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.

I’m so glad I’m sensible with money after this current year and I’m so lucky to be in a position where I’m not hand to mouth either.

Self employment is great as you’re own boss and can work whenever you like. You have to do your own taxes, sure, but you can employ an accountant to help with that and mine this year has been phenomenal.

I applied for both my grants as I’m entitled to them but forever being sensible I haven’t spent it all yet. When I received that money, I always thought that I wouldn’t spend it on silly things – only use it for essentials as no one could predict what the rest of the year would be like. Although I like to think of myself as optimistic, I just knew this whole situation wasn’t going to disappear in one day.

So, I’m very lucky that I had this mindset all the way through because we’re being thrown into chaos again and this time it will only be 20% financial help.

Ever since lockdown began, I seem to have had more conversations with my neighbours. Despite living where I live for a considerable length of time, I think I’ve spoken to my neighbours more during the past four months than I have ever done. This might not have been the case if we had months of rain, but we had wall to wall sunshine for the most part and more people were off work and outside, cycling, dog walking and sunbathing in their gardens.

I think it’s funny how you can live so close to people and never know they are there. I would not know some people in my neighbourhood if I fell over them and yet I see other neighbours every single day. I suppose it really depends on people’s routines and what time they’re out and about whether or not I see them.

One such example is someone I’ve lived very near to for over a year now and yet never seen until the other month. I didn’t have a clue they lived so close to me until I literally bumped into them. And ever since then I’ve gradually got to know them bit by bit. We say hello every time we pass in the street and without sounding too stalkerish, I’ve become more aware of their movements since lockdown began. They work pretty long hours normally, so no wonder I’ve not seen them until now. But with a lot of people on furlough, I suppose it’s given them a chance to become more sociable.

I didn’t post to my blog last month because of two main reasons. One – I got locked out of my account and couldn’t figure out the right information to get back in and two – there isn’t really much to talk about at the moment apart from this dreaded virus! But I didn’t post mainly because of reason one.

Just as we’re starting to get back to some sort of normality things are slowly grinding to a halt again. I think most people, myself included, are fed up of how our country and some parts of the rest of the world are handling this. For example, why make wearing masks compulsory now. Why didn’t this happen five months ago? And drinking disinfectant, or whatever was advised people do not so long ago. How crazy is that?!

I think Sweden has had the best approach in not locking down at all. And from the results I’ve seen it hasn’t been as catastrophic as people may have thought.

For me personally, I think this virus could be much worse than it is. Most people will recover from it and it’s not just the young and healthy either. Quite a few elderly people have made a full recovery as well. And if people are really very worried or have serious health problems then they can self isolate all they want.

It’s not like we’re still living in the Middle Ages with the Bubonic plague!