don’t have many takeaways as it is anyway. Maybe once a month if that. And during lockdown, I’ve not been tempted to have more even though a lot of people have increased their consumption.

I will probably have another takeaway for my birthday and that will be it until later on in the year.

So, whatever it is you’ll be doing tomorrow enjoy your pancakes!

Last year, I managed to do some much needed decorating before the lockdown started and this year I am looking at improving my house once again.

I thought seeing as I’m not working, I may as well make the most of the quiet time by doing something productive. And as I haven’t spent all of my furlough money what better way to spend my time doing things to my house. I’ve also got more hobbies than I had this time last year and a part time new venture that could bring some more income in.

I think that’s what has kept me sane during these crazy times knowing I can do other things despite the lockdown madness. So many people have lost their jobs or are about to lose them, I think it will be a very long time before things even get back to being remotely normal.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that by next year the worst will have passed.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas under the circumstances.

I can’t believe the whole of Lancashire is going to go into Tier 4 restrictions from tomorrow though. I think the Government should declare a complete national lockdown from the start of January until the end of March, instead of messing about with the tier levels. It’s a joke!

Now, I’ll have to put my feet up again and binge watch my favourite programmes on You Tube.

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, we are hopefully going to end this year on a positive note with the vaccine coming out. And hopefully enough people will be willing to have it for it to be effective. I understand some people will be cautious about it though and that I think is understandable. But medicine is always progressing and fingers crossed there will be no nasty side effects.

I don’t think it should or will be made compulsory though. I’ll just be glad to have my life back to normal-ish and that can’t come soon enough.

Now we just need to find a cure for cancer.

As the year’s madness continues, I continue to try and be optimistic about things. I’ve also noticed more timewasters across the board and I’m so glad not to be so desperate for money that I consider entertaining them on the phone.

Of course, I’m not going to say how my screening method works – that would be silly, but I am thankful to have been in this job long enough to be 90% sure of genuine callers.

If people have got more time on their hands then I think it’s natural for a surge in stupid behaviour which I why I am thankful that I can be so picky. Holiday times usually bring out the silly people, although not every caller is a timewaster, so I just continue to answer my phone regardless.

As the year draws to an end, I can’t see it improving much with the local lockdowns and such. We just have to hope next year will be better.