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!

As everyone will know these past few months have been crazy and something few could have predicted. I’ve been unable to do much work because of this and so I’ve had to find other things to do.

The weather has also been weird. I’ve never known so much wall to wall sunshine over this length of time, so brilliant for getting out and about with my dog. Obviously, I’ve had to do all my exercise alone, so my dog has been great company.

I’ve also never seen so many cyclists either and half of them think they’re on Tour de France. It’s madness and so inconsiderate for them to go so fast when Blackpool prom is packed with so many other people. I’ve tried to stay away from there as much as possible. Last thing I want is to collide with someone or for my dog to be injured.

I’ve also never seen as many seagulls as I have recently. It’s nesting season now, so there’s one on every chimney. Fortunately they don’t dive bomb me as much as they do with other people, but I just wish they weren’t as noisy with wakeup calls at 6am.

I’ve also been watching artists getting creative on You Tube. I find it so relaxing and uplifting to watch. I’m not into films or Netflix – I much prefer watching documentaries on Amazon Prime.

I hope everyone is well both physically and mentally and I hope things get back to normal very soon!

These past few weeks have been insane. At first, I thought things were going to blow over, but the more I thought that the more serious things became.

When it first started most people said to me they were sure my job would be fine. One even joked that the state were hardly going to lock people up.

Ha, ha, ha! Funny, not funny.

But this is probably going to be the only time I’m so thankful that I’ve been so honest with the taxman and declared everything. Although help is not coming until June, at least what I will get will be a reflection of what I’ve earned and not what I’ve hidden under the floorboards!

I’m also grateful I got a lot done before the country went crazy. I managed to re-decorate my house, get a new bed and go to several live events which would no way be taking place now. As it happens, I had nothing planned until September where I would be taking a little holiday down south to see my favourite ever band. And although I have everything crossed that will still happen, I just feel relieved as things could be worse.

But the worst thing about all this is not being able to contact my married regulars. Unlike my single regulars who I know I can contact at any time should I have to, it’s my married regulars I want to text just to say hello and I hope things are okay. But I can’t send a text or whatever because I don’t know what they’re doing or who they are with.

I’ve only sent an unsolicited text once to a married regular and that was because I was almost certain it was his day off and he would be alone. (Hello you, how you doing? I know you read my blogs). But it turned out that he was working that day and was probably sat in a room full of people. (So sorry!!!). So that is exactly the reason I don’t send unsolicited texts!

So if this regular or any of my other married regulars want to contact me during these weird times then please feel free to do so. You will more than likely cheer me up!