I like to do a review of the year passed, mostly just the things happened each month that I can recall, so here we go.
Jan – My brother visited from Sweden we spent time together , it was always nice to have him back in NZ with us, but as always there was family tension towards the end of his stay. None of it was anyone’s fault, its just our family dilemma. This time I chose to stay out of it instead of being the mediator between my parents, and I am glad I did that.
Also we moved into the new house.
Feb – Randi and Morten arrived NZ safely, it was really nice to have them staying at the new house with us, Bella was super happy to have grandparents from Norway visiting us. They helped us get the garden ready and Randi painted our living room wall. Till today when we have guests over, they comment on how nice the wall colour is.
We celebrated Bella’s 3rd birthday with lots of friends over at the new house, little did we know it was the last proper party we would have for the rest of the year.
March – Mum went to Canada, Covid hit NZ. When NZ government announced borders were closing and Air NZ started cancelling international flights, I brought forward mum’s return tickets by 3 weeks for her to return to NZ immediately. That was one of the best decisions I have made in a while. She went into self-isolation at home for two weeks.
April – We celebrated my dad’s birthday in the front garden of my parents house, while my mum sat 2 meters away as she was still in self-isolation. It was good she didn’t catch anything on the flight, that time flight risk was still relatively low.
Weeks later my parents went to get flu shot from GP, but mum got sick and ended up in emergency. It was quite an experience to be admitted into hospital during the lock down.
May – Lock down lifted, I celebrated birthday with families also went out for dinner with 3 girlfriends. We felt lucky none of our lives changed much by this virus, I felt fortunate M and I both kept working, as we had a new mortgage it was stressful to think what would happen to the new house if one of us lost income.
June – Mum start seeing specialist, many visits to the hospital with many tests, they suspected something not great with her lungs. Luckily cancer was ruled out.
July – We went on a camper van trip for the first time. It rained a lot but the scenery was beautiful. It was good to get out of Auckland for a bit after being in the same place for half a year.
August – Auckland went into the 2nd lockdown, this time it didn’t last as long and everyone was more or less used to the “new normal”. Covid is becoming part of daily life.
September / October – For some reason there is not much I can remember about these two months, work was good. I read lots of books. Other than that, I really can’t think of anything to note.
November – We found out we are having another baby. I learnt how misleading morning sickness was, as it lasted whole day, not just about the mornings.
December – I was sick most of time, tired and nauseous. M helped out lots, my parents also cooked for us. With all the help I carried into 2nd trimester and regained my strength. We left for South Island on Boxing Day for a 2 weeks trip along the west coast.
All in all, its a year of lots of thinking and reflection, since we stuck at home most of the time. Living in NZ, I kept reminding myself to count my blessings when I read news about what is happening in other parts of the globe. I am certain crisis and tragedy happen on daily basis, its just the scale of this virus is something most of us have not experienced in a life time. I do not know if I got much wiser with all that I have experienced or witnessed this year, one thing I do gained from all this is that I learnt to sit on the fence a bit more. It means when something happens, I don’t tend to react as fast, pass a judgment as quickly, I want to watch and learn before decide on what I think of it. Hope this is something useful to carry on into another year.
LIYANG'S THOUGHTS 